Want to Increase Sales? Leverage this Brand Hack It's important to work on increasing your brand awareness if you want to succeed in today's highly competitive business environment. This guide offers some helpful tips to help you boost your brand's visibility both online and off.
By Scott Baradell Edited by Micah Zimmerman
Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own.
As an entrepreneur, it's important to work on increasing your brand awareness if you want to succeed in today's highly competitive business environment. Brand awareness refers to how often your brand or product name comes up in conversations, and the more often this happens, the better your chances are of generating interest and sales. If you cultivate proper brand awareness, you will see a positive impact on your sales.
So how do you go about increasing brand awareness? This guide offers some of the key benefits of brand awareness and helpful tips to help you boost your brand's presence both online and offline.
What Is brand awareness?
Brand awareness is a term used to describe how familiar an individual is with a brand, product, or company. Companies spend considerable time and money building brand awareness, as studies show that consumers are more likely to purchase from brands they know and trust.
Simply put, brand awareness is what you do to create emotional connections with consumers that impact their purchase decisions, preferences and willingness to try new products. More than any other marketing tactic, strong brand awareness will drive future sales performance by ensuring that existing and potential customers are aware of your brand's products or services before they even walk into your store.
However, there is no one-size-fits-all approach to building brand awareness. Marketers must consider their target market and what mediums work best for them. For example, a celebrity may increase brand awareness by appearing in commercials, but if your target market is children, this approach might not be effective (and may even seem inappropriate). By keeping your audience in mind, you can develop a strategy that works best for you.
It is important to note that increasing brand awareness can improve sales performance, but getting people interested enough to buy products is another challenge entirely. At the end of the day, it is the quality of your products or services and other aspects of your business that help to propel the reputation of your brand or company. Your brand awareness campaign should not derail you from providing value to customers.
Related: 6 Innovative Ways to Increase Brand Awareness
The importance of brand awareness
A powerful brand will do wonders for your business, from helping you attract better talent to making it easier for customers to find you. People are more likely to buy from a company they know and trust, so if your company isn't already well-known, now is a good time to start working on that. Here are some of the key benefits of increased brand visibility:
- Increased sales
Growing your brand will help boost sales. Consumers are more likely to choose brands with strong corporate reputations when considering purchases in specific categories. If you want more people to choose your products and services over similar ones offered by competitors, invest some time in establishing a solid brand image.
- Brand awareness drives customer loyalty
When customers become loyal, they are more likely to make repeat purchases. Even if you've won over a customer's loyalty, there's no guarantee that they will buy your product again. Having brand awareness can help. This means that you are constantly being brought up in conversation, and at least some customers will continue to purchase your product just because they recognize the name. Brand awareness helps drive sales by increasing loyalty among existing customers. In addition, when potential new customers hear about your company through word-of-mouth advertising from current customers, they are also more likely to be loyal buyers in the future.
- Brand awareness promotes better product recognition
When people are familiar with your brand, they are more likely to buy from you. If people do not recognize your company name and logo, it will be difficult for them to remember what makes you unique or why they should choose you over another business.
When customers know and trust your brand, they will feel more comfortable buying from you. You need to build a strong presence in your target market through marketing and advertising efforts if you want brand awareness at all levels of the industry.
However, poor customer service can hurt brand awareness. Customers come back when they have a good experience with a company and they remember that experience when considering future purchases.
Related: 3 Strategies Entrepreneurs Can Incorporate to Build Brand Awareness
Brand awareness strategies
If you're trying to increase sales, you must know how much your business is visible in your target market. To improve brand awareness and attract more leads, consider the following strategies.
- Create a tagline
A tagline helps your brand stand out in potential customers' minds. A solid tagline should explain what makes your business unique, and why they should buy from you instead of competitors. Make sure that every employee knows their company's tagline so they can repeat it anytime they communicate with customers or potential leads.
- Make social media work for you
Many consumers use social media as a preemptive way to learn about new products and businesses before making purchases. Be active on social media channels like Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and Pinterest to generate customer interest. Be careful not to overdo it as it's easy for social media accounts to become overwhelming if there are too many posts. Think long-term in your social media marketing. Don't just think about today – think about tomorrow too!
- Establish your brand in new places
Once you've established your brand, it's important to think about how you can extend your brand into other places. There are many ways that you can do that, including via social media and by establishing yourself as an expert in your field. The more places your brand appears online, the faster your audience will grow.
- Partner with other experts
One way to increase your reach is through strategic partnerships. A partnership with a non-competing business can do wonders for both brands. When your name is affiliated with another company, you instantly become more familiar. When you join forces with a well-liked brand, you're putting yourself in front of customers who may not be aware of your existence.
- Gather audience data
Have you ever wondered why some ads seem to be more effective than others? The answer lies in your target audience. By gaining insight into what kind of people are most likely to buy your product, you can develop marketing strategies that speak directly to them. Take a survey or ask your customers and determine who they are and what they're looking for. Then build a profile that includes factors like demographic information (gender, age, income level) and psycho-graphic traits such as personality, opinions, attitudes, and values. Targeted audiences lead to targeted marketing campaigns, better conversion rates and ultimately more sales!
Related: These Steps will Help You in Creating Brand Awareness
Conclusion
People make purchase decisions based on emotion, not logic. With that in mind, building your brand identity is a way to reach consumers at an emotional level. If done correctly, it can persuade them that your product or service is worth their hard-earned money. There are countless ways to market your business, but there's one that's tried and true: brand awareness. It plays a significant role in sales performance and provides numerous benefits when used strategically.
Business Strategies, Entrepreneurial Advice & Inspiring Stories are all in one place. Explore the new Entrepreneur Bookstore
