You’ve created a dynamic
brand
, and your marketing strategy has gone all out to increase awareness of your brand among consumers, but lackluster sales tell you that something is missing. Sales will not improve until the ultimate goal of your marketing campaign shifts from brand awareness to increase brand engagement.
Brand awareness versus brand engagement
The component of a marketing strategy designed to get your brand out to as large a segment of the general population or the marketplace is brand awareness. However, the fact that a lot of people recognize your brand may not translate into actual sales of your product or services. Unless people have an emotional connection to your brand, the traffic generated by your marketing campaign will not generate the leads and the sales to increase profits and grow your business.
People need to experience an emotional connection to your brand before they will buy the services and products offered by your business. Word-of-mouth marketing with consumers taking the time to post recommendations about a particular brand only occurs when your marketing campaign has generated brand engagement.
A customer who is aware of your brand might make a single purchase. Customers who feel engaged with your brand become a continuing source of sales for your company.
Increase brand engagement by knowing your audience
Building customer loyalty toward your brand is one of the keys to increase brand engagement. Strategies your marketing team can employ to increase brand engagement include:
- Start with employee engagement: If your employees working in customer support and sales do not believe in the company brand, they cannot be expected to instill brand engagement in customers. The people within your company need to understand and believe in the brand before they can promote it to others.
- Show customers, you understand their needs: It’s easier for people to feel a connection with your business if your brand makes them believe it recognizes and addresses their needs. Keeping the message simple helps people to understand what your brand stands for and feel as though it speaks directly to them.
- Strive for consistency: Consistency in your brand’s design, color scheme, and message promote and encourage customer engagement by making it easier for people to recognize the brand.
- Make effective use of social media: Using social media to post information about a new product or service is an excellent method for increasing customer awareness, but it might not be engaging your audience. Asking people on social media to respond to polls and surveys or to provide feedback provides customers with a feeling that your company cares about what they have to say about your business and its products and services.
Loyalty programs offer an effective way to increase brand engagement by rewarding customers for repeat business. The program you create can be as simple or elaborate as you wish, but the end result is that it keeps customers coming back.
Get help to increase brand engagement
YourBrand is a digital branding agency specializing in branding and rebranding businesses. Contact us for expert advice and guidance about developing your brand and increasing brand engagement.
