5 Tips for building brand awareness.

When you think about a particular type of product, one brand will stand out in your mind above all others. If someone says chocolate, we think Cadbury’s. This is what we call brand awareness, which is all about making your business memorable so that people can recognise and recall your products, logo or messages.

Awareness is essentially your foot in the door and it’s the first step of the customer journey. Once people are aware of your brand, you can continue to guide them through the other stages of the buying funnel towards consideration and eventually a purchase.

The more aware people are of your existence, the more familiar they will be with what you offer. Then when it comes down to making a purchase, this familiarity is what will make them more likely to choose you over a competitor they’ve never heard of before.

How to build brand awareness

Here are our 5 top tips for building brand awareness and letting people know you exist. These are long-term strategies that aim to get your name out there, so while you might not get any immediate leads, they will plant the seeds ready for when your audience needs you.

1. Use keywords

Search engine optimisation is all about making your website discoverable, helping you rank higher for the most relevant searches. This involves using the right keywords that match the searcher’s intent.

Start by researching popular keywords in your industry using tools like Ahrefs. You can then target people who are at the start of their buyer’s journey by weaving these keywords throughout your blog posts. Use them in the main body, as well as the headlines, page titles and image titles. Your flow of organic traffic will then increase gradually over time, giving you more exposure and building brand awareness.

The main thing to remember with keywords is that SEO algorithms are smart and will downvote anyone who tries to stuff their page full of keywords that are awkward or irrelevant. Make sure the keywords you use are relevant to the main content and that they read naturally, so try writing your blog post first.

Once it’s finished and you have a well-written, informative post, then you can try and find places to slip your keywords in. This will help you deliver great content first, keywords second.

2. Socialise with your audience

Social media platforms like Instagram are great places to engage your audience, using hashtags relating to your business to make yourself discoverable. A picture speaks a thousand words, and by sharing photos of your work, products or services, people will instantly know what you offer.

Remember to talk about other things, too. Mix it up with posts about other topics, using this platform to introduce your brand’s personality to the world. News within your industry is a great direction to go, as not only can you show that you’re keeping up with the latest trends, but you can also help educate your audience and create a sense of authority.

Whatever you choose to post about, talk to your audience. Ask them questions, start conversations and engage with their responses, showing them that there is a human side to your brand. This will make you more relatable and inspire a level of trust, giving them confidence that you will be there to support them.

3. Make your brand more human

Carrying on from the last point, when you talk to your audience you want to be relatable and memorable. Think about who you’re talking to and your ideal type of customer. How do they speak? Do they use slang or dialects? Are they serious or playful? Upbeat or calm?

If you’re going to engage your audience and stand out in their minds, then you’ll want to talk in a way that resonates with them. This all comes down to two things; defining your target audience and then using that to establish a tone of voice. You can then control the way you speak to shape the way your brand and messages are perceived.

Once you know how your brand would talk if it were a human, keep it consistent. This is key to creating your overall personality and establishing that all-important trust, but also for making your brand memorable and engaging. Some brands have such a strong tone of voice that we can instantly recognise them without their name or logo attached.

Skittles is a fantastic example of how to socialise with your audience using a powerful and engaging tone of voice. From rainbows and sweets to thoughts about grammar and aliens, the Skittles X feed is full of the weird and wonderful. They know their tone of voice, and they own it.

4. Create shareable content

Once you have an engaged audience, they can help you reach even more people by sharing your content. Shareable content can come in the form of blogs, videos and social posts, and when people hit the share button, they help to raise awareness and inspire trust in your brand for their family and friends.

Infographics are great for this, focusing on visual representations that use colours, images and bold text that make your content easy to skim. This is essential for social media and blogs when people don’t have time to read text-heavy articles, still allowing them to get the general picture.

When you use infographics, you’re informing your audience in a way that’s fun and engaging. This will increase the chances of your existing audience hitting “share”, increasing your visibility and tapping into a wider audience. Plus, it gives your audience something back in return, which links in with that social aspect of your brand.

5. Deliver a great customer experience

One thing that all the above have in common is creating a fantastic customer experience at every touchpoint. SEO makes you easier to find, showing up when your customers need you most. When you socialise with your audience using the right tone of voice, you make them feel seen and heard. And by creating shareable content, you’re giving them something more than just a sales pitch.

All of this translates to brand advocacy, with your audience spreading the word about your products and services for you. As more people engage with your tweets, share your content and talk about how amazing their experience has been, even more people will gradually become aware of your existence.