ARE YOU DOING ENOUGH TO BOOST BRAND AWARENESS?

by Liz Seyi Digital marketing manager

Boost brand awareness. It’s easy to say, but what exactly is ‘brand awareness’? You might think that you already know well enough what brand awareness is. It’s a measure of how aware your target audience (or even the wider public) is of your brand.

However, it’s important to unpack that a little more, if you are to fully understand what brand awareness is, and its crucial role in your organisation’s prospects.

Essentially, brand awareness is about customers knowing your name and brand, but it goes further than simply brand recognition.

You might recognise Nike’s brand, for example, by its famous swoosh mark. But when you think of Nike, do specific brand values or even details of their products come to mind? If so, that’s brand awareness.

Brand association really matters

The process of determining brand awareness, then, could be likened to a word association game. When you hear the names of certain brands, you might be immediately put in mind that they’re about ‘cheap and cheerful’ fast food – or perhaps something much more formal and prestigious.

Every powerful brand has certain defining characteristics that customers are frequently able to recall straight away. And when a customer does associate your brand with certain values or products, they’re likelier to consider your brand as a strong representative of those values or products.

It’s a bit like the difference between buying a new TV from a close friend and from a store or person you’re unfamiliar with. Assuming the TV you’d buy would be exactly the same from both sources, you’d probably choose to buy from your friend rather than from the unfamiliar source.

How can you boost brand awareness?

Different brands naturally have different ways of building brand awareness, although certain methods are well-proven. You might look to establish partnerships with other brands that are in line with your products and values – taking the form of sponsoring events, for instance. Or you may like the idea of emblazoning your company vehicles with your logo, name and business information.

Other methods might be slightly less expected, but nonetheless demonstrated, to work well for some organisations’ brand awareness efforts. These include such examples as starting a podcast or giving away a portion of your products or services for free – the latter known as a ‘freemium’ approach.

Then, there are the specialist areas of expertise of our own online digital marketing experts here at PENNInk Productions, including branding, graphic design, website design and search engine optimisation (SEO). Yes, excelling in these areas can all help build brand awareness, too.

Of course, it’s important when devising a strategy for boosting brand awareness that you get such aspects as your logo and tone of voice right. However, ensuring your site ranks strongly in the Google rankings for relevant search terms is no less crucial.

For a more detailed discussion about how the knowhow, experience and solutions of our online digital marketing experts could help your organisation to generate greater brand awareness – and more besides – in 2021, simply get in touch with us today via phone or email.