Getting your brand noticed is perhaps the most difficult job in marketing. You can create amazing products and useful services but, if no one knows you’re there, it’s really hard to sell anything. This makes brand awareness important for any business aiming to succeed.
You need to be hot on your marketing efforts if you’re to first deliver an effective brand awareness campaign, and then maintain that level for years to come.
Big corporations like Coca-Cola and Starbucks have nailed brand awareness. They spend millions of dollars every year maintaining their level of recognition with customers.
But you don’t always need big money when creating brand awareness. We’ll explore six strategies that will help you elevate awareness around your brand without breaking the bank. We will also discuss various brand awareness campaigns to enhance your brand visibility and engagement.
We’ll look at how you can create a strong visual identity, produce valuable content, and engage with your audience on social media.
In This Guide:
What Is Brand Awareness and Why Does it Matter?
Strategies to Increase Brand Awareness
1. Stay True to Your Brand Identity
2. Stay Present on Social Media Platforms
3. Go Big on Content Marketing
4. Invest in Paid Advertising
5. Harness The Power of User-Generated Content
6. Engage in Your Community and Industry
Tools and Technologies to Boost Brand Awareness
Frequently Asked Questions
What Is Brand Awareness and Why Does it Matter?
Before we explore the six strategies you can use to enhance brand awareness, it’s important to get an overview of exactly what we’re talking about here.
So, what is brand awareness? Well, it’s a gauge of how well people know and remember your company. It’s all the activities and initiatives you deploy to make your brand stick in audiences’ minds. When you have good brand awareness, people easily recognize your logo, name, or products. It not only enhances visibility but also leads to tangible benefits across various organizational areas.
Think of big brands like Coca-Cola or Apple. You know them right away. That’s strong brand awareness at work.
Brand awareness strategies are essential to shaping the customer journey and influencing conversions. Various strategies cater to diverse campaign goals, audience behaviors, and advertising platforms, enhancing brand visibility and market presence.
However, it’s not just about being known. It’s about the emotional associations people have to your brand. Brand recognition is one thing, being emotionally aware of your brand is a totally different ball game.
The Role of Brand Awareness in Driving Business Success
Indeed, businesses really struggle to succeed without achieving a level of brand awareness across their audience or customer base. Even a business that deals in B2B sales needs other businesses to know they exist.
When you raise brand awareness, you're more likely to deliver:
Heightened trust and familiarity in your brand
Easier purchasing decisions for customers
Better word-of-mouth marketing
Increased loyalty from your repeat customers
Strong brand awareness can give you an edge over your competitors and ensure you have a much smoother income stream into your business.
Key Metrics to Measure Brand Awareness
Before we dive into our six strategies to increase brand awareness, it’s worth looking at the metrics you need to follow to ensure you’re measuring brand awareness correctly.
These metrics are:
Brand recall - can people name your brand without prompts?
Brand recognition - do people know your brand when they see it?
Share of voice - how much are you mentioned compared to competitors?
These three metrics can be difficult to track unless you establish ways to measure brand awareness within your team. Some ways to measure brand awareness include:
Surveys: ask people if they know your brand
Social media mentions: count how often people talk about you online
Search volume: see how many people look for your brand name
Website traffic: check how many people visit your site
Using brand tracking software is crucial for assessing the effectiveness of various campaigns and identifying areas needing improvement in order to enhance overall brand presence.
Strategies to Increase Brand Awareness
Now it’s time to look at the things you can weave into your brand awareness strategy so that you can achieve genuine success from your marketing efforts and start increasing brand awareness.
These tactics are designed to be easy to implement regardless of your budget. However, even low-budget brands and start-ups can attain high brand awareness as long as they’re willing to put the work in.
To create brand awareness, it is crucial to engage potential customers through targeted campaigns on various platforms, particularly social media.
1. Stay True to Your Brand Identity
This might sound obvious but brands can often fall foul of chasing a marketing gimmick or trend, rather than staying true to what they are.
It's really important to work on your brand identity as this is the foundation of awareness. It's your identity that people relate to and generates customer loyalty. Overlook this and no one will truly understand what your brand is about.
Here's what you need to do to make sure your identity acts as the centrepiece of your brand awareness campaign.
