5 Reasons Why You Need to Spend Time Building Your Brand Awareness

20 Oct ‘20

In: Branding & Visual Design, / By: Ripe Media

Advertising, SEO, brand awareness—your business has so many campaigns going on. It’s difficult to know how much of your time and money you should allocate to each one. Often, one campaign must be neglected so you can focus on the others.

That’s why we wrote this article. We need you to know that brand awareness is something you should always keep your focus on.

Brand awareness builds up your good reputation, fosters trust in your brand, and increases your brand’s authority and value. It’s what carries small businesses like yours all the way to the top of their industry. And, obviously, it’s good for your sales as well.

To learn more about why you should keep building brand awareness, read on.

Brand Awareness Definition

First of all, let’s get on the same page about what brand awareness is. In simplest terms, brand awareness is when consumers know and can recall who your brand really is.

And there’s a reason we say “who” instead of “what.” It’s what separates brand awareness from brand recognition.

A consumer may recognize your logo because they drive past your sign on the way to work. But your name and logo might be the only thing they ever learn about you. That still counts as brand recognition.

But brand awareness adds a deeper level of understanding to brand recognition. Brand awareness means that consumers know at least one aspect of who you are, what you stand for, and/or what separates you from other brands. They “get” you.

Examples of Brand Awareness Success

Here are a few quick examples of what brand awareness success looks like. We’ll start with one you can test.

Start typing the name of your business or some of your branded products in a Google search. You may notice that Google autocompletes your query as you type or it lists related searches that include your brand name. This means that lots of other search users are specifically looking for your brand.

Also, check your social media feed. You may see some comments describing what your service, blog articles, advertisements, or social media posts are usually like. These commenters expect these things from you because they recognize who your brand is.

Another huge success in brand awareness is having regular customers. These customers consistently choose you over your competitors because they know that you’re better in some way.

The Importance of Brand Awareness

Now, let’s go over the specifics of why brand awareness is important for your business. Here are 4 ways you’ll benefit from building brand awareness.

1. It Increases Sales

As we already mentioned, having regular customers is a manifestation of brand awareness. In many ways, repeat customers are more important to your business than regular customers.

Statistics show that repeat customers have a higher conversion rate and spend 3 times more than new customers. They’re also more likely to recommend you to their friends.

The fact is that most of your future profits will come from your regular customers. And regular customers are solely the result of brand awareness.

2. It Fosters Trust

Every one of you reading this article can testify to this. That is, all of us would pass up a good deal if we didn’t trust the brand. 

And consumers can’t trust a brand they don’t know. So, even if you have the best prices in town, there’s a significant amount of consumers who won’t buy simply because they don’t know your brand.

But, by focusing on brand awareness, you form that bond of trust with future customers. Furthermore, that trust becomes loyalty, which translates to repeat business.

3. Brand Name Association

When was the last time someone asked you for an “adhesive bandage.” It’s probably never happened in your life.

That’s because all of us have referred to them as “Band-Aids” for literally 100 years. This may well be the most extreme example of brand awareness there is.

Now, most of you reading this are probably small business owners. That is, you’re not exactly the number one brand in your industry, famous enough to become a common, household word.

However, this same type of positive brand association can still happen for you within your niche. Before you’re famous all over the world, you might yet become the top brand in your community.

People might mention you by name whenever they talk about the type of products and services you offer. Even before that, they’ll think about you any time they need your type of products or services.

This is the same way that enormous brands, like Google, used brand awareness to get where they are today. They may be corporate giants today, but all businesses start small.

4. It Increases Your Brand Equity

Brand equity refers to the value of your brand. This starts as your perceived value in the customers’ eyes. As this value increases, so does your stock price, your influence in the industry, the ideal price of your goods/services, etc.

You can see from our last point how brand awareness starts small and gradually increases your brand authority. And it creates a positive brand association in the minds of your present/potential customers. When these factors continue to grow, your brand equity grows with them.

Are You Spending Enough Time on Brand Awareness?

For your small business, brand awareness is both your starting line and your finish line. Without it, there would be no top brands, no winners or losers in the world of business. Every brand would be basically equal.

And, as peaceful as that sounds, that’s not the world we live in. If you want your business to succeed and grow, never stop building brand awareness.

Looking for more ways to build up your business? We have plenty of great business tips to share on our blog. Next, read 7 SEO Tips to Build Your Business Web Presence.

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