Ok, so you’ve been measuring brand awareness for some time now and have gotten a good grip on it. The next step is to increase it.
Increasing brand awareness is a tough exercise but one which is worthwhile. Wouldn’t you like to be the Google of your industry (people Google things on the web, they don’t ‘web search’ them)? Become so well-known that people replace generic terms with your brand name instead? We know we can’t wait for the day brand managers will “Latana” brand performance rather than track it.
Unfortunately, we still need to dream for a while. There is no quick fix for an immediate increase in brand awareness. However, there are some things you can do to steadily build it over time. Here are some easy-to-implement strategies that you can use to increase brand awareness.
Ways to Increase Brand Awareness
Focus on customer satisfaction
There are three things you should always set out to do: Put a smile on the face of your customers, exceed their expectations (and know how to set them), and apologize if you make a mistake.
Be honest about how you can help, and if you face customers that don’t understand something about your product/service, take time to explain it to them. They will be grateful and you will have conveyed a great image of yourself, therefore, a better image of your brand.
Remember, that without customers, your business won’t exist. It is not advisable long-term to replace customer satisfaction by making a quick buck. By focusing on customer happiness and satisfaction, customers will start recommending you, and through word of mouth, your brand awareness will increase. The payback for your kindness will be worth it.
Partner with companies that emit trust
There are brands who have worked really hard to get to where they are. Think of any big name like Toyota, Apple, or Nivea. Everyone knows these brands and most find them trustworthy. Why not leverage their strong presence to push your brand out there as well?
If your brand has the opportunity to work with a well-known and trusted brand, take it. Perhaps they might like to subscribe to your service and then you can ask them to share the benefits you provide online? Or why not suggest including each other’s brands in newsletters or marketing campaigns?
How this will help increase your brand awareness is the following: People will start to associate your brand with a known one, and if they find this brand trustworthy, then most likely they will also think the same about yours. For instance, if someone sees your brand in partnership with Apple, that person will feel more at ease buying from you because you are somehow “validated”. The end goal is that when they think of Apple, something in their brain will trigger and think of your brand too. This association will help increase your brand awareness.
Also, big companies have thousands of employees, those are people who are now aware of your brand, and perhaps potential clients of yours. Double win!
Quick tip: if you are about to launch your website and would like to include the logos of the companies you are working with, get their permission first.
Work on your brand strategy immediately
For the new business out there, do not underestimate the power of the brand — it will come back to haunt you. If you do not build your brand, you may be losing potential sales when you reach the brand growth bottleneck. Competitors who are ahead may steal your market share. So, work on your brand strategy.
Here is an example: Let’s imagine there are only two companies in the flight reimbursement category in Germany. Company A has a strong brand presence while Company B relies solely on performance marketing. Suddenly many flights get canceled and passengers begin to search online on how to get reimbursed. Who do they trust to help them get their money back? Company A because they recognise their brand or Company B because of its marketing ads on Google search. Because Company A spent time building a brand, they gained a high level of brand awareness and therefore, won the passengers’ business.
Quick tip: build your performance marketing and brand marketing strategy in tandem.
SEO and brand awareness
Brand awareness doesn’t always lie with the brand team. Your online marketers can be a big help too. SEO is excellent for increasing your brand awareness!
It’s as simple as this: high search engine rankings will be wonders for your brand awareness. Not only will your brand be easier to find, the higher you rank, the more credible your brand will be deemed. Bear in mind, however, that this really is a long-term strategy, especially for those coveted first-page spots. But again, it is worth it.
Using the right keywords in your campaigns is key here. Choose keywords that are relevant for your industry, are good for local search, and fit with your brand. This is what will happen over time: Your target audience will search for a product or service in your business category and will be exposed to your website and brand if it is well-positioned.
Let’s say that your target audience is athletes. These athletes are looking for a running backpack and type “running backpack with water” in the search bar. This is what they find:
Five brands are shown here: Salomon, Ultimate Direction, Kalenji, Adidas, and Asics. These brands are located on reputable websites: Decathlon and Zalando, or local websites: Bergzeit and Keller Sports.
These 4 brands strongly positioned themselves as the “top” brands within the “running backpack with water” category and may capture a big part of the athletes who are close to purchasing the product. See, nobody really scrolls past page one on Google. Plus they trust Google. If they place your brand in the top 10 search results, you have a big chance that your brand will be purchased.
Then, the next time these athletes will look for another running item, there is a higher chance they remember Salomon or Kalenji.
The idea behind this is, do not underestimate the power of search engines and the visibility you get from rich snippets and other media visuals in the search engines (be it Google, or anything with a search bar such as Amazon or an e-commerce website).
Build and sell quality
What is the relationship between quality and brand awareness? Good question. Let’s illustrate this point with an example.
- When we think of good pots, we think of “Le Creuset”.
- When we think of trendy and good-quality headphones, we think of “Marshall”.
- When we think of quality medium-budget watches, we think of “Tissot”.
Those brands are most probably deeply ingrained in the minds of others, too. It is safe to say that this level of brand awareness is not all due to good marketing. Quality also plays a big role.
When your customers know that your quality is solid, they will buy more from you. Plus, they are more likely to recommend you. All-in-all, increasing your brand awareness.
Quick tip: do not spend more on your marketing budget than quality.
Track brand awareness and set goals
Unfortunately, any brand marketers fail at measuring brand metrics. Don’t be one of those brands.
It is primordial that you measure your brand awareness levels, not only at the general/national level but at the target audience level too. And don’t forget to measure the brand awareness of your competitors! Sounds complicated but Latana can provide you with an easy-to-use platform and accurate data that can help.
Of course, just tracking your brand awareness won’t make it grow. However, it will indicate the direction to take. For example, if you see that your brand awareness is at 6%, but your main competitor stands at 12%, you have now a benchmark and a goal to tackle. Plus, with Latana, you can see how your brand awareness sits with different audiences. These insights will create marketing campaigns accordingly.
Quick tip: think wisely about the target audience you want to track, and the competitors you want to keep an eye on. If you keep changing your brand analytics set-up, you will miss out on insightful data changes.
This is, of course, not a complete list. There are dozens of ways to boost brand awareness (both good and bad). However, these points are as good a start as any. Just remember: Don’t depend on quick fixes to increase brand awareness and certainly don’t take paths that will eventually harm you.
Take your time, think long term, and increase brand awareness in the right way with the right people. The benefits will be worth the hard work.
Originally published at https://www.latana.com.
