It’s sheer psychology at play that people are more inclined to buying from brands they know about than from those they have not heard about.
Imagine walking into a plush multi-brand clothing store.
You see apparels from the best of brands on display. You recognize some brands and it’s a normal tendency to walk up to those sections where you see the brands you know.
The brands you haven’t heard about may actually have a better selection to offer for a lesser price but you’d probably look through them because you hold the ones you recognise in higher esteem.
The same is the story online. With myriad brands vying for your attention in the online marketplace, growing brand awareness is the key if you want to get noticed. And, how do you build brand awareness?
Content writing and distribution is the answer. But first, let’s get down to the basics.
What is Brand Awareness?
Aren’t you instantly able to recognise some brands just by seeing their logos? The answer would be an affirmative.
Just yesterday, you drove down to a busy road and noticed a big yellow ‘M’ staring at you from a distance. Your eyes gleamed up because you knew McDonald’s was approaching.
Likewise, you are able to instantly identify the manufacturer of cars by just glancing at their logos.
Have you seen the social media hits by Amul?
Or new Mr. & Mrs. webseries by Girliyapa? If yes, Bosh received the brand awareness worth 14M video views for it’s Dish Washer, a new offering in India.
Recalling and recognizing a brand when you think of any product or service associated with it or when you look at its logo is called brand awareness. It is the level of familiarity consumers have with a brand like its name, characteristics, logo or anything else that is strongly associated with it.
A purchase decision is strongly influenced by a consumer’s ability to recall a brand. Brand awareness is also the primary consideration when it comes to ascertaining consumer behaviour, strategy development, advertising management, and brand management.
When you grow the awareness for your brand, you are helping a consumer or a prospect get acquainted about it or its offerings. Building a brand awareness campaign strategy is critical especially during the early days of a brand’s existence and growth.
What Is Content Writing and Distribution About?
The success of a brand is not only because of a brilliant idea no one else could think of. Also, pumping in money to boost ads to your customers is the clear solution.
Well, here’s the deal.
Creativity is the essence.
While it is critical to have a content strategy in place, it is creativity that actually helps you stand out in the crowd and get noticed. You don’t need to copy what other brands are doing to get noticed. It probably worked for them for some xyz reasons but that doesn’t mean the same methods can work for you.
Step into the shoes of your potential customer and think what kind of content you’d expect from a brand such as yours.
Does anything about it excite you?
What would you look forward to from its offerings?
Does the logo or any of its characteristics intrigue you enough to want to pause and catch another glimpse?
The logo looks pretty out-of-the-box. How does it relate to the brand in question?
So much for the creativity of content and ensuring your message gets conveyed the right way to the target audience. Next, the distribution of content is important.
There’s no point in writing amazing content if it doesn’t reach your audience the right way. Content distribution needs a strategy too. You need to know whether your content is reaching the right audience. If you want to increase brand awareness or get ROI on your content, you need to push it on to the screens of your relevant audience.
What posts should go where and how must you time each to maximise eyeballs should all be a part of your content distribution strategy. There are three content distribution platforms – owned, paid and earned.
- Owned Media – channels controlled by your brand like your website, mobile site, blog, social media accounts
- Paid Media – channels you pay for to get a leverage like paid search, display ads and sponsorships
- Earned Media – when customers become the medium for boosting your brand awareness such as word of mouth publicity and viral content that spreads (shared) like wildfire.
While owned and paid media mean an investment, it is earned media that has a higher potential for propelling engagement and boosting traffic.
This is exactly the point I am trying to make about interesting/creative content scoring high.
10 Best Ways That Answer ‘How to Increase Brand Awareness’
Companies today have building brand awareness as one of their primary goals. They want their target audience to know sooner about them than in the normal course of things. Read on to know what can help you achieve your goal!
1. A Strong Narrative Works!
Give a good thought to the content and the message you intend to convey through the voice of your brand. If it appeals to or touches the cords of your audience, your job is half done. Such content is more like to be shared on various platforms than any other.
2. Guest Blogging Gets You Traffic
Two-way content partnerships can bring your brand to the forefront and gets your word out faster. By writing guest posts, you are actually leveraging the audiences of other sites to build your brand awareness. Writing guest posts on the blogs or media sites your prospects visit is a great way to grow your brand.
3. Using Instagram Stories to Get Eyeballs
Posting stories on Instagram is a rage today in both B2B and B2C segments. It’s the best way to provide targeted content to the audience and grow your brand awareness. Showcase your products or services in a sequence of Instagram stories that stay for a 24-hour period before getting wiped out automatically. Use features like Boomerang and slow motion to draw attention to your posts.
4. Make Sharing Quick and Simple
The advent of social media has made it possible to increase brand awareness like never before. Your audience will not shy away from sharing what they like to read. Use share links generously in your content to help your audience and followers share it in their networks quickly. Give them a variety of options of sharing it on chat apps, social media, and email.
5. Infographics Instantly Catch the Eye
The best way to capture interesting data and statistics and present them to your audience is with the use of infographics. Being a powerhouse of content, these pictorial depictions are educative and make it easy for the audience to absorb information. In addition, they are most likely to attract shares on the social media. If your patrons or prospects like and follow your infographics, it automatically becomes a part of your brand identity.
6. Paid Social Advertising
Social media platforms like Facebook and Twitter have a mindboggling reach and have a great potential of getting your content across to the target audience. Sponsored advertisements on Facebook and Twitter need you to shell out money but they still work economical on the budget. Manage the way your ad shows to the audience, set the preferences and review the metrics periodically to gain valuable insights into audience behaviour.
7. Cut the Sales Pitch and Metamorphose into a Valuable Resource
If you have the knowledge and expertise, why not share it with others and add value and credibility to your brand? If you can become a trusted resource for your audience, you’ve come a long way in your content marketing efforts. Gone are the days when marketers could use a cut-and-thrust sales pitch in their content. In the current times, you have to provide a value addition to your buyers and prospects.
8. Initiate Promotional Partnerships with Other Brands
Starting a promotional partnership with a brand that is in some way connected to your offerings in the supply chain can actually skyrocket your brand awareness. However, you must choose your promotional partners wisely, making sure it adds value to the purchase decisions of your clientele.
9. Contests on Social Media
Social media is a craze among people of all age groups and people spend a lot of time surfing through the feeds and often contributing to them. If it’s a contest, they are more likely to be game to participate in it. Use your social media channels to create contests and engage your audience.
When someone from your target audience submits a photo or video and his/her friends vote for it, you are actually engaging not just your followers but also opening doors to new connections.
Sounds like an awesome idea, eh?
10. Sponsor Public Events
Quite an effective way to create brand awareness! Sporting events, charitable events or social fundraisers are the best places to put your brand in the spotlight by using your company logo and name for a contribution in cash or kind.
Now, you may ask what role content writing has to play in sponsoring such events? Well, it does have. Post about your contribution as updates on social media and reveal your philanthropic side to your target audience by telling them about such acts of goodwill. From your existing customers, the word about you is very likely to spread to others.
In Conclusion
With so much competition in the online marketplace, it’s important to use content as a powerful tool to get noticed. People are not interested in reading content with a preaching tone or one that carries advice they already know.
Get creative.
Use catch-phrases and come up with interesting jargons that have the ability to trend on social media channels. When such jargon becomes synonymous with your brand, it only means the brand awareness strategy you have been employing is successful.
