Information in this blog post was obtained from the Hubspot Blog, Semrush Blog, and Sprout Social.
Building brand trust is an extremely vital part of having a company. It helps to create repeat customers and gain their loyalty. Creating brand awareness is where trust comes from. When you give a "face" to your brand, it makes it easier for customers to form that trust. Just like building a trusting relationship with other people, brand awareness gives "your brand a personality and outlet to be sincere, receive feedback, and tell a story" (Decker, A. 2022). Consumers that trust a brand are more likely to leave testimonials or reviews of how great your company and/or products or services are and, in turn, will result in other customers being more willing to give your brand a shot.
The Benefits of Brand Awareness
First of all, let's talk about what brand awareness is. Brand awareness is defined as "how familiar your target audience is with your brand and how well they can recognize it." It is a crucial aspect of promoting your company and products especially when you are trying to get your business off the ground in the beginning. Brands with high awareness "are generally referred to as 'trending', 'buzzworthy', or 'popular'" (Decker, A. 2022). Brand awareness builds trust, positive association, and brand equity between your company and your target audience.
Brand association is another big one when it comes to creating brand awareness. You want people to subconsciously associate your brand with actions and products. Google, for example, rather than someone saying they are going to look something up on a search engine, they are more specific in saying they will "Google it". They have created such good brand awareness that people associate them with looking for any information online.
Brand equity is the last big one that you can build with your brand awareness. This is a brand's value that comes from customer perception of the brand and experiences. You can build this up by promoting positive experiences that customers have had with your brand. Below is a list of positive things that come with good brand equity:
Higher prices due to higher perceived value
Higher stock price
Ability to expand business through product or service line extensions
Greater social impact due to brand name value
Brand equity can result in your brand being a household name and signature staple among customers with the right effort put into brand awareness efforts.
Building brand awareness creates trust, association, and equity, and boosts your reputation. It can increase the number of sales you make online as well. In fact, "80% of consumers say that brand familiarity makes them more likely to buy on social" so brand awareness can be the key to unlocking more sales that you have been looking for (Gomez, R. 2021). Typically, when someone is scrolling social media the posts they will want to share with friends and family come from brands they are already familiar with so you need to ensure you have a dedicated social following is important. For some more ideas on building up your social media presence, go read my colleague Yixuan's post about that here.
How to Increase Brand Awareness
Now that we have talked about some of the benefits of great brand awareness, here are ten ideas for how you can increase it.
1. Give your brand a personality
It is important to not just be a company or a brand, but also a person in your marketing efforts. Define yourself as more than just a company that sells stuff and give life to your brand so that it will seem more relatable and people will want to get to know you more. If you are only focused on making your next sale, that is all that consumers will associate you with. Marketing your products and services with a personality will definitely help increase your brand awareness and help your brand be front and center. People will take note of what you are selling to them "but they'll also experience your personality through your advertising" (Decker, A. 2022).
2. Incentivize customers to leave reviews
Positive reviews from customers are basically free advertising. It gives people a chance to read about firsthand experiences with your brand and know if they want to shop with you. A large majority of consumers will read reviews before following through with a purchase, so incentivizing your customers is a great way to get them to share their experience. An example that I can think of is Dunkin Donuts; they always let their customers know that if they follow the link on the bottom of their receipt and fill out the survey, they will get a free glazed donut on their next visit. This is a great way to get the "free" advertising and keep customers coming back. Another important part of reviews is responding to the customer and either thanking them for their kind words, or if it is a negative experience, reach out to them personally and see what you can do to make things better. It is always better to respond to the negative reviews than ignore them, people will take note of this.
3. Try guest blogging on other websites
Guest blogging is another great way to increase your brand awareness without putting in too much time and effort. Doing this lets you take advantage of the traffic that website it already getting and get your name out there to people who may not have heard of you yet. Not only does it increase your awareness, but it will signal "potential customers that your product or service is trusted by other leading industry experts" (Moseley, B. 2022). Make sure to do your research on any website you will potentially guest blog for to get an idea of what kinds of brands they promote and publish for to make sure their ideals and the issues they stand for align with your own.
4. Invest in good PR services
This one may not be in the budget for smaller companies and the title of PR may fall on your shoulders if this is the case. That is okay and you can definitely get advice and tips from other businesses who may have started out like you. As your business grows, reassessing what is the best option is a great strategy. PR is great for helping to promote the positives about your brand and even addressing any kind of "crisis" your company may be facing.
5. Advertise everywhere
Advertising is great to get your brand and products in front of people and make them aware of who you are. Starting with online advertising and paid media is the best seeing as so many people make purchasing decisions through social media nowadays. Customers ranked "in-feed ads as the most common method of finding new products to purchase, followed by discovery pages and story ads" so creating a solid social media strategy when it comes to advertising should be a top priority (Gomez, R. 2021).
6. Sponsor events
Concerts, festivals, and other types of events are perfect for increasing brand awareness. How many times have you been to some kind of sporting or music event and seen other brands logos plastered on either merch, flyers, etc.? This is a great way to expose your brand to thousands of people all at once. You can also choose events that match "your personality, interests and passions" so that consumers will associate you with that event (Decker, A. 2022).
7. Encourage employees to give feedback
Not only are customer reviews important, but employee reviews are as well. Having employees that enjoy what they do and feel they are being treated well in their positions is a crucial part of selling your products. They are basically the face of your company and if they do not feel that their efforts are appreciated, they will lack the motivation to put in the time and work it takes to promote your company. On top of this, "consumers don't want to do business with brands that treat their employees poorly" so encouraging your people to give their honest feedback is a great way to go about this (Moseley, B. 2022). Using a site like Glassdoor for employee reviews is a great way for employees to let their opinions be known publicly, and even just having scheduled meetings with them where they can tell you what they think is working/not working is perfect for helping them feel like they have a voice.
8. Give your company a face/mascot
If it is in your budget, this is another good way to humanize your brand and give it more of a personality. It gives people an idea of what to expect from your company and provides a friendly face that consumers can become familiar with. Whether it be a person or an animated cartoon/animal, it is a great way to raise awareness of your brand and who you are.
9. Network within your industry
Conferences and other networking events are good for meeting others in your same industry. It is a chance to see what your competitors are doing and whether or not it is working. With everybody being on social media now, it can be hard to stand out in the crowd, so making friends and/or partnerships at these kinds of events is a good way to get your name out there and possibly get some recommendations from other professionals in the industry.
10. Track your data/success
Getting an overall picture of how your brand awareness is going is a great way to know if what you are doing is working or not and if you need to change things up. You can "review activities and metrics that'll help you gauge where your brand stands in terms of popularity and consumer awareness" (Decker, A. 2022). Direct traffic, social engagement, social listening, and running brand awareness surveys are all good methods for figuring out how your brand awareness is ranking among consumers.
And with that, I hope this blog has been insightful in creating and raising brand awareness. For more helpful social media tips and tricks, be sure to check out all of the blog posts available at The SMMU!
Resources
10 ways to increase Brand Awareness Fast. Semrush Blog. (n.d.). Retrieved April 22, 2023, from https://www.semrush.com/blog/increase-brand-awareness/.
Decker, A. (2022, December 27). The Ultimate Guide to Brand Awareness. HubSpot Blog. Retrieved April 22, 2023, from https://blog.hubspot.com/marketing/brand-awareness.
Gomez, R. (2021, November 29). 80% of consumers agree brand awareness makes them more likely to buy on social. Sprout Social. Retrieved April 22, 2023, from https://sproutsocial.com/insights/consumer-behavior-social-commerce/.
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