Why build brand awareness? When you focus on being helpful and building trust, people will have a positive perception of your brand — and be more likely to buy from you. And letting customers choose you on their own terms is much better than just telling them how great your business is!

In this post, we’ve explained why branding matters and provided four ways to guide people to become familiar with your brand.

Why does branding matter?

Branding is the marketing practice of creating a name, logo, design, or other visual elements that help consumers identify your business. For 32% of marketing professionals, visual branding is their most important content.

If people are attracted to your products or services (or even the tone or design you choose), this may compel them to buy from you. 21% of customers will purchase a product if the brand makes a good impression on them. And once a prospect knows about your brand, they’ll recognize it later on and even seek it out. In fact, 60% of shoppers look for and buy brands they’re familiar with.

In short, branding can lead to purchases, preference for your product or service, brand loyalty, and even online reviews or personal recommendations.

Build brand awareness with:

1. Content Marketing

When prospects search online for the answer to a question, they may turn to awareness content, like blogs or how-to videos. Awareness content highlights a problem someone may have — and how they can solve it. Creating blogs, videos, or quizzes lets you provide guidance and tips, or empathize with common pain points.

Writing and designing awareness content will position your brand as a helpful guide, not just another business with a sales pitch. Rather than talking about how great your company is, you’ll build trust and establish credibility with your readers or viewers. 

Awareness content also gives you the chance to show off your brand’s personality and position on certain topics. With more than 500 million blogs on 1.7 billion websites, it’s worth it to make your branding and tone stand out!

2. Social Media Ads

Another great way to help customers get to know you is through social media. When you share helpful articles and respond to users’ questions, more people can become familiar with your authentic brand.

But since Facebook’s most recent algorithm update, only 0.5% of your followers will see your organic (non-paid) posts. So while posting to your page is great for building brand loyalty with current customers, you’ll need another tactic to reach prospects: paid ads.

Social media ads are an inexpensive way to target specific groups of people who are most likely to engage with your business. You can also lead people to the awareness blogs and videos on your website by promoting them through Facebook ads. This will help you reach potential customers with relevant content — and little to no effort on their part.

3. Google Listings & Reviews

When people for a product or service on Google, 75% of them won’t scroll past the first page of results. But if you claim your Google My Business listing, you could be one of those first results in local searches from potential customers. 

Claiming your Google listing is free, and it can help you get great exposure in your community — boosting local brand awareness. It’s also pretty painless to claim your listing; check out this blog post for the steps you’ll take.

Once you’ve set up Google My Business, ask current customers for feedback. And don’t forget to respond to both positive and negative reviews! This will help you build brand loyalty with happy customers — and possibly mend relationships with the less-than-satisfied ones. And since 85% of consumers trust online reviews of a brand as much as personal recommendations, potential customers might see your positive reviews and give your business a try. 

4. Graphic Design

By designing strategic visual elements, you can help customers get familiar with your brand and prompt them to take action. You’ll also create a great first impression and introduce people to your brand with graphic design: your website, ads, logos, and so on. Graphic design has its roots in color psychology and strives to express certain ideas or values. 

Think about a few of the most popular brands and their logos. For example, Apple’s white logo evokes modern simplicity; Target’s red bullseye represents its exciting sales; and PayPal’s blue logo expresses secure money transfers. 

While not everyone will interpret the exact same meaning when looking at these visual elements, the brands are instantly recognizable for most people. They’re also effective in calling prospects to action: to invest in modern technology (Apple), take advantage of low prices (Target), and to transfer money safely (PayPal).

Building a consistent (and lovable!) visual brand will help you raise awareness of your organization and attract your best customers.

Many business owners and marketing pros aren’t sure where to begin when it comes to strategic branding. Learning about color psychology — and how to incorporate it into your marketing plan — is a great starting point.

Our marketing protocol has been proven to help companies make more money, filter bad advice, free up time, and eliminate the worry of following ineffective planning.

Treefrog Marketing is a marketing agency focused on small business and located in Lafayette, Indiana. We specialize in strategic marketing and advertising, graphic design, web design, social media, SEO, and more. For more information, please visit our website. You can also connect with us on Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, and Instagram.