Craft a Memorable Logo and Visual Style
Think about the world's biggest brands, such as Coca-Cola, Mercedes, McDonald's, Apple, and others. What do they all have in common? You can visualize their logos instantly.
They have simple yet unique logos, colors, and fonts. You should seek to achieve that too. You can use free tools to create logos and color palettes or use a freelance designer or agency to create your branding.
Make sure your visuals are clean and easy to understand.
Establish a Distinct Brand Voice
Next, you need to think about what your brand is trying to say. Are you being uber cool, like Santa Cruz Skateboards, or perhaps you have a purpose, like the WWF. Are you funny? Serious? Caring? Choose a voice that reflects your brand and use it everywhere.
This also means you need to write in a way that feels natural and fits your brand. Use the same tone in your social media posts, emails, and ads. This way you can build a strong connection with your audience and increase brand awareness through your voice.
Create a Compelling Mission and Value Proposition
Your mission statement or value proposition doesn't have to be complicated. It doesn't have to change the world. It does, though, need to be recognizable.
Restaurants create value propositions all the time. When you're searching for a place to eat online, you'll probably look for a type of food first and then refine your search. How does a sushi place in Detroit create a value proposition that's different from the rest? By focusing on one or two things that increase brand awareness.
It might be a weekday discount or a special menu item. Perhaps it's the highly-photogenic restaurant that makes this sushi place stand out on Instagram. Whatever it is, brands need a value proposition.
As for a mission statement, not every brand has a cause. You can go simple here and focus your energies on one area of your brand. "Fresh bagels made every day" and "supporting families with cancer" are two mission statements from very different industries but can be just as effective in getting their message across.
2. Stay Present on Social Media Platforms
Your social media presence, on the right platform, is crucial for building awareness with potential customers that don’t know anything about you. If you have a store or a website then you’ll obviously need to work hard to attract customers – whether that’s through the door or by clicking on your site.
Social media is the place to do both of these things. Online brands need to be across many platforms to ensure they’re reaching online audiences. Physical stores need to be there, too, so they appear in search results when people look for that type of store.
Merely being present on social media isn’t enough, though. If you want to raise brand awareness then you’ll need to be proactive.
Engage With Your Audience Through Interactive Content
So, how can you be proactive? Posting on social media isn't enough. You need to create posts that get people talking. Ask questions, run polls, or host Q&A sessions to boost engagement and help spread your brand further.
Share behind-the-scenes content to show your human side and re-post user-generated content to build trust with your audience. It's all about making your audience feel that you – and they – are part of something.
Run Paid and Organic Campaigns on Popular Platforms
Consider using a mix of post types to raise brand awareness in various formats. Mixing paid ads and organic posts means you can target fresh audiences while also reinforcing brand awareness in your existing customers or followers.
Try different types of content like videos, stories, and live streams. It's worth seeing what sticks and what doesn't. You can then take the data from your successful posts and replicate it, which in turn will begin to build brand awareness.
Partner With Influencers to Extend Your Reach
Work with influencers who match your brand values. They can introduce you to new audiences who trust their opinions.
Remember, most influencers want to work with brands as they're seeking to make a living from being a social media celebrity. As a brand, you hold the cards. Choose influencers whose followers match your target market and give them creative freedom to make authentic content.
You can then use a tool like CisionOne to track results to see which partnerships work best and measure brand awareness as you go.
3. Go Big on Content Marketing
Content marketing helps you attract and keep an audience. What's great is you're in control of it, as you're the one posting on your website, your blog, or your newsletter.
It shows your expertise and builds trust over time.
Write Blog Posts and Thought Leader Posts that Address Your Audience's Pain Points
Growing brand awareness takes many forms, but an effective way to do this is by positioning your brand as a leader in its industry. For example, you can write blog posts and thought leadership posts about the state of your industry, or you might provide guides for your audience to read, or explainers on how to overcome pain points.
By establishing your brand and its employees as thought leaders, you're more likely to get noticed and be recognised for leading the debate. It's this sort of thing that marketers rely on when crafting a strong brand awareness strategy that aims to go beyond the simple things.
Optimize Your Content for Search Engines (SEO)
Use SEO to help people find your content online. It's really important that you top Google's list of results when people search for something related to your brand. If you're a cosmetics store in downtown San Francisco then you need to ensure your content attracts anyone searching for "San Fran cosmetics store".
