Coca-Cola is one of history’s best examples of brand awareness. Whether or not you’re a fan, chances are that you’d recognize Coke’s logo, the shape of its soda bottle, and the iconic red brand color that’s now associated with Santa Claus. So, it makes sense that marketers often study Coca-Cola for inspiration.
However, there’s far more to building brand awareness than looking toward iconic brands that have stood the test of time, especially if you run an ecommerce store and not a multinational with over 700,000 staff members.
In this article, we’ll cover how to build your ecommerce store’s brand awareness, including how to define brand awareness versus brand identity, how to make the right kind of noise for your brand, and best practices to get you several steps closer to iconic.
What Is Brand Awareness?
Brand awareness is how businesses cultivate recognition for their products and services, often through different types of storytelling.
It’s also a hot buzzword and a topic of much discussion by marketers that’s inspired countless books, including Donald Miller’s Building a StoryBrand, Contagious: How to Build Word of Mouth in the Digital Age by Jonah Berger, How Brands Grow by Byron Sharp, and AI Ries and Jack Trout’s The 22 Immutable Laws of Branding.
Despite all of its complexities, though, it’s relatively simple to define brand awareness. At its core, it’s whether or not people know your brand is out there and what it does.
Why Brand Awareness Matters
Understanding why recognition matters for your business helps you prioritize the right activities. Think of recognition as the starting point in your customer journey. When shoppers learn about your store, they enter what many marketers call the conversion funnel. This journey moves through several phases: initial discovery, growing curiosity, developing want, and finally making a purchase.
Building recognition also strengthens what your company is worth in the marketplace. The value people assign to your business grows as more individuals become familiar with what you offer. This perceived worth can translate into customer loyalty and premium pricing power over time.
What’s the Difference Between Brand Awareness and Brand Identity?
If brand awareness is general knowledge of a brand’s existence and activities, then brand identity is how people think and feel about the brand.
A strong brand identity stirs up feelings and emotions about a brand, leading to an association between the brand and certain characteristics.
Let's look at a memorable example of brand identity.
Remember Apple’s Get a Mac campaign that ran from 2006 through 2009 that depicted Justin Long as a Mac and John Hodgman as a PC? At the time, Apple was working to cultivate a cool identity, so they cast an actor who was younger, dressed more casually, and had more casual confidence. His counterpart was wearing a stuffy suit and didn’t act with the same cool nonchalance as the Mac character.
While you may not have Apple’s budget or access to popular comedic actors, you can take a lot away from how Apple built its identity in the early aughts. Apple made its product a person, crafting an actual human identity for the brand, and casting its competitive counterpart at the same time.
How Do You Measure Brand Awareness and Brand Identity?
Brand awareness isn’t always easy to measure, especially if you don’t have access to comprehensive market research. There are, however, perfectly measurable things you can look at to gauge how your branding activities are going.
- Page views and impressions, for example, could be the direct result of a brand strategy, especially if they’re coming from channels being used for branding.
- You can also use tools like Mention, Brandwatch, Meltwater, SproutSocial, and many others to measure how much noise your brand is making on major PR and social channels. Google Alerts, meanwhile, lets you measure chatter about your brand on the web.
Not every page impression, social share, or blog mention can be attributed to brand awareness. But all of these numbers should move north as your branding efforts gain strength. You can also pay especially close attention to which branding messages are moving the needle. If certain messages are resonating better than others, you can let that shape your marketing.
Another thing to keep in mind is that conversions can play a huge role in brand awareness and brand identity activities. For one thing, conversions will increase with a well-executed brand strategy. But a sale doesn't mark the end point of your brand's popularity, it’s actually an opportunity to further increase brand awareness.
A sale gives you a chance to send a follow-up email with discounts codes, inform the customer about your referral program, and get them to sign up for your newsletter. In short, a sale solidifies someone's place inside your brand ecosystem. And the more people you can get firmly planted in that ecosystem, the better your chances to increase your brand awareness.
How to Build Brand Awareness
Growing brand awareness takes strategic effort across multiple channels, starting with establishing a clear set of values, recognizable visual identity, and identifying tactics that work for your audience.
Use Social Media Creatively
Social media platforms offer powerful opportunities to connect with shoppers looking to discover new products. Partner with complementary businesses for giveaways or collaborative product launches. Work with content creators whose audiences match your customer profile. Encourage existing buyers to share reviews or unboxing content in exchange for perks. Jump on trending topics to showcase your unique voice.
