What is Brand Awareness and How to Improve it

Looking to improve your brand awareness? Now is the perfect time to get started! As competition increases amongst brands for the attention of the same customers, you need to look for innovative ways to get your product or service in front of your target audience. 

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That’s why we have put together this comprehensive list to help you improve your brand awareness. Whether you are a new business or an old one looking to grow, this guide will help you get started. 

What is brand awareness?

Brand awareness is a concept that represents how familiar your target audience is with your brand. That is, how well do the people you want to sell to recognize your business? Do they know your logo, mission, value proposition, and brand voice?

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Businesses that have a high brand awareness are usually referred to as ‘popular’. Whether you are a new business or an existing one, improving your brand awareness is critical for promoting your brand, as well as its products or services. 

How to improve brand awareness

We have seen the definition of brand awareness. Let’s now look at the strategies you can use to improve it. 

Guest post on reputable websites in your niche

Guest posting on reputable websites in your niche or industry is one of the most cost-effective ways to increase your brand exposure and awareness to a larger audience. The website’s audience and potential customers who haven’t heard of your brand will get to learn about you. You also get to build your brand authority and credibility in your industry while driving more traffic to your website and landing page.

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Here are a few tips when guest posting:

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• Set specific goals: Even though you are guest posting to increase your brand’s awareness, you need specific goals that you want to achieve. Examples of goals you can set include getting referral traffic, getting leads from these guest posts, or improving your SEO performance. For example, getting backlinks from your guest posts can increase your visibility in the SERPs.
• Find reputable sites to post to: There are a couple of ways you can discover guest blogging opportunities. You can use advanced search operators like “intext:submit a guest post”. Look at the websites your competitors guest post to. Check out curated lists of websites that accept guest posts. And finally, run a Google reverse image search of popular guest bloggers in your niche to find out the sites they are posting to. 
• Choose topics that will help you reach your business goals: For example, if you are a SaaS business that wants to sell more of its project management software, you can write guest posts that educate your target audience on how they can manage their projects. At the end of the article, you can then promote your software.

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Most websites that accept guest posts will have guidelines. Ensure you follow the guidelines to increase the chances of them publishing your post.

Start a referral program

Running referral programs is a good way to improve your brand awareness while acquiring new clients. With referral marketing, you can leverage word of mouth from your current customers to get new leads and improve your overall brand image. It also allows you to strengthen customer loyalty as you reward them for the prospects they refer to you. The key thing is to choose incentives that your customers will find enticing enough to want to join your referral program. The incentives should also tie to your business.  For example, store credit, free products, or account upgrades.

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You should also note that referral marketing is one of the most effective forms of marketing available to brands as studies show that 86% of customers say they trust it. 92 percent of customers are also more likely to purchase from a brand after it’s been recommended by a family or friend. So if you haven’t created a referral program for your brand, you are missing out on opportunities to reach new customers.

Be active on social media

One benefit that social media offers brands that traditional media does not is that allows businesses to get in front of a lot of people more quickly. It makes it easy to spread the word about your brand, product, and value proposition. 

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But even with how effective social media marketing is, nearly 40 percent of businesses have no social media marketing strategy. 16% of businesses even say they are unlikely to use social media for their business. If you belong to any of these groups, you need to become more active and consistent on social media. They are over 4 billion people using social media globally, so your target audience is definitely on social media platforms. It makes sense then for you to spend more time connecting with these audiences on the platforms they are most active on. 

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A report from GlobalWebIndex even shows that 54% of people browsing on social media use it to research products they want to purchase. So being active on social media won’t just help you increase brand awareness but can help you get more sales.

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Check out these resources that will help you build successful social media strategies.

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• How to create an effective Twitter marketing strategy
• 8 ways to increase Instagram engagement
• How to use LinkedIn to get new clients
• Step-by-step guide to using TikTok as a brand

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To run successful social media campaigns, you will need a social media management tool like Iconosquare. 

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Iconosquare allows you to manage social profiles for multiple networks all in one place. You will be able to schedule content in advance, collaborate with team members, and run in-depth analytics  for Instagram, Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, and TikTok to see if your social media marketing strategies are working. Try Iconosquare for free. 

Have a brand voice

Your brand voice represents the personality of your company. Creating and maintaining your brand voice and identity is one of the most effective ways to boost brand awareness. For example, a brand like Dollar Shave Club is known for being funny and witty on social media. They have a lot of banter with their audience, especially on Twitter, and receive a lot of impressions and engagement as a result.

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An example of how Dollar Shave Club uses its unique brand voice was in a video ad promoting its shaving blades. They shared a comical video titled “Our Blades Are F**king Great”. Within the first 48 hours, 12,000 people had signed up for the service.

