7 Ways to Boost Brand Awareness

by Emma L. Business consultant

Psst, having troubles raising your brand awareness? Say no more, I’ve got just the thing for you! In fact, I have some seven tips in total, eagerly waiting to boost that brand awareness of yours. After all, a company’s brand is like a mirror of its own business. It portrays the general character of the business, and this is why one must take great care not to paint a bad image of themself, or it’ll take forever to remove the stains. So, without further ado, here’s a list of seven ways to boost your brand awareness as promised.

1. Invest in promotional products

Promotional products are an excellent way of parading your brand name around town, especially when they’re handed out for free to some of your customers as an incentive for their continued loyalty. Just place your brand logo on a calendar, for example, and enjoy the year-long attention. Pens, hats and T-shirts are all great examples of useful merchandise that puts your brand’s name in front of the eyes of your customers as well as the people around them. Just keep one thing in mind, don’t opt for the cheapest products as that will only backfire and reflect poorly on your brand overall.

2. Bread and circuses

Rome had the right idea by building the Colosseum, and even though this might have a somewhat negative connotation nowadays, it’s not necessarily a bad thing. Therefore, use the wide reach of social media to your advantage and host a competition, where the winners get some of your neat products in the form of giveaways. In addition, throwing in a few free promotional products would ensure that everyone’s a winner when it comes to your brand. Also, establishing contact with your customers will show that your brand cares and thus set you apart from your competition. If you just sit in your high castle, the masses will regard you as a greedy corporation instead of the friendly neighbor type.

3. Educate your readers

Content marketing is extremely popular these days, and for a good reason. Not only does it help you with your SEO, but it also helps raise your readers’ brand awareness. It’s a win-win kind of situation where you provide valuable and relevant information to your target audience which in turn helps them solve some particular hiccups they might be having, closely related to your business. For example, Whole Foods posts content in the form of recipes and tips on how to stay healthy. Do the same with your business and give your customers a hand so they return the favor by buying your products.

4. Throw a party they’ll never forget

Perhaps you’ve reached the five-year milestone, or you’ve just announced your one-thousandth customer? Whatever the case may be, they’re all valid reasons for throwing an awesome party. Now’s not the time to be stingy, set up the best sound system out there and provide the best services possible for your consumers’ enjoyment. Hiring only the most illustrious catering companies will make sure everyone knows your brand means business when it comes to throwing parties. You’ll be the talk of the town for weeks to come, and such word-of-mouth marketing will do wonders for your brand.

5. Referral program

If by some miracle your parties haven’t started a word-of-mouth avalanche then you need to cause it directly by rewarding clients who introduce their families and friends to your brand. Set up referral programs to encourage people to be your brand’s ambassadors. Dropbox did this by simply giving their users another 500MBs of data storage for each new individual they have recruited, which significantly boosted their brand’s appeal. Gaming industries do the same thing, for example, the infamous MMORPG World of Warcraft offers unique in-game items as a reward for these referrals which can only be acquired by said recruitment. Seeing how WoW has a few million users, collectors in the thousands will work diligently on recruiting everyone they can to get their hands on these special prizes.

6. Co-Branding

Although at first glance Uber and Spotify don’t have much in common, they’ve joined hands in an effort to increase their respective brand awareness in unison. In other words, they’ve launched a joint campaign where Uber’s clientele can enjoy some of their favorite tunes while they ride towards their desired destination. This is done by creating a “soundtrack for your ride” feature on Spotify which lets you be your own DJ during your ride. Such co-branding campaigns show how effortlessly you can expand your audience base by something as simple as mutual cooperation.

7. Unique to one and only

If you don’t stand out from the crowd in some way, your brand won’t get noticed. This is why your brand needs to have a consistent ‘personality’ which people will associate it with at all times. For example, OldSpice is known for its often crazy and surprisingly witty humor. Wendy’s Burger chain is infamous for its snarky comments and savage comebacks, as seen on social media, whilst Apple has a certain smugness surrounding its products to portray them as vastly superior in quality to their competitors’.

In conclusion, as in life, stay true to your unique character. Entertain and educated your target audience in your own way and they’ll love you for it.