Invest in Advertising
Paid campaigns help you reach specific audience segments efficiently. Consider advertising on social networks, search engines, or through direct partnerships with publishers and creators. Sponsor email newsletters with engaged subscriber bases or support live events where you can gain exposure. Choose partners that align naturally with your business values and target market.
Pursue Media Coverage
Develop relationships with journalists and bloggers who cover your industry. Send timely pitches tied to seasonal shopping periods or trending topics. Feature any press mentions prominently on your website and social channels to build credibility and trust with potential customers.
Optimize for Search Engines
Help shoppers find your store when they search online by implementing SEO best practices. Research relevant keywords and create valuable content that answers common questions. Optimize your site pages, blog articles, videos, and social content to match what people are looking for.
Appear as a Guest Expert
Share your knowledge on podcasts, radio programs, or at industry events. Position yourself as an authority by discussing lessons from running your business or offering insights about your field. These appearances introduce your brand to new audiences who value expert perspectives.
6 Tips for Building Stronger Brand Awareness
1. Identify What Makes You Different
A crucial step of building your brand’s awareness is identifying what sets you apart from your competition. Make sure you have unique selling points (USPs) that add value and are easy to understand. For inspiration, study your competition. How do they define their brands? And just as importantly, how don't they define their brands? Look for characteristics that you can call your own.
2. Be Consistent With Your Branding
Chances to engage with potential customers are precious. If your brand strategy is different across your channels, people won't be able to decode what your brand is all about.
Brand awareness requires consistent messaging. And crafting a consistent message requires keeping your channels harmonized. For example, if you build an identity around how much fun your product is to use, then that lightheartedness should carry over to all channels.
The sunglasses brand Sunday Somewhere does a beautiful job of keeping their brand messaging consistent across all channels. The brand’s site is filled with imagery of people lounging in hammocks and chilling poolside. And if you land on its social channels, you see more of the same relaxing yet adventurous spirit, from parties in exotic locales to piña coladas on the beach.
As a result, no matter how to find Sunday Somewhere, you’re greeted with the same message consistently and repetitively, solidifying an immediately recognizable identity.
3. Showcase Positivity in Your Brand Strategy
Brand awareness means different things to different brands. For some, it hinges on being environmentally friendly. For others, brand awareness is daytime cocktails and majestic scenes by the water. The one thing you likely won’t see with successful brand strategies is negativity.
There is so much negativity in the world, especially online. The last thing consumers want is negativity while they're shopping.
This doesn't mean that your brand strategy needs to contain poems, inspirational quotes, and a bunch of heart-eye emojis. What it does mean, though, is that your brand strategy shouldn't bring people down.
Beardbrand does an awesome job of this. As any guy will tell you, there are plenty of negative things to say about beards. They require daily maintenance. The tools for that maintenance are expensive. What looked good this morning might look shabby this evening.
But Beardbrand is masterful at taking something that could easily be considered annoying and giving it a half-glass-full spin.
Look at the newsletter sign up, for example. Newsletters, as we've discussed, can be super helpful so be sure to include them in your brand strategy. And not only does Beardbrand have easy-to-find newsletter signups scattered throughout its site, but the call to action (CTA) on that signup is absolutely positive: Keep on growing! The brand also calls its advocates “brush lovers” and consistently leans toward positivity.
4. Have an “Our Story” Page
The bios you write for your Instagram, Facebook, and X accounts might be limited when it comes to brand awareness. There simply isn't much space to let your brand strategy shine through.
If you want to further develop your brand strategy, consider creating an “Our Story” page, also known as an “About” or “About Us” page. Lots of your brand awareness efforts will in one way or another lead to your website, and this page should give further depth and weight to your people and values.
Explain why your store is different, why people should feel good about shopping with you.
5. Use Your Name, Logo, and URL to Strengthen Brand Identity
Remember earlier when we talked about how your website, social media channels, and newsletter should all deliver the same message? Well, the same goes for your URL, logo, and the oh-so-important business name.
First things first: You don't want a name that's already an Instagram handle for someone else, or that has a URL that's already taken. It's hard to generate enough brand awareness that people seek out your brand. So when they do, we need to make sure they see your own content, not something from a X handle that hasn't posted in three years.