DollarShaveClub.com - Our Blades Are F***ing Great

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Having a unique voice allows you to leave a lasting impression on your audience and connect with them on a personal level. They will also be more likely to remember your brand and share your content when you have a unique voice or create unique marketing campaigns.

Collaborate with other brands

Collaborating with other brands is an effective way to increase your brand reach and recognition. When you partner with complementary brands in your niche (brands whose customers can also use your product or service), their customers also get to know about your business. This strategy is also one way smaller brands can get more people to learn about their business offerings.

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There are several examples of brand collaborations that have generated a lot of brand awareness and coverage. Examples are the Nike/Apple collaboration and the Uber/Spotify collaboration.

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Nike X Apple

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To promote their new watch, Apple added a New Nike face and Strap to their Apple Watches. Watch owners could also use the Nike Run Club app on the watch while on their run. 

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Uber X Spotify

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Uber partnered with Spotify to allow its users to able to play music from the Uber app. Users can even create a playlist that automatically plays when the driver starts the trip.

Run advertising campaigns

Running advertisements is the quickest way to get more people to learn about your brand, product, or service. Even though advertising is more expensive than most of the strategies in this list, it is a surefire fire way to improve brand awareness when done right.

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The best part is they are many channels you can run advertisements on. You can either use search and display ads on search engines like Google or Bing, social media ads on platforms like Facebook or Instagram or run ads on traditional media like TV and Billboards. 

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No matter the channel you decide to use, it's important that you follow best practices. Let’s take a look at a few you should note. 

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Best practices when advertising on search engines

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• Choose the right keywords for your product and brand. It's important that you use the phrases your target audience will be searching for. For example, if you sell cars in Paris, you can target keyword terms like “used cars in Paris”.
• Also pay attention to long tail keywords. Even though they have low search volume, they usually have a higher click-through rate because those who searched for it have a stronger search and purchase intent. 
• Use geo-targeting. This allows your ad to be shown to potential customers that are close to your location.
• Fine-tune your ad copy. Make sure your ad messaging is straightforward and concise. Also, add a CTA to encourage viewers to take action.

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Best practices when advertising on social media

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• Choose the platforms your target audience spends most of their time on. Do this by looking at the audience demographic of the social network. If your target demographic spends time there, develop a social media advertising strategy for the platform. 
• Use high-quality visuals in your post to boost your ad engagement.
• Use a captivating CTA in ad copy to encourage viewers to click and visit the landing page you are promoting. 
• Use user-generated content in your ads. Using UGC in your ads can help you increase your conversions. For example, UGC-based ads have 5 times higher click-through rates and 50% lower cost-per-click than the average ad. 

Partner with influencers 

Influencer marketing has become a popular tactic by brands looking to increase their brand reach and exposure. 

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The key thing when partnering with influencers is working with the ones whose followers will be interested in your brand's product and service. Do not just collaborate with an influencer because they have a lot of followers. You will get more return on investment working with a relevant micro-influencer that has 10k to 100k followers than working with a major influencer with over 500k followers but not relevant in your niche or industry. 

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The audience you are targeting also trusts micro-influencers more. Studies show that 92 percent of customers trust micro-influencers more than celebs and traditional ads. 82 percent of customers even say that they are more likely to buy a product recommended by micro-influencers. Learn how to increase awareness and drive more sales with influencer marketing. 

Create shareable content

One of the best ways to get people to notice your brand is by creating content that can be shared on social media. If you create interesting and valuable content, more people will share it. And the more people that share your content, the more impressions your brand gets. 

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Here are some examples of shareable content brands can create: 

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• Infographics: Infographics are a colorful and interesting way to show data and statistics. They are a great tool for educating your audience and brand building. Using infographics can also help you increase your website traffic by 12 percent. 
• Short-form videos:  Research found that 66% of consumers find short-form video content more engaging than any other type of social media content. And since short videos are brief and easy to digest while on the go, they are also more shareable. 
• Memes: When used correctly, memes can help your brand get more exposure. The main thing is for the meme to be funny and relatable.
• Heartwarming stories: People love stories that feel good and will want to share them with others. You can share stories that encourage others or about charitable work you have done.
• Interactive content: This is any material that passes its message by encouraging viewer participation. The viewer will not just consume the content but will also engage with it. You can create interactive quizzes, videos, ebooks, infographics, and calculators.

Host social media contests

Social media contests are perfect for building awareness for your brand. As part of the rules of your contests, ask participants to share them with their friends and followers. The more people that share, the more exposure your brand gets. You can even partner with relevant influencers to promote the contests. 

