There are some brands, thanks to their long-standing history or valuable products, that practically live in the minds of consumers. It doesn’t take much for the public to recognize a logo, jingle or any other identifiable element associated with the brand. How does this happen? Brand awareness.
According to HubSpot, brand awareness represents how familiar your target audience is with your brand and how well they recognize it. In short, cultivating strong brand awareness is a major priority for many brands.
Interested in learning more about how you can increase your brand awareness, we reached out to Elliot Ledley, Director of Media Relations with Caspian Studios, a podcast-as-a-service (PaaS) provider.
Here are his tips on increasing brand awareness:
Address pain points
While each consumer has their own unique needs, all of them are looking to brands for help addressing their pain points. The brands that are able to do so, will be the ones consumers are paying attention to.
“Ensure that every step of your B2C customer journey leads to a sale or engagement and that any pain points are addressed along the route,” Ledley said.
Ledley’s concrete steps on addressing pain points are as follows:
- If a similar brand is undercutting you with lower prices, rethink your pricing strategy.
- Conduct market research to learn more about how to reach out to potential customers.
- To improve your conversion rate, calibrate your advertising with actionable steps on your site's landing page.
Prioritize brand personality
If you have goals around getting customers to care about your brand, you must first ensure your brand aligns with the type of customers you’re going after.
One way to do this is by prioritizing your brand personality (AKA the characteristics that make up your brand). A brand personality is often determined by these factors:
- In the way they are born (who created them, how, with what materials and with what look and style)
- By intentional brand communications — the personality brands create through advertisements
- By consumers sharing their perceptions: Consumers’ observations on the street of who is using what brand, seeing the brand's ads and celebrities that engage with the brand, brand talk on social media, etc.
- For brands that do not distinguish themselves in one of the above three ways, they also can acquire the personality of being a generic, almost “brand-free” brand: Most supermarkets and general department stores carry this image.
“Your B2C material should be consistent with your overall brand character. When you customize your content marketing to targeted consumers, they're more inclined to spread the word about your products or services to their friends and family,” said Lesley.
Focus on personalization
From the moment a customer opens your app or sees an ad from your brand, you should provide them a personalized experience.
Personalization is the act of creating tailored marketing content that specifically caters to the needs and wants of your audience. Having a good idea of what your customers want (remember those pain points?) and the value you provide can help you give your customers exactly what they want.
“One of the key advantages of B2C marketing is the ability to personalize the customer experience for each and every customer,” said Ledley. “Add a personal touch to your B2C strategy, even if you're using marketing automation software.”
Incentivizing repeat transactions
When you’re looking for ways to increase brand awareness, be sure to show appreciation for the customers who are already aware of your services.
“Retargeting loyal clients is just as important in B2C sales as reaching out to new ones. Make it a top priority to reward your customers for continuing to do business with you,” said Ledley. “Promote a consumer loyalty program with discounts, freebies and other benefits. Offer a monetary incentive for subscribing to a newsletter, and then include additional incentives in your subsequent email marketing to engage and retain clients.”
Increasing brand awareness requires you to have a good grasp on your customers and your brand. What are customers focusing on and how can you provide it? Knowing the answers to these questions will help you better position yourself to be seen and heard by customers.
