We are all aware of brands like Apple, Nike, Adidas, Lotto, Pepsi, Mercedes, Audi and Toyota. But why is brand awareness so important for local businesses to understand?
Brand awareness measures how familiar a consumer is with your brand. This encompasses their ability to recognise your brand’s name, logo and overall look—for example, you can probably automatically envision all of these things for a brand like McDonald's. It is also important to understand it is how people feel about your brand.
Also, it is important to remember that brand visibility and awareness are not necessarily the same thing. In order to truly embed your brand into the consumer’s psyche, they must be able to connect your brand name and logo with the specific products you sell, your point of difference and your brand values or personality.
Ideally, people don’t just become regular customers for your business they also become advocates.
Brand Awareness is also important as let’s say someone’s washing machine breaks. If they start Googling replacements and come across a brand they’re familiar with, they’re far more likely to go for that one over the competitors. For many consumers, they need to have encountered a product or service many times before they achieve that level of brand association. This is why marketing your brand persistently and consistently is so, so important. Also, this is why marketing people exist.
Strong brand awareness can mean the difference between a casual browser leaving your website or store or them making a purchase. Sure, the content and look of your website/store are extremely important. But if you already have that strong foundation of brand awareness and trust in place, they’re far more likely to spend money or schedule an appointment.
Increasing brand awareness needs to be a multi-pronged approach. Firstly, you must have the foundations of your brand down pat, like a memorable brand name, visually-appealing logo and a polished and functional website or well-presented store. Without these in place, you’re unlikely to make a good first impression on a consumer, let alone an enduring one. Secondly, you must run marketing, advertising or social media campaigns to get your brand in front of the right people. Because as nice as it would be, it’s not as simple as ‘if you build it, they will come. Thirdly and for me most importantly you must provide great products and services as this maybe be the making or breaking of your brand especially for businesses in smaller towns - nothing travels faster than the voices of the people you disappoint.
Here are some of our top tips for increasing brand awareness.
Find a unique selling proposition - Many of us are so overexposed to advertising that we go into autopilot mode and don’t really take it in. That’s why it’s so important that your brand stands out against the crowd—whether that’s through a unique visual ‘look’, the use of humour or innovative ad campaigns.
Be consistent - As a consumer usually needs to engage with your brand a few times before you’re on their radar, consistency is important. After all, if you’re showing up as a dark and moody brand one minute and fun and bubbly the next, it’s just going to confuse your audience and dilute your brand impression.
Use emotion - Ever heard the expression ‘People may forget what you said, but they’ll never forget how you made them feel?’ This rings true when it comes to brand marketing. Whether it’s making them feel sad, hopeful, inspired or angry, evoking emotion is an excellent way to get your audience to take notice and often, engage.
Make it targeted - When you make your consumer feel like ‘this is for me’, they’re more likely to really see your brand. This is why it’s so crucial to tailor your advertising efforts to your target demographic. Platforms like Facebook, Instagram and Google Adwords make it easy to target your audience down to their age, location, interests, marital status and more. But it’s also important to make sure the content is well-targeted, including the tone of voice, images and brand colours you use in them.
How do you measure brand awareness?
While brand awareness is one of the most important metrics in marketing, it’s also traditionally been one of the hardest to measure. Take, for example, ads on a bus. It would be challenging to gauge exactly how many people actually paid attention to or took action from these as they drive past. When it comes to digital advertising, it becomes a little easier. Most platforms provide you with analytics but I also recommend you make it a habit to ask customers where they found out about you.
Why views are so important.
One thing many business owners fail to understand is the importance of getting your brand out to your target audience. Don’t judge your advertising results until you have some understanding on how well it is really doing and in terms of social media that is much easier, You can see how many people you are reaching and generally see what sort of engagement your posts are getting. The better these stats are performing the more likely you are on the right track.
I hope you found this information useful.
Tony
Tony Cutting
Personal Coach/Digital Marketing
m 021 911 722
e hello@tonycuttingdigital.co.nz