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The key to running a successful contest is to choose prizes that will not just entice people to participate, but will also attract your target audience. For instance, an iPhone might be an enticing gift, but it will attract all kinds of people. People that will most likely not interact with your brand again after the contest ends.

Try out offline marketing strategies

While digital strategies are very effective, certain traditional offline marketing strategies can still help you boost awareness and brand recognition. Here are some offline strategies you can try out: 

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• Business cards: They are very effective for boosting the publicity of your business. You can hand them out at events, community centers, libraries, etc.
• Pamphlets and flyers: Use printed marketing material especially if you want to increase the visibility of a brand in your local area.
• Community engagement: More people will learn about your brand when employees of your business participate in community service and do volunteer work.
• Trade shows: Attending trade shows is a good way to get exposure for your business. Make sure you attend these shows with your business cards, pamphlets, and flyers. 
• Speaking engagements: Doing this puts you and your brand in front of a target audience that already is primed and interested in what you have to say. 

Sponsor events

If you have the budget, sponsoring events is another effective way to get your business in front of hundreds to thousands of people. From banners, water bottles, to t-shirts, you can get your brand logo and colors everywhere. 

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And if you host professional events, you will be meeting highly qualified prospects who are looking for brands they can work with. Some brands have even cemented their brand name in industries by hosting events. A good example is Red Bull.

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Even though Red Bull is an energy drink company, they are much more than that now. The brand name is now synonymous with extreme sporting events like motocross, cliff diving, moto gp, and skiing. So when people think of extreme sports, they now remember Red Bull. 

Host or join a podcast

According to a 4000 people survey, a lot of people listen to podcasts – with 90 percent of them listening at home and 64 percent of them listening in their cars. With this many people listening to podcasts, hosting or joining one is an effective way to get a lot of people to learn about your business. 

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And not only will podcasts help you boost brand awareness, but you will also be able to build authority and trust as you educate, inform, and entertain your audience. 

Build an SEM strategy

Search engine marketing or SEM is the paid and organic search strategies brands use to increase their traffic and visibility on search engines. So, SEM will include both paid and organic search engine optimization. 

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Earlier in the article, we have already seen some best practices for paid search advertising. Let's look at some of the best practices for organic SEO. These tips help you get the full benefits of running SEM campaigns.

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• Optimize your title tags: Use focus and secondary keywords that your audience will be searching for in your title tags. You can also include your brand name to help increase brand awareness.
• Optimize your meta descriptions: Ensure that you include your focus keywords in the description. The meta copy should also be descriptive – let the reader know in a sentence or two what the article is about. 
• Use the focus keywords in your URL 
• Run internal page linking: Internal linking helps Google to better index and understand all the pages on your website. Internal linking can also build your page authority which is one of the factors Google uses to rank websites in search engine result pages (SERPs). The higher your Page Rank, the higher the chances of your website pages ranking high in the SERPs
• Use heading tags: Breaking up your content into headings and subheadings helps them be more digestible by search engine algorithms and readers. 

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These SEO on-page strategies will help you satisfy search algorithms and also provide a good user experience for your website visitors.

Regularly measure brand awareness metrics

Without tracking your efforts, you will not be able to identify which of your strategies work. Here are some metrics you can track that will give you an overall view of your brand’s awareness. 

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• Share of voice: Share of voice (SOV) is a metric that allows you to measure the percentage of conversation about your brand relative to your competitors. To calculate SOV,  take the number of your brand mentions, divide it by the total number of any brand mentions in the market, and then multiply the result by 100.
• Direct traffic: This metric shows you the number of people that use your website URL to directly visit your site without having clicked on a link on another website. An increase in your direct traffic shows that your awareness strategies are working and people are intentionally visiting your website. 
• Branded search volume: This metric lets you know the number of people that are searching for your brand by name. 
• Blog traffic: Dive in to see where most of your blog traffic is coming from. Is it from the SERPs, referrals from guest posts, or traffic from social media clicks? This metric helps you identify the areas you can improve. 
• Social shares and engagement: This metric tracks how many likes, retweets, shares, and comments your content gets on social media. When you know which type of content gets the most love from your audience, you can create more of that for more positive results. 
• Total followers: An increase in follower count will mean that more people are learning about brands and that they love what they see in your profile – enough to decide to follow your brand.  
• Brand mentions: This metric allows you to track all the buzz and mentions of your brand. With a social listening tool, you can track all of your brand mentions. 

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You can use Iconosquare's social listening tool to monitor your brand, your competitors, and the latest marketing trends to find out where you stand in your industry. 

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And with that, we wrap up this extensive list detailing how to improve brand awareness in 2023 and beyond. 

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