A business can’t succeed without sales. Sales cannot happen unless customers know the business exists. Therefore, to get more sales you must do what you can to make sure your potential customers are aware of your brand. Building a brand identity will give people something to remember when they have a problem you can fix.
What is Brand Awareness?
Brand awareness refers to the percentage of your target market that is familiar enough with your business to know it exists. Brand awareness also implies that customers have a basic knowledge of what goods and services you can provide for them.
Brand awareness has a direct link to your sales. If you have a target marked of 1,000 customers and only 100 of them know you exist, your brand awareness is 10%. If you can increase that number to 200 people, your brand awareness will double. It follows, then, that as more people are aware of you and what you have to offer your sales will begin to rise.
Brand identity relates to the image your customers have of your brand. The look of its logo, the colors it uses, its name, the images it evokes… all of this comes together to form a recognizable picture that sticks in your customer’s minds.
By creating a product that people recognize you can increase awareness of your brand. Customers may walk right by a boring product, but if they relate to the brand’s identity they will be more likely to remember it for later.
How Can You Build Brand Awareness?
Brand awareness is all about being in the places your target market spends time. This could be physical – a billboard on their way to work or a display in a grocery store – or electronic – an ad on their favorite website or a profile on their favorite social network. Understanding your customer’s tastes and habits will help you be a presence in the places they are likely to be.
Younger customers tend to spend much of their time connected to the internet in some way. This could mean browsing on their mobile phones for the nearest Chinese restaurant or interacting with their friends on Facebook. Making your brand known online can be done through optimizing your site to show up high in search engine rankings. Having a presence on social networking sites is also an effective way to get your brand out there.
More conventional forms of advertising can also be effective when making your brand known. Ads on television or in newspapers will be noticed by customers who tend to use these forms of media. Print ads in magazines can go a long way to reaching specific audiences. Do you have a product that will revolutionize the way your customers carry their golf clubs? Get in touch with the advertising departments of golf magazines. There are thousands of niche markets that can be reached this way.
If you have a local business, getting involved with charity events is a great way to build both brand awareness and identity. If your logo is displayed prominently at an event more people will become aware of your business and services. The fact that you are sponsoring a charity event will help customers see your brand as one that gives back, strengthening your identity.
Everything you can do to build your brand awareness can help you increase your sales. Brands with a strong identity will stick in the minds of consumers, but people have to see your brand first to know it exists. While building awareness may not be entirely straightforward, there are many tools at your disposal to make it a success.
