6 Plucky Ways to Build Brand Awareness

When your lips “hurt real bad,” like Napoleon Dynamite’s, you ask for ChapStick, right?

Can you imagine how that scene would have turned out had Napoleon asked Kip to bring him some lip balm? Not funny.

If your mom is talking to you, and you’re ignoring her, her admonition to clean your ears out with cotton swabs doesn’t pack quite the punch that telling you to use a Q-Tip would.

Those brand names are synonymous with the product, even though many different generic brands exist, because the brands have built a name for themselves through brand awareness.

Launching your business successfully in today’s increasingly competitive market means attracting instant recognition of your brand, just like ChapStick and Q-Tips. If your targeted audience does not recognize and favor your brand within months, if not weeks of your launch, your business may not be able to forge the successful future you had envisioned.

Fortunately, you have several tricks up your sleeve when it comes to creative ways to build brand awareness to grow your brand into one your audience will prefer above all others. Using these strategies, you can achieve the success you want and win the loyalty of your customer base.

Identify Your Audience

You cannot win your audience until you properly identify who they are. You may have a product or service that you believe will appeal to one segment of the consumer market, only to realize later that another segment prefers it better.

According to Dayna Hathaway, Sr. Marketing Director at Extra Space Storage:

“In today’s environment, consumers are overwhelmed with information from companies and brands. On top of that, consumers want products and content that is relevant and timely. They want brands that understand how they fit into their lives and illustrate this by providing products that enrich their lives or solve a problem. The successful brands will recognize this environment, take the time to understand their audience and how they can connect with them through both relevant content and products. Once a brand understands this, the ability to increase their brand awareness is much easier because they’ve identified the most effective channels to connect with their audience as well as the best messaging in order to provide unique and relevant content.”

Once you discover who is visiting your website, buying your product, and retaining your services, you can gear your marketing toward them. You will know your audience’s average age, their gender, their income, buying habits, and other details that let you target them better.

For instance, knowing that 85 percent of Pinterest users are women, and that 42 percent of women use Pinterest and only 13 percent of men use it, you wouldn’t want to use Pinterest as a marketing tool if your product or service targets an audience of middle-aged men.

Once you’ve identified your target audience, you can try these 6 ways to build your brand with panache:

Free Stuff

Nobody will pass up a freebie. Nobody. Put your brand name on anything from Kleenex to Frisbees to Hula Hoops to Band-Aids. See what I did there?

Social Media Contests

Another thing people can’t resist is a contest, because there’s a chance they can win something. Ask contestants to submit a photo or video, or an idea that others can vote on. Offer more entries to contestants for sharing and liking — contestants will share with friends and family to get more entries and votes, increasing awareness of your brand in the process.

Matchless Personality

Millions of Internet memes pay homage to the Most Interesting Man in the World, the spokesperson for Dos Equis beer. By giving your brand a unique and fun identity, utilizing humor and injecting your personality where appropriate, you can build a brand name that will live on.

Remarketing Campaigns

A customer visits your site, but leaves before converting. Re-marketing ads are a great way to build brand awareness because the ads will start showing up on all of the sites a customer visits — blogs, news sites, online shopping.

The customer will see your brand name everywhere and think the brand is bigger than it really is.

Influencer Marketing

Finding an influencer whose business can compliment yours, rather than compete with, and using his or her network to promote your brand is also a great way to build valuable partnerships.

Infographics

Using infographics to promote brand awareness is a unique way to show statistics and details. They are bright, colorful, and eye-catching, and are often shared thousands of times on social media. You can use these to share knowledge about your product or service.

Growing your brand quickly can make or break your business’ future success. You can build a sturdy foundation for your company by using these ways to build brand awareness to reach your targeted audience and gain brand recognition.

Image: ChapStick

This article, "6 Plucky Ways to Build Brand Awareness" was first published on Small Business Trends