Seven brand awareness strategies that really allow your brand’s purpose and message to connect with your right people.
Brand awareness is all about getting your business in front of more people. What often gets overlooked, though, is that there’s a difference between getting in front of a large quantity of people and getting in front of your right people.
As a purpose-driven business, I know you want to do more good work and connect with more of your right audience.
And I believe that in order to make those connections, to increase your impact, to do more of your good work, your brand awareness needs to be intentional and strategic.
Yes, you can hire an influencer to help sell your product, program or service, or give away free swag at an event or tradeshow, or run a social media contest or giveaway. There’s nothing wrong with any of those options. I’m sure they work and can work really well.
But.
But getting in front of a large amount of people doesn’t necessarily mean they’re your right people. That they’re the ones who will connect with your purpose and values, and become those raving fans.
Now, there is no guarantee in marketing and building brand awareness. But, I would argue that there are ways you can stack the deck in your favor, which is exactly what we’re going to walk through – seven ways to increase your brand awareness so that you can
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In This Article
>> What is brand awareness?
>> Why does brand awareness matter?
>> Brand strategy and brand awareness
>> Seven ways to increase brand awareness
>> Rather watch than read?
>> Additional brand resources.
What is brand awareness?
Awareness happens during phase one of the customer journey (the awareness and attraction stage) and is when someone moves from not knowing that your brand exists to having an initial experience with it. Think about awareness as the first few interactions someone has with your business; they’ve entered your sphere of influence but haven’t moved in entirely (that’s phase two!).
As a quick reminder, the customer journey is how someone moves through your business. Here at WCO, we take a four-step approach to that journey and it includes awareness (step one), buy-in (step two), purchase (step three) and retention (step four).
Why does brand awareness matter?
In the most simplistic terms, people can’t buy from you if they don’t know you exist. Because brand awareness is all about getting someone to become aware that you’re in existence, the very nature of it increases the likelihood that someone may move through the other stages of your customer journey.
When we think about the goal of our brand, to build trust and connection with a person, awareness is the first step towards that goal.
Because again, they can’t trust or connect with you if they don’t know you exist.
At this point, you may be thinking, “Well this sounds like a numbers game, so why not just get myself out in front of anyone and everyone?”
Yes, that’s true. But the idea of being intentional about your brand awareness efforts is that you’re getting in front of more of your right people so you can increase your odds of that connection and trust. Quantity is nice but again, if it’s all the wrong audience, it won’t do much for your business.
Brand strategy and effective brand awareness
Before we touch on the seven ideas, it’s worth noting that effective brand awareness cannot happen if you’re not clear on what your brand’s communication plan is, your brand’s strategy.
If you aren’t sure who you’re for, what you’re offering or why it matters, it will be extra challenging to find the right communities, audiences and markets to show up in.
Think about it from the audience member’s perspective.
The awareness phase is about getting someone into your sphere of influence and if you’re unclear about who you are serving or what you have to offer or why they should give a shit in the first place, you’re not giving them a good enough reason to stick around.
When someone is just learning about you, your main goal is to pique their interest so they want to engage further. By driving curiosity, you’re motivating them to learn a little more about you and your brand. Curiosity happens when you are clear about what you do, who you’re for and why it matters. If someone is confused, they have to work harder to understand the answers to those questions and more often than not, they’ll just turn away or scroll past to the next post.
Seven ideas for effective brand awareness building
No. 01. Know your values and find communities that align with them
When you lead with values, you allow other people to build a strong and emotional connection with your business. The goal would be to get crystal clear on the 3-5 values that you stand for as a brand and then use them as a filter to find good-fit communities that stand for the same or similar things.
No. 02. Show up consistently
I’ve talked about this before in the consistent marketing vs consistent branding post but the idea here is that you show up consistently in quantity AND quality. Because sharing and showing up for your business doesn’t work well when it’s a half-assed effort. Meaning, if you haphazardly post here and there, you’re not doing much for effective awareness building. So, decide on a manageable schedule for showing up for your business and then stick to it.
No. 03. Optimize your digital presence for search engines
There is so much opportunity for getting found on search. Whether that’s Google, YouTube or Pinterest, aligned potential clients are out there looking for what you have to offer. Your job is to get found, not for the market to find you. Intentionally think through the types of questions that your ideal client would be searching for and then create content that answers those questions and can be found via search.
No. 04. Borrow someone else’s audience through guesting on a blog, podcast or video series
Why not lean into someone else’s audience because they’ve already done the leg work of creating a community that trusts them. All you have to do is show up and provide value. There are so many ways to utilize an already-curated audience. Your goal is to find businesses that align with your values and serve similar audiences, and then share your expertise.
No. 05. Referral programs for past clients and customers
If you’re already attracting your right people, tap into their network. Like attracts like, so offer some kind of referral program so they’re incentivized to share about what you have to offer. This could be an affiliate program where they get a percentage kickback, a discount on future services or a gift card to their favorite store. The goal is to utilize the networks of people you’ve already worked with and provided a great experience for.
No. 06. Strategic partnerships with aligned business owners
This is all about aligning with businesses that support similar audiences and either set up a referral relationship, collaborate on an offering or add each other’s services to an existing offer. The idea is that you get on their radar and together, you can serve your clients even better.
No. 07. Participate in aligned networking groups
Similar to joining relevant communities, networking groups are another great way to increase brand awareness with your right audience. You can get specific and intentional about the groups you join to ensure you’re maximizing intentional brand awareness building.
And with that, happy branding 🙂
All my best,
Need additional branding resources?
Learn why brand consistency is the key to effective marketing and how to get your brand there.
Learn the five steps on how to map your customer journey so you can better communicate with the right people at the right time.
Walk through the four phases of the customer journey so that you can create a consistent brand experience tailored to your customer.
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