Building a new business can seem like a never-ending uphill battle. Perhaps one of the hardest aspects of building a new business is simply getting your name out there in front of the right people. After all, people can’t patronize your business if they don’t know it exists!
While building your brand awareness might seem like an impossible task, it can be achieved through the use of branded content. Here’s what you need to know:
What Is Brand Awareness and Why Does It Matter?
Brand awareness relates to how well your brand is known and recognized within your target audience group. For instance, someone may recognize your brand name, logo, slogan, or marketing message. All of these different factors play into brand awareness.
People are unlikely to purchase products or services from brands that they’re unfamiliar with, making brand awareness an extremely important component of building a successful business.
That being said, brand awareness isn’t something that you can simply build overnight. Instead, it takes time and effort over a period of time to get your name out there and start to convert customers as a result.
In addition to increasing conversions, brand awareness can also help you build a level of trust that’s necessary for a successful business. Furthermore, you can also begin to associate your brand with its field and relevant products.
What Is Branded Content and How Does It Work?
Branded content allows your brand to stand out from the competition with meaningful and relevant content. In an online environment that constantly sees a deluge of product advertisements, branded content is a nice break from this.
Instead of focusing on specific products, branded content focuses on the values of the brand itself. As a result, branded content is focused on impressions and engagement rather than sales and conversions.
The overall goal of branded content is to generate conversation about and understanding of the brand. Oftentimes, brands use emotional appeals in order to do this. Engaging with the audience through storytelling methods may also be effective.
Overall, branded content is designed to be more organic and natural rather than invasive and annoying. Furthermore, it is designed to create an emotional connection with the audience through a presentation that promotes engagement, loyalty, and a positive association.
How Does Branded Content Build Brand Awareness?
As you can see, branded content is the perfect method to help you build brand awareness. Branded content is genuine, engaging, and tells the story of your brand. Brand awareness needs to be positive and noteworthy in order to make a lasting impression with your target audience. These two concepts go hand-in-hand and can help you build a brand that everyone knows and loves.
Branded Content Best Practices That Will Build Brand Awareness
Branded content draws a clear distinction from other types of marketing content. As a result, you may have to totally overhaul your content creation in order to develop this specific type of content. Rest assured, your efforts and investment will be worth it at the end of the day when you’re able to build brand awareness that is priceless.
Here are some best practices to help you develop effective branded content that will help you build brand awareness:
Utilize Multiple Mediums and Channels
If you want your branded content to be successful, you need to take advantage of various mediums and channels to get your name out there.
For instance, you can use videos on dedicated platforms like YouTube. You could also host a live event on a social media platform like Facebook or Instagram.
At the end of the day, make sure that your mediums are engaging and your target audience easily accesses your platforms.
Build Consumer Trust
If you want to build trust through your branded content, you need to show positive reviews and experiences. Consumers place a huge value on reviews and testimonials, so make sure that you have them and use them correctly.
For instance, you can go beyond a simple written five-star review and use things like video reviews and testimonials that are more meaningful and engaging.
Take a Stand
If you want to build brand awareness successfully, you also need to promote your brand values. Your brand values relate to what you care about and stand for as a brand. In this case, you may need to take a stand regarding specific issues that you care about.
This doesn’t necessarily mean that you have to be overtly political or make a statement about every single issue out there. Instead, pick a few different issues that you care about and include this in your branded content. For instance, you could care about the environment, homelessness, education, etc.
Avoid Comparisons
If you want to build brand awareness, then you need to focus solely on yourself — not your competitors. As a result, you should avoid mentioning competitors or utilizing side-by-side comparison methods within branded content.
Instead, focus on what makes you different in terms of your values and offerings rather than mentioning competitors by name.
Other Ways to Build Brand Awareness
While branded content is definitely a great way to build brand awareness, there are also other avenues to consider. As you now know, achieving your brand awareness goals isn’t something that can happen overnight. Instead, you may need to pursue several different avenues over a period of time in order to see real results.
Here are some other ways that you can build brand awareness for your business:
Build Your Social Media Presence
You don’t necessarily have to pay for advertisements on social media in order to be effective on these platforms. Instead, you can focus on organic growth through things like contests, engaging content, branded hashtags, etc.
Make sure to have a presence on any and all relevant platforms depending on your target audience, including things like Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, TikTok, and Snapchat.
Partner With Influencers
If you’re still not crazy about the idea of paying for artificial and oftentimes annoying advertisements on social media to build your brand awareness, you should consider partnering with influencers.
This is a more natural and authentic way to build brand awareness by utilizing the network of influencers within your field. You can offer incentives or payments to influencers for their time and effort.
Work With Experts
Building up your brand awareness by yourself can seem like a full-time job on its own. As a new or small business owner, you have tons of other things to worry about. By working with marketing experts like Greg Gillman, you’re able to focus on more important things with the peace of mind that those with the knowledge and expertise are handling your marketing strategy to get your branded content out there in front of the right eyes.
Wrap Up
There are so many things to focus on when building a brand so it’s easy to neglect brand awareness. However, doing so could prove to be a costly mistake for your brand. Instead of spending your valuable time worrying about brand awareness specifically and marketing more generally, outsource these areas to a reputable and experienced marketing expert like Greg Gillman.
Sources:
The Importance of Brand Awareness | Small Business Chron
Branded Content: The What, Why, When, and How | Medium
Taking A Stand: How Brands Are Tackling Social Issues | Forbes
