In short
So, you’ve got a great product or service that your customers enjoy and appreciate. You’ve created some pretty strong content that sets out its benefits, how it works and so forth. You’ve established the stirrings of a good social media presence and even dabbled in some PPC, SEO, CRO and a few other marketing acronyms for good measure.
So far, so good but you just know you could do better. You know that you must do more to get your audience to believe in your brand and what you can do for them. You know you need to up your brand awareness game.
In this guide, you’ll discover the importance of building brand awareness from a strategic point of view. We’ll explore the top tactics from storytelling to PPC advertising, learn to balance brand building and conversion-driven content and understand how a strong brand presence boosts conversions. By the end, you’ll have an actionable brand awareness roadmap for increased visibility, credibility and customer loyalty. Sounds good? Let’s get cracking!
What is brand awareness?
Our first port of call is clarifying the meaning of brand awareness. Put simply, brand awareness is the recognition that potential or current customers have of your product or service. It’s the name that lingers on their lips when they think of a specific category or solution. Imagine it as your brand’s popularity metre, gauging how it resonates in the hearts and minds of your audience.
Your brand popularity and recognition depend on your brand awareness and vice versa. As awareness of your brand increases, you create an indelible impact on your customers and market, becoming more memorable, recognisable and trustworthy. Considering a SalesForce report found that nearly three in four customers say trust has become even more important since the pandemic, this is definitely a strategy worth pursuing.
Brand recognition vs. brand awareness
It’s easy to confuse brand recognition with brand awareness. While brand awareness is about being familiar with the brand, brand recognition is the ability to identify your brand when presented with its visual or auditory cues. In simpler terms, if someone can recall your brand name without seeing your logo, that’s brand recognition. Both are crucial, but brand awareness often precedes brand recognition.
Why is brand awareness important?
It builds trust
Trust is the foundation of any successful business. When consumers recognise your brand, they are more likely to trust your product or service.
It creates a positive association
Brand awareness connects your business with certain feelings, memories and experiences in consumers’ minds. Associating positive attributes with your brand is a powerful way to create lasting connections.
It builds brand equity
Brand equity is the commercial value derived from consumer perception of your brand. The stronger the brand awareness, the higher the brand equity. This equity can translate into higher sales, better margins and customer loyalty.
Top tips on how to build brand awareness
Ready to get started with boosting brand awareness across your marketing strategy? Let’s explore some actionable and impactful tips for building your brand online and offline.
1. Guest blogging on niche websites
Writing guest posts on websites related to your industry establishes your authority, exposes your brand to a wider audience and is great for boosting your backlink strategy. Always make sure your content is genuinely valuable and aligns with the host site’s audience.
2. Developing co-marketing programs
Teaming up with another company that shares your values and a similar for joint marketing efforts exposes your brand to a new audience and can lead to mutually beneficial partnerships.
3. Refine your advertising strategy
Advertising opportunities now far transcend traditional media and billboards. Utilise social media, search engines, podcasts and influencers where appropriate. Be where your audience is and your brand will naturally gain traction.
4. Develop a face for your brand
Creating a memorable mascot or face of the company can make a lasting impression and humanise your brand, making it relatable to your audience. A mascot such as the Hootsuite Owly or the Energiser Bunny helps to bring your brand and its products to mind. Similarly, a well-known celebrity or public figure representing your brand can be super effective for brand recall, though this can be a rather more expensive option!
5. Create a short, catchy slogan
A concise, catchy slogan can encapsulate your brand’s essence. Think of Nike’s “Just Do It.” or KitKat’s “Have a Break”. Simple, memorable and embodies the brands’ spirit.
Top tips:
- Create a cohesive social media presence: 70% of marketers say building brand awareness is their top social media goal so make sure you maintain a consistent tone and style across all social media platforms to build trust and recognition.
- Focus on meaningful engagement: Interact with your audience. Respond to comments, messages and feedback promptly. Engaged customers become brand advocates.
How to increase brand awareness
When it comes to boosting your brand awareness, a multifaceted approach is best. Employing a diverse range of strategies ensures that your brand not only captures attention but also remains memorable in the minds of your audience. Let’s dissect each strategy, to help you understand their nuances and explore how they benefit your business.
Search Engine Optimisation (SEO)
Search engines are often the first port of call for consumers seeking information. SEO, the art and science of optimising your online content, involves a range of activities for climbing search results. This increased visibility doesn’t just bring in organic traffic; it establishes your brand’s credibility and trustworthiness.
