Brand awareness indicates the level of familiarity that your target audience has with your brand and how well they recognize it. While it’s not a metric that can be easily measured, it is a rather important one because the only way to be a popular, buzz-worthy brand is by establishing and growing your brand awareness.

So, what does brand awareness exactly do for your brand?

There are 3 things that brand awareness affects, and all three of these things are vital to your brand’s growth.

Today’s consumer relies on extensive research and others’ opinions before making even the simplest purchase. This is where brand trust comes in; once a consumer has a positive experience with your brand, they are a lot more likely to choose you again and again with little to no forethought.

When you have enough brand awareness, your potential consumer is a lot more likely to trust you because they recognize you. Humans build relationships by getting to know each other. Brand awareness, if done right, lets you do that; it allows your audience to give you feedback, listen to your story, and it gives you an outlet to tell your story to people who are willing to listen. This personifies your brand, hence making you more trustworthy.

Think back to when you had a small cut, did you put a Band-Aid on it? Do you Google something you don’t understand or Xerox documents you want copies of? Here’s the thing, all of these names — Band-aid, Google, Xerox — are brand names that have such high brand awareness that they have actually replaced the generic terms and now represent the industry they are a part of.

This is what brand awareness does; it gets people to associate certain products, actions, or words with a brand and, if done right, replace generic terms for the niche that the brand functions in, like it did for Google, Xerox , Band-aid, and other big brands.

Brand equity is the value a brand holds in the commercial space. This value is determined mainly by the kind of experience your customers have with you and the overall perception they have about your brand. With a positive brand equity, you enjoy higher stock prices, the prices of your product/service goes up, you are allowed to expand your business easily, and you have a greater social impact.

Brand awareness is the foundation of brand equity. Once consumers start to get familiar with a brand, start to recognise it, they will come back for repeat purchases, especially if they have had a good experience, and eventually start to prefer it over other brands. This not only establishes a strong, loyal fanbase, but also increases it through recommendations.

Now that you know how important brand awareness is, you are probably wondering how exactly you can get around to growing it. Now, before jumping into this, you need to be absolutely clear about the fact that brand awareness isn’t something that happens overnight; you will have to be in it for the long haul for it to be beneficial to your brand.

Another thing to remember is that Facebook product advertisements may sound like a good brand building technique but it will only get your audience to focus on your product instead of your brand and lack impact beyond the sale.

Instead, here are 4 long-term ways that will help you establish a strong brand awareness.

Humans trust humans. So the easiest way to build trust among your audience for your brand is to not be a brand at all. Instead work on personifying your brand. Think of what you want your audience to see you as, do you want them to call you relatable, or look at you as an expert in the niche? Do you want them to think of you when they look at memes or cite you in serious discussions? Answering these questions will help you shape your voice in the minds of your audience and presence in the digital world.

Just like you need to have a strong network to be known in your career, regardless of how skilled, talented, or experienced you are, you need to socialize in the digital world to make your presence known among your target audience as well.

Storytelling isn’t limited to books and movies, you can use it as a tool to tell your audience your brand’s story creatively, in a more memorable way as opposed to bland advertisements. Your story can be about anything; you can talk about how your brand came to be or you can tell the story of your brand’s founder. Telling a story about your brand humanizes it which makes it easier for your consumers to trust you. Keep in mind, however, to keep your narrative as genuine as possible.

Even in today’s digitized world, word-of-mouth is the most effective marketing strategy. The only difference is that instead of people telling each other about brands they like, they rely on sharing their brand experiences online. So not only is it important to make sure your existing customers have a good experience you also need to give out content that they can share so that they have something to show for their experience.

Know more: https://medium.com/@taskmarketing/what-is-brand-awareness-heres-everything-you-need-to-know-about-it-1c4446bce200