Branding & Creative Social Listening Brand awareness: What it is and strategies to improve it

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What does it take to build brand awareness?

In the old days, a steady drumbeat of messaging across a few audience-preferred channels might have done the trick. But in today's cluttered landscape, that messaging needs to be even more consistent-and more compelling-to get noticed.

While it takes effort, the payoff is substantial. High brand awareness, combined with strong reputation management, builds trust that fosters long-term customer loyalty.

Building a memorable brand image takes some big swings, but you have to walk before you can run. To help, we're breaking down the why and how behind driving and measuring brand awareness.

What is brand awareness?

Brand awareness is the extent to which audiences are familiar with your brand's identity and its product or services. It's the bedrock of your sales funnel. After all, you need to be able to recognize a brand to trust and buy from it.

Strong brand awareness is the competitive edge that keeps a business top-of-mind for consumers. Brands with high levels of consumer recognition can even become synonymous with their product. For example, when someone needs to fix a misspelled word written in pen, they're usually not asking for "correction fluid"; they're asking for Wite-Out.

Of course, achieving that level of brand recognition is a lofty goal. Our advice? Start where you are. Focus on building awareness within targeted audiences and grow from there.

Why is brand awareness important?

Every customer journey begins with the same step. That step is brand awareness.

Source: Marketoonist

Your brand awareness strategy will set the tone for a person's entire experience with your brand. Start things out on the right foot, and you could sow the seeds for your next crop of brand advocates.

If that's not enough, don't worry-it's not even the best part.

As your brand awareness strategy matures, you'll soon find that the most effective awareness drivers don't come from your official brand channels: they come from your fans. Our research shows that the most effective purchase drivers on social media are recommendations from friends, comments and product reviews and familiarity with a brand.

"Brand awareness creates a community that generates word of mouth buzz, 'I love this product, and I know you will too.' Your community knows what their friends and family like. Your audience becomes a pipeline to your most relevant customer in the exact moment their friends and family need your product. That is the power of brand awareness."

- Akeeme Hogg, Social and Email Marketing Lead, ServiceMaster Brands

Combine positive brand sentiment with high brand recognition and you get fans. Fans beget more fans. Brand awareness truly is the gift that keeps on giving.

How brand awareness works

At its core, brand awareness is about standing out in a crowded market through consistent, memorable messaging and a strong visual identity. This can be achieved through a mix of organic and paid efforts, including social media, content marketing, PR, influencer marketing partnerships and more.

Brand awareness is the cornerstone of how consumers perceive and remember your brand. It works by increasing visibility across various touchpoints, making it easier for potential customers to recall your brand when they're ready to make a purchase.

But exposure alone isn't enough. Long-term brand awareness hinges on resonance-the ability of your audience to not only remember your ad but also like it, associate it with your brand and ultimately consider your brand when making purchasing decisions. This resonance keeps your brand top-of-mind, shortening sales cycles, reducing customer acquisition costs and fostering long-term loyalty.

How to measure brand awareness

Connecting brand awareness to ROI can feel like trying to explain how to get from Chicago to San Francisco by foot. Sure, it's doable, but it's pretty complicated.

The classic marketing funnel looks straightforward, but in reality, every customer journey is different and some can be much longer than others. Trying to track and assign value to every interaction between awareness and purchase simply isn't the best use of anyone's time.

Although it may be difficult to quantify the monetary value of every awareness effort, there are still important metrics worth tracking. There are quite a few methods to understand your efforts as you pilot new awareness strategies. Here are some of our favorites to help you measure brand awareness.

Brand surveys

Brand surveys are routine (often biannual) surveys that assess what an audience thinks and feels about your brand. Data from brand surveys can be used to track brand perception over time, providing businesses with the insights needed to shape their brand's image in the right direction.

Unfortunately, these surveys take weeks (if not months) to design and distribute. If you want more timely data, you'll want to supplement a brand survey with the following options.

Website traffic

Tracking month-over-month differences in web traffic isn't an exact measurement of brand awareness. However, it's much easier to connect web traffic to ROI, making it a management-preferred reporting metric.

As you test out new brand awareness tactics, use Google Analytics to see how those changes impact growth in new users. That'll give you a rough estimate of how your efforts translated to site traffic.

You can also dig deeper to look at specific traffic sources, like organic search, referral and direct traffic. Direct traffic means someone found your site through a firsthand channel-like typing your brand's URL into the address bar or revisiting a bookmarked page-a good indicator of brand awareness.

Social listening

Every day, people turn to social to rant and rave about the companies they love-and the ones they don't. The right social listening tool can help you synthesize that chatter into timely, actionable brand insights.

