Brand recognition is a valuable part of your business. It sets you apart from the competition and keeps your company from being a generic commodity. For new customers, it suggests quality or popularity. Since they have heard of your company, it is presumed that you must be successful. And it provides a shortcut in a customer's decision-making process: they know who you are and what to expect, and don't face the risk of trying something unproven.
To help build your brand and improve recognition, here are 10 steps you should take:
- Have the basics. That means you have a memorable company name; a tagline or motto; and a distinctive logo. You have to give consumers something to recognize.
- Know your target audience. Brand recognition is really only important for the people you want to reach. Realizing that fact can save you considerably on trying to gain recognition with the total population. Your target audience may be car owners (very broad), bicyclists (more narrow), or livestock veterinarians (very specific). Your approach to each audience would differ considerably.
- Be consistent. That applies to your product, customer service and marketing message. Keeping things consistent will build recognition over time.
- Be memorable. Memorable in a good way, of course, though you can build strong brand recognition by being notoriously bad. You want to stick in the customer's mind.
- Have a personality. As with individual people, having a strong brand personality makes you stand out of the crowd.
- Author content. Beyond having your own blog, guest blogging on other sites and participating in Q & A sites can get your name in front of more people and help build brand recognition. You could even author a book, as eBooks and online publishing has lowered many of the barriers to doing so.
- Be active. You don't build brand recognition by getting yourself or your message in front of a customer once. To be top-of-mind, you need customers to see or interact with you all the time. There are multiple ways to do this, but you need to be consistently active in the online or public sphere.
- Be social. Have a strong social media presence and participate regularly. Being personally sociable in the offline world can help as well, but online platforms allow you to touch base with thousands of people at once.
- Stay connected. For those who are familiar with or connected to your brand, maintain that relationship and brand recognition by regularly communicating with them. You can do this by sending special offers or providing regular content, such as an email newsletter.
- Advertise. Advertising may seem old-school in the new economy, but it is still the most obvious and sure-fire way to build and maintain brand recognition. Note that the most well-known brands in the world are still heavy advertisers. Online advertising does make it more affordable for smaller companies, as you can use targeted, pay-per-click advertising to effectively reach your specific audience.
By following these tips and building strong brand recognition, you can be the first company people think of and be the preferred go-to source when people are in the market for the products or services you provide.
*Image courtesy of freedigitalphotos.net
