As discussed in a previous post, Brand Awareness is “the extent to which a brand is recognized by potential customers and accurately associated with a particular product or service.” Brands are everywhere you look! The goal of brand awareness is brand recollection – the act of a customer pairing a brand with a need they have when they need it. For example, if I need a pick-me-up and want coffee, I may think, “Starbucks!”.
My brain has paired my desire for coffee with one of many different coffee brands. Developing brand awareness is a very strategic process and should be considered carefully. All of the content you push out and how you push it out will contributes to how your brand is perceived. When done properly, your brand can be top of mind amongst competitors when a customer’s need is perceived. Do not hesitate to reach out to a digital advertising agency for help when needed. In today’s post, we will discuss building a higher level of brand awareness through the Facebook platform.
Utilizing the Facebook Platform
According to Facebook, approximately three million businesses actively advertise on their platform, and 18 million business pages. As a result, Facebook has an extensive audience reach that creates an avenue to share your brand with new potential customers. Because of the nature of Facebook and why it was created, brand awareness is a strong aspect of its marketing platform. Facebook has two main segments to utilize: organic content and paid advertising.
Organic Content
Organic content is essentially utilizing any of the free elements of the platform. Your organic reach is made up of people who have liked your business page, and potentially some of their friends who have interacted with you on the platform. Although your audience is already aware of who you are, brand awareness is still necessary. Just because a customer has interacted with your business through purchase or simply accepting an invite to like your page does not mean they have the same view of your business as you want them to. Pushing out organic content and engaging with your existing audience is a solid way to shape the way your business is viewed in their minds. Customer retention through brand awareness techniques can often turn a higher ROI than customer acquisition campaigns.
5 Organic Tips For Brand Awareness
1. View the data – Find out when your audience is on Facebook and schedule your posts at the best time for engagement and interaction.
2. Focus on engagement – Post interesting content, ask questions, run contests, and more. High engagement posts are more likely to be shared and gain more traction and grow your organic following.
3. Respond to comments – again, the goal is engagement. Responding to comments is just as important as responding to reviews. It shows users they are worth your time.
4. Human touch – even if you choose to automate content, be sure to post a variety of content, so it doesn’t look like you are simply scheduling out promotional content,
5. Don’t strictly promote – position yourself as the leader within your industry by posting educational information. Avoid strictly promoting your products and services. The goal of brand awareness content is to build the relationship.
Paid Advertising
Paid advertising on Facebook is when someone sees your content as the result of paid promotions. Facebook ads are very cost-effective compared to other advertising channels and have access to particular audience sets. Because of the limited reach, organic posts have, paid advertising is essential to your social marketing strategy.
There are many different advertising options, including video ads, slideshow ads, carousel ads, product ads, and more. Facebook even has a newer ad type explicitly geared towards brand awareness: brand awareness ad campaigns. Facebook looks at engagement levels on different ad types and will show your ads to people in your audience sub-set who will most likely watch and recall your ad. The ultimate goal of these ads is to increase the recall of your ads.
4 Paid Advertising Tips for Brand Awareness
1. Utilize the Brand Awareness Ad feature mentioned above!
2. Targeting – look at your intended audience and focus on saturating that market. With the extensive reach, Facebook has, advertisers often get tempted to broaden their span when it comes to brand awareness. A focused, targeted approach will have the most success!
3. Consistent messaging – While your content will vary, your overall messaging should remain the same. Your message should be in line with who you are, what you do, and your “Why.” Consistency in frequency and messaging is essential for gaining positive brand awareness.
4. Value – When your focus shifts from what you can get from someone to what you can give to someone, you will begin to build a relationship where everyone wins. Consider the rule of reciprocity: a social norm where if someone does something for you, you then feel obligated to return the favor. If you can find something within your business that adds value to your customers – be it information, guides, forms, how-to’s, etc., they are more likely to leave you a review, share your post, or buy your product when they need it. A good example is Klout 9’s free guides, where we literally give away our exact processes to SEO and PPC – no strings attached. Providing value will elevate your brand.
The opportunities to expand your brand and bring about more awareness on Facebook and other social media platforms are limitless. If you are not already utilizing the platform to its full potential, start now. If you need help shaping how customers view your brand or simply would like someone to manage your Facebook business page, Klout9 is here to help. We are a full-service digital marketing agency that specializes in social media marketing. Get started with a brand consultation today.