Have you ever wondered why you could recall a particular product or service without much effort? Perhaps because you think the product is more reliable compared to others. That is exactly what happens when you build brand awareness: consumers don’t think twice or hesitate before interacting with your brand.

As a result, they just find it easier over time to keep revisiting your services again and again. The more reason why top marketers don’t overlook the impact of brand awareness on their marketing campaigns and more so, on the company’s repute.

This guide will show you actionable tips on how to build brand awareness and reasons why it shouldn’t be ignored. They are simple, yet effective methods every business owner should know.

What is brand awareness?

Brand awareness represents how well consumers know your product and how they perceive it. It’s worth saying that building brand awareness isn’t an overnight wonder. It requires consistent and progressive efforts.

Businesses that stand out today have taken time to gradually build their brands. The reason is simple; people are likely to engage more with brands that have earned their trust.  Positive brand awareness creates that trust that turns one-time consumers into recurrent and loyal ones.

With over 4.66 billion users in 2021 and billions of online businesses, the internet is a world of its own. So, for businesses to stay relevant in the relatively large world of the internet today, they have to stay visible. Now, let’s get right into how you can build brand awareness for your business.

How to increase brand awareness?

Here are a few tricks on how to build brand awareness for a business:

Spend time creating a positive brand identity

As mentioned earlier, marketers place great emphasis on brand awareness. About 89% say it’s their top priority, according to a research. This makes sense because it has a vast impact on business growth and scope.

This is approach is more applicable to startup businesses. For a start, a strong brand identity makes a customer more likely to remember a business. Once they have a positive feel about the brand, then they start to refer the brand to others. As a result, the brand gets more recognition and brand awareness.

Brand identity is the visible and abstract features of a brand such as a logo, colour, design or even its ads format that separates it from other brands. For instance, when you see Apple’s logo or Google’s “G” logo, no other company comes to your mind other than their respective brands.

However, more than just designs or logos, a positive brand identity often translates to a positive brand image. People would decide to deal with a company or not based on its overall brand image. Once a consumer trusts a brand, it becomes easier to refer the brand to others.

One way to create a strong brand identity is to use consistent branding across all channels, according to a study. The more people see consistency in your branding, the more they can easily identify your services or products without much forethought.

For instance, you could use consistent fonts, colours or designs when creating all your marketing campaigns. Customers subconsciously become aware of these patterns that they easily begin to recognize your brand, for instance, by the language of your ads. The aforementioned study further shows that you can boost your revenue by 23% by consistently branding across all channels.

Make the best use of content marketing

Good content has a way of connecting with and profoundly influencing the readers. A business that puts out content regularly through its website has a greater chance of being noticed than others that do not.

Suppose Bob runs an online gym and he publishes a persuasive copy on the health benefits of staying fit, he has a greater chance at turning a prospect into a client. That’s the power of content marketing.

A great tool to add to your content marketing arsenal is storytelling. It is a great way to give customers a somewhat real feel of your brand. You could create a narrative around your brand and then use it to create a compelling marketing campaign. For instance, you could use a short story of how the company started to reinforce a marketing idea.

There are several ways of engaging customers through content marketing, and they include video marketing, blog marketing, ad content marketing, email marketing, social media marketing and so on. Whatever content method you choose, ensure that they are authentic. The reason is that consumers find authentic content more engaging than generic ones. Customers also find it easier to trust brands with more authentic content, based on research.

Boost brand awareness with SEO tools

Now, it is not all about just posting contents online but getting noticed for them. With over 4 billion Google users, there is a huge audience out there. However, without the proper search engine optimization (SEO) tools, it may be difficult for a brand to get noticed. In clear terms, search engine optimization makes your post visible to your target audience.

Although there is no singular way to make your post rank. It’s always a mix of different methods because Google adjusts its ranking algorithm 600 times per year. But a key focus is keywords. They are simply words that people input into their search engine. Including the most frequent keywords in your article could boost its ranking, thus, making you more discoverable.

However, long-tail keywords have been proved to be more effective at improving one’s ranking. As we said, SEO is much more than keywords and you’d need to combine different SEO tools to achieve the best results.

Network and partner with big brands

Many extant online businesses have leveraged the power of networking and partnership to expand their list of clients. The first part is networking. Just as much as you give great efforts to building brand awareness online you should also attempt offline building.

Attend conferences, volunteer to speak at events, meet people, and make sure to always talk about your brand. Once the word spreads, people would be more willing to interact with your brand because they will believe it can be trusted. 

The other part is partnering with already-trusted brands. Simply, you are leveraging their already-made brand image to gain traction.  For instance, you could partner with a big brand that has a complementary product to your business’s to give out free products. This simple technique can propel brand presence within a short period.

Create an online community to strengthen brand presence

This brand awareness boosting technique works wonders. You’d sometimes imagine why certain customers can go extra lengths to show support for a brand. That is community spirit. For instance, tech companies usually leverage the power of an online community to build brand awareness.

An online community builds brand awareness because it represents one of your best marketing channels. Online communities create strong bonds between brands and their customers, which makes them a reliable marketing medium. For instance, many successful brands are backed up by a network of staunch fans such as Airbnb, TripAdvisor.

Therefore, it means that an online community is an integral part of a brand. Customers are also likely to continue with a brand if they belong to its community.

Why is brand awareness important?

A brand equals the face and feel of a business. Whatever perceptions you want people to have of your product or services can be pushed through branding. One way to push those ideas effectively is by building positive brand awareness. Here are some of its benefits:

Brand awareness builds trust

You’d often wonder why some customers have a great connection with some particular brands. That is exactly what brand awareness does – it makes it easier for people to connect deeper with your brand.

Then they search forthright for your products or services when next they need of them. As such, many may decide not to use a different product from yours because they’ve become attached to the brand.

For instance, the more a friend shows up around you, the more you are likely to trust that person. You suddenly notice that you are more comfortable around them and then you begin to tell them secrets and so on.

It’s the same way with brand awareness. It creates a strong bond of trust between a brand and its customers. As a result, it becomes easier for them to give feedback or go out of their way to get the product.

Brand awareness increases engagement

The more people are aware of your brand; the more traffic you will get. You are likely never going to be noticed if you put zero effort into increasing brand awareness.

Your online visibility determines how much engagement or leads you will get and that, in turn, impacts your profitability. Effective brand awareness expands your client list and gives your services the engagement it needs.

Brand awareness creates associations

On a hot summer afternoon, when you think of something refreshing, you’d probably think of having a chilled coke. When you need a quick answer to a question, Google comes to mind. This association effect is due to strong brand awareness. As a result, you’d easily attribute some events, actions or things to a certain brand.

Brands like Apple have strong and positive brand awareness, which has created a good impression for their products. So it’s easier to associate Apple with class, innovation, sleekness and greater functionalities. 

Marketing efforts become easier with brand awareness

Since brand awareness increases your reach, it also makes it easier to achieve your marketing goals. Suppose you want to introduce a new product to your customers. The process won’t be as tedious when you have strong brand awareness. As such, you would be able to market the new product with ease and seamlessly achieve other marketing goals.

Conclusion

Building brand awareness equals boosting your online visibility and credibility. Customers would prefer to interact more with a business that has a strong online presence. It keeps customers close to the brand and gives them a genuine feel of the business. Little wonder most marketers tout brand awareness as a top priority.

Now that you know how to build brand awareness, don’t hesitate to try out the tips shared in this guide!