A quick Google search for the term ‘brand awareness’ returns almost 400 million search results! This phrase has been hot in 2019 and everyone and their dog now seems bent on increasing their brand awareness.
But what really is brand awareness? Is it really that important? In this quick piece, we will answer all those questions and more. Let’s get started.
What is Brand Awareness?
Returning to Google, a popular definition of brand awareness states that it’s ‘the extent to which consumers are familiar with the qualities or image of a particular brand of goods or services.’ This basically means that brand awareness is the way in which consumers recognize and remember your business such as targeted TikTok ads.
The greater the brand awareness you have, the more audiences will be familiar with your logo, messaging, and products. Granted, this is a rather broad definition. But so is brand awareness in itself. At the end of the day, it’s an all-encompassing term that refers to how ‘in-the-know’ folks are about your brand and what your business has to offer.
Why is Brand Awareness Important?
Brand awareness is important because it helps you to attract more customers and to retain the ones you already have. It helps audiences to become comfortable with your branding and products. If you can build brand awareness among your target demographic, you can position yourself so that you’re the first option that comes to mind when consumers are ready to research and make a purchase.
Say, for instance, that you’re a photographer. Building your brand awareness would mean that as soon as someone within your target demographic thinks about photography, you come to mind. If customers already recognize your brand, they’ll be more likely to seek out your products or services over a competitor’s business with which they’re not as familiar.
But of course, achieving a great level of brand awareness will take tremendous effort. Let’s now consider a few things that you can focus on to increase the awareness of your brand.
How to Build Brand Awareness?
Clearly define your brand
First things first, you need to come up with a clear understanding and definition of your brand. There should be no doubt in the customer’s mind about what your brand is and what can be expected.
Optimize touchpoints
Touchpoints encompass your brand’s points of customer contact, before, during, or after purchase.
To better understand your customers needs it helps if you yourself go step-by-step through their journey. Consider also asking that they fill out surveys about their experience to gain first-hand insights. Listening to their pain points will help in making improvements and in turn boost your branding.
Invest in branded packaging for your products
If you’ve ever received a package with extra special branding you might be able to relate with the feeling of receiving a gift while unboxing. The manner in which you choose to initially present your product can go a long way towards distinguishing your brand. It may seem insignificant at first glance, but there’s great value to be added by going above and beyond here.
Find ways to remain on peoples’ minds
In addition to packaging, social media communication efforts are a great way to stay memorable. Instagram, with its emphasis on imagery, can be used to prove that a picture is, in fact, worth a thousand words (or likes).
But another less in your face tactic is to prioritize the use of branded content via lesser publicized channels, for example on invoices. This is another super effective way to incorporate your business’ brand via the use of a well displayed thoughtful logo, personal illustration, etc. If you’re consistent and committed, over time your brand is bound to be remembered.
PRO TIP: A brand can be visible and consistent even at the link level. Short branded links are now a best practice on social media, in SMS marketing, and a great way to connect online and offline channels. They’re known to increase trust between the brand and the customers, as well as increase engagement and click-through-rate. You can create short branded links using platforms like Rebrandly URL Shortener.
Team up with influencers
The beauty of partnering with an influencers lies in the fact that they have an established audience following their every public move. If they agree to endorse or just mention your brand, it can work wonders for expanding your reach and increasing brand awareness for your product.
Here’s a great guide for striking up collaboration with an influencer.
Do lots of SEO research
Since the majority of people fail to make it past the first page of search results when googling whatever they need, Search Engine Optimization has become an incredibly important aspect of digital marketing. Researching SEO strategies related to your niche will help to increase brand awareness by giving you a leg up and helping to display your expertise.
Neil Patel’s SEO guide for building brand awareness is a great place to get started.
Develop a guest blogging strategy
It’s super important for your brand to have its own blog and primary writer. However, by contributing in-depth content on other blogs you stand to gain by increasing your credibility and driving more traffic to both the blog and your own business. It’s ultimately a win-win situation for all involved parties, so start actively seeking out opportunities to guest post ASAP.
Helping people remember your product and mission is the point of it all. Daunting though it may seem, the fact that there’s so much opportunity to brand and distribute your content and products truly is a thing of beauty.
With so many touchpoints at your fingertips you it owe it to yourself to keep on testing out strategies to continuously improve and find the best fits.
Happy Branding!
—
Uwe Dreissigacker is the founder of online invoicing software InvoiceBerry & also offers free invoice templates to businesses. Small businesses and sole traders can create, send and manage their invoices, quotes and credit notes with the tool. In his free time, Uwe travels the world and enjoys experiencing different cultures.
