Building brand awareness – proven methods

Branding is an important aspect that you need to consider in your business strategy. It is not enough to choose a logo and run advertising campaigns. Creating an image is definitely a lot more thought-out steps. Check what you can gain and what actions will help you build brand awareness in the minds of your audience.

What is branding?

Branding is a marketing technique that aims to strengthen the existence of a brand and its positive image in the minds of consumers. Therefore, actions taken as a part of branding consist in creating associations related to a given brand. What associations are we talking about? Think about Coca-Cola. When you think of this brand, do Christmas, a truck and family atmosphere come to your mind? And what about the beverage? This is what branding is all about – building emotions around the brand, focusing on experiences and feelings, and only then on the product.

Why increasing brand awareness is so important?

There are many reasons why branding activities should be undertaken. They show that creating brand awareness simply pays off and leads to increased profits. Hopefully, the arguments below will make you realize how much you can gain.

Brand awareness:

• builds trust and allows to reach new clients;
• distinguishes the product, service, company from competitors;
• creates and strengthens relationships with clients;
• increases the business value of the brand;
• positively influences the brand perception by potential employees and business partners.

How to increase brand recognition?

In this aspect as well, it is possible to list various ways of increasing awareness and reaching your brand’s target audience. Here are seven ideas and tools to help you create brand recognition.

#Content marketing

All kinds of activities in this area are aimed at reaching audiences through content. But not just any content. They have to be valuable and interesting. This includes not only text (blogs, social media posts, emails, e-books or newsletters), but also images, infographics and various forms of video. Remember that creating a variety of content attracts attention and stimulates user engagement. Of course, content activities are also part of your SEO strategy, thus influencing the positioning of your website in search results.

#Video marketing

80% of marketers who use video state that such content directly helps increase sales (data from Wyzowl’s The State of Video Marketing 2020 report). In fact, this is because when consumers watch a video, they can almost see the product they are interested in live. What’s more, video creates a huge room for maneuver, after all, brands can create live shows where they talk about their offer, company philosophy, values, can show the company’s life, as well as conduct training, webinars or share tutorials.

#User Generated Content

The UGC is any user-generated content. It can be reviews, opinions, photos, posts, instastories, comments, etc., which are then used by the brand. Wondering what is so valuable about user shared content? Well, when you share content created by your clients, it increases trust in your brand. Consumers believe reviews posted by users who have already taken advantage of the offer, and are more likely to buy proven products.

#Loyalty program

A loyalty program can also help increase brand recognition, thus its implementation should be planned. It is worth considering the original solution, the type of reward, the way the clients earn it, the mechanism and tools needed for that. A well-organized loyalty program supports the sales process and increases consumer engagement.

#Employer branding

The brand should also take care of its image as an employer. With consistent internal and external communications, the brand will build trust among potential candidates and attract talent, as well as enjoy greater employee engagement. You can confidently build the image of a good employer on social media, if only by sharing the brand’s life. An ideal situation is when current employees publish content that supports creating a positive brand image as a place to work.

#Social proof 

Social proof undoubtedly influences consumers’ purchasing decisions. Therefore, ensure the opinion about your company and use the power of recommendations. For this purpose, it is necessary to conduct customer satisfaction surveys, asking them to write a review after using your offer. You can subsequently post the clients’ reviews on your website using Rating Captain widgets.

#Social media 

Of course, you should also use social media to build brand awareness. Your brand doesn’t have to be present in all of them, choose those media where your target audience is present. Then make sure to regularly publish content that is relevant to your audience. Keep in mind that social media is a very good place to build relationships with users through interaction. Therefore, don’t be afraid to engage in discussions on thematic groups as well. This is a great place to present your brand as an expert in your sector.

Summary

It is up to you what marketing activities you will undertake and which communication channels you will choose. And of course, you don’t have to limit to the activities mentioned in this article, as you can really only be limited by your imagination. You can also create paid advertising content in Google Ads or social media. Remember, if you have an idea to stand out from the competition, you see the potential in a given action – act, do not wait until someone else comes up with the same idea and will implement it before you.