Building brand awareness involves making people familiar with your company. This familiarity can be key to winning over future customers - most consumers are more likely to choose a company they’ve already heard of/seen over a company they’ve had no previous exposure to.
There are many different ways in which you can build brand awareness. Below are 10 of the most effective ways to get your brand noticed.
Advertising on social media is one of the best ways to build brand awareness online. The average person spends 2 hours and 24 minutes on social media per day. As we scroll through our feeds, we are exposed to hundreds of adverts.
Of course, not all of these adverts make an impression on us, which is why it’s important to create an advert that stands out. Video content is the most likely type of content to get noticed on most platforms. A video production company can help you to produce a high quality video that grabs people’s attention as they’re scrolling.
Typically, the most engaging videos are those that are quite short and don’t rely too heavily on sound (the likes of Facebook automatically mutes ads).
While grabbing people’s attention is vital, it’s also key to make sure that your branding is prominent. Most image/video adverts shared on social media have a logo watermark in the bottom right hand corner. This helps social media users to subliminally memorise your logo.
Targeting the right people on social media is also key, so make sure that you’re using the right platforms and setting the right audience parameters. You could even create different adverts aimed at different platforms and audiences.
Alongside social media, there are many apps that we use that display adverts. These adverts can be another great way to build brand awareness.
In-app adverts can take the form of small banner image adverts or full-screen video adverts. Playable ads are even an option when advertising video games. There are companies that can produce these adverts for you, and separate companies that can help you to target these ads at the right apps.
Users have the option to skip some in-app adverts, so it’s important to make them interesting without being annoying. As with social media adverts, make sure that your logo is prominent in these ads so that people remember it.
You can also build brand awareness online by sponsoring influencers. This involves paying popular social media accounts, YouTubers or bloggers to promote your brand within their content.
Choosing the right influencers to work with is key to building brand awareness. Ideally, you should choose influencers who share a similar audience. For example, if you’re selling a product aimed at young women, you may want to focus on influencers who create content for young women. There are online influencer marketplaces where you can connect with influencers looking for sponsors.
Many people still listen to the radio - be it a local terrestrial radio station or online radio station. And many of these radio stations are paid for largely by adverts. These adverts are unskippable and are a great way to build brand awareness.
Radio adverts are entirely audio based, which means you cannot rely on visual branding ingredients like logos. Instead, a ‘jingle’ is one of the most popular ways to make people remember your company - this involves using a catchy melody to make your brand name, phone number or website address more memorable.
There are several companies that can help you create a radio advert complete with a catchy jingle. Once you’ve created a radio advert, you’ll need to choose a radio station to broadcast it on, as well as working out at which times you plan to air your adverts. Think carefully about your audience when choosing a station and time slot.
When it comes to building brand awareness offline, there are many forms of print advertising worth considering. Flyers and leaflets are one of the most traditional and reliable options.
You can design your flyers using a promotional flyer maker and then print them yourself, or you can hire a flyer printing company for professional-quality production. The latter is recommended if you want your flyers to be high quality or if you want to print off lots of copies.
You can help people remember your brand by integrating your brand colours into the flyer and by clearly displaying your logo. The top left hand corner is the most common place to position a logo on a flyer.
To make sure that the right people are exposed to your brand, consider distributing them in locations where your audience is likely to be found. A common way to distribute flyers and leaflets is to hand them out in person, but you can also mail them through people’s doors or store them in leaflet racks for people to pick up.
Billboards are another effective way to build brand awareness offline. Whereas flyers and leaflets are small and portable, billboards are large and fixed in one place. This could be a static billboard or a video billboard.
The location of a billboard can impact who is likely to look at it and for how long they are likely to look at it. Roadside billboards are typically targeted at drivers and so are often designed to be taken in at a glance. Train station billboards may contrastly contain more information, as people are able to spend more time looking at them while standing waiting for a train.
A graphic designer can help you to design an eye-catching and memorable billboard. A billboard rental company that can display your billboard in select locations.
While not as popular as they used to be, newspapers and magazines are still widely purchased and read. They typically contain space for advertising and can be another way to build brand awareness.
Local newspapers are a great medium for advertising local businesses. Meanwhile, magazines are great for targeting consumers with specific interests (for example, a cycling magazine could be a great place to advertise a fitness product).
When it comes to products that are likely to be displayed on a shelf, visually striking packaging is key to getting noticed and building brand awareness. Branded bags can meanwhile be used to build brand awareness for local shops.
There are companies that can help you to design custom packaging or bags. Logos are typically front and centre on packaging. Make sure to also choose a colour that reflects your brand.
Trade shows can be another way to familiarise people with your brand. These are events in which multiple businesses within a certain industry come together to promote their products/services.
There are graphic designers that specialise in creating banners and booths for trade shows. By integrating your logo and colors, you can help attendees at the trade show remember your brand. Of course, there are other tricks you can also use to stand out, such as giving away promotional products with your logo printed on them.
Finally, you could also consider sponsoring events to help build brand awareness. This involves paying funding towards an event such as a festival, concert or sports event in exchange for displaying posters and banners around the venue.
Posters and banners at these events are typically quite simple - often containing nothing more than your logo or brand name. However, some events may allow you to display more elaborate posters or even video billboards.
To connect with the right audience, choose events that your core audience are likely to attend. For example, some musical concerts may attract a younger audience, while others may have an older audience.