If you use Sprout's social listening tool, here are just a few of the metrics you can pull to understand how conversations are trending around your brand:

• Total message volume tracks the total amount of messages shared around your brand.
• Sentiment summary measures how people feel about your brand and whether or not it's trending positively.
• Share of voice compares your brand's market share on social to its top competitors.

12 proven strategies to increase brand awareness with social media

Social is a go-to channel for raising brand awareness. But how do you become a familiar face within your followers' feeds versus someone they just scroll past?

There's no one correct answer to that question. The truth is, the options are as limitless as your creativity. If you want to use social media for brand awareness, use these 12 ideas to jumpstart your efforts. From fine-tuning your profile to experimenting with your content, any combination of these tips will help you rise above the noise.

1. Give your social presence some personality

First things first: your social media presence shouldn't look like everyone else's.

One of the most persistent social media marketing myths is that only certain industries can have a "fun" social presence. Fast food, retail, sports-those brands can get experimental. Everyone else has to play it safe.

That couldn't be more wrong.

If you don't believe me, just take a look at the Oklahoma Department of Wildlife Conservation's social strategy.

It would be easy for them to just share some cute animal pictures every now and then. However, it's their off-the-wall personality that's made them so endearing to followers.

Marketers are told time and time again to create "unique" content. It might sound corny, but the person behind your social presence represents a one-of-a-kind voice.

Before you hit post, make a point to ask yourself: "Does this sound like something a bot would say?"

2. Fine-tune your profiles

Recognition is a key element of building brand awareness.

When followers glance at your social profiles, they should be able to understand the basics of your brand, its purpose and its personality.

From social bios to profile images, how you set up your profile determines whether or not people recognize you.

Brands only get a few seconds to grab someone's attention and tell a quick story. If you can't sum up your brand ethos in a few characters and 1500×500 pixels, don't worry. A clean, well-optimized profile and photo are enough to establish your brand with new audiences.

3. Make your posts pop

A defined visual content strategy leaves a lasting impression. Consistent visuals-like logos, colors, typography and design-make your brand more easily identifiable in a sea of content. This increases the likelihood that consumers will recall your brand when making purchase decisions.

Don't have eye-popping images featuring your products? No problem. The principle of making your posts stand out rings true in content marketing, too.

Notice how Sprout's blog posts are all coupled with these colorful illustrations instead of generic stock photos?

Anything you can do aesthetically to make your posts stand out is a point in your favor. Even if you're not a designer, there are plenty of social media post templates to help you whip up some eye-catching imagery.

4. Collaborate with other brands

You know what they say: Teamwork makes the dream work. When brands collaborate on new releases or campaign ideas, both parties get a chance to introduce themselves to new audiences.

Both co-marketing and co-branding campaigns bring engagement from the jump. Not only that, but collaboration is a surefire way to make positive impressions on other players in your industry.

Keep an eye out for strategic partnerships as you watch over your industry's content landscape. You never know who could be the best fit for your dream team.

5. Harness the power of hashtags

Every now and then a viral hot take will try to force hashtagging into an early grave. Fret not, my fellow marketers, the hashtag is alive and well. If you're choosing relevant, brand-applicable hashtags, they're a surefire way to increase impressions on your posts.

When choosing which hashtags to include in your posts, consider both the network you're posting on and the trends driving conversations at the moment. To get a look at hashtag trends thriving across multiple platforms, consider social listening. These tools surface hashtags and keywords that are trending within specific conversations, so you can develop your social copy with intention.

6. Take it to the comments

As more networks experiment with algorithmically ranked comment sections, marketers are gaining new territory to make their brands known.

Take this video from creator CorporateNatalie. Calm earned the top comments on the post, scoring more than 2,000 likes for their addition to the original joke in the video. On top of that, this video has been liked over two million times. That's some seriously valuable brand exposure for every brand that's secured a top spot in the comment section.

As you scroll through your social feed, keep an eye out for viral posts that relate to your brand or industry. When it comes to brand awareness, there's no shame in riding on coattails.

7. Repurpose your content

If you're like most marketers, you're probably trying to boost brand awareness across multiple networks.

In that case, it's important to repurpose your content to fit in with the best practices of each platform. After all, what works best on Instagram might not be prime for Facebook or Twitter.

One-size-fits-all content and captions aren't going to win your brand much attention. To keep your feed from growing stale, you should always have new social media ideas on the back burner to support speedy content creation.

8. Share a distinct point of view

Stats. Case studies. Surveys.

If your brand is conducting any sort of original research, it can be a huge authority booster that does wonders for brand awareness, too.

And if you're not in a position where such research is possible, don't panic.

Consider how you can comment on industry trends and happenings from your point of view. Keep up with industry publications and research to see where you can insert your brand's POV.

