10 ways to increase your Brand Awareness in 2024

Building your brand is a long-term marketing objective and should be approached as such. Prospective customers can't purchase from you if they don’t know that you exist so you should be undertaking brand awareness as part of your overall long-term marketing strategy. Increasing your brand awareness broadens your reach, makes advertising and marketing campaigns more effective & successful and contributes to the overall growth of your business.

Whether it's via events, social media, e-mail advertising, or a mix of the tactics below, firstly, you need to make it crystal clear what you do and also why your target should consider you as opposed to your competitors. Potential consumers have a vast variety of options—and increasing your brand awareness will certainly help to keep you top of mind when they’re close to making a purchase.

There are many ways to increase the awareness of your small business…here are 10 effective tactics that you can implement, as part of your overall marketing strategy.

1. Brand Basics

First and foremost you need a distinctive brand identity with a clear, concise value proposition (a succinct line on what you do, offer and to who).

From your logo design, to your content, potential clients need to be able to quickly comprehend what you do and also associate your brand with your services and products. Imagine a caveman coming across your site – would he ‘get’ what you do, within 5 seconds? If folks are puzzled and/or don't get what you do, you need to work on improving how you’re selling and articulating your brand and what you offer.

2. Consistent marketing.

You need to consistently show up. People are only going to be searching you out if they’re close to a purchase and you’ve done all the marketing legwork to be familiar to them and therefore you make it onto their consideration list. That means that you need to be regularly promoting yourself and getting yourself in front of your potential audience. Just putting yourself out there once isn’t enough – the chances of them seeing the odd one is slim. The average number of interactions with a brand, prior to any chance of a purchase, used to be 7. But In today’s cluttered, multi-channel world, industry data suggests that in 2020, that exposure is likely to be up to 20 times before you have a chance of them buying from you.

Social media star Gary Vaynerchuk goes as far as saying that marketers should be creating 100 pieces of content a day.

Now whilst that’s ridiculously beyond the means of most every-day businesses, you should look for different, creative and unique ways to be regularly getting your brand name and service in front of your prospective clients. Identifying the places where they ‘hang out’ and promoting your brand there, and providing interesting content, so that you have a chance of being top of mind when they’re ready to purchase.

3. Blog writing.

Writing blogs that are genuinely helpful, interesting and engaging will not only drive people to your site, but also keep them there. Which is what google is looking for in its algorithms.

Your blogs can then also be repurposed into other types of content, such as standalone posts, videos or infographics. The key when creating content is quality not quantity. Create things that people really, truly find helpful or interesting. And that may require some advance planning on what problems you’re solving for people, how you solve them and the key messages that will resonate.

4. Networking & Events.

Sometimes you just can’t beat those face-to-face interactions that happen when you organise an event. You get to connect with existing and potential customers in ways that just aren't feasible online. Face-to-face interactions can, and do, generate trust and familiarity and create ‘warmer’ leads than you could ever achieve using remote channels & media.

5. Strategic partnerships & collaborations.

You can increase your brand reach by combining mutually beneficial audiences; finding other brands that complement your product or service and developing a partnership. I work with an elite Sports Physio clinic and one strategy we've adopted, to help grow reach and brand awareness, is to partner with local grass-roots sports clubs in the area. We've developed official partnerships and offered preferential rates to club members once a partnership's in place. The partnership provides local club members with an elite-level physio service and medical pathway at a discounted rate, whilst the clinic gains direct access to everyday athletes. Win-Win.

Consider businesses that you could partner with to enhance your offering or that would complement your services. And then reach out to ask them.

If you offer website services, you could partner with strategic marketers, or SEO companies, or content creators…the opportunities are endless.

6. Community Connections.

One of the activities that can really give a business the edge, is connecting with the local community. By getting involved in local community events, talks, sponsorships etc, giving talks and participating where possible, you’re making human connections and creating relationships that help to not only build awareness & trust in your brand, but also give back to the community.

7. Social media activity.

Regular posting on your social media sites is a requisite these days, especially when 77.9% of the UK population use social media (with the 25-34’s being the largest group (Jan 2021). However, social media posting can often drag you down a spiralling, mind-boggling rabbit hole, so it could well be worth paying someone else to create your social media posts. The main things to remember when creating social media posts (again linking back to your planning) are; is your audience on this platform, are you using the right hashtags & and are you making it worth reading? Before you embark on a social media strategy, ensure you’re focusing your time and effort in the right directions, focusing on the right people, in the right place, with the right messages. Over time, you should see the fruits of your labour as you’ll have built a relationship with people and helped generate not only awareness, but trust, authority and expertise, helping to convert those prospects in customers.

8. Paid and Earned media.

With the increased popularity of social media sites, business owners often disregard (or simply forget about) paid and earned media, these are two options that can be extremely effective at increasing your brand awareness. Working hard on your PR efforts to guest blog, be a thought leader in your industry and reaching out to relevant influencers can all help grow your brand and reach your audience.

9. Email Campaigns.

Emailing is one of the most successful channels for ROI and delivering new business. In fact, the Direct Marketing Association (DMA) recently reported that ROI from email marketing now stands at just over £42 for every pound spent; a rise of almost £10 since the previous study,

It costs virtually nothing (except time) to write and send out a monthly email, but the hard work is in creating an audience for that email campaign. Emailing is a way to keep in touch with people once they’ve already been exposed to your brand, so it’s not technically a ‘top of funnel’ awareness activity as you’ve already got their email address. It’s more of an engagement and interest activity. However, people are busy, and may often ‘forget’ about you if you don’t regularly pop into their inbox. Email allows you to directly keep in touch with people, keeping your brand and business in front of them, reminding them of what you do and how you can help them, until that time comes for them to need your products or services.

10. Testimonials/Word of mouth/Referral programs.

Enable and help satisfied clients to promote your business via reviews and testimonials. Build case studies. And why not reward them for any referrals? A referral is generally cheaper than acquiring a new, cold prospect via other channels, so it’s another win-win opportunity. Encourage your customers to tell their friends about you, and send out a link for a review, to make it easy, once they’ve had a good experience with you. Those positive reviews will then help convert other potential prospects into actual paying customers.

Brand Awareness isn’t achieved by luck or accident. To get your brand and business noticed, you need to work on your brand awareness. Without a good level of brand awareness, none of the other aspects of your marketing will be performing as well as they could. Brand Awareness is the first stage of the marketing/sales funnel, which is also the customers’ psychological decision-making process, when someone is considering making a purchase.

If you're thinking of your 2024 marketing needs, and your small business needs a robust marketing plan, content strategy or brand help - contact Sally on 07970 483 026 or email sally@marketingdoneinaday.com.