You’ve just launched your start-up and are all excited about it. You might have a great name, your logo is on point, your website is up, and you have a perfect product or service to offer.

However, if no one knows your startup exists, it is a logical necessity to introduce yourself to your potential customers and generate buzz around your name.

How do you ace brand awareness to attract as many consumers as possible and get them to crave your product/service? This is exactly what we’re going to cover in this article.

Below, you’ll find 6 actionable tips to build brand awareness for your startup.

Why is brand awareness essential for your startup growth?

Before we dive into the ways to boost your brand awareness, let’s take a closer look at why brand awareness matters:

• It generates top-of-mind awareness (TOMA) in your niche;
• It boosts word-of-mouth marketing;
• It helps reduce customer acquisition costs;
• It leads to increased customer loyalty and satisfaction;
• It encourages repeat purchase behavior in consumers;
• It helps increase your start-up’s market share;
• It boosts sales.

You can reap all these benefits if you establish the right brand awareness strategy for your startup. The good news is – you can pursue different tactics depending on your startup size, business niche, and target customer.

Without further ado, let’s discover the 6 best ways to master brand awareness for your startup.

#1 Build up a strong social media presence

When it comes to building brand awareness for your startup, the first thing to do is to determine where you need to go to find and attract your potential customer. And guess what – no matter what your target demographic is, your customers are definitely roaming around on social media. In fact, an average consumer switches between 7 different social media platforms per month. And your task is to choose the channels relevant to your ideal customer.

Determine your ideal customer persona

To build a solid social media marketing strategy, first, you need to do your homework and analyze your target audience.

• Who is your ideal customer?
• What do they do? How old are they? Where do they live, etc?
• What problems do they face and how can your product or service solve that problem?
• Where does your ideal customer get their news and information?
• What is their social media of choice?

Once you have a clear idea of your ideal customer, you will know where they hang out online. And your startup can begin to grow an online presence where relevant.

Connect with your target audience on social media

The next step is to connect with your target audience on the right social media platforms. Don’t think gaining a certain number of followers per day is just enough – you shouldn’t focus on figures only. You want to build relationships with your potential customers.

Your primary goal is to keep them once they become your followers. You want to build your loyal brand advocates. And to do this, use social media wisely – regularly share relevant content that will be informative and engaging for your potential customers:

• Create a consistent brand image across the social media of your choice;
• Post regularly and follow hot trends to promote your content to new audiences;
• Engage your audience – leverage interactive social media features such as polls, quizzes, live streams, etc.;
• Don’t just promote your startup in your posts – provide educational, entertainment, or other types of value to followers.

Remember – boosting the social media presence of your startup is a marathon, not a sprint. Show consistent online activity and your effort will pay off with increased brand awareness.

Pro-tip: Research the competition (there is nothing wrong with some healthy stalking) – see what communication platforms work best for your competitors and what their marketing strategies are. It could give you a better idea of what content might help you boost brand awareness for your startup.

#2 Stand out with your own blog posts

An important part of creating brand awareness is establishing your startup as an authority in your niche. Your audience can come to know and trust your company through your blog. It represents one of the most valuable tools you can use to boost brand awareness for your startup in a budget-friendly way.

• Blog posts give you an opportunity to talk about your product or service in a non–salesy way while showing your trustworthiness and expertise.
• With the help of SEO strategies like keywords, titles, and meta descriptions, your blog posts could become the leading drivers of organic traffic to your website (more on effective SEO in point 6).

Take Amerisleep as a great example. The brand specializes in providing high-quality custom mattresses for customers. But apart from just focusing on selling mattresses, they post informative, in-depth blog posts and studies to educate visitors on their products and spread their intimate knowledge.

Their topics vary from bedding, pillow, and mattress guides to how to soothe headaches or get better quality sleep for improved health.

Bottom-line: provide educational value to your audiences. People appreciate businesses that are ready to go the extra mile to cater to their needs or interests. This is an excellent way to gain recognition and brand awareness.

#3 Leverage the power of nano-influencer marketing

Influencers are a big deal. They are individuals with powerful relationships with their immediate community of followers. That means their followers completely trust their opinions. They want to hear their recommendations and, in most cases, they share the same values.

As a startup, you want to drive quality engagement on your social media accounts – and influencers are the best people to help you with that.

Why nano-influencers?

Nano influencers are small-scale content creators with up to 10,000 social media followers.

• While their follower count doesn’t come close to celebrities, nano-influencers tend to have much higher engagement rates. It means, their audiences actively interact with their content and react to their advice. And that’s exactly what you need to promote your startup.
• Besides, collaborating with nano-influencers is more cost-effective. They charge less per post than macro-influencers or celebrities. And your startup might be on a tight budget.

