Building good brand awareness is one of the most important things you will do as a business if you want to survive, let alone grow. Your brand awareness is key to reaching the right customers, managing your reputation, and growing your profit margins. If you don’t start your business off on the right foot, you will quickly become bankrupt. Cultivating brand awareness is one of the most valuable activities that you will invest in when running and growing your business and help you significantly when setting yourself apart from your competitors. To help you grow your business to new heights, here is everything you need to know about brand awareness and how to cultivate it. 

What is brand awareness?

You must first understand what brand awareness is if you want to build it. Brand awareness has no set definition or measurement, but it essentially describes how well people know your business and how well they can recognize it in the market. When a brand has good and high awareness, it will usually be seen as the popular or trending brand in the industry. This familiarity and social buzz of your brand are extremely valuable, as they will promote your name and drive more people to your business. 

Brand awareness is likely to fluctuate and is very difficult to articulate in numbers. However, you will be able to use several methods to see what kind of buzz and familiarity there is around your brand, for example, how quickly your reach on social media is growing and your increase in profits. You can also speak to customers via interviews and surveys to ask questions about how they found how, how they heard of you, how often they see your branding, whether you recognize yourself, and other relevant questions. 

Why is brand awareness important?

Brand awareness is vital for any business that wants to be successful. In a world where thousands of businesses are being started each year, the economy is in an unprecedented place and has never been more competitive than it is now. Good brand awareness will enable you to create a good foundation for your business, and make your brand stand out from the crowd. This will ensure that you can continue to grow in a tough market. 

Drives traffic to your business

Part of cultivating good brand awareness means understanding your target market and meeting their needs. This in itself is a valuable quality to have as a business, as when you know your customers inside and out, you will be able to create messaging, products, and services that resonate with them on a personal level. Customers will see more value in this, and choose to invest in your business over your competitors as they feel like you can meet their needs and provide them with a solution.  

Builds trust 

It is a well-known fact that the majority of customers prefer to invest their time, money, and energy in a brand they know and trust. This trust stems from being familiar with a brand. When people are familiar with something, they are more comfortable with it and would have cultivated a certain level of trust in it. This familiarity and trust will continue to get stronger if a consumer purchases a product or service, and has a positive experience, they will have peace of mind when buying, are more likely to purchase from them again, and even share their experience with friends and family. 

Top tips on how to build brand awareness

Building good brand awareness involves a variety of tasks that help put your brand out into the world, stand out from your competitors, drive more consumers to your business, help them become more familiar with your brand, and establish trust. Here are some top tips to help you get started.  

#1 Develop a strong and memorable brand 

One of the most important things you need is a strong and memorable brand. If you have a brand that is the same as everyone else’s and blends into the crowd, then consumers are not going to have a reason to notice you over all of your competitors. You should investigate the industry and the market, and see which brands are popular, which brands are hidden in the crowd, what gaps are in the market and how you can differentiate yourself from your competitors. Think about the colors that you use, the features of your branding, the tone of voice in your messaging, and much more. You may consider professional help to utilize the psychology of colors in your branding. You will also need to have a strong mission that shows consumers what you are passionate about and what you aim to achieve, as this will form part of your branding. It all needs to be relevant to your business so that all the elements of your branding can be easily pieced together. 

The goal is to create a brand that can be quickly identified. 

#2 Listen to your customers and get feedback 

Your customers should be the heart of your business. If you want to create a memorable brand and increase awareness, you will need to understand your customers. The best way you can do this is by speaking to them, listening to them, and getting feedback from them. They will be able to tell you directly what they know about you, how they found you, how often they come across your brand, how well you stand out in the market, and much more. You can speak to them directly, you can conduct surveys and focus groups, you can reach out to people on social media via chat, posts and polls, and much more. Investing in listening to your customers will provide you with some interesting and valuable insights about your business that you will not be able to obtain anywhere else. Consumers are the people you are serving, so hearing from them firsthand will help you make improvements that will drastically increase your brand awareness. 

#3 Provide quality 

One of the best ways to increase your brand awareness is to be good at what you do and offer high-quality products and services. This will establish trust, and consumers are more likely to shout about your brand, which will increase your reach. With many businesses, there are a variety of options for people to choose from, many of which are of low quality. Low-quality products and services have become the norm, so this is a great opportunity for your business to help consumers get better products. This will help you stand out from the crowd and satisfy customers. When they get consistent quality, you will see your profits and customer base increase. 

#4 Be unique 

Being unique in a market filled with other companies can help you increase your brand awareness tenfold. You should conduct thorough research to ensure that you can create your unique selling proposition (USP) which will help you distinguish your business from others. It doesn’t have to be complicated, you should focus on a single service, benefit, or feature that solves a pain point or problem for consumers that satisfies them in a way that no other company can. 

#5 Be innovative 

You should allocate a portion of your budget to innovative projects. While you should be serving your customers, you should also make sure you are making time to grow your products and services to help you stand out from the crowd. You can do this by making innovation a core value within your structure, and making sure you hire people that hold different values and perspectives. This will help you see the market differently, so you can create something unique. Make sure you encourage collaboration and provide your employees with the space, time, and resources to be innovative. 

#6 Offline marketing 

There are many impactful ways that you can increase your brand awareness using offline marketing. With the world going online, offline marketing still holds a valuable place within society. To utilize this strategy, you can include a variety of marketing methods that speak to your audience. Before you choose where to put your money, make sure you know who your customers are and which marketing methods will be the most effective. You can opt for some custom merchandise from Mato and Hash that you can show off while networking or at an exhibition stand, or you can place an ad in a magazine. 

#7 Digital Marketing 

Digital marketing is going to be one of the most powerful tools that you can use to increase your brand awareness. When you have a good understanding of your customers, you can utilize this information in marketing campaigns online. Some of the best ways to market your business online are to use search engine optimization (SEO), pay-per-click (PPC), public relations (pr), social media, and influencer marketing. 

Increasing brand awareness should be a key strategy that you implement in your business if you want to grow. Follow these top tips to help you get started.