What does brand awareness establish? A loyal following? Consumer trust? A competitive edge?
The answer is: all of the above and so much more.
Brand awareness can do so much for a brand. Once you’ve embedded your brand into the lifestyles and purchase habits of your audience, they won’t have to think twice about becoming a customer – or should we say, repeat customer.
This simple guide will help you gain a better understanding of brand awareness and help you establish it among your audience.
Let’s get started!
What is Brand Awareness?
Brand awareness is a term used to describe how familiar consumers are with a brand and its products. Simply put, brand awareness indicates how memorable and recognizable a brand is to its audience. Establishing brand awareness is an effective marketing strategy that can lead consumers to developing a preference towards your brand.
We understand brand awareness is somewhat of a vague concept. And for those of you who like to gauge success with numbers that can be perfectly determined, brand awareness may not be appealing as a metric tool. But, it’s important to remember that brand awareness is an invaluable tool in the overall success of a business.
Food for Thought
When it comes to brand awareness, words to keep in mind are memorable, recognizable, and consistent. What makes your brand these things? Are your current marketing efforts helping you establish brand awareness, or hindering it?
Why is Brand Awareness So Important?
Brand awareness creates trust.
It may take a little time, research, and others’ opinions for a consumer to make a purchase. But once consumers bond to your brand, they are more likely to be repeat customers. That is where trust and loyalty are established. And in order to get someone to bond to your brand, you have to focus on brand awareness. Insert your brand into their life and purchasing habits, and boom, you have their attention.
Trust is a meaningful thing. Make sure your audience knows that your brand, your face, and your story, is one they can trust.
Brand awareness establishes loyalty.
Where there is trust, there is loyalty. As we previously stated, once a consumer not only makes a purchase with your brand but bonds to your brand, they are more likely to be a repeat costumer. And not only that, they’re going to convince others to do the same. Why do you think companies like Apple and Nike have such loyal followings? Because they’ve built brand awareness. People are familiar with their brands, know what they’re all about, and trust them. That’s how you build loyalty.
Brand awareness gives you a competitive edge.
Once trust and loyalty are established, you automatically have a competitive edge. With higher brand awareness, you’ll have higher brand equity, which results in consumers choosing your brand over other well-known brands.
How Can You Establish Brand Awareness?
There are many ways to build brand awareness, but we’re going to list some of the more important ones.
1. Don’t just be a company, be a person.
People relate to people. Promote your brand as someone your consumers can relate to, not just a company that sells stuff. After all, there are real people behind every brand. Focus on the humanity of your company; things like passions, likes, and hobbies. This is how you’ll leave a lasting impact on your audience.
2. Be social.
If you only attempt to socialize when trying to make a sale, you’ll quickly build the reputation of a business with a singular intention. You need to connect with your audience outside of trying to sell them something. One great way of doing this is by posting to your social media about things unrelated to your business. Asking questions, commenting on posts, and re-sharing content are just a few ways of socializing with your audience.
3. Tell a story.
Storytelling is a powerful marketing strategy. When it comes to telling your brand’s story, don’t forget why you’re telling it in the first place. The goal is to attract people to your brand and gain loyal customers. You can’t do this if your story doesn’t speak to them. Your audience needs to find themselves in your story in order to latch onto it.
Many businesses struggle with finding the right way to tell their story without making it all about them – it has to be about your customers too. Digital marketing agencies, like WebLocal, know how to tell brand stories in a way that builds and maintains brand awareness.
4. Be consistent.
Make sure your brand is consistent across all platforms and marketing efforts. From your logo, imagery, language, and story, all the way down to font choice; remember, consistency is key. It’s how you quickly build familiarity with your brand – to the point where people will recognize your brand with little to no effort.
That’s a Wrap
Needless to say, brand awareness is a powerful concept that can greatly impact consumer perception, marketing efforts, and the revenue of a business. While building brand awareness can be achieved with a few simple changes, maintaining brand awareness is a bit more complex. That’s where a digital marketing team comes into play.
If you’d like help building and maintaining brand awareness, don’t hesitate to reach out!