collaborative post | Every business runs on brand recognition, to some degree. When you want to grab something for your cupboard, such as a bottle of ketchup, you’re likely to reach for the brand that you know first and foremost.
Getting to that point of mental association with your own clients and customers can be extremely profitable, but it’s not something that’s built up overnight. Here, we’re going to look at ways that you can steadily lay the foundation for the kind of brand recognition that brings real sales.
Ensure a great customer experience for your brand
Word of mouth is one of the most valuable resources that a business can work to earn, and it plays a huge part in brand recognition as well.
The positive word of consumers to other consumers is so valuable, that astroturfing has always been a somewhat popular tactic, even if it never works in the long-term.
If you want to make the strategy work for you, then you should focus on developing your customer service, first and foremost, making a real effort to ensure success for your customers as best as you can, so that they can full-throatily talk about the positive experience that they had with your brand.
Get out and talk about it
Sometimes, brands can very much be associated with the people that represent them on the public stage.
You don’t necessarily need to reach Steve Jobs levels of personal branding, but becoming known as something of an expert in your field, being there to lend your experiences and wisdom when there is an opportunity, be it in print, video, or in live media, can be a great help.
Public speaking isn’t for everyone, but it is a skill that you can learn and, if you’re able to get some attention on yourself, you can ensure that it’s always being reflected onto your brand, as well. Of course, developing a personal brand can bring benefits that go beyond your current business, too.
Start sharing great content
Content marketing is playing a huge role in many arms of branding nowadays, and for good reason: people engage with it. Writing and producing your own content that lends some insight to your audience can help you develop a brand identity as an expert in your field.
However, the more you are able to source and share good content, even if you don’t always write it yourself, makes you a lot more likely to pop up on the feeds of your audience more often, which is going to keep driving more engagement and recognition.
Just make sure that you always credit where you get content from. This has been a recent issue on social media that’s costing some brands goodwill.
Get into partnerships
You don’t always have to go it alone, either. Signal boosting can be very effective, especially when it’s a mutual affair. Whether you can partner with local businesses, or find partners that can help expand the reach of your brand beyond your usual audience, you should always look for opportunities to find partners through network opportunities.
The deeper the partnership, the more likely that you are to continue to mutually support one another, so think of partnership strategies that can work to the lasting benefit of both. On the other hand, if you simply develop good relationships with brands to the point that you share posts on a more regular basis, then that’s still a positive for the business, as well.
Get a billboard up
Advertising is, of course, one of the most effective ways to build brand recognition. Exposure to the brand is, over time, going to ensure that it sticks in the minds of your audience.
Advertising can be expensive, however, especially of the visual kind. One of the best return on investment opportunities, especially for locally based businesses, can be in advertising on billboards.
After all, the billboard doesn’t have to move, or air at certain times, it’s always there, and anyone who drives past it is going to become a little more familiar with your brand, at least.
Depending on the location and size, billboard prices can get expensive, but it could be worth the investment for the new level of brand exposure.
Offer some swag
You don’t need your brand up on a billboard to ensure that people are exposed to it time and time again. The same can be true of promotional items that you’re able to get into their hands.
In fact, these can be more effective on a per-person basis, since the person who receives it is likely to encounter that brand time and time again. This is especially true if you choose promotional items that people are more likely to use on a regular basis, like good custom mugs.
Then, you just need to find the opportunity to put it into the hands of your audience. Partner it with already great branding opportunities like pop-up shops, trade shows, and conventions for the best effect.
Put it on your vehicle
This is a strategy that is not as widely employed but, depending on where your business is based, it can have a real positive impact. Custom car wraps have been growing in popularity, allowing you to effectively cover a car in a comprehensive moving advertisement.
You can put it, for instance, on a company car, but there are some who will even pay other drivers to put it on their own cars. It’s a very flashy method of creating a moving billboard, but there’s no denying the potential for it to reach a lot of eyes as it drives around, especially if you can put it on a car that spends a lot of time moving around the city in which your store is based, for instance.
With the tips above, you can ensure that your brand is always growing, always spreading, and working its way into the mind of your consumers. Of course, the message is just as important as the method, so you have to ensure that your brand message and appeal are on point, too.
