5 Mythbusters of Brand Awareness

In a time where users are hungry for data and entertainment through scrolls and clicks, B2B companies are honing efforts to attract attention to their brand. They are producing dazzling content and interesting topics or they are targeting a specific audience. In reality, the solution is both, together. High-quality content needs to be placed in front of the right viewers who will likely respond and engage with your brand.

We like to make quarterly, weekly, and daily goals to collect data and more data to know where we’re standing. But, brand awareness is about building a mountain, not a hill. It’s more important now than ever for B2B companies to shift from data driven methods of brand awareness to building relationships and engaging your target audience. In other words, start caring about your brand and you will produce a genuine and longstanding following.

Here are 5 myths to help you evaluate your efforts and ensure you’re not spending all your time in the short term but producing lasting results.

Myth #1: Brand reach can not be measured

Measuring your social reach is central to brand awareness. Thinking social engagement is gauged largely by hunches and can’t be inventoried is painfully detrimental to your brand. Don’t fall behind. Familiarize yourself with the following three tangible forms of data you can collect.

You can manually record your vanity metrics on each social platform every day. You can enter each click-through and ROI conversion into a spreadsheet manually OR streamline data logging as your brand expands.

Here is a list of Free Social Listening Tools:

• Google Alerts
• Hashtagify
• Social Mention
• Tweetdeck
• There are paid ones like Hubspot or Community Management Tools like Hootsuite

Influence Management Tools help identify your own influence and people who have the biggest and most enthusiastic following. Tracking these avid followers allows you to target them with incentives for further engagement.

• FollowerWonk
• Kred
• PeerIndex
• Hotels will check guests’ cloud scores and give them free upgrades in hopes that they will share

Try these tools to see which can help automate your data analysis, generate reports for your team and help manage your time more efficiently.

Myth #2: All publicity is good publicity

Have you ever gone to Yelp or Google reviews to check a business out and narrowed your search to the 1 or 2 star reviews? We want to know about other people’s experience and what their main concerns were before investing our time in a brand. That one public outburst from an unhappy customer can be detrimental to your brand to the point of no return.

There is such a thing as bad publicity. Your mission is not just to be known. Your mission is to be known as a positive brand who listens and responds. Be very sure not to respond with slander or a righteous tone. The negative responses will come in like a swarm of piranhas to highlight your negativity. That kind of mark is hard to remove and have been the downfall of many brands and public figures.

Keep in mind the positive aspects of your company. They are at the top of your brand awareness strategy. Be aware of sensitive topics. Avoid competitor insults and any other harassing slants.

Myth #3: Bigger brand awareness means a bigger budget

You may think the company with pay-per-click ads all over the internet and the most expensive logo and branding is obviously getting more awareness. But, if their employees are not nurturing their relationships with their clients, then a big budget is not useful. Brand awareness is about your people and the positive vibe your company exudes.  

Yes, paid advertisement certainly helps. But, free advertisement is where you want to start. It will help you test the waters over and over to see where a paid investment is going to bring you the best return.

A paid investment may bring you immediate attention but your brand needs to withstand the test of time. Focus on these foundational elements of your brand awareness strategy:

• Positive and engaging content
• Content positioning (timing, context, etc.)
• Reliable interactions between your people and your audience
• Representations of your company values

Be patient and focus on which content is bringing you the best ROI. Be consistent to the values you start with and your brand will grow strong.

Myth #4: Outbound tactics are what bring the most brand awareness

Outbound tactics such as paid advertisement, commercials, cold sales calls or other broad campaigns work as temporary boosts. Inbound methods build long term loyalty of your brand.

Here are some tactics to stay consistent in an inbound way:

• Tone of voice and style in
  • email promotions
  • social media captions
  • tweets
• Creativity of your blog author(s)
• Atmosphere of events and shows
• Topics that are covered in your seminars, workshops, podcasts, etc.

These efforts may seem small scale but, the inbound method is a long term game. Consistency on each component of your brand builds dependability. Your identity becomes stronger and known to be a reliable source.

The point here is to not just to be visible to the masses in your brand awareness strategy. The goal is to build brand equity as well.

Brand equity is the value and strength of your brand. Slow and steady, indeed, wins the race.

Myth #5: Growing brand awareness is for new companies only

If your company mission is to grow and evolve, so should your brand exposure. It’s as simple as that. You don’t stop when your goals are reached. There are always new goals. As your company progresses from a start-up to a well oiled operation, so should your branding strategy.

Make your marketing strategy with your brand identity in the center of it. Keep in mind what you want your audience to feel when they see your brand. If you are launching a new product or division of your company, the way you expose it to your viewers should simultaneously show them the value of your brand. Keep your company goals in mind while building new content and exploring new topics.

Each time your company evolves, your branding efforts are renewed. Remember to frequently re-evaluate, optimize, and build up the strength of your brand.

Conclusion

“Long-term consistency trumps short-term intensity” said Bruce Lee

Not all of your efforts will likely produce immediate results. Now that you know the myths of brand awareness, you shouldn’t expect short bursts of results. Use inbound methodology to build slowly and you will become invaluable to your audience.

Go over these 5 myths with your team and see where what you are missing or not doing right. Your efforts to re-evaluate and use trial and error at each step will pay off and make your brand stand out.

Produce your content and place it smartly to engage your audience. You will see growth as more and more people see you to be a unique, relatable, compelling and valuable brand.