Knowing how to build brand awareness for your business is crucial for success in this increasingly competitive world. As a result of coronavirus, more people than ever have started a new business; an additional 59,358 new companies were created between June and August 2020, compared to the same period in 2019. With an estimated 6.0 million private sector businesses existing in the UK in 2020. Understanding how to build brand awareness is critical.
Brand awareness refers to the probability that consumers will recognise your brand, products, and services. It also involves building a positive feeling around your brand. But why is brand awareness significant? Research by RedC has revealed that 82% of consumers searching online favour familiar brands. Therefore, the greater brand awareness your organisation has, the more likely someone will purchase from you; brand awareness builds brand trust and, subsequently, customer loyalty.
This blog explores 4 top ways to build brand awareness to attract new customers and drive sales in a competitive market.
1. Consistent and Recognisable Branding
According to the Harvard Business Review, 73% of customers use multiple channels during a shopping journey. This means a higher chance of people forgetting your company, rendering raising your brand awareness essential in increasing conversion numbers.
A staple element in how to raise brand awareness is rooted in brand recognition. Without consistent and recognisable branding, people will fail to remember your brand. Adopting a consistent colour palette, font, pattern, and tone of voice throughout your branding – on your site, social media platforms, products, and packaging, at events, and in marketing campaigns – will allow the brain to make subconscious associations with your brand identity.
A consistent colour palette throughout all marketing efforts has become increasingly important; research complied by Colorcom suggests that colour increases brand recognition by up to 80%. Many brands have instantly recognisable colours attributed to them, such as red for Coca-Cola or the blue and yellow of Ikea. Consumers make a subconscious judgement about a person, environment, or product within 90 seconds of viewing, with 62-90% of that assessment based on colour alone. A company’s choice of brand colours should thus reinforce its personality and the qualities of its products or services to improve awareness.
Brand awareness means more than just knowing what your brand does or recognising its logo; it means a consumer will intuitively know that your product or service will provide the best solution to their problem. When used well, brand recognition strategies can make your company name synonymous with your organisation’s services or products. Therefore, consistent and recognisable branding is critical in how to create brand awareness.
2. How to Build Brand Awareness with Social Media
Building brand awareness comes from more than just sales; it involves interacting and building relationships with customers. Posting information related to your business, products, and services on social media is a great way to achieve this and reach a large audience. Sprout Social has found that 57% of consumers look at a brand’s social presence to learn about new products and services, meaning social media is vital to raising brand awareness.
To optimise your use of social media, high-quality and high-frequency content targeted at the right people is required. High-quality content adds value to your followers’ lives and improves your chances of being shared. Frequently posting and interacting with consumers on social media improves public knowledge of your brand, increasing recognisability. And, finding your market on a particular platform and creating relevant content makes your activity purposeful.
Social media can also provide a space to collaborate with brands with a high trust level. For example, by hosting a competition requiring likes and shares. This method improves traffic to your organisation and creates a positive feeling surrounding your brand. Alternatively, using influencers can improve brand awareness; a 2020 study by Econsultancy reported that 61% of consumers aged 18-34 have at some point been swayed in their decision-making by digital influencers.
Keeping track of brand awareness is critical. Social media metrics, such as likes, shares, and comments, can indicate whether brand awareness is growing. These results can help create actionable business goals.
According to the 2020 Sprout Social Index, 69% of social marketers say increasing brand awareness is their number one priority. With other companies focusing on increasing brand awareness through social media, your brand should step up to the competition.
3. How to Build Brand Awareness with Digital Signage
Standing out from competitors is critical when increasing your brand awareness. With digital signage effectively capturing 400% more views than static signage (Intel Corp), it is clear that digital signage exceeds print and traditional media.
Digital signage has the power to familiarise your target audience with your brand. By displaying personalised content, recognisable branding, and a visible logo, digital signage can leave a lasting impression on viewers and increase brand awareness. Instead of immersing viewers with detail, focus on a key message or a product/service and a call to action that will stick in people’s minds. By adopting this design, someone could look at your screen for as little as five seconds and remember your brand, increasing conversion numbers.
Multiple forms of digital signage can increase brand awareness. For example, an estate agent could use a digital property window display; a hotel could utilise a stadium advertising screen to encourage fans to stay post-game; a fashion brand could promote and advertise on a digital bus shelter.
One key benefit of digital signage is flexibility. Brand awareness campaigns are successful when they provide a useful experience for the consumer. The flexibility of digital signage caters perfectly for this, allowing customisation and change through easy-to-manage digital signage software. This allows your content to stay relevant and up to date, for example, in line with current trends or adapted after analysing business data.
Alternatively, digital signage offers the opportunity for interactive displays; customers can navigate their way through information, such as products on sale. Interactivity familiarises the customer with your brand and, in turn, increases brand awareness, not just from the knowledge gained but also the memorable experience provided.
4. Raising Brand Awareness with Content Marketing
Brand awareness involves educating your audience on why your company is the best. Producing relevant content that builds upon what your brand represents and what makes it unique will attract people to your business and raise brand awareness.
Content marketing can adopt two forms; it can tell a story that will personally resonate with your audience or provide useful information that brings people to your page. For example, if you are a bike store, in the first case, you could share why you began selling bikes, allowing people to connect with and remember your brand on a personal level. In the second case, you could promote ‘how to change a bike tyre’, providing a customer with a solution to their problem. This builds your brand by making it useful and creating a positive business-customer relationship, so people intuitively think of it.
Content marketing also allows you to build your Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) ranking. One of the best ways of how to raise brand awareness is through high search engine rankings. To achieve this, research keywords relevant to your industry and brand and develop high-quality content using them. Not only will your brand be easier to find, but also the more credible it will appear to your audience, increasing potential sales.
Content marketing is an easy way to create brand awareness because it is easily shareable to a large audience. Effective content marketing has the potential to create a buzz, go viral, and stay memorable. If this content employs your logo and consistent branding, your brand awareness will soar.
If you have any questions about how to build brand awareness, speak to an expert today. Call our friendly team on 02380 981110 or Email info@troudigital.com for a no-obligation consultation. Alternatively, click the button below.
