Brand awareness – What is it really and why is it important?
What is the brand/product/service awareness? Do you really know? If you do, how do you measure it? When can you feel it contributing to your company’s rise? Almost every other inquiry I receive has this sentence in some way: “The goal of this campaign is raising awareness and sales (performance)” So, you’re basically telling me to keep your return of investment on a good level, but also spend a lot of money on advertising to familiar some potential, future buyers with your brand. Safe to say that this is really hard, in some cases, impossible.
Why is that? Because awareness and sales are different goals. A completely different way of communicating with your target audience on sometimes different marketing channels.
As you can guess, this blog post will be very different than our brand awareness tips for small businesses. These are not tips, it’s much broader than that.
PROOF
When you’re just starting out with your company, you look every day at how much you’re investing, and how much you received/sold in return. You’re looking at your ROAS. But, at some point, you’re going to start to lose, the returns won’t be as good as they were before. The niche target audiences will be used out, so you have to go “bigger”.
They’ll always be people that will buy the product because of the product itself. Perhaps the quality and design are simply great. But some people need a little more convincing. You have to sell the product to them. They need to know what are they buying, how different you are from your competition, why does it cost as much as it costs, what do other people think about you and your products… the list has no end. We’re sure that you have great answers to those questions. And do you think that a large portion of your target audience knew those answers, that the sales numbers would be more consistent? If you think yes, then that’s what you have to do. You need to prove yourself. You have satisfied customers? Let them leave a review of some sort. Do you have people commenting on your posts? Engage with them, get them more familiar with your products/services. Your production is eco-friendly? Tell them that. Everything you think that is valuable, that your salesman at the store should know… Communicate with your potential buyers. Then, when you advertise to someone new, that person will see all that. They’ll see a company with great social proof. Just be careful not to make mistakes.
UNIQUE SELLING POINT
Why would someone buy the product from you? Why would someone hire you for some sort of service? You must and probably have something that separates your products/services from your competitors. I’ll give you an example of us, Kontra Agency. Our unique selling point is instilled in this -> #FirstClassExperience. When you hire us as your agency, it’s like flying first class on a plane. We are here for you on every step, we can provide you with full-service, and we listen to you = your feedback is the most important thing to us. We are working together with you to achieve the best possible results. We are always going to tell you what we believe you should do, even if it sometimes means that you should not hire us. Maybe you need to sort some other stuff out, invest in something you’re forgetting.
Next time you are trying to sell some of your products/services, think about what separates you from others.
HARLEY-DAVIDSON
Check out this video:
For those of you who do not know about this… How does it make you feel about Harley-Davidson now?
Harley-Davidson is not just about motorcycles. It’s about freedom. When people buy a Harley, they are getting a motorcycle that is their door to freedom. They get on their bike and drive away from their problems and stress. They start exploring other interesting parts of the world and enjoy it with their friends. That’s what you get, not just a bike. When they look at it, it reminds them of another personality that they have when they are riding it.
That is something called brand positioning. It’s a little advanced, but it should be thought of in the early stages of your company. If you determine it at the beginning and communicate it enough, it will become an integral part of your brand awareness. What can you connect your brand to? What does your target audience want and likes to do? Harley-Davidson target audience wants to get on that bike once in a while and leave their problems behind.
“IT TAKES TOO LONG.”
I know that’s what you’re thinking. You’re right.
But that’s the world of business we live in. That’s the world we have always lived in. Marketing should be one of the most important investments of your company, not at the end of the list, and if it is being done, it should not be done only for the direct, short term performance.
It takes a lot of planning, strategic thinking, and constant work. But if done right, once you get it to a good level, you can start expanding your business in ways you want it. You can’t do that if you did not communicate your values, benefits, identity, unique selling point, and other important traits.
