How to Build Brand Awareness Online: A Comprehensive Guide to Building Your Brand Online
Think having amazing products and services is enough in today’s competitive marketplace? Think again. The truth is that when consumers choose certain products and services, it’s not as much about the products and services as it is about something else: the brand they’re associated with.
Need proof? Think Apple, Nike, and Google. Mere mention of these brands evokes certain feelings. And when these feelings are positive, products and services practically sell themselves.
Enter brand awareness.
Wondering what brand awareness is, why it matters, and how to make the most of it? Read on for our comprehensive guide to how to build brand awareness online.
What is Brand Awareness?
“Brand” refers to the way your company, customer service, products, and services are perceived by consumers. It is the lump sum of many aspects—both tangible and intangible—that shape how people see you. As such, your brand identity is one of your company’s most valuable assets.
Brand awareness refers to the degree to which your target audience recognizes your brand. In addition to creating association, brand awareness also showcases your brand’s personality, which further helps consumers bond with you.
Why Does Brand Awareness Matter?
The more familiar your brand is, the more people will trust you. And trust is everything to today’s authenticity-craving consumers. It’s what transforms shoppers into loyal customers, prompting them to return again and again to your brand.
Brand awareness is also what sets you apart from your competitors. What makes a potential customer reach for your products on a shelf over another company’s? Brand awareness. In fact, 77 percent of consumers choose to purchase items based on brand name while 82 percent of investors look for brand recognition.
Brand awareness has other benefits as well. It makes you more credible, which in turn improves consumer confidence. It can also be used to communicate shared values to your target—an important capability given data indicating that nearly two-thirds of global consumers prefer to support purpose-driven companies.
In today’s employee-empowered job market, meanwhile, strong brand awareness can even help you attract talent.
The takeaway is clear for businesses looking to gain an inside edge? Building brand awareness is a must-do.
Tips for Building Brand Awareness
All of which begs the question: How can you build brand awareness for your business? Well, it starts with a brand awareness strategy. A set of marketing tactics designed to help your business communicate its message, connect with its target audience, and promote brand recognition.
1. Harness the power of SEO
If you want your brand to gain exposure online, there’s no better way to do it than with search engine optimization (SEO). SEO drives organic traffic to your website, which provides the seamless experience today’s consumers crave.
By researching keywords and building content around them, you can help your site place high on search engine results pages. This not only gets more clicks but is also a measure of quality assurance. After all, if Google recommends your business, it must be good, right?
2. Run a variety of brand awareness campaigns
From native ads to social media ads, there’s no single-best way to maximize your reach to your target audience. That’s why it’s important to use a mix of methods.
For example, while native advertising is an incredibly effective way to increase brand awareness and attract new customers, social media marketing such as Facebook, Instagram, and LinkedIn ads have other benefits—such as helping you target audiences based on specific preferences and behaviors and circumventing potential search engine algorithm issues that can impede organic and native reach.
3. Create amazing content
From blog posts to videos, content remains king. In addition to helping you leverage SEO, it also allows you to deliver value to your customers. The best content is relevant, engaging, and credible. Its ultimate goal? To deliver satisfying experiences and build trust.
4. Make your content shareable
You’ve put the time into making great content, so why not make sure as many people as possible see it? From social media posts to product pages to infographics, make it easy for your customers to share your content.
This turns your customers into brand ambassadors—an especially powerful technique when you factor in that today’s consumers trust their peers more than sales pitches
5. Be consistent
Consistency of voice is critical to brand building. It helps consumers recognize your brand and what it stands for. Conversely, inconsistency of voice can have the opposite effect.
Consistent and well thought-out marketing messaging delivered consistently gains “mind-share” in the right markets. When a purchasing decision is being made, your company is in the mix.
Your brand voice and message should consistently resonate across all consumer channels.
Branding is a slow, methodical process that takes time and effort but the results pay off!
6. Monitor and measure
While measuring brand awareness can be challenging, there are some metrics that can help you get a better sense of how you’re doing. These include measuring your website traffic, reviewing search volume data, and using social listening tools. Using tools like surveys and net promoter scores to set benchmarks is beneficial.
If you want to leverage the full impact of the brand you’re working hard to build, brand awareness cannot be an afterthought. Unfortunately, many businesses are so caught up in more “ROI based” tactics that they overlook the critical question of how to build brand awareness online.
That’s where X-Factor Web Marketing comes in.
As specialists in all things digital marketing, we can build your firm’s brand awareness. Allow us to focus on what we do best so you can focus on what you do best.