No doubt, your logo, business name, and URL are massive brand awareness opportunities.
The interactive toy company for girls GoldieBlox could teach a course on this. For starters, the name: GoldieBlox. It’s a charming twist on the fairy tale Goldilocks and the Three Bears, and links the resourceful main character of the story to its tagline, “inspiring the next generation of innovators.” The logo further reenforces this message.
The X (@goldieblox), Instagram (goldieblox), and Facebook (@GoldieBlox) accounts are all easy to find, and the content you see when you land on any of these pages matches the company ethos perfectly.
6. Know Your Audience
If you don’t know who your target audience is, it’s challenging to build brand awareness that turns the right heads.
Define your target audience before you create your brand, building awareness and personas around their pain points, preferences, and behaviors. That’ll make it easier to attract people who’ll be more likely to purchase from your store or brand and stick around long-term.
Defining target audiences isn’t only about winning and retaining customers, it’s about building relationships with people who’ll act as brand ambassadors as well. The more you know your buyers, the more effective they’ll be as advocates.
How To Convert Brand Awareness Into Sales
Getting visitors to your site is just the beginning. Turning that traffic into revenue requires deliberate action. Here are proven strategies to move people from discovery to purchase.
Make Strong First Impressions
You have seconds to capture attention when someone lands on your site. Many visitors leave after viewing just one page. Make your headlines clear and compelling. Ensure your page design reflects your brand voice. Create obvious paths for visitors to explore further. With content, focus on providing value while connecting naturally to your products.
Remove Purchase Barriers
Meet customers where they spend time. If your audience uses TikTok frequently, establish a presence there. Enable shopping features on social platforms so people can buy without leaving the app. Ensure your site works flawlessly on mobile devices, as mobile shopping continues growing rapidly. Offer customer support through channels your audience prefers.
Create Clear Next Steps
Guide visitors explicitly toward the action you want them to take. Use prominent buttons with straightforward language. Make calls to action visually distinct with contrasting colors and adequate spacing. While creativity has its place, clarity matters more when directing customer behavior.
Personalize Customer Experiences
Tailor interactions based on customer preferences and behavior. Use quiz results to recommend relevant products. Implement AI-driven suggestions. Offer live chat support. Personalized experiences significantly increase the likelihood of repeat purchases.
Retarget Previous Visitors
Remind people who've already discovered your brand to come back. Use tracking technology to identify site visitors and show them targeted ads later. Be transparent about data collection and follow privacy regulations. Include clear disclosures in your privacy policy.
Create Urgency
Motivate browsers to buy now rather than later. Run limited-time sales or flash promotions. Offer time-sensitive shipping deals. Display countdown timers for special offers. Show stock levels to encourage quick decisions. Announce exclusive product drops. Host temporary pop-up events.
Time Campaigns Strategically
Align promotions with relevant seasons and events. Offer discounts when you've recently gained exposure. Design your homepage to highlight seasonal collections or gift ideas during major shopping periods.
Optimize Search Presence
Create content that answers customer questions and solves problems. Target keywords naturally while prioritizing value. Consider paid search ads to appear prominently in results. Balance organic and paid strategies for maximum visibility.
Brand Awareness FAQ
Do I Need A Unique Identity For My Brand?
You go head-to-head with your competition on price, search visibility, ad space, and so on. So if possible, don't go head-to-head on brand awareness. Instead, find something that makes your business unique and make that the cornerstone of your brand strategy.
Why Should I Be Consistent With Branding Across Channels?
It's important to capitalize on every chance you have to raise your brand popularity. So make sure that no matter where you reach that audience â social, newsletter, website, etc. â your message is consistent. That way, each time they engage with you, it'll reinforce what you're all about.
What’s The Benefit Of Being Positive?
There are so many reasons that people might not buy from you. Don't let negativity be one of them. Build positivity into your brand strategy to increase the chances that people feel good about you, your products, and your store.
Does My Brand Need An “Our Story” Page?
The “Our Story” page is prime real estate for building better brand awareness. There is more space and flexibility to tell your story and connect with potential buyers than those little slices of space that you have on social media.
How Can I Strengthen My Brand Identity?
There are many ways to build a strong brand identity and raise awareness, but consistency is one of the key tactics. You can reinforce brand awareness every time someone mentions your brand, punches in your URL, or sees your logo, so long as they are consistent and link to one another.