Research keywords that your audience are likely to use with a tool like SEMrush and include them naturally in the titles, headings, and the body text of your content.
Write meta descriptions that encourage clicks. Then make sure you use hyperlinks to connect all your pieces together. These sort of SEO techniques might not sound like much but it's about showing Google that you're worthy of being top of its search results., such as alt text for images and videos.
If you can nail the top spot on high-volume keywords and topics then you can very quickly establish brand awareness.
4. Invest in Paid Advertising
Now it's time to talk about money. You can pay someone to create content, design your branding, and track brand awareness across your channels. You can also do it yourself for free.
Paid advertising is a really important option when you're looking to improve brand awareness. You can focus on a target audience much more easily than content marketing and get an instant boost in your brand visibility.
Whether it results in high brand recognition depends on the ads. Here's what you need to know about this brand strategy.
Run Targeted PPC Campaigns
You can use pay-per-click ads to show up in search results and control how much you invest in your campaign. Choose keywords that match what your ideal customers are searching for and write ad copy that speaks directly to their needs. Simple.
Try Retargeting Methods to Recapture Lost Leads
Retargeting is when you show ads to people who've visited your site before. It's why cookies are so important to marketers.
By retargeting your ads, you're reminding potential customers of your brand and encouraging them to engage with you again. This is a really smart technique if you're a gift brand that is trying to sell in the run-up to Christmas, as people will be browsing many sites looking for the ideal gift. If you can increase brand awareness at this stage through retargeted ads then people will come back to you.
Explore Display and Native Advertising Opportunities
Display ads show your brand on other websites and social media sites. Native ads blend in with the content around them. Both can introduce your brand to new audiences without them consciously knowing you're there.
This is about building awareness from the recognition stage upwards. People might not notice right away but, given time, they will start to recognize your logo and branding.
5. Harness the Power of User-Generated Content
User-generated content (UGC) is really important if you want to create a deep level of brand awareness amongst your audience. It's created by your customers and is a far more powerful way to build trust and show real experiences with your brand.
Here's how you can harness its influence.
Encourage Customers to Share Reviews and Testimonials
Most brands do this to some degree but you have to be ready to receive the feedback you ask for. Ask customers to leave reviews and pick positive ones to share on your social media and owned media channels.
Make it easy by sending links after purchases or by offering discount codes in return for feedback.
Be proactive and use testimonials in your ads and marketing materials. Of course, you'll need to get permission before using customer content, but it's well worth the effort.
Host Competitions and Challenges
Brands have used competitions for decades to encourage customers and audiences to engage. No matter what you sell, it's important to offer your audience something, so they get excited about you.
Whether it's free perks, discount codes, or something else, it's important to connect your competitions to your brand. For example, a water charity might encourage social media users to carry 20kg of water each morning for two weeks, to highlight water shortages in third-world countries. Those who complete the challenge could get a reward or recognition online.
Think outside the box and you'll get noticed.
Highlight User Stories in Your Marketing
Product reviews have become central components of marketing campaigns – and these days you have very little control over what people say about you. YouTube and TikTok, for instance, have influencers whose entire life is about reviewing brands and products.
So, you need to make sure you amplify any positive reviews.
Use photos or videos of customers, with their permission, using your products or service. Share these stories on your blog, social media, and in ads. Mix professional content – such as those found on influencer social media pages – with more authentic user stories for balance.
6. Engage Your Community and Industry
This final strategy tip is really important for understanding how to increase brand awareness organically and raising brand awareness. Being present in peoples’ lives takes time and effort, but the reward is often far greater than any social media campaign.
After all, engaging one-on-one with audiences builds personal relationships that can boost brand loyalty. Here are some tips for getting started with this in-person level of engagement.
Sponsor Local Events or Charitable Initiatives
Get noticed by sponsoring events and charitable initiatives. A brand awareness campaign can earn a significant boost if your logo or products are placed around an event.
You could go the extra mile and ask your employees to raise money for charity, perhaps by running a marathon or doing a combined exercise together.
Whatever it is, if you're sponsoring an event then you'll need to give attendees or audiences something to remember you. Freebies or gifts at the end of the event is a good place to start.
