Your brand is simply an identifying mark; could be a name, symbol, slogan, or other feature that distinguishes you and your products from rivals in the eyes of the customer.
True, they say competition is super good for business isn’t it? But how can you make your business, products and services the most desired from a customers stand point? You need brand awareness.
Brand awareness is defined as the ability to make your target audience and potential customers remember that a special product belongs to a brand.
It is simply making the invisible visible; putting your business, product or services in front of your target audience and customers at all time and making them choose you over your competitors.
Also Read: Creating brand identity for your small business
Gone are the good old days where direct marketing via cold calling and post cards are used to inform customers of newly released products and services but interestingly today, awareness for your brand online is the most efficient and cost effective way to make your brand known.
How to Boost Online Awareness of Your Brand
It goes without saying that without effective brand awareness, your business will get buried by the competition, especially if you’re a small company or just starting out.
However, it all starts with having a great business idea that will pull people to check out your business, products and services.
I can go on and on to talk about why you need to boost online awareness for your brand. For example our smart phones are the new TV in this digital age which means you just have to get to your target audience online.
Instead of talking about more reasons; I’ve got for you 5 super practicable ways to boost online awareness of your brand. Ready?
Create Your Brand Identity
Like I said, your brand is a mark and could be a symbol, a name, etc. Your business name and logo are the first things that people recognize, these two communicates what your brand is all about.
Choosing a great business name shouldn’t be a problem, you can find business name ideas. Just type in two keywords associated with your business or industry and you’ll see thousands of name ideas generated for you.
Your business name and brand logo is used to tell your story. Customers and potential customers are always interested in the story of a business; the team behind the brand and more. So, let your business name and logo add to helping you achieve that.
Also Read: What color should your brand logo be?
Use Social Media The Right Way
The world is online, and so are your potential customers. Many people make the mistake of running too many social media platforms at a time.
Each social media platform has a great impact in exposing your brand depending on what you do in your business. You have to build your social media fan base, engage them with useful tips, ask questions and more.
You can also use social media to demonstrate how your product/services works, and through this, you can make your story known.
But always make your call to action specific. In other words, ask exactly what you want on your platform (e.g Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, etc.) If it’s likes, shares, retweets or comments you want, encourage your fans to do just that.
Also Read: How to use storytelling to increase nonprofit membership
Online Contests and Giveaways
Hmm, who doesn’t like free stuffs? People love to win something for nothing. You can set up the contest so that for each share, your fans will receive a bonus entry in the contest.
I’ve tried this over and over again and it works like magic on Facebook. Well organized giveaways online increase your fan base as it helps you get more people to know about your brand.
You’ll definitely get tons of messages in your inbox from people asking what your brand is all about, and this is a perfect opportunity to give it to them at that very point that they’re ready to hear what you have to say.
Create Quality Helpful Blog Contents and Optimize for Search Engines
Not quite long, I’ve wrote about why having a website for your business is your greatest insurance. Come to think about it; a real business without a website or blog in this age?
You can increase your brand awareness online via your blog. Your blog can serve as a source of helpful tips for your customers and potential customers.
To help you get huge exposure, you need to optimize your contents for search engines. This starts with crafting a reasonable topic around a focus keyword.
Once an individual searches for anything related to your keyword, you automatically pop up in search engine results; meaning more traffic to your blog and more exposure for your brand.
Influencer Marketing
Influencer marketing is hot cake today, as many startups turn to social media influencers to mention their brand, use a product or service and recommend to their huge fan base either of Instagram, Twitter or YouTube.
Instagram and Youtube are the best when it comes to targeting brand influencers. Billions of videos are played everyday on both platforms and the craze to get huge following keeps rising. This method comes with a price though; either in cash or in kind but it is really worth it.
There are definitely other ways to boost online awareness for your brand and these include advertising and re-marketing, publishing and ebook and promoting, guest posting, using webinars to gain traction and more.
Also Read: 61 profitable small business opportunities in Nigeria
Found this helpful? Let me know what you think in the comment box below.