Introduction
Increasing your brand awareness or exposure is a phrase that is often tossed around. But what does it mean, and is it really that important?
As we’ve said before, you don’t get a second chance at creating a good first impression, but that is not what brand awareness or exposure is all about. Statistics don’t lie when it comes to grabbing and keeping your customer’s attention and although you may only have a few seconds to do that, increasing brand awareness or exposure is all about what happens afterwards!
There is one overarching, all-encompassing factor that forms the foundation of any successful brand, and that is consistency. Consistency is key to all aspects of a business, from the quality of its products to customer service or support. And it is crucial for brand awareness.
Brand elements - Consistency is key!!
Think about any of your favourite brands. If their brand identity continually changed, they would be irrecognisable, no matter how incredible their product was. A brand’s colours, fonts, logos, values etc., all form part of the brand identity.
Your brand is made up of essential elements representing who you are and reflecting your brand’s personality. It is how your audience identifies with you. These various elements must be consistent across your customer’s interactions with your brand. It should not make any difference whether they look at your website, read your social media pages, or even receive an invoice or email. Every interaction and element must be consistent. Attention to detail is key, and inconsistencies in your brand can leave you looking unprofessional.
Let’s have a look at the main brand elements:
- Logos, we all know how important a logo is; it is instantly recognisable and probably one of the most important aspects of a brand. Just think of the swoosh for the Nike logo – no one has to type Nike below it to identify the company!
- Tone and voice is all about how your brand sounds and, once again, should be consistent across all your platforms, including all forms of communication. If you are marketing academic books, then having a fun and slightly silly or humorous tone wouldn’t be communicating your brand effectively.
- Colours, a great colour scheme can make all the difference and should be aligned with your brand. For example, if your brand is all about kid’s toys and fun, then a colour palette of blacks and greys is definitely not the ideal choice.
- Fonts are similar to colours, and selecting the right font to represent your brand is key; a playful brand will need a playful font!
- Images should take all the above elements into account.
A consistent brand is crucial to creating a cohesive, professional look and, most importantly, an easily identifiable brand!
Building brand awareness
Building brand awareness takes time. Many businesses make the mistake of focusing the majority of their marketing efforts on their products instead of their brand.
It is all about making your brand recognisable. It is about aligning your brand’s personality with your customer’s wants, needs, and aspirations. It is about building trust and credibility with your customers, but most importantly, it is about creating a relationship with your customer.
People don’t want to deal with faceless brands anymore; you need to humanise your brand and give it a personality. But most importantly, you need to be authentic and keep it real.
Interacting with your customers purely to make a sale isn’t going to help your brand in the long run. It doesn’t matter what industry you are in; competition is fierce, and differentiating yourself is always a challenge. It is no longer just about making a sale; customer service has significantly evolved.
Increasing brand exposure
The only way to increase your brand exposure is by creating an environment where customers want to interact with you. Every potential interaction your customers have with your brand needs to either add value, solve a problem or be fun.
Social media
Creating a relationship with your customers can only be done through connecting with them, and in a digital world, that means social media! Social media has dramatically changed how brands and consumers interact. It’s about connecting, adding value, and even providing entertainment.
Social media is exactly what it says it is – it is social. Think of your social media accounts as people trying to make friends, not someone trying to make a sale. In other words, it needs to be fun. And aggressive selling is not a great strategy. Create visually appealing fun and engaging posts and they don’t always need to be related to your products.
Social media is the ideal platform to create cconversations and you can easily interact with your customers by asking questions, commenting on other brand’s or customer posts and sharing content you like.
According to research, you can’t afford to ignore social media because 50% of a brand’s reputation comes from online sociability. So by simply being social, you are naturally increasing your brand exposure.
Content, content, content!
We know we are repeating ourselves and have said this in previous posts, but content is key. Producing original and engaging content on a consistent (yes, it is the consistent word again!) basis is fundamental to your success.
Content doesn’t just relate to your website pages, product descriptions, etc., creating value-add content is a wonderful strategy to increase your brand exposure. And you need to make it easy for your customers to share your content. This can be done through blog posts or articles, sponsored content, videos, social media posts, product pages – well the options are limitless.
It’s all about having your content shared and reposted, just remember no one shares or reposts boring content!! Make it easy to share and repost your content by including that all-important “share” button – your customers have in effect become your silent marketing partner.
Reviews!
New underestimate the power of a great review!!
Business owners often overlook the power of word-of-mouth marketing, but customers never underestimate the opinions of others, and great reviews can have a meaningful impact on your brand’s exposure.
Reviews and great recommendations pique our interest. It gets us asking important questions, like is this account worth looking at, do they have other products I will be interested in?
This is especially applicable when we see friends or family recommend a product. We are more likely to be interested in the product and, as a result, become aware of the brand.
Extending your reach through advertising
Advertising will always be fundamental to your strategy, and fortunately, with the internet, you can run ad campaigns and promote your brand efficiently and cost-effectively. You don’t need a massive budget to create interest and gain exposure – have a look at our article on marketing budgets for additional help.
Online advertising provides you with the biggest reach, and you can easily take advantage of paid social media and search engine advertising through pay-per-click options. But perhaps the most effective form of advertising are those highly targeted advertising campaigns.
Look at our previous blog posts on Google Ads vs Facebook Ads and how social media advertisements can benefit your business.
Conclusion
Brand awareness is about creating an impact, and your success depends on how you interact with your customers. Your strategy should always be to add value and create a connection before you ask them for money, participation, or loyalty.
Measure and monitor your different strategies so that you can easily and quickly identify what is working and what isn’t. A major advantage of using online analytical tools available on most platforms is that you can immediately change or improve your existing strategy, dependent on the results.
And finally, research is always critical. Keep an eye on trends and what your competition is doing well. You don’t always have to reinvent the wheel; sometimes, just improving on someone else’s concept is all you need! But get creative, keep it fun and engaging and remember … building the relationship first, then the loyalty and sales will follow.
And consistency is key!!!! You need to have defined who your brand is and how you want to be perceived. Then you can ensure that all aspects of your brand are aligned accordingly.
