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When developing your business, one of the most crucial elements is your brand. While your products and services are essential to building a customer base, a brand provides an icon for your audience to rally behind. Branding enables you to capture your customer’s attention more easily.
But is your branding working as hard as it should? Are users recognizing and recalling your business, or are you struggling to make a meaningful impact? Brand recognition is essential for building a stronger bottom line, and fortunately, there are some ways to be proactive about improving your company’s recognition. Let’s find out how.
What is Brand Recognition, and Why Is It Important?
Brand recognition is the ability for customers to recognize your brand compared to others. However, this concept goes a bit further than that and measures how easy it is for users to identify your business from various identifiers like colors and graphics, but not your company’s name.
For example, most people will recognize the eagle from the USPS logo without seeing the words “United States Postal Service.” Similarly, Apple’s logo is instantly recognizable, which is why the company doesn’t have to put its name on anything.
But why is this recognition so valuable? There are a couple of crucial advantages, such as:
- Trust – Up to 81 percent of shoppers say they need to trust a business to buy from them. Brand recognition helps you gain that trust because customers know what to expect.
- Conversion – As a rule, people like to stick with what they know. That’s a big reason why the top movies are all remakes or sequels. It’s often better to go with a “sure thing” than test the waters with something new. So, brand recognition breeds a certain level of familiarity, which helps you capture more of the market.
How to Improve Your Brand Recognition
Now that we know the value of brand recognition, let’s take a look a how you can cultivate better recognition from your customers.
Invest in Logo Design
A logo is the beating heart of your brand and if you want to improve brand recognition start with your logo and work out to all of the other elements of your brand. Of course, your logo has to be good, it should speak for your brand.
The below elements are key to a logo design:
- Colors – Brands that use colors get recognized 80 percent more than those with a black and white logo. More than that, though, you need to understand how color affects your customers. For example, blue can denote trust and relaxation, while red triggers passion and excitement.
- Fonts – Your font can have a tremendous impact on the success and recognition of your logo. On a fundamental level, you need a font that’s easy to read. Otherwise, customers might not be able to read your company’s name. As far as aesthetics, your font should match the mood you’re trying to convey. For example, you want thick, bold fonts to denote strength. Similarly, script and “fancy” fonts can elevate your business to be more high-end.
- Graphics – Most business logos are a mixture of text and graphic elements. When it comes to brand recognition, you need to choose a graphic that will stand out. Here is where using a design team makes the most sense. If you just have generic logo images, it’s harder for customers to recall your specific brand. So, it’s better to have a designer build a custom piece.
Tell a Story
Trust goes a lot deeper than brand recognition. It’s not enough to ensure that customers remember your logo or color scheme – your brand should also convey a feeling about your business. What are your brand values? What is your company’s mission statement? These elements can help you connect with your audience, which improves your brand recognition. Up to 86 percent of consumers say that authenticity is important when choosing a brand, and 89 percent of shoppers stay loyal to a brand that shares their values.
But, how can you tell a story to your customers? Here are a few ways:
- Website – Your “About Us” page is a valuable component of your site because it allows visitors to get to know your company a bit better. By fleshing out this section, you can be proactive about your brand’s story.
- Blog – Up to 61 percent of customers are more likely to buy from a business that produces unique content. These days, it’s not enough to just sell products – you need to add more value. With a blog, you can develop content based on your company’s values, which helps tell your story.
- Social Media – We’ll dive more into how to use social media for brand recognition next, but these platforms are critical for sharing your company’s story. You can curate tons of content and posts to provide valuable insight into your brand identity.]\\
Post Regularly on Social Media
Despite the power of social media marketing, few companies utilize these platforms as much as they should. Or, even if a brand posts often, they don’t engage with their following. You can’t afford to forget the “social” aspect of social media. These sites are designed to be a two-way street, meaning that you have to be active with your followers.
As far as brand recognition, here are a few ways to improve your stats among your audience:
- Video Content – As a rule, video clips are much more engaging than other forms of content (i.e., text or images). So, producing and sharing high-quality clips can help boost your brand recognition far better than a blog post.
- Trending Topics and Hashtags – Ideally, you can create your own hashtags that will start trending. Until then, though, you can try to capitalize on popular topics. However, be careful when jumping onto a trending hashtag – don’t forget to do your research. In many cases, a brand inserting itself into a conversation leads to negative experiences. Be sure to stay authentic and use hashtags related to your business.
- Share Bite-Sized Content – Social media is not the place for long, sprawling articles or text posts. Instead, narrow your focus to one or two pieces of information. You can share some tips or tricks, or you can offer some behind-the-scenes looks at how your business operates. These kinds of posts will help your audience connect with, and therefore recognize, your brand.
Create a Community
People have an innate need to belong, which is why so many individuals love to participate in communities that are much bigger than themselves. Some prime examples can include loyalty to a sports team or fans of a specific movie or game. People from all walks of life can bond over shared interests and ideas.
As a business, you want to cultivate that kind of community around your brand. But, how do you do this? Here are a few examples of the types of communities you can create:
- Shared Interests – Perhaps your products appeal to a specific kind of demographic. For example, perhaps your products are designed for new parents. In this case, the community can be centered around overcoming the challenges of parenthood.
- Product Fans – Is your product super popular? If so, you can build a community around those who love to use it. One example could be a community of Lego builders who share ideas for new structures and designs.
- Networking – Communities can be a valuable place for people to link up. If your brand can help facilitate a professional network, you can leverage that ability to connect with a broader audience.
Find Ways to Stand Out
Regardless of your industry, there are many competitors within the same space. So, you need to pay attention to what they’re doing and figure out ways that your brand can stand out.
What’s vital to remember in this step is that you want to pay attention to competitors on a similar level. For example, as an SMB, you can’t really compete with massive corporations like Apple, Coca-Cola, Nike, and others. Instead, focus on local or regional businesses and determine what elements to use to outshine them. Some ideas can include:
- Community Involvement – Maybe you’re active with local charities and organizations.
- Customer Service – You can go the extra mile and deliver better service than your competitors.
- Fun and Positivity – Host contests, giveaways, and games.
Overall, brand recognition is all about putting your business front and center. So, the more proactive you are, the more likely you can get better recognition. Don’t expect it to happen overnight, and don’t assume it’ll happen without your involvement.
