Everyday, it seems like there is a new shtick or gimmick to get more people to subscribe or buy a product. But why do some campaigns fall short? Before you prepare to drop a lot of money, consider starting with a grass roots approach. Introducing: Brand awareness! This inbound marketing-adjacent tactic bolsters a brand’s customer journey and improves top-of-mind awareness.
So, What Is Brand Awareness?
Oxford Dictionary defines brand awareness as “the extent to which consumers are familiar with the distinctive qualities or image of a particular brand of goods or services.” Essentially, in layman’s terms, it’s how someone personifies or identifies with a brand.
Why Is Brand Awareness Important?
The ability to instantly recognize a brand is a critical (albeit often overlooked) part of marketing. Take a second to think about the brands you know. Massive companies — like Starbucks, Target, and Walmart — have a strong foothold in the public consciousness. That’s because these brands have realized the power of familiarity.
Consumers trust what they know, and building brand awareness directly correlates to increased loyalty. To put things more bluntly, good brand awareness promotes increased conversions, trust, and overall business success.
Track Brand Recognition With Metrics
To understand if your brand-recognition strategy is working, you’ll need to track it. But establishing KPIs or metrics may not be intuitive when addressing subjective opinion. While high-level technology is available, such as sentiment analysis in Google analytics, there are free ways to measure.
One of the original ways to measure “customer acceptance” is the good old fashioned way:
- Customer Feedback: Your reviews tell you how customers feel about your brand.
- Reach: This metric reflects how many people have seen your brand.
- Referral Traffic: Both SEO and referral program traffic increase brand awareness. This metric is particularly effective for discovering keywords, too.
- Web Traffic: Both direct traffic (going directly to a website) and referral program hits reflect how people interact with your brand.
However, you can apply boots on the ground strategies to gather feedback directly. This can be by sending out surveys or looking through social media mentions (aka social listening).
These Things Take Time
Like everything else in marketing — regardless of if you’re a large or small business — you must start with a clear goal. Every brand awareness campaign should have a clear end, and patience to go along with it.
Some basic goals to keep in mind when starting a brand-recognition campaign are:
- Getting more web visitors
- Increasing marketing list subscribers
- Establishing brand familiarity
- Gathering more user feedback
- Improving certain KPIs
- Pushing new social media posts
- Stating the brand’s values
Don’t Forget the Basics
Ready to make sure consumers recognize your brand nationwide, or even worldwide?
A solid email and content marketing strategy is a great way to build a brand identity, which we have covered before. But if you are still feeling lost – it’s time to enlist some pros. We’re just a phone call away, and your consultation is free. And, while you’re waiting for your first brand-boosting meeting, don’t be afraid to check out the rest of our blog posts.