5 Tips to Increase Brand Awareness for SMEs

Whenever a new company is starting in an industry, the number one goal is to try to reach as many people as possible, making them aware your newly established brand exists. The market is usually dominated by the major and oldest companies in the space, taking up most of the market share of the industry you are engaging in. This makes it extremely difficult for you to break in and directly compete for their brand loyalty.

However, at the same time, you don’t need to do that as straightforward as you might think. There are steps to building brand awareness and we are here today to walk you through 5 tips to increase brand awareness for SMEs. To understand what you need to do to improve your brand awareness, you need to know what the term implies, to begin with.

What is brand awareness?

Brand awareness is a term used in market research for measuring the degree of brand recognition as a percentage. The percentage corresponds to the proportion of people who identified the brand during a survey. The more people who recognize the brand, the higher the brand awareness.

For SMEs, the recognition value of their brand is an important factor because it plays a significant role in purchasing decisions. That not only applies to the B2C segment, but brand awareness is a key performance indicator in B2B marketing as well. After all, recognition is the basic prerequisite for a brand to build the acceptance and trust needed to position itself on the market in the long term.

5 tips for better brand awareness

Everywhere on socials

One of the easiest ways to build brand awareness is to be on social media and pop up every time a user gets onto their favorite platform. Whether it is Facebook and Twitter or Instagram and TikTok, each platform has its designated userbase and type of signature content they are most known for. Your presence on these social media outlets is essential, and if you don’t have at least a page on any of them then you are doing it wrong.

However, just being on there is not enough as your numbers and presence mean nothing as long as you are not putting out content for the platform users and your followers to consume. That’s why you need to dedicate a big portion of your efforts to make sure you design and publish content specifically designed for each platform. This will allow your content to resonate with users and allow it to be shared to reach a wider audience.

Not only that, through this exercise, you are creating a constant stream of content for your fans to consume but at the same time giving them insight into the product or service you offer and what makes it stand out. Considering the latter topic, you need to publish content with unique ideas and don’t be afraid to take risks at an early stage of your company’s career. On the contrary, there is a much lower potential of unique content working out for your benefit than backfiring, and this creative freedom often diminishes as the company grows in size and popularity.

Be there for your customer

Sometimes companies forget their obligation towards their customers doesn’t end once they purchase the product or service they are offering, but in fact, it only begins. Post-purchase strategies help to up your value game in the eye of the consumer. While it might not be the fastest converting strategy, it is one sure way to improve your customer experience, extend your customer journey, and position your brand for future sales.

This can start by simply offering premium packaging for certain products or beyond a certain purchasing amount. Premium packaging subtly sends the message that you place a great deal of value on your customers. A recent study conducted by Business 2 Community discovered that the customer’s perception of your packaging is more often than not transferred to the product and brand itself.

Once the customer unboxes your product, they now fall directly in the lap of the customer service department. Statistics have it that 52% of customers have switched brands in the past year due to poor customer service– you don’t want to add to the number.

Customer service is not just something that happens after the sales have taken place. It is embedded in every layer of the customer journey, right from the point where interest was indicated up to the point where the customer no longer needs your help.

Your brand, your personality

Branding agencies exist for a reason. They are there to help you project your personality and character onto your business. After all, you are the one who created the business and need to make sure it reflects your vision and mission. There are several ways in which you can integrate your personality onto your branding, but not only your personality, the idea of creating a unique and recognizable identity is a must for your brand.

Generic brands inevitably get lost in the sea of other generic brands. Even worse, they are often overshadowed by the personalized brands of competitors. What do you have to do to develop a solid, unique brand identity?

The process involves identifying a target audience, homing in on business goals, and defining a persona. This is the foundation of brand development. Next, choose the methods of personalization to support your brand persona.

Collaborate with influencers

Influencers get a lot of attention as a marketing tool, and there is a good reason for this trend. Over the past few years, there has been an exponential rise in the usage of content creators to promote all sorts of products. However, you need to have a strategy on who you want to hire depending on your budget and their compatibility with the service or product you offer.

This collaboration will not only help you build brand awareness but also boosts trust and sales conversions. The two most common reasons for using influencer marketing are to elevate brand awareness and increase sales. However, instead of setting these broad targets as your two goals, it will be more effective to kick off your strategy by identifying what your brand’s needs are. Perhaps you want to increase your customer base in a younger demographic, or you want to expand into a new user group with a new product, or you want to utilize influencers to talk about your brand values.

Influencers can reach very specific audiences. Instead of you relying on thousands of followers, influencers can help broadcast your brand’s message to a very targeted audience likely to be interested in your product or service.

Bring in everyone you know

The best advocates of your brand are your loyal customers. By launching a referral program, you’ll not only retain these customers but also encourage them to do word-of-mouth marketing for your company.

Offering currently engaged customers incentives to tell their friends and family about your products or services won’t cost a lot for you. But this is the perfect way to boost your brand awareness and even sales on a minimal budget.

Start planning!

By using these 5 tips to increase brand awareness, your company is set up for long-term success. Make sure to go through each step thoroughly and set up a strong plan on how to execute it effectively and efficiently and you are bound to see growing results.

Ready to take the next step?

You might still feel overwhelmed with the number of options available out there in the market, and don’t know who to work with. That’s why we have curated a list of the best branding agencies in Egypt to help you set up an effective brand strategy to give you a major edge over your competitors.

If you are still in the need of further guidance, our UNLOCK service is designed to specifically guide you through the process by offering free 1:1 assistance to find the right service providers for you. When you complete the form, we do the research & put you directly in touch with the most suitable service providers for you.