7 Creative Tips for a Successful Brand Awareness Campaign

JIt’s easy to dismiss branding because it’s intangible, which means you can’t measure sales against it. Don’t be too quick to dismiss the intangible, though. Companies like Disney and Coca-Cola include intangibles like brand value on their balance sheets to the tune of billions. 

Your brand is one of the key elements that differentiate you from also-rans and strong competitors. It’s the tone and style, the overall promise you make to customers about what you represent. It’s your way of locking in customers to a particular vision of what their lives will look like, if only they use your product or service.

Of course, that means you must run the periodic brand awareness campaign and run it well. So what does entail?

Keep reading and we’ll give you 7 tips for running a campaign that will boost your brand presence and raise customer awareness.

1. Encourage User-Generated Content

Ever heard the term social proof? It’s the idea that, everything else being equal, people follow the lead of others.

Think about how you shop online at major e-tailer sites. You search for a kind of item, narrow down the options by specific features, and then what?

There’s a good chance that you look at the reviews. If your preferred product gets decent to good reviews, you add it to your cart and buy with confidence. If it gets poor reviews, you move on to other options.

The crowd informs your decision.

User-generated content takes this to the next level. It’s when customers take and share pictures or videos of themselves using your product or service. Alternatively, it’s when they share content of themselves talking about your product or service.

You saying your product is awesome doesn’t mean much. Seeing someone else use a product or service or talking about a product or service enhances credibility and raises your profile.

Encourage your customers to go that extra step and share user-generated content.

2. Make Your Own Video Content

Video will likely account for around 80% of online consumer traffic across the world by sometime in 2019. There’s a cold logic to it.

Watching a video is simply easier than almost any other form of interacting with content. You receive information, entertainment, or both for the low, low price of a single mouse click.

Smart companies currently do and will continue capitalizing on this trend with homegrown content. For a brand awareness campaign, though, avoid the hard sell of products or services. 

Instead, focus on the things that make your company unique. Have the founder tell the brand story. Get employees talking about why they love working for the company.

It reinforces all the messaging you do everywhere else.

3. Go Offline

There is no denying the vast power of the Internet to make or break a company. That doesn’t mean it’s the only avenue for building brand awareness. You can also take your efforts offline, even if you’re an online business.

Let’s say your online business specializes in extremely short-term deals. You decide on the slogan, “Shop Now!”

You can slap “Shop Now!” onto inexpensive promotional items, such as:

• keychains
• carabiners
• pens
• even lip balm

You include those items with orders. Customers use them in their daily lives. People see the slogan and ask about it.

Brand awareness of your company in the public consciousness goes up.

4. Use a Referral Program

A referral program is nothing more or less than you sponsoring word-of-mouth marketing.

In most cases, you offer existing customers some kind of benefit for referring new customers to you. The benefits can range from discounts to free products or even a free trip if someone makes enough referrals.

Referral programs typically work best if you build your business with referrals in mind. Double-down on the things that make people love a company, like great customer service and no-hassle fulfillment.

Each referral builds overall brand awareness and comes with a side helping of profit.

5. Be Social

Too many companies treat social media like just another advertising channel. They hear media and miss the social part. Don’t make that mistake.

Social media offers you a unique opportunity to interact with customers or potential customers in a non-sales setting. It’s a literal chance for you to actually be social.

It’s also a chance for reinforcing your brand.

Is your brand built on humor? Give accurate, but humous, answers to the questions people ask. Post funny memes that don’t necessarily sell your products or services.

Create a spokesperson who’s a little off the wall and use their “voice” in social media.

6. PR

Don’t neglect public relations during your campaign just because it feels a little old school. There is a still a sizeable portion of the population that read newspapers and watch news programs.

Even if you can only get coverage in your local area, it’s a boost to your brand profile. More importantly, all the people who see the news reports become potential advocates for your brand.

Take the time to knock together a press release or two. Not comfortable with the press release format, you can outsource it to a freelancer.

7. Host Events or Workshops

Events and workshops do a lot for you. It helps reaffirm the brand for existing customers who attend. It’s also a way for you to introduce new potential customers to your brand.

As an added bonus, events and workshops often draw more interest than straight up advertising or marketing campaigns.

Parting Thoughts on Tips for a Successful Brand Awareness Campaign

A successful brand campaign isn’t just about saturating the market with your logo.

You must approach the market in the right way with the right kind of content. In-house and user-generated video is almost always a winner. If you can secure some news coverage via PR, it’s even better for your brand awareness campaign.

Get out there and act social on social media. Take things offline with promotional products or workshops. Get a referral program up and running if you don’t already use one.

By taking on the problem of brand awareness across multiple channels, you avoid overloading any single group. At the same time, you extend your brand reach across a much wider group.

Feel like you spend more time spinning your wheels than building your business? Check out our post on small business tools that make your life easier.