Did you know that consistently presenting a brand on many platforms can increase revenue by up to 23%? This is just one of the benefits your business can get from creating and growing brand awareness. If you have been wondering why your revenue has not been impressive, you should take a closer look at how aware of your brand your customers are. However, increased revenue is not the only advantage of making people aware of your brand; there are many other merits if you master the art.
Many businesses have shut their doors as a result of not understanding how to grow awareness for their brands. They had good products but lacked the know-how of creating consistent awareness for their businesses. That know-how is what this article will teach you. When you finish reading, you will have a good grasp of the whole concept of brand awareness and be ready to implement it in your business.
What is brand awareness?
Brand awareness is an integral part of a marketing campaign, just like market segmentation and established KPIs. Brand awareness involves how customers and prospective ones identify and remember your brand. When a consumer or potential one is aware of your brand, they know what it is about and what to expect. They are familiar with your niche, values and personality.
Let’s use Apple as an example. Apple users and would-be users are familiar with the logo, design and adverts. You’ll see adverts and know they’re Apple adverts even before you see the logo or hear the name. That is brand awareness. You know you’re building awareness for your brand when people can identify marketing elements that are peculiar only to you.
Levels of brand awareness
There are four levels of brand awareness. Understanding them will equip you to grow awareness for your brand.
Zero awareness
At this stage, your prospective customers have no idea who you are. They have never heard of your brand or they’ve heard of it, but it didn’t stick. However, this shouldn’t be cause for alarm. See the bright side and view their minds as fresh, fertile lands where you can plant your brand awareness. Acknowledging this set of prospects helps in building a robust marketing campaign.
Recognition
This is the level where your customers and prospective ones recognize your brand. They can identify your brand’s visual symbols like logo, color, slogan and packaging. Consumers at this level can say a few things about your brand. However, that is where it ends. There is no element of loyalty yet and if you slack in your marketing campaign, they can slip away.
Remembrance
When customers remember your brand without any prompt, they’re at the remembrance level. At this level, your brand name jumps into their mind anytime they need your product or someone else needs it. Your brand becomes synonymous with the category your product belongs to. For example, people say, “Get me a Burger King,” instead of “Get me a burger,” because, in their minds, Burger King is synonymous with a burger. Customer loyalty has kicked in at this stage.
Differentiation
Differentiation is the final level of brand awareness. At this stage, customers become fans and can differentiate between your product and others. When they use a similar product, they immediately note that it’s not the same as yours. This happens quite often to Apple products, with some customers saying they can’t use any other phone or computer. In their minds, no other product comes close. They identify with Apple’s values and causes and will do anything to promote the brand. This is the level to aim at.
5 Ways to grow brand awareness in 2023
After grasping the concept of brand awareness, the next step is to learn ways to start and increase it. Here are time-tested strategies to apply in your marketing campaign to grow awareness for your brand.
Be relatable
When creating awareness for your brand, abstraction doesn’t cut it. People respond to what they can relate to. It doesn’t matter if your product is technical and not what the regular person understands. Find the human angle to it. What problems is it solving? How does it make life better for people? Does it impact the community? Does it protect the environment? Creating a relatable marketing campaign is one of the first steps to take when growing awareness for your brand.
Sell digital products
A digital product is an intangible product sold online. Examples are eBooks, courses, tutorials and guides, podcasts, research and data. A guide to selling digital products online will go a long way in helping you to decide on which products your brand should start selling and how to go about it. Selling digital products helps you reach more people and is a great way of putting your brand out. When people buy your products, your brand registers in their minds and your brand awareness grows.
Invest in SEO
The world has gone digital and even though traditional methods of boosting awareness for a brand still serve their purpose, you must embrace modern approaches. Investing in SEO is a great way to improve your brand awareness. SEO involves optimizing websites and pages so that they rank higher or people see them first in search engines. Use SEO to boost your brand awareness by publishing and optimizing content that will give you higher visibility. Roll out content that talks about your brand, what you offer and how you improve lives. If you are a SaaS company or you sell a digital product, work with a SaaS SEO agency that has a proven track record for success.
Be a guest blogger
Using SEO to boost your website or blog is great but it has limits. To further grow your brand awareness, write as a guest for other blog sites. Being a guest blogger gives you a wider reach and opens you up to new audiences, especially if you’ve been doing location-based marketing. Sharing information about your industry and product on other blog sites establishes you as an authority and increases the awareness of your brand.
Master the art of storytelling
Everyone loves a good story! Little wonder it’s a potent means of communication and highly recommended in copywriting. Stories make your copy interesting and relatable, drawing people to your brand. People’s attention span on the internet is limited but a good story will grab their interest. Learn how to share your brand story, your customers’ experiences, and how your values are changing the world. This approach will stand you out and make your brand more popular.
Benefits of brand awareness for your business
Why all this fuss? Why should you put in all this work to grow awareness for your brand? Here are compelling reasons why you should invest in brand awareness.
It creates trust in the brand
Brand consistency, a characteristic of brand awareness, creates trust for your brand. When people see you’re consistent with your message and branding, they will start to like and trust you. This is a great way to establish a brand relationship with customers and would-be ones.
It increases profits
Eventually, brand awareness leads to more profits. The more people know your brand, remember and differentiate it, the more sales you’ll make. People buy from brands they trust and since trust is one major advantage of brand awareness, profits will definitely increase.
It builds customer loyalty
Remember the example of Apple given earlier? Brand awareness rewards you with customer loyalty and turns your clients into your ambassadors and marketers. They wouldn’t want to use any other product except yours and will go out of their way to promote your brand. Although it takes a lot of work and investment to get to this level, it is well worth the effort.
It helps to expand your business
When people know, like, trust and are loyal to your brand, they will embrace other products from you. If Apple launches a new product today, they won’t have to worry about getting fresh customers. They are assured that their fanatic customers will accept the product, buy it in a frenzy and even recommend it to others. This is one of the most rewarding benefits of brand awareness; it gets to a stage where you won’t have to do so much marketing; your brand has done the most work.
Master the art of brand awareness and see the dividends in your business
A marketing campaign is incomplete without brand awareness. Creating and growing awareness for your brand makes customers and potential ones know, like and trust your brand. Also, brand awareness requires careful strategy as consumers are at different levels of awareness.
Making your brand popular is not a day’s job but it yields a bountiful harvest if well executed. Being relatable, selling digital products, using SEO, becoming a guest blogger and mastering the art of storytelling are some ways to build brand awareness. You stand to gain trust from consumers and prospects, customer loyalty, increased profits and business expansion.
James is the head of marketing at Tamoco