Host Events Yourself
It's one thing to sponsor an event and another to be the event. Hosting events, awards ceremonies, workshops, flash sales, or anything like this is a great way to organically build brand awareness with those who are closest to you.
It can help you understand your target audience betting and give you an insight into what wider marketing strategies are needed to stay in their minds.
Problems around low brand awareness can easily subside if you invite people to you. Of course, they need an incentive to come to the event you're offering, but it's well worth your time.
Network at Trade Shows
Trade shows remain a really important way to connect with audiences and other companies, and build brand awareness. It's all about presentation. Make sure your logo and mission statement is clearly visible, and dress to impress. If people come to your stall then you want to make sure they remember you when they walk away.
It's also crucial to mingle. Marketers can achieve plenty of engagement by instigating conversations, rather than waiting for people to talk to them.
Being proactive at trade shows is all part of a brand awareness campaign that goes beyond content marketing and social media.
Tools and Technologies to Boost Brand Awareness
Now you know more about the strategies available to deliver a strong brand awareness campaign, it’s time to examine the tools, including brand tracking software, that will help you achieve your goals.
There are a lot of different tools available, which all aim to streamline your workflow and make it easier to build brand awareness in line with your strategy.
We’ve split these tools into three areas, each of which are important for a business’s brand awareness efforts:
Social media scheduling and analytics tools
SEO and content marketing platforms
Marketing automation software for personalized outreach
Social Media Scheduling and Analytics Tools
This is a great place to start if you're looking to launch a brand awareness campaign on social media. You can use scheduling tools like CisionOne to plan and post content across channels. This keeps your brand visible and saves time.
These tools are great because you can manage multiple accounts at once, which means you can deliver a widespread message across various platforms. They also let you schedule posts and track engagement.
Social media analytics tools give you insights into your performance. They show which posts get the most likes, shares, and comments. You can then take this data and refine your content strategy based on your findings. In doing so, you're far more likely to build brand awareness.
If you're looking for free options then the Meta Business Suite for Facebook and Instagram is a good place to start.
SEO and Content Marketing Platforms
The third brand awareness strategy we highlighted above focused on content marketing. Raising awareness through content marketing requires you to heavily lean on data, so you'll need a tool to help you.
Google's Keyword Planner is a good place to start. It's part of the Google Analytics suite and helps you understand what your audience is searching for, so you can align your content to fit your audience's preferences.
It's a free tool but if you want to dig deeper into SEO and content marketing then software such as SEMrush and Ahrefs can really help. Meanwhile, CisionOne lets you plan, create, and measure content all in one place. It helps you stay organized and track how your content performs across channels.
>> If you're new to SEO and want to learn more, read our guide to PR and SEO today
Marketing Automation Software for Personalized Outreach
Brands work hard to create a network of customers and interested audiences. Usually this network takes the form of a mailing list.
A good brand awareness strategy will focus on splitting a mailing list into audience demographics. After all, there's no better way to refine your target audience than by splitting it into subsets and creating personalized marketing material.
A tool like Mailchimp is great for segmenting your audience, so you can send out personalized emails.
CisionOne, meanwhile, enables marketers to launch and oversee PR campaigns that are tailored to specific audiences.
Using this software is about automating your marketing approach, so you can build brand awareness more easily and align certain messages to certain audiences. You still maintain your overall mission statement but you're also able to send specific messages to specific people.
Frequently Asked Questions
Building brand awareness is a long game that takes a lot of effort to do right. You can start small and steadily grow your brand voice, making sure to stick to your strategy.
Our guide has looked at six ways to do this effectively, so you can channel your marketing efforts into activities you know will work.
Below are some answers to questions that cover key aspects of increasing recognition for your brand.
What strategies can I implement to enhance brand visibility on social media platforms?
There are a lot of strategies you can use to engage with different target audiences. For a start, ensure all your social media channels carry the same brand identity, including logos, color palettes, and messaging. Post regularly and engage with followers through comments and messages. Try running social media contests or giveaways to boost engagement, and partner with influencers in your industry to reach new audiences. Make sure you oversee everything using social media analytics tools, as these will help you make strategic decisions around your brand awareness campaign.
What are five effective methods for improving brand recognition and recall?
