How to Improve Brand Awareness (and Measure It)
Across industries, brand awareness plays an increasingly important role in first-time and recurring purchasing decisions. Consumers have more options than ever for dining out, buying new shoes, or doing their taxes. Growing brand awareness offers small businesses a chance to be a part of the decision-making process, with additional benefits, too.
Social media is the most accessible, affordable way for local businesses to grow brand awareness. But how can you tell if it’s working?
What Is Brand Awareness?
Brand awareness refers to a customer’s familiarity with a company’s product or services. It’s the very top of the sales funnel; consumers know that you exist and know what they do. The most famous example of brand awareness is Coca-Cola. The 138-year-old company owns the most recognized trademark in the world - 94% of the global population recognizes its logo, and the word “Coca-Cola” is the second most widely understood term in the world; “OK” is the first.
The Three Types of Brand Awareness
Most marketers further define brand awareness using three subtypes:
Brand recall - When consumers remember a brand name without being given a hint.
Brand recognition - When consumers recognize a brand when presented with its logo or name.
Aided branded awareness - When consumers can name a brand when prompted.
Why Brand Awareness Matters to Small Businesses
A well-recognized brand is important for small businesses, especially those that rely on brick-and-mortar sales or a small service area. Operating in a local or regional market means these brands have a relatively fixed audience—every opportunity matters!
It’s hard to underscore the importance of brand visibility because the benefits are so impactful.
Trust - Consumers are more likely to trust a brand they’ve heard of before.
Word of mouth - Consumers are more likely to refer brands they’ve had a positive experience with.
Credibility - Consumers are more likely to contact brands with a strong, credible reputation, including active social media accounts and content appearing at the top of search results.
How to Build Brand Awareness
Positive customer experiences are the best way to build brand awareness. There’s no substitute for providing a great product or exceptional service. Every customer is an ambassador; happy customers are your best sales team.
That said, there are several ways to utilize social media, content marketing, and other brand awareness strategies to improve brand awareness over time.
Social Media: Brand awareness is about consistently reaching the right audience, especially if they’ve already expressed interest in your brand by following your Instagram account or liking Facebook posts. Organic social media is a cost-effective way to stay in front of past, present, and prospective customers. Post consistent, entertaining, and useful content three to five times per week; if you can’t keep that pace, get in touch.
Organic search - One of the best ways to improve brand awareness is to create SEO-rich content. Service pages, blogs, and informative resources are a great way to introduce your brand to consumers while establishing trust and authority at the same time.
Co-branding and Partnerships - Partner with like-minded brands in other industries to introduce your company to new audiences. This includes hosting events with other businesses and sponsoring events that align with your values.
How to Measure Brand Awareness
You’ve been posting great content on social media, writing informative blogs, and sponsoring world-famous Traverse City events like the Cherry Festival and Iceman Cometh Challenge, but is it working?
Measuring brand awareness requires some time and consideration. We can help create a dashboard to make it easier. Here are a few ways we measure brand awareness.
Organic traffic - Great content wins clicks, and organic traffic is a useful proxy to measure how many users find your content.
Branded impressions - We use Google Search Console data to monitor how frequently folks search for your brand by name. If there are more queries for “Sovis Media” over the past 90 days compared to the same period a year ago, it’s a good sign brand awareness has increased!
Social media - Growing your follower count, getting excellent engagement on posts, and growing account or profile impressions are all signs brand visibility is on the rise.
Customer surveys - Done right, customer surveys help brands learn which marketing channels are the most effective and identify ways to improve how they do business. From a simple “How did you hear about us?” to more detailed surveys, we can help.
Grow Your Brand’s Visibility with Sovis Media
From brand awareness research to a robust multichannel campaign, Sovis Media is dedicated to helping small businesses grow. For over a decade, we’ve helped retailers, non-profits, and B2B companies reach the right audience at the right time. It’s cost-effectively marketing, delivered. Let’s get started; contact us today. (Tomorrow is totally fine, too.)