People get attached to certain brands so you must have heard them saying they purchase only products of specific brands such as iPhone, Xiaomi, Nike, Adidas, etc. These are great examples of how brand awareness works and can convert a relatively small and unfamiliar brand to a famous one in a relatively short time. In other words, when the purchase time comes, people automatically buy what they have been used to. They choose the brand they trust. We have decided to share the most successful strategies we’ve implemented over years.
Definition of a brand awareness
Brand awareness shows how familiar a buyer is with a specific brand. Brands, well-known by the buyers are considered to be trendy and popular. The highest priority for any company is building and growing brand awareness since the very beginning.
Though some people might consider brand awareness as something abstract, in reality, that’s not the case. Its credibility is huge, and even if it is not possible to express it with numbers, on the other hand, it is impossible to make big sales without it. Why is brand awareness so important?
It builds trust – usually, buyers research about brands before they do the purchase because trust is crucial. Once this bond between a buyer and a brand is established, the chances for new purchases without double thinking or hesitating increase. This is a way to embody a bridge between trust and loyalty.
It forms a clear connection – when guests are about to arrive, we make sure to always have Coca-Cola in the fridge, there is no pancake party without Eurocrem, if we search for answers, we browse Google. These are great examples of brand awareness, as it connects a concrete action (purchase or browser usage) with a product of a specific brand and it even makes an impact on a buyer to switch everyday words with brand names. For example – googling a word.
How do you build brand awareness?
Building brand awareness doesn’t happen overnight, it takes time. It is impossible to expect a wonder by paying a few ads, creating a campaign, posting here and there on social media. This is not the path for people to discover and remember any brand. Strong brand awareness is a result of a well-thought strategy and continuous efforts to present a brand in the best possible way and make it omnipresent. Below, we’re sharing a few strategies for building a solid basis of brand awareness.
A brand persona should be a priority
When we meet new people, there are many questions that pop up, but we usually focus on the basic ones – where are you from, what do you do for a living, how old are you, etc. the same approach could be applied to brand promotion. In the beginning, it is important to focus the brand on several most vital facts to be promoted in public. To establish a connection with buyers, the brand should show its personality and be available.
Socialization
When it comes to people, socialization, networking, connecting are very important for building relationships and learning. The same rule applies to brands. If a brand is trying to establish a connection with the buyers only to sell its products, people will remember it as a brand with only one intention – to sell.
To raise brand awareness, it is important to make it appear as “social”, by social media posting about topics not related to selling products or services. Also, interaction with the target audience matters, so commenting, asking questions, and sharing followers’ content can contribute to initiate and create a connection.
Social media profiles of any brand should be used with a goal to attract friends and followers and to interact on a regular basis with other profiles. Brand should not reveal its main attention – earning money – instead, it should show a determination to meet its target audience.
Storytelling
The strongest brand promotion technique and increasing brand awareness is storytelling. This helps to offer something real buyers could attach to. Storytelling related to the brand gives depth and provides an opportunity to express the brand’s identity. Storytelling should be about creating a brand, starting ideas, founders’ stories, background stories about creating products and services, and finally success stories about the growth of a small brand.
Sharing the content
Regardless of the niche, the content related to a brand should be shaped so the target audience can easily digest it and share it with others. Shareable content could be blog posts, sponsored content, videos, social media posts, landing pages, etc.
Word of mouth is one of the oldest and most efficient tactics and could be applied too. If you saw your friends sharing a brand’s content on social media, it would certainly draw your attention or even make a purchase.
How to get to a high level of brand awareness
There are many diverse approaches that could work and bring results. We will focus on the three most crucial ones.
Free services
This business model, also known as a freemium, offers a set of basic services for free while the premium services are not free and require a certain fee. Software companies mostly offer a set of various useful applications, programs, etc for photo editing, learning languages, or weather forecasts.
This is an opportunity for the users to try certain services for free before making a decision of purchasing a premium version. For example, the company logo stays on the images, so it promotes the brand.
Free content
Creating free content for social media is a fun and easy way to increase brand awareness. This way of brand presentation is good for showcasing the brand’s identity and values. Nowadays, there are loads of available free apps and programs for creating content that will attract the attention of the target audience.
It is not a must to present the content as text-only. It can be displayed in videos, infographics, podcasts, and other formats. As for location, it is not necessary to show it on the site or social channels exclusively. In collaboration with other brands, guest blog posts could be a great option, take over on Instagram, etc. these are all tactics to attract new, potential customers.
Event sponsorship
We are all fond of concerts, shows, films, sports games, and other sports and cultural events. To make them happen, the first important step is to secure the sponsorship. Sponsorship is the fastest way to reach hundreds or even millions of people in a short turnaround time. Some of them belong to your target audience for sure.
Sponsorship is a good opportunity to synchronize a brand’s identity with the values promoted in sponsored events, to present your brand in the most favorable way, as fun, open, classic, sophisticated, depending on the purpose of the event. A great example is Red Bull, as they sponsor many sports events.
Brand awareness is a powerful concept
After the initial brand identity shaping phase, it is essential to continue increasing brand awareness so the brand can grow. It assumes maintaining the brand recognition concept, and all its major points. The most important brand elements related to strong brands are basic points of their identity that lead to further brand increase and recognition.
We sincerely hope you will be able to successfully apply some of the techniques and strategies described in this blog post. Feel free to share this post with your friends and colleagues. For any additional marketing-related inspiration, please, subscribe to our newsletter so you can get all the news from Titan Design agency on a regular basis.
