There are a few concepts and buzz terms that carry a lot of weight in the world of digital marketing, and one that\’s at or near the top of most such lists is \”brand awareness.\” You\’ll hear this term constantly if you\’re playing a key role in your company\’s marketing efforts – what does it mean, and why is it so important?
At BWP Communications, we\’re proud to offer a wide range of both offline and digital marketing expertise, with services ranging from web design and graphic design to product launches, strategic messaging and more. What exactly are we referring to when we talk about brand awareness, why is it such a vital concept, and what are some simple concepts for helping improve your company\’s brand awareness? Here\’s a deep dive.
What is Brand Awareness, Anyway?
For those new to the term, brand awareness can be defined as a measure of how familiar consumers are with your company\’s offerings. It covers everything from name recognition and logo recall to customer sentiment towards the business and more.
Put simply, brand awareness is about making sure that people know who you are, what products or services you offer, and why your offerings stand out from others. Many marketers consider there to be three basic \”levels\” of brand awareness:
- Name awareness: The simple recognition of your brand name, either through word-of-mouth advertising, print or digital campaigns, or other methods.
- Product/service awareness: When customers are familiar enough with your offerings to recognize what you specialize in, and understand the unique value that you can offer.
- Brand characteristics awareness: Finally, when the public is familiar with more than just your name and offerings. They understand the essence of your brand, the values that drive it, and what sets you apart from the competition.
Why is Brand Awareness So Important?
The importance of brand awareness can\’t be overstated – this metric is closely linked to your company\’s overall success. There are several specific ways in which brand awareness factors into company growth:
- Familiarizing more people with your products: Brand awareness helps to spread the word about your offerings, which can lead to an increase in sales. For instance, if you have an e-commerce business and people are more aware of the products that you offer, they\’re likely to purchase them if they\’re in need.
- Building trust: The more people know about your brand, what it stands for and its commitment to quality, the more likely they\’ll be to trust it. This can create a powerful word-of-mouth effect, as people who have had positive experiences with your business will be more likely to recommend it to their friends and family.
- Increasing customer loyalty: As customers become increasingly familiar with your brand, they\’ll come to form an emotional connection with it – leading them to become loyal customers and advocates.
- Brand equity increases: As a result of the trust and loyalty that come with increased brand awareness, the overall value of your brand increases as well. This makes it easier to draw in investors or acquire customers who are willing to pay a premium for your products and services.
In conclusion, brand awareness is an incredibly important concept for businesses everywhere – one that\’s clearly worth investing in if you want to boost your success. Our next sections will go over how to attain and track brand awareness increases.
How to Improve Brand Awareness
There are a number of different strategies that can help businesses boost their brand awareness. Some involve traditional marketing tactics, while others lean more heavily on the digital side of things – let\’s look at some options for both.
Traditional Marketing: Traditional marketing still has an important role to play when it comes to increasing brand awareness. Tactics like radio and television ads, print materials, billboards, and more can all help to spread the word about your business.
Digital Marketing: Of course, digital marketing is essential for raising brand awareness in today\’s world. Digital campaigns like email marketing, social media promotion, retargeting ads, and search engine optimization (SEO) can all be highly effective for getting your brand name out there.
Giving your brand a voice: A unique way to increase brand awareness is to give your company a voice or an \”identity\” that people can relate to. Through this, customers will be more likely to remember and identify with your business – leading to increased loyalty and trust.
Tracking Brand Awareness
One of the most important aspects of boosting your brand\’s recognition is tracking progress over time. Doing so helps you measure the success of your brand awareness campaigns, and adjust them accordingly if they\’re not delivering the desired results.
Fortunately, there are a number of tools available to help businesses track their brand awareness, including:
- Social media analytics: These provide insights into how people are engaging with your social media posts and how your brand is being perceived.
- Search analytics: These show how often people search for your brand and what kinds of queries they\’re using, so you can see how well you rank for different keywords.
- Website analytics: Website analytics track details about the visitors that come to your website, including their geographical location and other demographic information.
- Surveys: For offline campaigns, you can use surveys to measure customer awareness of your brand. This is especially useful for gauging the effectiveness of print or TV ads.
By taking advantage of the various tracking methods available, businesses can gain a better understanding of how their brand awareness campaigns are working – and make adjustments accordingly if desired.
For more on this, or to learn about any of our marketing agency services, speak to our team at BWP Communications today.