In order to boost brand awareness for your startup with a nano influencer marketing campaign, find a nano-influencer creating content in your niche and decide on the type of collaboration you want to pursue. An influencer can:

• host a product giveaway with your brand;
• create sponsored content;
• become your brand ambassador;
• post a review of your product;
• take over your social media for a day and post on your behalf, etc.

Royale, a Canadian brand of household paper products, takes advantage of nano-influencer marketing to spread the word about its products in a natural, engaging way. For example, Royale collaborates with Iris – a family/lifestyle nano-influencer who finds creative ways to combine storytelling and brand promotion in her content.

Bottom-line: leveraging influencer marketing can go a long way in the quest to boost brand awareness for your startup.

#4 Create an attractive referral marketing program

When a potential customer needs a product or service, where do they turn for advice and recommendation? Most likely, they’re going to ask someone they trust. That is pretty much the logic behind referral marketing. Anytime you ask your customers to advocate on behalf of your brand, they’ll refer to leads that are a good fit for your brand.

Referral marketing (also known as word-of-mouth marketing) is a powerful tool for spreading organic brand awareness. And not only that. Since the process happens naturally, creating an attractive referral marketing program is one of the most cost-effective marketing strategies out there. Not to mention that 90% of consumers trust their friends and family more than ads when it comes to buying decisions.

If you jump on the bandwagon of referral marketing, your startup will flourish as word-of-mouth spreads.

You don’t have to go out of your way to build an effective referral program. The rule of thumb here is to provide real value in exchange for your customers’ efforts. Let it be an attractive discount, coupon, or free delivery. It’s not going to drain your startup’s budget – on the contrary, the inflow of new customers and growing brand awareness will give you a solid boost. 

Look at the Greats referral program, for example. Simple, straightforward, and appealing to both the brand’s customers and invited newcomers.

#5 Run a social media contest to engage your audience

There are many types of prize promotions: giveaways, sweepstakes, video contests, lotteries – you name it. And, since it’s no secret that people enjoy getting something for free, it gives consumers a reason to talk about a company and its products.

When you give away something of value to your customers, you’re not only bringing attention to your startup, but you can also encourage them to take notice of your brand’s goods. It’s a win-win situation for both your startup and customers.

To launch a killer social media contest on behalf of your startup, you need to:

• Come up with a strong concept. Think of a creative and engaging task for participants – something people will be excited to do. Of course, tie the concept back to your brand and target audience. What is your ideal customer interested in? What do they love to do?
• Make your product/service the contest prize. This way, you’ll kill two birds with one stone – you’ll boost brand awareness and product awareness.
• Keep your audience in the loop. Regularly post updates on your branded contest on social media. New participants? New entries? Deadline reminders? Maintain the visibility of your event so that more and more people would see and join it.

You can take your cues from Icyjewelry – the brand has just organized a TikTok giveaway contest to reward the author of the best comment under the post with a piece of jewelry. This is a simple yet effective idea to foster brand awareness in no time.

Source: https://www.tiktok.com/@shopicyjewelry/video/7133895538881072389?is_copy_url=1&is_from_webapp=v1&lang=en

#6 Improve your website’s ranking via SEO

The key to having a successful online presence is ensuring your startup is visible to your target audience. When a potential customer searches online for the desired product or service, you want to reach the top positions of Google Search – naturally. And a proper SEO strategy will do just that.

In order to increase your SEO rankings, you can take the following steps:

• Make sure you are posting relevant, high-quality content regularly on your website. This will help you drive organic traffic to your pages;
• Do keyword research for your niche. What are people’s search preferences when it comes to your industry? Determine what they look for and how they word their search requests;
• Use the keywords in your content to increase its visibility in search results. By optimizing your branded content with the right keywords, you can drive the right traffic to your website. Inevitably, some of your visitors will convert into leads and engaged consumers;
• Be smart with link-building. Link between different pages of your startup’s website to encourage people to spend more time on the website. And don’t forget about external links. Refer to other websites, blogs, social media posts – whatever is relevant. This is a great way to leverage business networking and get other resources to link back to you as well.

You’ll make your brand more prominent and accessible online, while also improving your reputation as a startup. It will help you build authority and engagement around your startup and increase its recognition in the market.

Wrap Up

In business, it is often said that you never get a second chance to make a great first impression. And brand awareness is all about intriguing and engaging consumers right from the start. Use the tips from this guide to generate the buzz around your startup in an organic, non-intrusive yet effective manner.

And of course, remember that fostering brand awareness is only the first step toward the success of your startup. You need to make sure your newcoming customers have an excellent experience with your brand.

Engage customers from the start and provide swift assistance with an automated SMS-chat. It improves personalized communication, increases response rates, and can help you boost customer retention as a natural extension of your brand awareness strategy.