A major source of customers’ willingness to pay more for a product depends on brand awareness. Nearly half of Americans recently polled said they would pay more for a product made by a trusted brand. Is your company looking for effective ways to increase brand awareness?
Growing a brand requires following tested branding tips. Read on to learn how thriving, successful brands reached their goals with these eight steps.
1. Build Your Brand Voice
Until you properly build your brand, you will have a difficult time developing brand awareness. First, you have to know what your brand represents and what it stands for.
Part of that early brainstorming includes researching brand voice. What is the tone that you want to set: formal or casual? Or maybe you need to decide between cheeky or not.
Brand Tone
The tone can vary between mediums. For example, your PR releases may be formal in tone, but your social media posts are comical. Your company’s voice and tone could even change between social media platforms like TikTok and Instagram.
Whatever tone your team goes with, you can make your brand voice consistent by using related keywords and phrases. In other words, stick to the same style guide, and you’ll be consistent.
Visual Branding
Your brand aesthetic should also be part of the early stages of planning your brand’s voice. Think of visual elements like color, font, and graphic design choices.
Values
While tone and visual cues determine how you sound and look, your brand values define what you are. Don’t skimp on establishing a set of brand values. In fact, it’s one of the most important components of any recognizable brand.
Values shouldn’t come from superficial gestures like one-off charity events and the like. Rather, define what matters to your company, and make sure everyone, from customers to employees, sees that your company is living up to those values.
2. Tell a Story
Civilizations formed around stories as much as they did around technological developments like agriculture. While some storytelling elements relate to things we have talked about in this article, true storytelling gives your brand a unique voice in ways that other branding efforts simply can’t.
How powerful is a good origin story? Think about the mythology that surrounds modern-day superheroes or founders of religions. All had a unique and powerful story to tell.
Your brand story may focus on a problem facing society and how your founders went about addressing those systemic issues. Or, a larger business may want to posit a mix of history and mission statements.
While every brand technically has a story, a great brand awareness campaign focuses on how to tell that story to the broader public. This is where the power of narrative comes in.
You can capitalize on the power of narrative by showcasing stories related to your company. For example, you can start a blog or magazine that tells the stories of how your company’s products changed the lives of customers. Or you can use key milestone moments to remind the public about where your company has been and where it is going.
3. Create Value
Is your company creating value beyond producing your product? If not, you may be missing an opportune way to build long-term brand awareness. Value comes from understanding ways to entertain, inform, and educate your followers and clients.
You can leverage your team’s specialized expertise. If you have an amazing team member who understands blogging, podcasting, or YouTubing, use those skills to deliver added value to your customers.
The idea is more than just about making direct sales. Rather, you are using your team’s talents to build long-term relationships that can help you grow your audience. A greater audience means greater brand awareness.
Many companies produce films or print publications that don’t directly add profit to the company’s bottom line. Those endeavors are long-term investments that build brand awareness.
4. Make It Shareable
No one can predict what content will go viral, but companies can take steps to make posts more sharable. These steps may include collaborating with others on Instagram posts or using trending hashtags on Twitter. Or you may want to tag like-minded accounts that have an interest in promoting themselves and your product.
Simple steps in this include optimizing your social media posts and SEO-optimized press releases. It is also important to create content that followers want to share, not necessarily what you want them to share.
It is a delicate balancing act that requires a blend of flexibility and a collaborative spirit. When in doubt, tag a friend.
5. Make It Community Centered
In today’s online world, it’s easy to forget that not everything brand-related happens online. Important outlets remain, like real life where corporate donations, showing up at community events and looping in community stakeholders matter.
All gestures, great and small, matter here. You can think big, like being the marquee sponsor of an event or small. Whatever you decide, setting aside a significant budget can show your hometown that you care about the community.
6. Offer Freebies
Have you ever thought about offering your supporter something of value at a, wait for it, freemium? Everyone loves a freebie!
Everyone loves a freebie. Try offering something at no cost so you can sway skeptical customers who may potentially try or buy your product. This step can also build buzz about your brand.
Whether it’s a free sample, a free trial, or a “freemium” business model, a free taste of what you offer helps get people in the door and spreads awareness of your brand.
What’s the difference between a free trial and a freemium? One of the added benefits of giving something of value away for free is that you can engender authentic support from your followers. The giveaways don’t have to be open-ended.
You can offer a trial version of your service. Who doesn’t love a free 7 day, 14 day, or month-long trial? Offering a basic version of your service for free indefinitely can give an option to spendthrift supporters that still delivers the opportunity for paid advertising.
7. Social Media Contests
These contests might seem kitschy, but the aim is to create brand awareness in an easily accessible fashion. Yes, there will be free stuff, but the giveaway process is what matters here. A successful social media contest delivers more eyes on your brand, and that benefits your social media presence and the number of followers.
One popular option is the “tag-a-friend” model that promises an amazing gift if you are so selected. By tagging friends, your followers are alerting non-followers of who you are and what you do.
For content creators, it’s a gold mine of opportunities. Another added benefit is the potential to grow your audience size.
8. Be a Person, Not a Product
When you meet a new friend or romantic partner, what do you enjoy learning about them? You probably love learning about their interests, passions, likes, and dislikes. Those are the same types of interests you should think about when promoting your brand.
if you are looking to leave an impact on your followers, define yourself by more than what you sell or how you sell it. Be a person, not a product. Think about the emotion-laden words you would use to define yourself to a friend.
We all benefit from social contact and time together. That is how we stay connected and learn new things. It is no different for your brand.
To raise awareness of your band, try being social. Be willing to make posts on social media that may even be unrelated to your services or product.
If you only interact with your customer as a product, that is all you will ever be to them. The same relationship dynamics play out between people.
Show that you are genuine by interacting with your followers by commenting on posts or resharing other people’s content. In other words, treat those platforms like you would if you were using them for personal and not always professional reasons where you are solely trying to make money.
Learn More Tricks to Increase Brand Awareness
Are you looking to increase brand awareness while increasing ROI on your press releases? Our private database includes 1.7 million established writers and journalists. By working without veteran PR experts, you can ensure that your releases do not end up in the dreaded spam box.
Ready to improve your company’s reach and brand recognition? Contact eReleases today so we can give your company the public visibility it deserves.