How Your Company Can Improve Brand Recognition

Brand recognition does something for a company that marketers strive for. It automatically connects a product, solution or business with consumers’ wants or needs. Think of kid-friendly movies and vacations will bring Disney to mind. Or you immediately call Subway when you and your co-workers need a quick sandwich for lunch.

With brand recognition also comes trust and credibility. Your target audience has high confidence that they will get the product or service they expect. And the more your business pleases and engages your customer base, the more they will continue to buy from you.

When this happens, your company can become consumers’ brand of choice and give audiences something to talk about. Hopefully, customers will even rave about your offerings so that others begin to experience their value. But how can your business improve its recognition and build brand equity? Here are a few ways to get started.

1. Make connections

On the face of it, consumers buy products and services. But beneath surface transactions there is often an emotional or personal connection between customer and brand identities. Target audiences may resonate with or idealize a company’s values ​​or messages. They may want to like the brand’s characteristics and associate themselves with its image or someone who represents the company.

It is up to companies to meet those desires after identifying them. Building online communities around shared interests and aspirations is one way to associate a brand’s qualities and values ​​with audience members’ identities. Connecting and communicating with your target market in this way also says that you are interested in more than selling products.

No one wants to deal with pushy or pushy sales tactics. This usually creates resistance or causes leads to go the other way. You’ll build a better reputation if you focus on authentic and helpful outreach as a growth marketing strategy or campaign. People will get to know your company as more than a transactional provider of products or services.

2. Partner with influencers

Influencers with similar target audiences and messages can help create buzz for a brand. Joining forces with influencers increases your reach by exposing more people to your company name and what you do. Influencers don’t necessarily have celebrity status, but they are digital content creators who follow and resonate with audiences.

Some influencers amass large followings, while others are micro-influencers with smaller but significant numbers. You may find that a partnership with a micro-influencer can be more effective if it’s a good fit. It simply makes more sense to work with someone whose content and message is recognizable and will reach your intended audience. In other words, the size of an influencer’s following is not the most important consideration.

Companies are starting to realize the power of influencer marketing as younger generations become harder to reach with traditional advertising. Therefore, brands are expected to spend $15 billion on influencer marketing by the end of 2022. Popular social media platforms are places to find influencers for potential partnerships. But so are less obvious websites and digital spaces that cater to specialized interests like sports and cooking.

3. Become a Thought Leader

You may have heard the phrase “Content is King.” One reason the words still ring true is because of the annual revenue that content marketing generates. Data suggests that revenue will reach $66 billion in 2022, a figure expected to double by 2026.

When brands create and publish content online, it’s a way for target audiences to discover it. That content can be landing pages, blog posts, webinars, videos or podcasts. While an overarching goal of content marketing is to convert leads into sales, it does so through thought leadership. The idea is to create and share information that target audiences will find engaging and useful.

At the same time, that content stimulates brand awareness by mentioning how a company meets consumers’ needs. Content marketing can work in B2C and B2B spaces. Still, it requires regular monitoring and fine-tuning. Certain techniques and tools help with that. Search engine optimization targets specific audiences based on what information they are looking for. Web analytics can reveal whether SEO and content strategies are working or need a boost.

4. Take advantage of current consumer behavior and trends

Companies that pay attention to what is happening in the overall market tend to stay in touch with consumer needs. Awareness of trends and shifts in target audiences’ behavior can also identify potential business opportunities. Suppose another company discontinues a product or no longer supports a feature that specific market segments use. A competing brand may see this as a chance to develop an alternative solution to fill the gap. By doing this, this business can quickly increase its awareness and recognition as the new solution provider.

Monitoring markets, consumer behavior and trends can also lead to more subtle opportunities. This could be as simple as creating shorter videos to accommodate decreases in the average human attention span. Trend research may also reveal that consumers are becoming concerned about genetically modified ingredients in their food. In response, food manufacturers can create organic alternatives to favorite brands or develop entirely new organic products.

These actions give current customers a reason to remain loyal and potentially increase the companies’ reach and recognition within other segments. For example, food manufacturers can secure shelf space in organic or natural grocery stores instead of just mainstream supermarkets. These brands will now reach additional niche segments.

Promoting brand recognition

Brand recognition and awareness brings customers through a business’ physical or virtual door. In the past, a few ads on TV and radio might have done the job. But in saturated markets and among skeptical target audiences, traditional advertising is not enough.

Lesser sales tactics – such as building online communities and fostering thought leadership – reach audiences by personalizing and humanizing brands. Your company increases brand recognition by creating connections between who you are and who your customer is. By identifying with your brand, your target audience will see it as more than just another commercial alternative.