Ask yourself this simple question. Why will they buy from you, if they have no clue that you exist? Simple, right? Might seem like it, but you’d be surprised how many brands get this one thing so wrong. Done right, brand awareness campaigns can make your brand a star. Mess it up and you’d be struggling to find customers.

So how do you do brand awareness the right way? Let’s take a look.

Choose the right channels

The most obvious thing would be to choose the right channel. If most of your consumers hang out on Twitter for example, and if you’re advertising on Instagram, then it’s kind of a waste right?

Always run brand awareness campaigns on the right platform. Of course in order to determine which platform is right for you, you’ll need to do the required market research and tons of A/B testing. Data would be your best friend at this stage.

Know your ideal consumers. And then target them with relevant content on the right platform, at the right time.

Target the right amount of people

Why does that matter?

Well because you’ll have to filter these people down the sales funnel right? So if you start small, you’re going to end with a really shallow pool of consumers.

So what I’m saying is that you should cast a wider net with awareness campaigns. By that I don’t mean target everyone in the world. But stick with a fairly large section of your target market. Focus on building sets of warm audiences who are familiar with your brand and your product.

And now we come to the content

So here’s the deal with content.

The goal here is not sales. Neither is it pure promotion. It’s simply awareness. That’s it.

The goal is to get your brand/product in front of the consumers. Like I’ve said, they have to know that you exist. So let’s keep it basic. So, reach matters at this stage. Impressions and engagement metrics matter as well.

The content should either educate, inform or entertain your audience.

Stick to your niche, identify problems and also points of interest, and then produce relevant content that’ll make your audience interact with your brand.

For example, if you sell healthy juices and smoothies, produce some content that offers free fitness tips to people. If possible, collaborate with a trusted fitness influencer who falls within your niche.

If you sell flour, then you can produce content that offers free baking tips & recipes to your consumers.

Video content usually performs quite well followed by images and text.

If you want to go for more interactive forms of content then contests, giveaways, polls, events, live streams etc work quite well.

Just remember to go a bit easy on the selling. In fact, you should probably avoid it altogether at this stage. Focus on offering value.

Sponsorships & Collaborations

If you can, take a page out of Red Bull’s playbook.

They’ve perfected the art of sponsoring events. And not just any events, events that are closely followed by their target consumers.

Which is why you’ll see them sponsoring all kinds of extreme sporting events across the world, from skiing to Formula 1 and from dirt bike racing to airplane racing. Know about an extreme sport event? Chances are that Red Bull is already there somewhere.

Now you don’t have to spend as much as Red Bull does if you’re running on a much more limited budget, but the principle is what matters.

Be in front of the right audience, that has a potential to convert into paying customers down the road. Pick relevant sponsorship opportunities. Ones which will put your brand in front of those people who have a higher chance of buying from you.

Collaborations are great at opening up new audiences.

You get to introduce your brand to a new set of audiences and hopefully gain new fans, followers and eventually, customers. Collaborations with the right people, who have a large-ish base of highly engaged and hence interactive followers can provide quite a boost to your brand’s visibility.

Just be careful about who you decide to collaborate with. Pick the wrong person and.. Well, we know what happens.

Communities

We of course have to talk about communities here.

Know about GoPro? Obviously you do. If you don’t then you’ve been living under a rock. In which case I have so many questions.

But the point is, GoPro has basically built their business largely on the foundation of a strong community of crazy people who put cameras on themselves. They have a whole website dedicated to UGC (user generated content).

They have various challenges that their consumers can be a part of, they have their own awards, they have offers, deals, exclusive events and a lot of things that keep their community vibrant and growing.

Communities also bring down your cost of brand awareness. Why?

Well because communities can help you build brand advocates. These are just loyal people who promote your brand for free, because they’ve had an awesome experience with your product. Now no matter which new fancy marketing channel opens up, it can never replace the effectiveness and efficiency of word of mouth.

People inherently trust other people’s advice more than paid promotional campaigns. You’re more likely to buy a certain product if it’s recommended to you by your friend.

So if possible, focus on building, maintaining and growing your own branded community.

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Hey there. I’m Abhishek Samant. I bring consumers closer to your brand & products using the power of paid marketing. If you liked what you just read then do drop a follow. Helps a ton. Thanks!

LinkedIn — https://www.linkedin.com/in/abhishek-samant-digital-marketer/

Web — www.msmw.in

Mail — [email protected]

Podcast — https://open.spotify.com/show/0k4rQBTnvyps1m0LIhV1a2