Benefits for your business
- Greater visibility: Appearing on the first page of search results increases the likelihood of clicks and visits to your website.
- Credibility boost: Websites that rank higher are perceived as more trustworthy by users, enhancing your brand’s reputation.
- Long-term impact: SEO efforts, when done right, yield lasting results, ensuring a consistent flow of potential customers over time.
Top tips:
- Keyword research: Understand the keywords your audience uses and integrate them naturally into your content.
- Quality content: Create informative, engaging and original content. Search engines love quality and so do your readers.
Repurpose your content
Your content is a goldmine waiting to be explored. Repurposing content involves transforming your existing material into different formats, catering to diverse audience preferences. A blog post can become a video, an infographic or a podcast — which can later become a downloadable guide, case study or social media campaign. You get the picture!
Benefits for your business
- Wider audience reach: Different audience segments prefer different content types. Repurposing ensures you resonate with all of them.
- Increased engagement: Visual and interactive content often garners higher engagement rates, boosting your brand’s online presence.
- Cost-efficient: Repurposing allows you to extract maximum value from your existing content, saving time and resources.
Top tips:
- Know your audience: Understand the content formats your audience engages with the most.
- Be consistent: Even in different formats, your core brand message and aesthetics should remain consistent. In fact, a recent study found that brand visibility is 3.5 times higher for those with a consistent brand presentation.
Establish thought leadership through LinkedIn
If you can cut through the chatter, LinkedIn offers a great opportunity to position your brand as an industry expert. By publishing long-form articles, you can share your insights, experiences and knowledge with a vast professional audience. Thought leadership not only boosts brand credibility but also fosters trust among potential clients and partners.
Benefits for your business
- Gain recognition: Publishing insightful content showcases your expertise, enhancing your brand’s authority in your industry.
- Networking opportunities: Thought leadership articles often attract other professionals, leading to valuable connections and collaborations.
- Enhanced brand perception: Brands associated with expertise are perceived as more reliable by their audience.
Top tips:
- Make your message count: There are a lot of people vying for attention on LinkedIn so you need to consider what you want to say carefully. Avoid being contentious for the sake of it, but when you have something original to say, say it — as long as it is backed up by solid facts or research, of course.
- Engage with your audience: Respond to comments and join in discussions sparked by your articles, gracefully sidestepping any trolls or hecklers.
Build emotional connections through storytelling
Storytelling is a timeless art that humanises your brand. By weaving narratives around your brand’s journey, values, or even customer testimonials, you create emotional connections with your audience. These connections are powerful; they make your brand memorable and relatable, transcending the transactional nature of business.
Benefits for your business
- Emotional engagement: Stories evoke emotions, allowing your audience to connect with your brand on a personal level.
- Memorability: People remember stories far more than facts or figures. A well-told story ensures your brand lingers in their minds.
- Brand loyalty: Emotional connections foster loyalty. Customers who feel emotionally attached to your brand are more likely to remain loyal and recommend your products or services.
Top tips:
- Be authentic: According to Stackla, 88% of consumers say authenticity from brands is important with 50% saying it’s very important. So, always be genuine in your storytelling.
- Be relatable: Craft stories that your audience can relate to, making them feel that your brand understands their experiences and challenges.
Visualising information through infographics
We are all one hundred percent overloaded with visual media so make sure your images stand out. Infographics, a combination of images and concise text, are a great way of presenting complex information in an easily digestible format. They are also highly shareable, making them a potent tool for increasing brand awareness. In fact, 45% of internet users will click on a link with an infographic in it.
Benefits for your business
- High shareability: Infographics are shared and re-shared across various platforms, maximising your brand’s exposure.
- Increased engagement: Visual content grabs attention faster, keeping your audience engaged and interested in your message.
Top tips: Keep your infographic simple and focused. Too much information can overwhelm your audience. If your infographic includes statistics, ensure they are accurate and from credible sources.
Collaborate with guests
Collaborating with influencers, industry experts, or even other brands can increase your brand’s reach and help you build a strong community. HubSpot reports that one in four marketers invest in influencer marketing, so if you can find the right people to collaborate with, you’ll definitely be in good company. When you invite guests to create content for your platform, their existing followers should bring instant exposure and their endorsement adds credibility to your brand.
Benefits for your business
- Expanded audience: Guest contributors bring their audience with them, exposing your brand to a broader and potentially untapped market.
- Credibility boost: Associating your brand with respected influencers or experts enhances your credibility and trustworthiness.