Five simple methods for boosting recall and recognition of your brand are:
Creating a memorable logo, slogan, and color palette
Constantly telling your brand's story through good content marketing
Sponsoring local events or charities, and hosting your own events
Offering great customer service and using user-generated content
Invest in paid advertising and monitor the results to tweak your brand awareness strategy
What measures should be taken to boost brand awareness for burgeoning businesses?
Any aspirational business needs to have a brand that offers a unique value proposition (UCP), so that it stands out from the crowd. This UVP then needs to be woven into all messaging. From your initial branding through to how you speak about your brand when interacting with others. Seek out partnerships with complementary businesses that complement your brand, and encourage word-of-mouth marketing through referral programs.
How to Increase Brand Awareness: 7 Effective Strategies for Success
What is Brand Awareness?
Definition of brand awareness
Brand awareness is the extent to which consumers recognize and remember a brand, including its products, logo, and values.
It’s a key metric for measuring the success of your brand marketing efforts.
Brand awareness is often confused with brand recognition, but they’re not the same thing.
Importance of brand awareness in business
Brand awareness is important for business benefits, such as increased sales and customer loyalty.
A strong brand identity can help you attract new customers and retain existing ones.
Consistency in branding is crucial for building trust and loyalty with customers.
Benefits of increasing brand awareness
Increasing brand awareness can pay off by driving sales and brand loyalty.
A strong brand identity can help you stand out from competitors and build brand loyalty.
Consistency in branding is crucial for building trust and loyalty with customers.
Building a Strong Brand Awareness Strategy
Create a consistent brand image
Strong branding is essential if you want to stick in the memory of potential clients.
Consistency will help create a cohesive look that will be easily recognizable to your target audience.
Use your branding consistently across all touchpoints, including packaging and email signatures.
Get to know your audience
Knowing what your customers expect from your brand is critical to increasing brand awareness.
Social listening is incredibly valuable for brand awareness, as it lets you hear what people say about you in real-time.
Identify your target audience and tailor your brand awareness efforts to them.
Establish a tone of voice
A consistent tone of voice will help customers quickly recognize and differentiate your brand from others in the marketplace.
Use a strong tone of voice that matches your target audience.
Consistency is key to building brand recognition and awareness.
Create a Unique Selling Proposition (USP)
Make your distinguishing feature your USP.
A USP should be clear, concise, and memorable.
Use your USP to differentiate your brand from competitors.
Do your SEO research
SEO stands for search engine optimization.
A well-optimized website will rank high on Google, attracting many users.
Use keywords and content to raise brand awareness.
Effective Strategies to Increase Brand Awareness
Run a thought leadership program
A thought leadership program can help you build brand awareness and establish your brand as an industry expert.
Consistency in branding is crucial for building trust and loyalty with customers.
A strong brand identity can help you attract new customers and retain existing ones.
Partner with like-minded influencers
Partnering with influencers can help you build brand awareness and attract new customers.
Use micro-influencers to reach a wider audience.
Influencer marketing is a great way to promote your brand to a relevant audience.
Advertise with intelligence
Intelligent advertising can help you reach a wider audience and build brand awareness.
Use social media and search engines to target your ads.
Paid ads can help you target a specific audience and raise brand awareness.
Leveraging Content and Social Media to Increase Brand Awareness
Create shareable content
One of the best ways to get people talking about your brand is to have exciting and informative content marketing.
Use content to raise brand awareness and drive online searches and sales.
Create content that shows personality and shares opinions and positioning on issues.
Start socializing on social media
Engage with your audience on social media to raise brand awareness.
Use social media to share valuable content and interact with your audience.
Treat your social accounts as if you were a person trying to make friends, not a business trying to make money.
Tell a narrative
Storytelling is a powerful marketing tactic that gives your audience something real to latch onto.
Craft a narrative around your brand to humanize it and give it depth.
Use narrative to create an emotional connection with your audience.
Make sharing easy
Make it easy for your audience to share your content, such as blog posts, sponsored content, videos, social media posts, or product pages.
Word-of-mouth marketing is the most effective way to establish trust and familiarity among customers.
Use social media to make sharing easy.
Guest blog on other niche websites
Guest blogging is one of the best ways to increase brand awareness with minimal effort.
Write in your brand voice and present yourself as human first, company second.
Use guest blogging to reach a wider audience and build brand awareness.
