8 Practical Ways to Build Brand Awareness in 2021

Building brand awareness is not only crucial for start-ups but also for established companies. Brands with an established strong brand awareness may be described as “popular” or “on trend” with a universal audience or a specific demographic. Either way, brand awareness is considered the #1 goal for marketers across businesses of all verticals and sizes, big or small, no matter what. If people don’t know who you are, how can they buy your services or products? They can’t.

Let's dig deep into the following:

What is brand awareness?

Brand awareness is a metric of how well people recognise a brand or business by its name, logo, or other defining feature. It is crucial because it is the first stage of the user's journey to becoming a customer. So, making people aware of your brand, products, or services makes you more likely to generate revenue. And learning how to grow your brand can position your business for success, but you might not know where to start. That’s where this guide comes in.

What are the benefits of brand awareness?

Brand awareness can have tangible effects on your business performance. Creating an informed and consistent brand awareness campaign can provide the following benefits.

Brand awareness increases trust

Trust is the currency of the 21st century. Consumers rely on recommendations and online reviews. They research the opinions about a brand, product, or service and base their decisions on the research. And so, brand awareness campaigns help you build consumers’ trust. In other words, brand awareness bonds customers to your brand. Customer loyalty has a direct impact on your sales and revenue.

Brand awareness builds your brand equity

Brand equity measures a brand’s value. Brand equity is directly related to brand awareness. Brand equity is not only determined by the number of tangible assets the company has. You also have to take into account brand reputation. Positive associations can raise your brand equity. That’s why it is crucial to build positive brand awareness.

Brand awareness helps you reach your target audiences

Reaching the right people at the right time is the key to success. Brand awareness is an integral factor not only in brand building but also in increasing your consumers base.

8 ways to build brand awareness in 2021

Here are our tried and tested marketing strategies you can use to build brand awareness for your brand:

Optimise your content for search engines

According to Search Engine Watch, the top listing on Google’s organic search receives 33% of the traffic, the second position gets 18%, and it only degrades from there. If you want to build brand awareness via SEO, you need to know what your audience is looking for and what their touchpoints are? Tools like SEMrush or Ahrefs will help you find the right keywords.

SEO is not only about implementing keyword research on your website or blog. There are technical aspects of your website, such as loading speed which needs to be optimised. The faster the page loads, the better. It all has an impact on your position in Google or any other search engine.

Start a robust referral program

Referral programs are a great way to spread the word about your brand, product, or service around. A well-executed referral program can bring substantial value to your company and boost your brand recognition.

Referral programs will boost your marketing efforts and give you the endorsements you need to build a strong brand. Referral programs can help you reach new customers that would otherwise be unaware of your product.

Partner with local businesses

Another considerable brand-building tactic is to get involved with local businesses for partnerships. Building a global reach can be your dream, but you might get more conversion if you focus on the local market, at least in the beginning. A coffee house can team up with a local bakery, a fashion brand with shoemakers, a women’s clothing retailer with a hair salon and a wedding venue with a florist.

Leverage remarketing campaigns

Remarketing is a pro strategy for boosting that good ol’ brand awareness. Why? Remarketing involves showing ads to users who visited your site but left before converting. It is like watching a tv commercial and then seeing the same one (or a similar one) the next day. You’re more likely to remember the brand. The main aim of a remarketing campaign for brand awareness is ‘not’ to broadcast your message to new audiences but to strengthen your message among your existing potential client base. It takes several touchpoints to convert a client, and a remarketing ad is a perfect one.

Cooperate with social media influencers

Influencer marketing is a type of content marketing that implies collaboration between an influencer and a B2C or B2B business. Quite often, such collaboration involves co-creation of the content, which is a powerful solution because influencers can tailor your content to the preferences of their audience.

Did you know that 61% of consumers have at some point been swayed in their decision-making by digital influencers? Partnering with social media influencers can help you reach consumers you’d otherwise miss. Influencers can help you legitimise your message with their authority via content distribution. So, choosing the right influencers for your business is the key to success.

Use video storytelling to engage your audiences

Video storytelling is a marketing strategy that uses the power of video to tell a story about a company, product, service, or person. By 2022, 82% of consumer internet traffic will come from videos. As digital marketing evolves, we continue to see trends favouring video! Here are some staggering video marketing statistics for 2021.

Create compelling Infographics

Infographics are a bright and colourful way to display crucial marketing data and statistics. These content powerhouses often get shared far and wide, making them an excellent choice for brand building and thought leadership. According to the content marketing survey conducted by Venngage, about 40% of marketers said they found infographics to be the most engaging form of content and used it frequently in their marketing. Educate your audience about your business, products or services with compelling infographics, explaining high-level concepts visually!

Build brand awareness on social media

Well optimised social media channels can do wonders.

Claiming that almost everyone is now on social media is not an exaggeration. There is no such thing today as brand awareness without social media. There are currently 3.6 billion people worldwide on social media, and the number rises every year.

The popularity of social media is a blessing because you can get your message to new audiences relatively easy and at a wicked price. Social channels make it easy to share content, which means one person can show your content to their friends and family. You are reaching a new audience almost effortlessly.

But on the other hand, it means that the competition is fierce. Your message needs to stand out from the crowd to get traction from your potential customers and existing audience.

Conclusion - Grow your brand, grow your business!

In a nutshell, Brand awareness isn’t necessarily a strategy built to sell products. Instead, it focuses on promoting the company as a whole so that consumers instantly think of your brand when looking for products that you provide or suggesting services to friends and family. And, understanding how to grow your brand can make your business succeed faster and more efficiently.

At Hanabi, we’re passionate about building brands the right way. No shortcuts, gimmicks, or black-hat strategies. Instead, we help our partners build their brands organically.

Ready to roll your brand awareness to the next level? Get in touch.