If people aren’t thinking about your brand, they probably aren’t going to buy from you.

You can have the best product, team or offer in the world. But if people don’t know about you, they’re very unlikely to buy from you.?

I know that sounds obvious, but as business leaders we all assume that by delivering great service, posting occasionally on social media, and having a website we’ll win enough opportunities to grow our business.

Back in the early days of building my agency Notepad this was pretty much how we operated. We were lucky because we have a high referral rate but as you start to hire more people and costs increase, you realise this approach is pretty unsustainable.?

The whole ‘if you build it, they will come’ approach doesn’t work.

Sure, if you’re a small B2B business that isn’t focused on growth you probably can sustain break even with this approach, but if you’re hoping to scale up, you need a lot of eyeballs on your brand (and a reason for people to stick around once they’ve found you).?

Just look at Coca-Cola. It’s taken them years and a lot of money, but it’s been reported 94% of the world now recognise the Coca-Cola brand. Just think of how mind-blowing that statistic is. That’s not 94% of just one country, that’s 94% of the entire world.?

Now obviously, most of us don’t have Coca-Cola’s marketing budget, but even if you’re bootstrapping it there are ways to ramp up your own brand awareness so you cut through the noise, and get to the front of your customer’s minds.?

Why is brand awareness important?

Ultimately, brand awareness is measured by how familiar your target audience is with your brand and how well they recognise it.?

High brand awareness is important for 3 key reasons:

1. Brand awareness fosters trust: It’s much easier to trust a brand that you’ve heard of and know something about.?
2. Brand awareness creates association: When people see your brand and immediately understand what you do, they’re able to form the right associations with your brand so when they are next in need of your services, they’ll think of you first.?
3. Brand awareness creates equity: This is where the commercial value of brand really comes into play. When your brand is more visible and recognisable it becomes a tangible asset in itself. Plus, you can command higher prices, and if needed expand your business through product and service line extensions.?

“Products are made in a factory but brands are created in the mind.” - Walter Landor

3 ways to build brand awareness

There are undoubtedly countless ways to build brand awareness, but if you’re not yet a market leader I would recommend focusing on these 3 things:

1 - Leverage technology and automation

When it comes to marketing growing business, there are never enough hours in the day. But fortunately if you leverage the right technology you can hugely multiply the output and effectiveness of your marketing efforts.?

In fact, our entire marketing funnel takes around 30 minutes per day (or 2.5 hours per week) to maintain. What used to be done by six people, can now be done by one.?

2 - Have a distinct and memorable proposition

Strong brands cut through the noise and get remembered. Have clear and consistent brand codes (i.e. colours, symbols and imagery) that you use across all of your marketing, and make sure your proposition addresses a real customer pain point.?

3 - Find ways to capture interest

This is the biggest mistake I see so many B2B brands making every day. They invest countless hours and loads of money into shouting as loudly as possible across channels, but do nothing to capture that interest.?

In its simplest form, what I’m saying here is to make sure every single piece of content you create or communication you send has a clear call to action. Whether it’s reading another piece of your content, signing up to your newsletter, giving you their contact information in return for something of value, or just booking a call or meeting, everything you do should be capturing interest and moving people into your funnel. Showing up every day and sharing your message is important, but it’s pointless if you’re not turning any of your hard work into actual leads and sales.?

In B2B, 95% of your market won’t be ready to buy. Having a strong brand and high levels of awareness means your prospects think about you every time they enter buying moments, leading to more consistent sales and a more sustainable business.?

Thanks for reading! If any of this article resonated with you, I’m sharing everything I’ve learned over the past 15 years of building brands in an upcoming free virtual workshop. I’ll be going into greater detail on how to actually build brand awareness for your business, the technology you should be using, and the framework we’ve used to generate millions in sales for our clients.?

Sign up here while spots last: www.buildbrandawareness.com

#brandstrategy #brandawareness #b2bmarketing