Tips for Increasing Brand Awareness

90% of organizations say that their goal is to increase brand awareness, according to Hootsuite. But why is brand awareness important? I think that’s obvious really. It helps your audience know who you are. They can recall your brand off hand and the more people that can do that, the more revenue you will receive. If your brand is at the top of their mind, they are more likely to buy from you than another. Ok, so it’s definitely important but now how do you go about achieving it? There are many ways but we will start with a quick guide of the ways that we feel are top priority to help get you there.

1.     Optimize your SEO. Find out what are the keywords in your industry. Incorporate these into your website content. If you blog, make sure to include these keywords in there. This will help your content get seen by search engines, such as Google.

2.     Increase your social media presence. Once you have your brand voice it’s important to express it on your social channels. Be consistent with that and posting high-quality content.

3.     Native advertising. This is the kind of advertising you think of when we say advertising. Print ads, billboards, magazines, hosting websites, etc. When you put your brand out there in front of people that are interested in the industry you are in, you’re surely going to get some awareness. These types of ads tend to be less intrusive as well to the consumers so they are received positively.

4.     Run ads on social media sites. This can help reach the audience that you want and help get around algorithms that may otherwise be hurting your views. Video and carousel ads are the top content styles to go with as of now. When you use targeted ads you can quite literally choose every single demographic to reach the right people.

5.     Partner with influencers. This has been quite the hot topic lately as it’s expected to grow exponentially in the coming years not only with B2C but also B2B. This is a great way to create partnerships with someone who has a much larger following than you. Of course, it’s going to cost you. However, typically brands earn an average of $5.78 for every $1 spent, according to the Influencer Marketing Hub.

6.     Referral programs. We’ve said it before and we’ll say it again, people love getting free things. Offer something to your current customers for referring family and friends to you. This will broaden your audience. According to HubSpot, 49% of U.S. consumers say friends and family are their top sources of brand awareness. People are more likely to trust a brand that is recommended by someone that they know.

This guide can help you know how to get started. Once you do, you need to track how your new efforts are going. It will depend on each category how you will track it. For example, if you’re trying to increase your social media presence then you can use the dashboard tools for business on Instagram and Facebook. If you’re tracking SEO than you can use your Google analytics to measure website traffic. You get the idea. It’s important to constantly keep evolving these tactics and trying new things in order to continue to grow and remain successful. Once you find what works, do more of that. If something isn’t working like you had hoped, it’s time to pivot. Remember… a successful leader is an innovator who’s not afraid of change.

Brand Recall

Content is Queen! “Did you know that 65% of people are visual learners and 94% of all communication is visual?” (Vennage). There are many benefits of visual marketing versus pure text as we all now know, but it’s important to make your brand memorable through your visual content advertising. People remember things visually so brand recognition is vitally important. Customers are more likely to remember your brand’s advertisements if they’re associated with something that they can recall easily because it caught their eye in some way. Was it different in some way? Did it make them think and use some brain power? Were they connected on an emotional level? One way to increase brand memorability is to localize your visual content for specific audience areas. For example, in Philadelphia they use the word “Jawn” to describe any person, place or thing. Yes, I know it’s a strange word to describe literally a vast array of anything. Anyway, back to our story… we pass by a billboard every morning for a lawyer named John Morgan. I’m sure you’ve all heard or seen his commercials at some point since he’s America’s largest cliché injury law firm, Morgan & Morgan. On this particular Philly billboard his name is advertised as Jawn Morgan.  This is a prime example of localized advertising at its best and it will make locals remember the brand. The second way is to tell a story. Be sure to have a beginning, a middle and an end. Throw in some emotion and/or humor and stay in your brand’s voice. People love a good story. Especially if it’s one they can relate to. Another fun way to improve the memorability of your ads for your brand is to employ engagement with the viewers. Make them work something out. Use their brains. They’ll eventually have that “aha” moment when the conclusion is realized or given. People tend to remember things more when they have to problem solve. You can use enthymeme’s to achieve this type of recall as well. “Aristotle calls the enthymeme the “body of persuasion ….because we are most easily persuaded when we think that something has been demonstrated” (Aristotle’s Rhetoric). These are only a few ways to improve memorability of your brand and its advertising. It’s interesting to note that if a brand’s advertisement can be remembered after 60 days, “13% of those people are likely to buy the product or service, 38% will think more positively about the brand, and 25% will become ambassadors of the brand, according to a new study done by HAVAS. This goal can be achievable with the right tools and team!