9 Ways to Improve Brand Awareness for Your Business

Have you ever wondered how some businesses have become so popular without too much effort? How do things go viral and start trending? There is one thing that all big brands have in common – they have invested a lot of time and resources in making their brand recognizable and trustworthy. Or in other words, they have made it a priority to improve brand awareness.

People tend to share and like posts from brands that they know, mainly because they trust these companies and are familiar with them. Brand awareness simply means that consumers can easily recognize your name without you having to resort to hard-selling or over-advertising. This can set your business apart from your competitors, as buyers usually rely on other people’s opinions before they make a purchase.

Once you’ve established your reputation and gained the loyalty of your customers, building brand awareness becomes a natural progression. Effortlessly garnering support for your business is a byproduct of this foundation.

With inbound marketing approaches, you can draw the attention of your target market to your brand without reaching out to them directly. This type of marketing strategy involves the use of blogs, search engine optimization (SEO), events, social media, newsletters, content, and more.

Distinguishing itself from outbound marketing, where brands actively approach customers, inbound methodology lets your brand be discovered organically. Unlike outbound tactics such as telemarketing, ads, billboards, and pop-ups, inbound techniques allow customers to find your brand naturally.

Basically, the inbound marketing strategy pulls customers in through interesting content. According to Small Business Trends, inbound marketing generates 72% more leads compared to outbound.

Here are some ways you can build brand awareness through inbound marketing.

1. Publish Interactive Content

Inbound marketing is all about having your target audience notice you and one of the ways you can do that is by publishing interactive content. These are highly shareable and can help you improve your conversion rates. Aside from better engagement, you will also encourage your readers to share your content, making it accessible and more visible to others.

Here are some ideas that you can try to use:

• Videos. Wyzowl reports that over 85% of marketers use videos for their marketing strategies. Interactive videos are on the rise, too, as business owners are looking to use this type of content in 2021.
• Surveys. Surveys and polls have been utilized by many companies for a long time now. This type of interactive content is often found on social media, emails, and websites, where marketers can easily set it up.
• Assessments. An assessment is where the user is asked multiple questions in exchange for insight and valuable information. It is a type of interactive content that allows creators to get their audience engaged as well as garner information from them.
• Contests. Contests are one of the most popular forms of interactive content. People love winning prizes, especially if it’s something that can be valuable to them. Hosting contests on social media can help you improve your following, brand awareness, and even bring in potential customers.

2. Work on Infographics and Images

People love seeing images and infographics and they tend to interact with these types of content a lot more. Since most people use their mobile phones or tablets to read articles and blog posts, turning important pieces of information into an infographic will make it easier for them to view the content on their devices.

3. Give Out Samples and Branded Gifts

Everybody loves free stuff and giving out samples and free trials of your products and/or services will help them recognize your brand better. You’d want to hook them in through inbound marketing, and the easiest way to do that is by letting them try what you have to offer.

Always make it a point to include the word “free” in your posts about samples, demos, and free trials. Emphasize the text on your images so people can easily see it even when they are scrolling through their feeds.

However, to improve brand awareness you should give out things that will be valuable to your consumers. Put yourself in their position and think about what they’d want to receive and/or use. This way, not only will they be aware of your brand, but they will also consider getting products and services from you or purchasing a membership.

You can also create branded gifts and give them to your loyal customers. They could be your best brand ambassadors.

4. Understand Your Personas

If you haven’t defined your customer personas yet, then now is the time to do so. It is important to understand who your target market is before working on your marketing strategy and building brand awareness. Creating user personas will help you define your business plan better and understand the challenges that your customers often encounter.

It will also help you save money and time on advertising to people who are not interested in your brand.

Here are some quick tips on how to create a user persona for your brand based on a customer questionnaire:

1. Create a survey and ask just three things. This will help you get started on familiarizing yourself with your target market:
   • How would you describe yourself?
   • What are your goals for using our products or services?
   • What is stopping you from supporting our business?
2. Interview your past and current customers. You can do this by emailing them or asking them to fill out feedback forms.
3. Analyze the data that you have on hand so you can understand your clients better.. Group them accordingly.

Keep in mind to stick to a few questions when asking for feedback. Customers usually don’t like long questionnaires and are likely to skip your request if you go too far.

There are also other ways you can create buyer personas for your business, but they require more extensive research and deep understanding.

5. Distribute Your Content Evenly

You’d want to be highly visible so you can spread brand awareness through inbound marketing. This means spreading the word through your content and posting it on different social media platforms and through search engine optimization. Be consistent with posting, as this can help people recognize your brand a lot better by anticipating your posts.

Additionally, you should also make it a point to engage with your readers and reply to their comments and suggestions. Always be aware of any mentions of your brand and see how people are interacting with it.

6. Contact Bloggers and Influencers

Successful influencers and content creators usually have a big following, which means that it is always a good idea to reach out to some of them for a collaboration. You can hold an online contest that your target audience can join, as this will help increase your followers and of course, improve brand awareness.

Communicate with an influencer in your industry and ask them if they would be willing to represent your brand. Here are ways to reach out to the right bloggers:

• Familiarize yourself with their posts and what they promote online. This way, you’ll be able to talk to them comfortably once you’ve reached out to them.
• Commend their work and tell them that you appreciate their work. This will make it easier for you to pitch what you have in mind.
• Highlight what you will offer in return. Influencers are always looking for something that they can benefit from, especially from a brand that they are working with.
• Be straightforward and tell them what you need from them and how the setup will be. Avoid long and boring messages.
• Always be respectful and follow up if you haven’t received a reply after a week.

7. Be Active in Your Community

Boosting your local brand awareness means you need to proactively engage with your community. Strengthen your presence by sponsoring local events, hosting gatherings, and actively participating in community establishments.

This way, you not only make your presence known but also cultivate a positive perception. Elevate your local brand awareness by becoming an integral part of your community, leaving a lasting impression through meaningful engagement and contributions.

8. Run Targeted Paid Ads

Most B2B companies use LinkedIn to run ad campaigns for brand awareness. Paid advertisements can help you reach your target audience a lot better since you can specify your chosen demographics and interests. Vital information to improve brand awareness can be things such as age, gender, location, interests/hobbies. And buying behavior can be specified so that the ads will be shown to this group of people.

Additionally, you can also use Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, YouTube, and other platforms if you think they will be useful for your brand.

Social media ads give you the benefit of taking control of your budget, letting you determine how much you want to spend for each advertisement. Messaging and tracking your audience is also made easier, thanks to the useful analytics tools offered by these platforms.

9. Host or Participate in Podcasts

You can host your own podcast, or if you want to reach a bigger market right away, then consider being a guest on a show that talks about your brand and industry. You also have to make sure that you will be able to talk about your brand, its background, and what you can do for your customers.

Podcasts are a great inbound marketing strategy that can help you reach a huge audience and make them aware of your brand.

Recap on How to Build Brand Awareness

The way to create an effective brand awareness strategy is by distributing useful content at the right time and to the right people. Consistency is key as well since this will help your audience remember your brand, whether it be consciously or subconsciously. This will also garner more website visitors and convert them into potential leads and loyal consumers.