How to Build Brand Awareness through Content Marketing

If you’re delving into the field of marketing for your business, you’ve heard of brand awareness. It’s a term that refers to how well a consumer can recognize your product just by its name.

Think:

The Golden Arches (McDonald’s).

iPhones (Apple).

Mouse ears (Disney).

You might not be in that league yet, but you can compete with the big dogs as you build brand awareness through content marketing. This step is essential when you introduce a new product or try to revive an existing one.

As you shape and mold your brand, the trick is to focus on all the features that make you (or your product) stand out from the rest.

There’s no reason to do it all on your own, though. The major companies have shown us how it works. The tools and strategies are already there for you to use, like these tips that show you how to use content marketing to build brand awareness.

1. Understand the Concept

Before you invest money into a system of marketing, you need to know your end goal. Brand awareness is the ultimate target of connecting consumers to your product, turning it into a “name brand.”

When people have the option to buy a product from a company they know or one they’ve never heard of, they almost always choose the one they’re familiar with. The two items may be identical, but the name brand one wins most of the time.

Your marketing campaign needs to target your ideal audience, putting your company in front of them so frequently that you become the “name brand” choice.

2. Pay Attention to the Data

Here’s the thing about us as consumers: we’re fickle. We often follow the trends, heading to the social media platforms where “everyone is” and buying the products “everyone has.”

You may not be part of the crowd that does this, but you need to follow the data and trends. Otherwise, you could end up spending most of your marketing budget to target a social media platform your audience doesn’t use anymore.

When you do content marketing right, there are endless benefits, as discussed in Inter’s article here. But an essential piece to this strategy involves data analytics.

If you don’t have the tools yourself or the time to follow trends, consider hiring someone for the job. The return on your investment is worth the expense. Don’t skip out on the research and data portion of content marketing if your goal is to build your brand awareness.

3. Use Your Audience to Determine Your Content

Since your product or service is designed to fill a need for your consumer, it makes sense to use that audience to build your brand. If you don’t understand them, you won’t be able to accurately target the market.

What’s the demographic of your prime market? What are their values, interests, and goals? The answers to these questions will guide your content marketing.

Say your product is geared toward younger Gen Z’s. The platforms you market on should be where they trend. Right now, those are Snapchat, TikTok, and Instagram.

What appeals to your target audience? That’s the content you should be working on creating. Younger markets tend to interact with videos. Older markets prefer images and text. Follow the data, and remember, it’s going to change frequently.

4. Add Your Brand

Once you know who you’re marketing and where they’re hanging out at, you can start inserting your company into the content.

Part of this is your story, of course. How did you get started? What are your company’s core values? Why is your audience important to you?

All of this information, as well as your products or services, should be visible anywhere your business shows up.

You have lots of channels to choose from when it comes to creating content, like:

• Your website pages, from your home page to the “About Us” link

• Downloads on your page that “give away” free information (usually in exchange for the all-powerful email address)

• Blog posts that include content about your industry and related topics of interest to your audience

• Videos that show what goes on behind the scenes and give consumers an idea of the culture of your business

Build a solid foundation of content first, then schedule it to post regularly. This way, consumers will see that you’re consistent.

Over time, they’ll start to expect to see your brand pop up on their page. You’ll become a knowledgeable source of trusted information in your industry. In other words, you’ll be the “name brand.”

Conclusion

When you’re putting together your content marketing, it’s not going to be a cut-and-dried process. Any time you make an adjustment, analyze the results and then tweak as necessary.

Soon, your company or product will be recognizable to your audience, and you’ll be the “known” brand.