Are You Building Awareness of Your Brand?

Marketing your business is a lot easier when you have a strong brand to work with. With this in mind, entrepreneurs and small business owners should always keep brand awareness near the top of their priority lists. Simply put, if customers and prospective customers aren’t familiar with your brand – or learned to trust it – they’re very unlikely to purchase your product or service.

So how do you get on peoples’ radar screen and interest them in your offerings? The process starts by ensuring there’s a consistent look and design in all your marketing materials—logo, taglines, product design, website, etc. It’s the first step in creating a brand that accurately represents who you are and what you do—which leads to building trust between you and your customers.

Is it clear to you how people identify your brand? In the vast majority of cases, a brand defines and identifies a particular product—very rarely, more than one. For example, a brand can be identified with luxury cars, or minivans, or an inexpensive automotive alternative for cost-conscious families. But not all three. A brand is most effective within a small scope, not a broad one.

Like any business, you have a target audience you want to reach. But brand awareness should also be aimed at a larger target, including:

• New customers. Obviously, prospective customers need to become aware of your brand and the solutions it offers to their problems.
• Existing customers. These people know about your brand and have purchased from you in the past. In order for them to maintain this behavior (and to encourage their willingness to offer word-of-mouth referrals), you need to be continuously building brand awareness among them as well.
• Influencers. Every industry has people who influence others. Isn’t it worth your time and resources to make your brand appealing to these people? Influencers who know and trust your brand can significantly boost awareness among others.
• Decision makers. TV commercials about cereal may be designed to entertain children, but the most effective brands market to their parents. In the same way, your brand should appeal to individuals who have the power to make key purchasing decisions.

If you’re not already doing so, you should be building brand awareness through social media. Start blogging on your website. Share valuable content you find online with various communities. Comment on other peoples’ posts. The more you participate, the more awareness of your brand will grow.

Building a brand experience doesn’t just mean having a great time a family restaurant. Everything from advertising to web navigation—not to mention the all-important element of customer interaction—is part of your product’s brand experience. Don’t leave these things to chance or to slipshod supervision. In all the ways customers come in contact with your brand, their experience must be positive in order for your business to succeed.

We invite you to join other entrepreneurs, CEOs, and senior-level executives in a confidential group setting where you’ll be challenged and rewarded like never before in your professional life. Learn more about becoming a Catapult Group member today.