Why Brand Awareness Matters

by Nicolle Martin

For this month’s News with Edge article, Nicolle Martin has written about the importance of brand awareness. Check out this quick clip of Nicolle sharing a brief overview of the article with Amy Juers, and then read on for the full article!

There have been many times in my career when I have been asked why brand awareness marketing activities are important. Executives are often leery of giving budget space to something that can’t be tracked directly back to ROI. The simple truth, however, is that certain marketing activities which can’t be tracked directly can have a significant impact on the reputation of a company and its products or services and, as a result, sales.

Brand awareness is something you develop in the background but can make all the difference in your marketing activity. For example, writing a bylined article in a leading trade publication may seem like a waste of time if you don’t mention the company or products by name. But the exact opposite is true. Bylined articles are a great way for your team to showcase expertise in the market you serve. Offering knowledge-based content is just one way to increase brand awareness for the company and your offerings. It may be subtle, but providing valuable thought leadership content to your core audience brings trust and ultimately may convert to sales in the future.

Here is an example of the impact of brand awareness everyone can relate to: You walk into a grocery store with a specific product in mind. As you stroll down the aisles, you look around, scanning the shelves. Then you spot the familiar logo of your preferred brand. Without a second thought, you reach out and grab it. But what made you choose that brand over others? The answer lies in brand awareness. It’s about trust and the perception that it is better because you have used or seen it before or had an experience with the company that enabled that trust.

Unfortunately, the brand-building activities that lead to this type of automatic response are hard to pin a distinct ROI to. As a result, I have often heard, “How do we measure something so intangible? And why invest time and resources into it when we can’t track its immediate impact?” Brand awareness occurs slowly behind the scenes. You need to continually get in front of your audience so they feel comfortable with your brand and see you as the experts and front-runners in your space. While this takes time and is not something that is easily quantified, it can be incredibly fruitful when it takes hold. It can be achieved with a number of different activities: advertising, event sponsorship, public relations, etc. Some are easier to track than others, but the ones that can’t be easily tracked should not be discredited as they can often be more important than what you can.

Imagine you’re launching a new product or service. You’ve crafted the perfect features, pricing and marketing strategy. But if no one knows about it, you won’t make any sales. Without brand awareness, your masterpiece remains unnoticed, overshadowed by competitors who have invested in building their brand presence.

There are many ways to create brand awareness. You need to observe your key audience and identify where they are looking for information. Then, strategize on how to get your name in those places and in front of that audience. When your team reaches out to a company to try to set up a meeting, the results will be much better if the person on the receiving end has heard of your organization and considers it to be a reputable one. That all happens from brand awareness. When a buyer is looking for a solution to a problem they need solved, they are going to go to a brand they have heard of and trust.

Bottom line – Building brand awareness takes time, effort and consistency. You won’t see immediate results, and that can be disheartening. But here’s the silver lining: every interaction, every engagement, every mention contributes to your brand awareness. So, while brand awareness is can be hard to track in terms of ROI, it has significant power and can make all the difference when it comes to a sale. And remember . . . it’s not about instant gratification; it’s about laying the foundation for long-term success.

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