- Content variety: Different voices bring diversity to your content, catering to varied tastes and preferences within your audience.
Top tips
- Be relevant: Choose guest contributors whose expertise aligns with your brand. Relevance ensures the audience finds value in the collaboration.
- Offer mutual benefit: Ensure the collaboration benefits both parties. It should be a win-win situation for both your brand and the guest contributor.
Use targeted PPC advertising
Pay-per-click (PPC) advertising is a form of online advertising where you pay a fee each time your ad is clicked. While it’s a paid strategy, it offers precise targeting options. You can tailor your ads to specific demographics, interests and behaviours, ensuring your brand message reaches the right audience.
Benefits for your business
- Immediate visibility: PPC ads appear at the top of search results and on relevant websites, ensuring immediate visibility for your brand.
- Targeted audience: Specific targeting options allow you to focus on users who are more likely to be interested in your products or services.
- Measurable results: PPC platforms provide detailed analytics, allowing you to measure the effectiveness of your brand awareness campaigns and make data-driven decisions.
Top tips:
- Keyword research: Extensive keyword research ensures your ads appear for the most relevant and high-converting search terms.
- Create high-converting copy: Craft compelling ad copy that not only attracts attention but also encourages clicks. A strong Call-to-Action (CTA) and a focus on the benefits offered are crucial.
Offer Freemiums
Freemiums are free products or services offered to potential customers, often as a scaled-down version of your premium offerings. This strategy allows users to experience your brand without the financial commitment. Freemiums create a sense of reciprocity; users feel inclined to reciprocate the favour, often by engaging more deeply with your brand or upgrading to paid services.
Benefits for your business
- Lead generation: Freemiums attract leads interested in your offerings. Their contact information can be valuable for future marketing efforts.
- Product familiarity: Users get to experience your product/service firsthand, increasing the likelihood of them becoming paying customers in the future.
- Positive brand perception: Offering something for free creates a positive brand image, enhancing customer perception.
Top tips:
- Offer clear value: Ensure your freemium offers genuine value. It should showcase your brand’s quality and capabilities.
- Include an upgrade path: Provide a seamless pathway for users to transition from the freemium version to the premium version, emphasising the additional benefits of upgrading.
Provide free content
Creating free content, such as blogs, eBooks, tutorials, or webinars, positions your brand as a valuable resource and builds trust. Free content not only attracts new visitors but also retains existing ones, nurturing long-term relationships.
Benefits for your business
- Authority building: Providing expert content establishes your brand as an authority in your field, encouraging trust among your audience.
- Traffic generation: Valuable free content attracts organic traffic, bringing in users who are genuinely interested in your niche.
- Community building: Free content fosters a sense of community. Users engaging with your content form a community around your brand, amplifying its reach.
Top tips:
- Quality first: Focus on creating high-quality, informative content. Quality content attracts backlinks, social shares and organic traffic.
- Be consistent: Regularly publish free content. Consistency keeps your brand on your audience’s radar, enhancing brand recall.
Sponsor events
Sponsoring events, whether local festivals, sports tournaments, or industry conferences, provides an excellent opportunity to showcase your brand to a receptive/captive audience. And it’s big business for marketers. In fact, The sponsorship sector is set to have the highest revenue CAGR of 12.1% between 2021 and 2028.
Sponsorship offers brand visibility both during the event and through post-event coverage. Your brand then becomes synonymous with the event and attendees form positive associations.
Benefits for your business
- Targeted exposure: Sponsorship allows you to reach a specific demographic, ensuring your brand message resonates with the right audience.
- Enhanced brand image: Positive event experiences translate into positive perceptions of your brand, enhancing your reputation.
- Networking opportunities: Events provide a platform for networking, allowing you to connect with potential clients, partners and industry influencers.
Top tips:
- Target the right events: Choose events that align with your brand values and target audience to ensure your brand message resonates effectively.
- Think beyond logo placements: Creative activations and engagements at the event make your brand memorable.
Give your brand a personality
Giving your brand a personality makes it relatable and endearing to your audience. Whether your brand persona is friendly, quirky, or professional, consistency in portraying this personality across all interactions fosters emotional connections.
Benefits for your business
- Emotional bonding: Humanised brands evoke emotions, creating stronger bonds with customers.
- Differentiation: A distinct brand personality sets you apart from competitors, making your brand more memorable and recognisable.
- Brand advocacy: Customers who feel emotionally connected with your brand are more likely to become advocates, promoting your brand to others.
