When your brand is recognized by current and potential customers, it’s successful. However, that kind of success doesn’t happen overnight and it doesn’t happen without a lot of work. Achieving brand awareness is a well-thought-out strategy that all businesses should develop.
Brand awareness means that people think of your company when it comes to a certain product or service. Customers recognize your company’s logo or slogan or commercials on television. So when someone needs a cleaning service, a contractor, furniture, or more, they think of your company before any else.
Increasing brand awareness along with a good company and good service or product will lead to brand loyalty. You’ll build a company they trust, go back to, and suggest to other people.
- Branding to Be Recognizable
To increase brand awareness, you obviously have to be recognizable. But that doesn’t mean putting a mass amount of advertisements out there in hope that the right people see them. Think quality over quantity. You want the posts and ads you have out there to represent your brand and, of course, stand out.
Every time you make a post on social media or run and ad, consider brand voice and aesthetic. Your brand voice is the tone you use to convey your message.
You may be casual and playful or formal and straightforward or inspiring and uplifting. But it doesn’t have to be the same across the board. Think of where you’re communicating. The brand voice on social media can be more casual than the voice in print ads.
While brand voice may change, you want your aesthetic to be similar and consistent across all platforms. Consider elements like the colors and fonts you use. It can also be how you create and compose photos for social media and print.
- Tell a Story
Consumers no longer want a faceless company that only cares about selling its products. Many want to feel connected to who they purchase from. This is why you have to tell a brand story and an authentic one at that.
Brand stories explain your brand values and your brand history. Your brand values are what your company stands for in terms of beliefs in operating and interactions with employees and customers. Consider communication, inclusion, diversity, support, trust, passion, and integrity.
Your brand history is where you started and how you got to where you are now. For large businesses, sharing values and history make it feel more human and relatable. For small and new businesses, it can be a great way to take your customers on your growth journey.
- Revamp Your Social Media
It’s no secret that people are spending more time online. If that’s where your customers are, that’s where you should be too. But it’s not only about posting photos or following trends. All business brands should develop a social media strategy.
You’ll want photos that pop, but you don’t always want them to look like ads, or else people will feel like they’re always being sold to. Highlight what you sell and offer value through tips rather than telling people why they need to buy a product or service.
You can also run social media contests and giveaways to help increase engagement. Having people tag a friend to enter a contest is a great way to get your business out there for other people to learn about.
It’s also worth it to learn about the algorithms on each platform. Optimizing your content can help your brand be seen and discovered by more people.
- Run Brand Awareness Ads
Give your social media content a little boost by running ads on the platforms. Meta, which owns Instagram and Facebook, has a feature for increasing brand awareness through ads. Other platforms have this under similar names, like brand awareness, awareness, or reach.
Instead of putting an ad out there for anyone to see, this feature shows the ad to social media users who are most likely to remember the ad. That could mean your demographic or people who searched for similar products or services in the past.
Essentially, you’re showing them that your brand or business offers something they may be looking for. So these people are social media are more likely to be potential or future customers.
- Get Out in Your Community
Online branding is important in the digital age. But people don’t spend all of their time online. You also want to spend some time developing your brand awareness in-person and in your community.
This is important for businesses of every size. Small businesses are often already part of the community, so showing gratitude and appreciation to the people who support you is a natural step. Community contributions for a large company prevent them from looking like a faceless and unfeeling corporation.
Community branding ideas can be sponsoring events like marathons or street fares. You can offer donations to local organizations. Have employees participate in charity work across the city.
- Offer Value, Not Just a Product
Your main goal may be to sell your product and service. How else would you make money? But part of increasing brand awareness is becoming an authority in your niche or industry. Offer your customers value in terms of information, education, and entertainment.
Consider starting a blog, newsletter, or podcast where you can share tips and advice in your niche. People may not be searching for you, but they may be searching for an answer to a question, and that can bring them to you.
You can also consider sharing content through podcasts, YouTube, or on social media, where you can be more lighthearted and reach more potential customers. This extra value can lead to more brand loyalty. Learn more about loyalty marketing here.
- Interact With Customers
Cultivating a friendly and helpful brand goes a long way when it comes to awareness. Interact with customers through the comments on social media. Reply to any questions they may ask, thank them for compliments they leave, or simply respond to something they say.
This creates a conversation that makes your brand feel more welcoming and friendly rather than simply business-minded.
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Increasing Brand Awareness is About Strategy
When someone needs a product or service, who do you want them to think of? Your company, of course. You want to be the brand that comes to mind when a customer needs what you offer. And to do this, you have to consider strategies for increasing brand awareness.
For your company to be valuable and successful, your brand needs to be recognizable. It’s about setting your company apart in the industry to show why you’re second to none.
Continue to take your business to the next level. Read more articles with tips, tricks, and advice on the site today.