Have you ever wondered why some brands thrive in social media while others flounder? The answer lies in their ability to build meaningful relationships with consumers through social platforms. Understanding this concept helps you leverage social media channels to drive brand awareness and increase sales.
Social Media Marketing (SMM) has become an essential part of every company’s marketing strategy today. SMM combines multiple methods, such as email, direct mail, display ads, digital advertising, PR, etc., to generate new leads and customers for businesses.
In recent years, social media marketing became extremely influential as more marketers turned from traditional forms of marketing to using social media to connect and interact with potential prospects. This approach helped companies develop valuable customer relationships by building trust within these communities.
Today, social networking sites are free, accessible, and offer a variety of features that enable advertisers to effectively communicate with target audiences.
Social media marketing creates brand recognition and increases profitability. While it may seem daunting at first, this method offers great long-term benefits for businesses. By leveraging Facebook Ads, Instagram Stories, Twitter, Snapchat, LinkedIn, Pinterest, and other platforms you can get the highest ROI services for your clients.
Brands need to create interactive experiences, which include fun, entertaining, informative, personalized, and relevant interactions. The key is to deliver brand awareness through digital channels.
What is brand awareness?
Brand awareness is the ability for consumers to recognize one company’s product name among competitors. A strong brand has the ability to differentiate itself from other brands in the market. If customers cannot identify a brand, they are likely to be loyal to a competitor instead.
Brand awareness is extremely important for any business because when people know about your business they might be interested in buying from you. The easiest way to increase brand awareness is through reputation management.
Reputation management includes monitoring what people say about your company online, responding to negative comments whenever possible, and changing bad reviews into positive ones.
How to build brand awareness through digital channels?
If you want to increase brand awareness, then start making some noise on the internet. Create content that relates to what your business offers, share it across multiple platforms such as Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, LinkedIn, Pinterest, Google+, YouTube, etc., and reach out to influencers who may be interested in hearing about your product.
Brand awareness is important for any business because it helps consumers understand what your product or service offers them. By leveraging digital channels like email, Twitter, Facebook, YouTube and Instagram, you can reach out to consumers who don't know much about your company yet.
"According to Google (2019), 88 % of shopper interaction occurs before they interact with a particular brand and 94 % of B2B buyers are performing online research before they engage with that particular enterprise."
Source: sciencedirect.com
A strong brand identity also helps customers remember your name when they're shopping at stores in person. The best way to create a memorable brand is to be authentic, consistent, transparent, relevant, trustworthy and approachable.
Types of Digital Channels
Here are a few strategies you can use to increase brand awareness through the internet and help your business thrive.
Facebook:
You probably know that Facebook is the #1 social media platform, which most people use. If you are looking for the most effective Marketing Strategies you can implement, you’re in the right place. As of April 2019, it was found that women aged between 18 and 24 years, and males between the ages of 25 and 34 years constituted the biggest demographic group of Facebook users.
- Leverage the Existing Traffic to Your Site
Put a social media icon that can be seen and clicked, which are direct links to your Facebook page and any other social media account pages you have. - Use Facebook Ads
Facebook ads currently aid you to create your campaign depending on the results you want to gain:
- Facebook Page Engagement: These are Ads that boost your posts and increase likes, comments, shares. This can be a video also! Invest in good video editing service and watch your engagement rise.
- Facebook Page Likes: Ads that build your audience on Facebook
- Clicks to Website: Ads that encourage people to visit your website
- Website Conversions: Ads that promote specific actions for people to take on your website.
- App Installs: Ads that encourage people to install your app
- Event Responses: Ads to promote your event
- Engage with Other Facebook Pages
Search for those Facebook pages where your customers hang out. Your comment will serve as a link to your page that can lead to an additional. - Indulge in Co-Marketing
You can join a partnership program with some other brand along with non-competing and complementary products for offering original research.
Instagram:
Instagram demographics show males between 18 – 24 years old, while 75% of all users are aged between 18 and 24. 90 per cent of Instagram users are younger than 35.
- Focus on the first impression of your page
Basically, if your brand’s Instagram page doesn’t grab the attention of users, you won’t have much luck getting followers. For the most part, it’s best to keep everything short, to the point, and professional. - Post content on a regular basis
Research says that the top brands on the Instagram post about 10 or 11 times per week. Mix up your content. While it’s okay to post content that’s not promoting a product, you want to stay away from controversial topics. - Go live
Live video gives you the opportunity to connect with your audience in real-time. While you broadcast, they can comment. Make sure you respond to these comments and try your best to acknowledge those users. - Run targeted ads
Instagram has been acquired by Facebook. You can set up your ads the same way on both networks. - Run contests and giveaways
Promotional contests and giveaways are good strategies for brands to engage with their audiences on social media. Everyone loves a good deal. Share discounts with your followers on Instagram to encourage them to buy.
Snapchat
78% of 18- to 24-year-olds are Snapchat users, but that share falls to 54% among those ages 25 to 29.
- Give a “Behind-the-Scenes” Look
This is a chance to showcase the raw or real story behind the brands and celebrities that work with them. You can even hire a professional video editing service to save your time on editing and showing the raw videos with a touch of professionalism.
- Allow Influencers to do a Snapchat “Takeover”
Allowing other bloggers or celebrities can account for a day can be a way to draw attention to your message.
Brand recognition is one of the most important competitive advantages that a business has. Creating a strong brand in the 21st Century is easier than ever thanks to the internet.
LinkedIn:
23.1% of LinkedIn users are between 25 and 34 years old.
LinkedIn has achieved to gather approximately 100 million users.
LinkedIn is the most widespread social networking sites when it comes to online “business networking”. It is a platform that allows business people and professionals all over the world, regardless of their industry, to connect with other professionals.
The aim of the connection is to share information, market products and services, find jobs, form B2B relationships, and much more.LinkedIn works similar to other social networks.
Brand recognition is one of the most important competitive advantages that a businesshas. Creating a strong brand in the 21st Century is easier than ever thanks to the
The importance of a seamless digital experience
A seamless digital experience means that your website works well for both desktop users and mobile phone owners. If someone has trouble browsing your site from a mobile device they may leave immediately, never to return. With Google’s new focus on mobile search rankings, having a responsive design is key to staying on top of searches.
A quick and easy digital customer journey helps to build trust between customers and businesses. This makes them feel at home when they shop through your website or mobile app.
Your digital experience should be consistent across all channels and devices with one goal in mind: delighting your customers. When your customers need help navigating your site, they turn to Google and Amazon – two trusted brands that provide better experiences for your customers than yours.
When your customers do find themselves frustrated during their shopping process, they’re less likely to come back. As a result, the return rates and sales conversion rate declines. So make sure you create a great customer experience and don’t leave anyone behind!
FAQ's on Brand Awareness
Brand awareness is a part of several other types of marketing strategies such as customer relationship management (CRM), digital marketing, public relations, etc., however, CRM and public relations are considered forms of branding whereas digital marketing focuses mostly on search engine optimization (SEO).
Search engine optimization (SEO) is a technique used by website owners to increase traffic through search engines. The aim of SEO is to optimize websites for specific keywords. If your business has an eCommerce store, then optimizing for keywords such as "best men's watches" increases sales. Optimizing your site means targeting the right keywords, writing high quality text, and linking back to other relevant pages on your site.
Content creation has become one of the cornerstones of how marketers create awareness for brands today. When consumers search online they look at branded results first. So when writing a blog post, video, or social media post, think about how these creative pieces could be used to help build awareness for your product or service.