Top tips:
- Be consistent: Ensure your brand personality is consistent across all communication channels, from social media to customer support.
- Interact in a meaningful way: Engage with your audience in a way that reflects your brand personality. Personalise interactions to enhance the human touch.
Produce a podcast
Podcasts have become immensely popular due to their convenience and accessibility. Producing a high-quality podcast allows you to reach your audience during their daily activities, creating a personal connection as they hear the voices behind your brand.
Benefits for your business
- Accessibility: Podcasts can be accessed anytime, anywhere, allowing you to reach a global audience without geographical constraints.
- In-depth discussions: Podcasts enable in-depth discussions, allowing you to delve into industry trends, insights and expert interviews, positioning your brand as a valuable resource.
- Multi-channel promotion: Podcast episodes can be repurposed into blogs, social media snippets and more, maximising your content reach.
Top tips:
- Deliver a great listener experience: Invest in good-quality recording equipment and sound editing to ensure a professional listening experience.
- Maintain a consistent schedule: Release episodes on a consistent schedule. Regularity builds anticipation and keeps your audience engaged.
Brand Awareness Examples
Let’s take a look at a few real-life examples to understand how successful brands have leveraged brand awareness strategies.
Apple
Even if you aren’t one of the many who are willing to queue for hours for their latest product, you’ll doubtless agree that Apple rules the roost when it comes to sleek designs, innovative technology and the ability to develop a cult following. Apple’s ad campaigns are gorgeous, elegant and quietly impactful — much like their product portfolio.
Red Bull
Red Bull has transcended the realm of energy drinks to become synonymous with adventure, dare-devilry and living life to the full. Red Bull events are at the heart of their brand awareness strategy, to such an extent that they barely need to talk about their beverages in order to sell them.
How to measure and track brand awareness
Understanding the impact of your brand-building activities is crucial. Here are some metrics you should monitor for measuring brand awareness:
- Reach: Reach measures the total number of people who have come across your brand content. It reflects the breadth of your audience exposure.
- Impressions: Impressions indicate how many times your content has been displayed, irrespective of whether it led to interaction. High impressions suggest a broad audience, while low impressions might mean your content needs optimisation.
- Audience Growth Rate: This metric tracks how quickly your audience is expanding. A growing audience signifies effective brand awareness strategies and a widening customer base.
- Direct Traffic: Direct traffic represents visitors who directly type your website URL into their browsers. An increase in direct traffic often correlates with enhanced brand recall.
Top tip: Don’t forget to regularly analyse your metrics to identify patterns, understand what works and adapt your strategies accordingly.
Survey results: Brand awareness is as important as driving conversions
In uncertain economic times, balancing brand awareness and conversion-driven content becomes pivotal. As potential customers become more price-sensitive, they need extra assurance before converting. A strong, recognisable brand provides that assurance.
A recent study we conducted with HubSpot delved into the minds of industry experts, revealing intriguing findings that shed light on this delicate balance. According to the survey, a striking 50% of experts focus on producing conversion-driven content during challenging periods, underscoring the urgency of immediate results. The other half prioritises brand awareness, realising the enduring value of building a robust, recognisable brand even in times of uncertainty.
- An exact 61% consider conversion metrics, such as Click-Through Rates (CTR), Cost Per Acquisition (CPA), Return on Ad Spend (ROAS) and Cost Per Click (CPC), crucial for assessing their strategies.
- Simultaneously, an equal percentage (61%) regards branding metrics, including Share of Voice (SOV), reach and engagement, as paramount.
- This even split underlines the industry’s dilemma: balancing immediate gains with the lasting impact of brand recognition.
Applying the survey findings: Crafting an effective brand awareness strategy
Now, let’s explore how you can apply these insights to build your brand.
- Understand customer pain points: Dive deep into your audience’s concerns and challenges. Tailor your content to directly address these issues, demonstrating your brand’s understanding and relevance.
- Be flexible: The market is fluid, demanding adaptability. Be open to tweaking your messaging and approach based on the shifting needs and sentiments of your audience.
- Take a holistic view of your metric analysis: Don’t focus solely on immediate gains. Balance your strategy by analysing both conversion metrics and branding metrics. While conversions offer short-term victories, branding metrics reflect the enduring impact on customer loyalty and market positioning.
Building your brand — the next steps.
It’s important to approach building brand awareness as an essential part of defining your place in the market, not just a marketing task. It’s an ongoing, transformative process that, with effort and persistence, turns your brand into something far more than a choice and more like a trusted companion.
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