Measuring and Optimizing Your Brand Awareness Campaign
Measure brand awareness metrics
Use metrics such as website traffic, social media engagement, and customer loyalty to gauge your brand awareness efforts.
Measure brand awareness to understand how familiar consumers are with your brand.
Use brand tracking software to simplify the process of measuring brand awareness.
Track the success of your brand awareness campaign
Use a self-service consumer survey platform to measure the success of your brand awareness campaign.
Use metrics such as prompted brand awareness and brand recognition to measure the success of your campaign.
Track the success of your brand awareness campaign to optimize your strategy.
Analyze and adjust your strategy for better results
Analyze your brand awareness metrics to identify areas for improvement.
Adjust your strategy to optimize your brand awareness efforts.
Use data to inform your brand strategy and make data-driven decisions.
Examples of Successful Brand Awareness Campaigns
#ASICSFrontRunner by Asics
Asics is a Japanese sportswear company that designs and manufactures shoes, apparel, and accessories for various sports.
The campaign rewards customers for sharing their running experiences and achievements on social media.
The campaign has helped increase brand awareness and drive sales.
#GivesYouWiiings by Red Bull
Red Bull’s slogan “Gives You Wiiings” is all about their product giving you the energy and boost you need to reach new heights.
The campaign has helped increase brand awareness and drive sales.
The campaign has become a cultural phenomenon and is widely recognized.
#SpotifyWrapped by Spotify
#SpotifyWrapped is an annual event that gives users a personalized overview of the music they listened to during the year.
The campaign has helped increase brand awareness and drive engagement.
The campaign has become a cultural phenomenon and is widely recognized.
Creating a Memorable Brand
Hire a face or create a mascot for the company
Consider hiring an actor or spokesperson to represent the company, or create an animated mascot.
This allows you to humanize your brand and give a sense of the friendly and knowledgeable service customers can expect to receive.
Use a face or mascot to create a memorable brand.
Choose an image or symbol that represents you
Choose an image or symbol that represents your brand and use it ubiquitously in your marketing, advertising, and organic campaigns.
This can help your brand become synonymous with a particular image or symbol.
Use an image or symbol to create a memorable brand.
Create a short, catchy slogan
Create a short, catchy slogan that explains how you’re different, what you offer, and why customers should choose you.
A good slogan can help your brand stand out and be remembered.
Use a slogan to create a memorable brand.
Offer freemium
Offer a basic product or product line for free, only charging for premium or enterprise-level products.
This can help you raise awareness of your brand and get your product in front of new audiences.
Use freemium to create a memorable brand.
Create free content
Create content that shows personality and shares opinions and positioning on issues.
Content can help you raise awareness of your brand and connect with your audience.
Use content to create a memorable brand.
Offline and Online Marketing Strategies to Support Your Brand Awareness Strategy
Tap into the latest social media channels
Use the latest social media channels to reach a wider audience.
Experiment with different social media channels to find what works best for your brand.
Use social media to raise brand awareness.
Share your wisdom with branded infographics
Use infographics to share valuable information and raise brand awareness.
Add your branding to infographics to make them shareable.
Use infographics to create a memorable brand.
Turn employees into brand ambassadors
Train your employees to use social media to promote your brand.
Encourage your employees to share valuable content and interact with your audience.
Use employees to create a memorable brand.
Make guest appearances
Make guest appearances on other people’s content to raise brand awareness.
Choose the right partners to reach a wider audience.
Use guest appearances to create a memorable brand.
Organize contests and giveaways
Organize contests and giveaways to raise brand awareness and drive sales.
Use social media to promote your contests and giveaways.
Contests and giveaways can help you raise brand awareness.
Retargeting and Remarketing to Maximize Your Brand Awareness Campaigns
Retargeting
Use retargeting to target people who have visited your website and raise brand awareness.
Use retargeting to drive sales and conversions.
Retargeting can help you maximize your brand awareness campaigns.
Remarketing campaigns
Use remarketing campaigns to reengage people who’ve already clicked on your ad or consumed your content.
Remarketing campaigns can help increase brand awareness and drive conversions.
Use remarketing campaigns to maximize your brand awareness campaigns.
Leverage native advertising
Native advertising can help build brand awareness by matching the form of surrounding content.
Native advertising can help drive engagement and conversions.
Use native advertising to maximize your brand awareness campaigns.
