Let’s Talk: Brand Awareness
Brand awareness refers to the extent to which consumers recognize or recall a brand and its products or services. It's a crucial metric for businesses, because it reflects the familiarity and visibility of a brand among its target audience. Brand awareness is the required first step to building to brand loyalty.
Building brand awareness involves various marketing strategies and tactics, including:
Staying within your branding: Part of brand awareness, is brand consistency. People will recognize your branding, graphics, media, & content by how it looks and the message it sends. It’s crucial to use your brand-appointed colors, fonts, styles, & voice.
Advertising: Running ads across different channels such as television, radio, print, online platforms, and social media to reach a wide audience. Your aesthetic should be consistent in your advertising. Consistency is the key when trying to build your brand.
Content marketing: Creating valuable and relevant content (blogs, videos, infographics, etc.) that showcases the brand's expertise, values, and offerings, thereby engaging and educating potential customers. Make it easy to share or tag a friend with a call to action so your content can reach as many as possible.
Social media presence: Maintaining active profiles on popular social media platforms to interact with followers, share updates, and build a community around the brand. One option to increase your social media presence is to run contests that offer a freebie to the winner.
Public relations: Securing media coverage through press releases, interviews, and other PR efforts to increase visibility and credibility. One way to do this is to sponsor local events or participate in charity work.
Search engine optimization (SEO): Optimizing website content to improve its visibility in search engine results, making it easier for consumers to find the brand online. Optimizing your content with the right keywords is an essential part of a great SEO strategy. If your business is focused on local customers, begin to focus on the search intent of people nearby. Ask locals to review your business to build your credibility.
Word-of-mouth marketing: Encourage satisfied customers to share their positive experiences with others, whether through referrals, reviews, or social media posts. Prior to making a purchase most consumers reach out to their trusted friends and seek feedback. Positive word of mouth marketing can be thoroughly effective in increasing brand awareness.
Monitoring and measuring brand awareness typically involves surveys, social media analytics, website traffic analysis to gauge consumer recognition, recall, and perception of the brand. By continuously assessing brand awareness, businesses can refine their marketing strategies and investments to strengthen their brand presence and stay competitive in the market.
