When you are out for dinner at your favorite restaurant and need a drink, do you ask for a soda or a Coke? What do you use when you cut yourself – a Band-Aid or a plastic bandage? From Coke to Kleenex, these brands have become so popular and well-known that no one uses the generic terms for these products. This is the pinnacle of effective brand awareness.
Even if your small, budding business may not be able to do this, with the help of successful brand awareness techniques, you can unlock new levels of business success.
What is Brand Awareness and Why is it Important
Do you want people to buy your product and use your services? For that, you will have to create strong brand awareness. Brand awareness is the level of familiarity & recognition that a brand, product, or service has with its target audience.
Branding awareness is essential when you are marketing and promoting your business and products, particularly when your business is in its early stages. We live in a world where no one buys anything without extensive research and where brand trust means everything.
Once a consumer buys something from you, they are very likely to make repeat purchases, without blinking an eye. This bridges the gap between consumer trust and customer loyalty. What do you do when you have a pressing question? You Google it.
What do you do when you get a paper cut? You put on a Band-Aid. Need to make a few copies? We are sure you Xerox them. Packing for a family pick? We are sure that you will grab a couple of Cokes to drink.
Many of you would have noticed that Google, Coke, Xerox, etc. are brand names, not the generic terms for the products. Google should be referred to as a search engine, and Band-Aid as a bandage.
This is what brand awareness does for your business. It associates products and actions with certain brands and encourages us – on a subconscious level – to replace generic terms with branded ones.
Brand awareness will build your brand equity as well. Once you garner enough awareness for your brand through positive user experiences, your business will start to grow exponentially.
What Marketing Efforts Affect Brand Awareness?
Once a consumer becomes aware of your brand and starts to recognize it, they will start to prefer it to other similar brands. This will not only make them loyal customers but will also inspire recommendations to friends and family.
This, my friends, is why brand awareness is so essential. Brand awareness creates trust with the majority of consumers, builds positive associations, and establishes invaluable brand equity that lets your brand become a consumer staple and a common household name.
Before making the first purchase, a consumer goes through various stages, that include:
- Stage 1: Pre-Awareness
- Stage 2: Awareness
- Stage 3: Research & familiarity
- Stage 4: Shopping & consideration
- Stage 5: Decision & purchase
- Stage 6: Advocacy
In the early stages on the path to conversion, brand awareness and its visibility is the top priority. Now that you know what brand awareness is, let’s see what performance marketing strategies are effective when it comes to building a repertoire for your business.
Content Marketing
We live in a digital age where people turn to the internet for answers to any questions they have regarding a product category or service. If you grab the attention of the target market on the right social channels, you are in the line for success.
Nothing works better in terms of online advertising techniques than personifying and humanizing your brand. Creating creative, fun, and relevant content is the easiest way to do that. The content can be in any form – from a social media post with infographics to videos and podcasts, the choice is yours!
When it comes to creating an alluring piece of content, think about what your brand is about. If you are a jewelry brand, then you should produce visually engaging content for Pinterest or Instagram. Similarly, if you are a B2B company, you should be active on Twitter.
After you get the content live on your website, you can experiment with sponsored content and guest posting to diversify your content and to get in front of new target audiences. Without a solid content marketing plan, you will miss out on some amazing brand awareness opportunities.
Direct Mail Marketing
We see so many advertisements. From ads during our favorite TV shows to billboards on our way to the office, they are everywhere. So how can you make sure that your advertisement stands out from the rest and sticks in the minds of the consumers?
With the help of an enticing, creative direct mailer that will leave a positive mark in the minds of your potential buyers. No one likes junk mail, but everyone loves presents. Why not mail promo items to catch the attention of the community?
Having a targeted direct mail advertising strategy will go a long way when it comes to running a successful, profitable business. Direct mail marketing implications are great for your business. What better way to break the clutter of digital ads than with a tangible, personalized direct mailer?
How to Keep an Eye on Brand Awareness
What you should know is that nothing tops word-of-mouth marketing. Make happy customer testimonials a part of your business marketing strategy if you want your business to grow. When you visit an event, an exhibition, or a concert, you will see the names of various sponsors that made the event possible.
Sponsoring an event is a surefire way to get your business and brand in front of thousands of people. From flyers and tickets to water bottles and goodie bags, your brand name will be everywhere.
Take Red Bull, for example. They sponsored hundreds of sporting events and what was the result? We now inherently associate Red Bull with athleticism and adventure and buy the energy drink without a second thought, thinking we can be the same as those athletes.
Know Your Audience
Want your product to grab people’s attention? Talk to them and figure out what they want. Create a survey and try to gain insights into the behavior of your target audience and create a buyer persona. What do they do for a living? How old are they? Where do they live?
Ask questions and adjust your products to cater to the needs of the consumers. Create an ideal customer image from the answers you get. It’s the little things that matter. Sending out a personalized note on a customer’s birthday may not cost you a lot, but it will definitely mean the world for the happy customer.
Connecting with customers on a personal level as well as an emotional level builds a loyal customer base.
Maintain Your Customer Services
No one likes a company that doesn’t reach out to customers on time. If you see someone asking a question about your company, respond immediately. If there is a comment about your services, get back to it as soon as possible to let the customers know that they matter to you.
Be responsive on all your media channels, and give extra time to listen to the complaints of the consumers. This will build the image of your brand as a company that takes care of its clientele. When it comes to brand awareness, you can’t measure it in the traditional sense, unlike other marketing metrics.
However, you can still gauge where your business stands in terms of consumer awareness and popularity.
Monitor Site Traffic Numbers
Site traffic numbers will let you know how many people visit your website, check out your content, and connect with your brand. The better these statistics are, the better is the level of brand awareness of your business.
Keep an Eye on Direct Traffic
When people intentionally type your URL and visit your website, it is termed direct traffic. This search bar metric will tell you how effective your digital marketing techniques are in prompting people to visit your page.
Track Social Engagement
The likes, comments, retweets, reposts, etc. by your followers refer to audience engagement. This will tell you how many people are aware of your brand and socialize with it. Moreover, this will let you know how powerful your content is.
Keep an eye on your social media presence on the social media platform relevant for your company. Here are a few other things that you do as well to know whether your marketing tactics are spreading awareness among people or not.
- Set up Google Alerts
- Run Brand Awareness surveys
- Opt for Social Network Listening Tools
- Create Customer Referral Programs
Building Brand Awareness—Final Word
If people are familiar with your brand, they will feel more comfortable doing business with you. Moreover, they will also refer your products to their friends, which will mean more business for you.
Follow our tips for building and establishing brand awareness, and you will have loyal consumers who not only recognize your brand in a globalized market full of competitors but choose your products over and over again.