The takeaway here is that you should contribute to the ongoing conversation of your industry at large versus just sitting on the sidelines.

9. Experiment with social copy

We've talked a lot about visuals, but text is yet another opportunity to showcase your brand's social persona. Use your copy to pique people's interest and encourage engagement, giving a sort of taste to readers before they click through.

You can look to The Cut for inspiration on this one. Their posts on X (formerly Twitter) always pair perfectly with article link previews, creating a post you can't help but click.

Don't count out the power of a well-crafted text post. Once you find your brand voice, it can be a prime opportunity for connecting with followers and letting them know exactly who you are.

10. Use social as a teaching tool

Educational and "how-to" content is widely sought after on just about every social network. We surveyed consumers for our 2024 Social Media Content Strategy Report and found that 66% of social users find "edutainment"-content that educates and entertains-to be the most engaging of all brand content. It outranks memes, serialized content and skits.

Posting such content regularly positions you both as a positive resource and a thought leader. The more opportunities to show off your brand's product or know-how, the better.

11. Partner with influencers

The creator economy is thriving. A new crop of trendsetters and thought leaders rises up every other week. No matter what industry you work in, there's probably an influencer making waves with your target audience-and those waves have the power to result in serious revenue gains.

According to The 2024 Influencer Marketing Report, almost half of all consumers (49%) make purchases at least once a month because of influencer posts. On top of that, trust in influencers is holding steady if not on the rise, as nearly half of consumers trust influencers as much as they did six months ago, and another 30% trust them more.

12. Show up consistently

Finally, consider that nobody can truly be aware of your brand if you don't post consistently.

According to The Sprout Social Index™ 2023, 74% of consumers think brands should post 1-2 times per day. To help you save time and to make the process of showing up easier, having a scheduling tool such as Sprout on deck can be a game-changer.

The more ground you and your brand can cover, the better. It all comes down to having a specific strategy which makes the most out of the time you spend on social media.

3 examples of building brand awareness

Now that we've explored the various paths to building brand awareness, let's take a look at how some standout brands achieve it. These top-tier examples can serve as inspiration for your own strategy:

1. ServiceNow

B2B brands are often thought of as serious and straightlaced on social. ServiceNow, a software company focused on helping enterprise brands manage digital workflows, takes a different approach.

Their social team creates short-form video content that stands out in a sea of whitepapers and demo CTAs. When they joined the conversation around workplace jargon, they added their own clever multiverse spin. The team took overused phrases like "ducks in a row" and "foot in the door" and interpreted them literally, capturing their audience's sense of humor perfectly. The post earned the company over 840 likes on LinkedIn and 23 reposts.

2. Scrub Daddy

For National Donut Day, Scrub Daddy teamed up with Dunkin to create donut-shaped sponges, generating excitement among their fans.

This collaboration not only tapped into their audiences' enthusiasm but also drove significant brand awareness. The partnership, which started from a playful social media exchange, leveraged both brands' fan bases, sparking viral interest. By listening to consumer feedback and delivering a creative product, both brands boosted their visibility and strengthened their connection with existing and new audiences.

3. UPS

UPS effectively leverages user-generated content (UGC) from frontline employees and satisfied customers to enhance brand awareness.

By featuring employees prominently in their TikTok strategy, UPS highlights their unique backgrounds and personalities, fostering a sense of community. Similarly, UGC from happy customers sharing personal stories about their UPS carriers strengthens emotional connections.

This strategy not only generates significant impressions and engagement but also differentiates UPS from competitors. According to Sprout Listening data, UPS enjoys higher sentiment than its top rivals, along with a 93% share of voice, showcasing how UGC contributes to a powerful competitive advantage on social media.

Take your brand awareness strategy to the next level

Building buzz around your brand takes an eye for both experimentation and data. Try new things, report on what works, rinse, repeat.

And when the workload gets too high, try automating some of your routine responsibilities. Sprout's scheduling and analytics tools can remove bulky, manual processes from your day-to-day so you can focus on creating new brand awareness strategies that gain and retain loyal followers.

Try Sprout Social for free

Brand Awareness FAQs

The main goal of brand awareness is to increase your brand's visibility across various touchpoints, making it easier for potential customers to recall your brand when they're ready to make a purchase.

There are many strategies that can support brand awareness, but what matters most of all is consistency. Consistent messaging and visuals across various touch points increases the likelihood that consumers will remember your brand when making purchase decisions.

Categories

• Branding & Creative
• Social Listening

Ronnie Gomez

Ronnie Gomez is a Senior Content Strategist at Sprout Social where she writes to help social professionals learn and grow at every stage of their careers. When she's not writing, she's reading or looking for Chicago's next best place to get a vanilla oat milk latte.

Read all articlesby Ronnie Gomez