Increasing brand awareness in a B2B environment? This is how you achieve it
Increasing brand awareness within a B2B environment is one of the objectives that is mentioned in most marketing and PR plans. As brand awareness brings many benefits, having this as an objective is not to be frowned upon. Companies with significant brand awareness are taken more seriously and face more opportunities than companies that have little awareness. Brand awareness ensures a certain position where other companies and businesses keep a close eye on you regarding trends and ideas. Also, potential customers and partners will be more likely to prefer doing business with you and you will attract high-quality applicants. Let us tell you how to achieve greater brand awareness within the B2B market.
Define your target audience
The first step to increasing brand awareness is creating visibility among your target audience. You have probably thought about who belongs to your target audience, but are you aware of the difficulties your target audience faces? Do you know which – business or non-business – goals they pursue or which (professional) media they find most interesting? It is important to delve into these matters. As a result, one will obtain a clear picture of the target audience and how to reach them effectively. If you are in need of help regarding this matter, then a buyer persona workshop might be interesting for you. Next, it is important to clarify what you want to transmit to your target audience. What do you stand for as a company? How does your product or service help your target audience?
Stand out!
The next step is to draw attention to yourself in such a manner that your target audience will not be able to ignore you. Keeping the current content overload in mind, one has to be creative in order to stand out. Luckily, there are several possibilities. Build a memorable campaign, share a unique vision or a controversial opinion, do innovative research or respond to current events. Even better, do all of the above. In any case, always keep your target audience in mind to produce valuable content that attracts and retains their attention.
The power of repetition
Standing out is easier said than done. An interview or thought-provoking opinion piece will draw extra attention, but it takes more than that to increase brand awareness. Prevent silence around your brand and make sure you are continuously visible. This way you create so-called memory structures. This means that the target audience links your brand to a certain value, need or situation. This requires patience and a long-term strategy. One does not remember everything that has come to his or her attention just once. To ensure that people remember your brand name and associate it with certain values, it has to come to their attention repeatedly. Preferably each time in a way that triggers the target audience.
What is next?
Undoubtedly you will want to know if all the effort is paying off. There are several ways to find out, for example by making sure that you can measure your total reach and the media value. Additionally, you can explore the Share of Voice or Share of Search on a particular subject. Do you prefer to measure qualitative results rather than quantitative results? Then consider measurement tools to determine the number of times you have achieved publications in tier one media or the number of times your core message has appeared in the media.
Getting started
In short: define your target audience, formulate a clear core message and create a plan that draws the attention of your target audience for a longer period of time. Are you struggling with finding the right core message? Are you not sure about how to reach your target audience effectively? Do not worry! We are more than willing to help. Turn to Marlin for our free PR consultation on how PR can contribute to your brand awareness. Or contact us at info@marcommit.nl.
By Pien Aldenzee, Marcommit