Brand awareness is vital for ensuring your company remains competitive and visible in the marketplace. People knowing about your brand is the first step to them potentially deciding to purchase from you and eventually becoming a loyal customer. Perhaps you focused on improving brand awareness a while ago, but now you need to update those strategies. Here are five straightforward steps for doing that.
1. Improve Your Company’s Social Media Profiles and Website
Your company’s website and social media profiles set the tone for your brand. They can shape people’s impressions even if they never take the time to speak to representatives from your business. How well does your online presence reflect your brand? When people reach your website, can they learn what the company’s about in a minute or two? Do your social media profiles have engaging content and accurate details about your brand?
Investigate how you could enhance your website and social media profiles while simultaneously promoting your brand. Choosing a unified design or color scheme is an ideal way to show consistency. It also assures people that they came to the right place. Consider the example of a florist with a generic name, such as Beautiful Blooms. Using the same graphics, colors and fonts on all pages gives a visual cue that people found the correct business.
Consider how to appeal to visitors with the kind of information they want to see. Whether you publish how-to guides or videos that show off your manufacturing process specifics, this type of content can increase how long people spend at your site while giving them the impression that you have a trustworthy brand and provide relevant information.
2. Explore How to Spotlight Your Expertise
Spreading the word about your brand often means determining how you can become more visible to the audience without seeming overbearing. When that happens, you’ll enjoy a top-of-mind position among consumers. Sharing what you know could start at your company’s website, particularly if it has a blog.
However, it’s also a good idea to look for outlets in the community that could help you reach new people who may not know to seek out your site. A local newspaper is a good start. Suppose you own a pet shop. In that case, a news outlet might let you write a weekly or monthly column about everything from keeping your animal companion safe and comfortable in cold weather to introducing a new arrival to a household.
You can build your brand awareness through education by offering classes, too. Whether you’re an expert web designer or a long-time fitness instructor, consider virtual and in-person ways to share your knowledge by letting people get directly involved. This approach could effectively empower individuals who felt that certain skills were out of reach for them but changed their minds after getting your high-quality instruction.
3. Invest in Attention-Grabbing Marketing Materials
It’s often challenging to choose which marketing materials to focus on while aiming to increase brand awareness. When a tight budget poses limitations, selecting the options that provide the most impact is a smart move. For example, window clings are temporary or semi-permanent solutions. They use static electricity to stick to glass and other non-porous surfaces. No-mess, easy-to-apply window clings are ideal for raising brand awareness.
If you plan to have a table for your business at a trade show or community fair, consider using vinyl banners and signs. They offer a professional look that’s more eco-conscious than disposable paper. Life-sized cardboard figures are other options that catch attention. You can get creative when using them to increase brand awareness. For example, you might have one feature a smiling employee wearing your company’s uniform.
Giving away freebies like pens, notepads and desk calendars helps strengthen brand awareness, too. That’s particularly true when they feature your business’s contact details and logo. People love getting complimentary goodies. Giveaways in public places arouse interest and could give your company’s representatives chances to strike up conversations with potential customers.
4. Get Involved in Your Community
When people from your business actively participate in the community, you can build your business by creating visibility and helping others. Stay on the lookout for ways to give back and show people you’re committed to supporting the local area. That might mean sponsoring a middle school’s car wash event or encouraging employees to volunteer at a soup kitchen.
It can also pay off to become a chamber of commerce member. Research suggests that people are more likely to see members favorably and do business with them. Membership also has other perks that can stimulate brand awareness, such as access to professional resources, promotional materials and networking events.
Another possibility is to prioritize involvement with certain kinds of community events. Doing that can signal that specific causes are particularly important to you. For example, you might consistently take part in local equality-promoting events. Mentioning that involvement on the About Us part of a website also clarifies your values to readers, which further strengthens brand awareness.
5. Utilize YouTube to Connect With Your Audience
YouTube is an excellent platform for raising brand awareness, and using it doesn’t necessarily have to cost your business money. For example, you could create short, relevant videos that promote your company without paying for formal advertising through the platform. Since YouTube has about 1.9 billion viewers per month, the platform offers huge opportunities to reach your audience.
Consistency is a vital element for increased brand awareness. Even during the early stages of using YouTube, you can make sure the video content aligns with other messaging published throughout the existence of your business. Also, choose a YouTube handle that matches your company’s name, if possible.
Creating a YouTube series is a practical way to boost your channel subscriber numbers. Think about topics you could cover in small chunks, such as processes or tips with multiple steps. Urge people to subscribe at the end of each segment. Give them a teaser of what to expect in the next installment, too. Be sure to pay attention to viewers’ comments. They may shed light on things you should clarify or cover in future episodes.
Brand Awareness Made Simple
Many business owners view increasing brand awareness as a daunting task or even an impossible aim for a company with a small number of staff members who are already stretched thin. However, these five tips show that raising more brand awareness is often more straightforward than you might think. The key is to commit to your chosen strategies so that there’s enough time for them to pay off.
Whether you start by implementing one of these tips or rely on all five to meet your goals, investigate how you could connect metrics to a strategy. For example, you might see improvements in your website’s bounce rate after updating its content. You might also track things like the number of visits to your blog posts or how many email addresses you can add to a database after participating in a community event and interacting with the public.
Keeping tabs on measurable changes makes it easier to stay motivated and notice the positive changes associated with brand awareness. On the other hand, you’ll be more aware of when and why it may be time to tweak your approach for optimal results.
Lexie is a digital nomad and business owner. If she’s not traveling around the country, you can find her baking some chocolate chip cookies or hiking with her goldendoodle. Check out her design blog, Design Roast, and connect with her on Twitter @lexieludesigner.
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