Brand Awareness is the extent to which customers are able to recall or recognize a brand. It is a key consideration in consumer behavior, advertising management, brand management and strategy development. The consumer’s ability to recognize or recall a brand is central to purchasing decision-making.
Brand awareness creates trust, familiarity and leads to repeat purchases and referrals. It helps businesses differentiate themselves from competing companies.
Keeping up with all the ways to reach out to potential clients in this ever-changing, technological landscape can be challenging. Choose channels based on where your ideal clients are and how they consume media. Concentrate on using those channels to get your message out, and invest your time wisely and thoughtfully. It is much better (and more productive) to have one or two well-curated channels, than to have many neglected ones.
According to the Strategic Planning Institute, “Aggressive marketing and advertising, are the key factors in increasing brand awareness and converting awareness into market share.” Brand awareness does not have a financial value on its own, but it is part of the collective marketing effort that drives incremental sales.
A Wholistic Approach
You can’t dive into the nitty gritty of creating brand awareness until you have a clear picture of who your target market is, and why you are in business. It sounds pretty basic, but you’d be surprised at how many businesses do not define these things before proceeding with a new product or service.
Building consumer awareness includes bringing the need/problem to light, demonstrating your solution to that need or problem; and selling your solution and your brand as the best version.
This can be accomplished by providing content that helps and educates your prospective clients. The idea behind content marketing is to build trust, and establish your business as a thought leader, a place to look for answers to problems or questions.
Here are some of the best ways to build awareness of your brand:
- Identify your target audience
- Have a professionally designed website, optimized for search engines
- Make your brand easily idenitifiable (see Identity Design)
- Build a social media presence – provide customer centered content
- Be sure your content is relevant and helpful
- Ask for referrals and testimonials
- Use email marketing to keep people informed and educated about your products or services, and to promote thought leadership
- Provide value added items in exchange for contact information (downloadable Whitepaper, Email newsletter, tips, something useful to your clients)
