Introduction
Building your brand awareness is no easy task. It takes time, diligence, and is a feat of networking to do properly. No matter the industry, brand awareness is essential to your marketing strategy and ultimately how you’ll attract customers.
Great Brand Awareness
When done right, brand awareness has the power to fuel its own growth. The more recognizable and distinctive that your company is, the more opportunity for your customers to spread your brand. In addition to word of mouth, patrons are allured to supporting your brand on various media outlets, furthering business growth.
Sounds awesome? I know. Great brand awareness can be achieved by covering three main categories: Memorability, Distinctiveness, and Impressionability. Let’s dive a little deeper.
Memorability
Brand memorability is vital to give your customers a basis for your business. Your brand needs to be the first thought that appears into a customer’s head. Branding products such as logos, taglines, etc. all help. For example, when a person needs running sneakers, most would think of a clothing giant such as Adidas or Nike. In the same sense, when a customer requires a service or product that you provide, you’ll want to be the first thought.
Distinctiveness
Think, what makes your company unique? When developing a distinctive brand, highlight your strengths. Pay attention to what your business is good at now, not necessarily what you’ll be good at in the future. Provide customers a unique product that you can deliver exceedingly well. Think of forming a “T” chart out of your business. Ensure that your company is capable of producing a range of products or services, this is the bar of the “T.” Now what makes you distinctive from the rest, your business’ specialty, the stem of the “T.” This is the product that sets you apart from your competitors.
Impressionability
Impressionability is the impact you form on your customer. Your business’ largest impact is the solution you’re able to provide to a customer’s problem. Curating a product that solves their problem exceptionally well is what will create a lasting impression. When a customer knows that your business provides a product or service that actually works, they will note your value. Providing value is the root of forming lasting impressions.
Build Your Brand Awareness
Remember there is no set path to build brand awareness. Each business is unique and must highlight their own distinctive value to their customers. However, following a few basic guidelines will aid greatly.
Identify Brand Strengths
Covered briefly before, your brand’s strengths are what make your business unique. Let your strengths become the focus of what you’re known for. In truth, no one wants to be known for what they aren’t best at.
Understand Your Target Audience
Know everything you can about your target customer. In order to direct who your brand is known amongst, you must cater to your audience's interests. Keep in mind, the most powerful selling point of your business is the success stories of your customers.
Stay Consistent to Your Brand
Seeking organic growth? Staying consistent will be your best bet. Whether it be frequent uploads to social media, attending local commerce meetings, or ad campaigns, the more often your brand is seen the more recognizable it’ll become.
Partner with Influential Companies
A great way to validate your business is to associate with fellow businesses within your industry that have authority. Whether ghost writing for their blog or joining in on campaigning events, the possibilities for collaboration are endless. When a customer sees your brand interacting with an authoritative company, they are much more likely to foster trust with your brand.
Personal Connections Matter
There is importance in directly connecting to a single customer. One of the best ways to do this is to meet physically and form relationships with your clientele. Even though the majority of business is conducted online, remember that there is always value in connections made in person.
If meeting physically is not a possibility, no fear! There are always ways to establish a personal connection to your client. Whether it be meeting digitally, sending out a social media post that relates to their needs, or sending an infographic into their inbox that helps them solve a problem, you’re still making a personal connection.
Stay Active on Social Media
Understanding the importance of social media in your brand awareness plan is vital. The power is within post sharing. When a customer or audience member finds value in what you have to post, a simple share is a direct increase to your brand awareness.
Don’t let your content get monotonous either. Consider posting how-to’s, exciting business news, client promotions, and self promotions. Providing a variety of content for your audience to engage with is best when seeking post interaction.
Freebies
Saying that your business can provide value and actually providing value are two entirely separate things. By offering free samples or “freebies” of what your brand is capable of provides customers a no-risk product that helps them in some form or fashion. Whether an eBook, product pack, or something similar, freebies have the ability to convert uninterested customers into patrons.
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Importance of SEO
SEO is complicated for many businesses. However, this complication provides the authority behind a high ranking website that gains the trust of customers. As your website builds recognition, associations will quickly be made to trust your brand as an expert product provider in your industry. Be sure to choose keywords that your target audience is actually researching! Use tools such as SEMRush or Moz Keyword Researcher to help out. How to Use SEO.
Outcomes of Great Brand Awareness
Unfortunately, brand awareness is not a metric. Meaning, we don’t have a number or model to gauge success. We do have the ability to witness business growth however. Brand awareness has the power to elevate your company and is one of the most important marketing assets to invest in. As clients become increasingly loyal and develop associations to your business, you’ll find an increase in overall business success as a result of brand awareness.