The ultimate guide to brand strategy

But to stay top of mind, you’ll need to expose your brand to customers multiple times. With marketing, you can create a brand people respect and want to buy from, that helps your brand stay top of mind. But even after that, it’s important to ensure your brand stays top-of-mind with your target audience. Building a brand identity usually starts with a logo, but it often goes much further than that. By carefully crafting brand identities, businesses can trigger certain emotions from their target audience. In this article, I’ll share eight proven ways to boost brand awareness, peppered with real examples from Ahrefs’ journey from zero to over $100M in annual recurring revenue.

For example, we’ve created a number of free SEO tools that naturally spread awareness of our brand and give marketers a taste of Ahrefs. Rawdon Glover, Jaguar’s managing director, said the rebrand was partly about making Jaguar “socially relevant.” But afterwards, Jaguar overhauled its heritage logo and dramatically changed the look of its cars, focusing only on electric vehicles (EVs).

Use emotion to cut through and consistency to build trust. brand awareness marketing plan Use values, lifestyle traits, and buying behavior to zero in on the people with a real reason to choose you. Here's how to lay the groundwork with a modern, insight-led approach. Building awareness takes a plan backed by data.

Choose channels based on real behavior

Social media platforms provide an excellent opportunity to connect with your audience, share content, and engage in conversations. Consumers connect more deeply with brands that have a compelling narrative. Share your brand’s journey, values, and mission through storytelling.

Step 1: Understand your audience

But learning how to increase brand awareness could be overwhelming, especially for small businesses. High brand awareness will lead to strong brand preference and higher sales and market shares. “I want to optimize my company’s resources to reduce overhead costs. “I plan to create highly shareable content by the end of four months. These relationships will help increase brand recognition and grow our customer base.”

Aided brand awareness (or brand recognition)

Ask people what they want from the brands they buy and the answer is rarely spectacle. Familiarity, built well, shows up as margin. It buys volume when the goal should be the right kind of attention.

Book a GWI demo and see what your next brand awareness campaign could look like with real human insight behind it. GWI's global data, brand tracking, and Agent Spark help you find the people worth reaching, sharpen how you show up for them, and keep evolving as they do. Start with insight and you build relevance; build with purpose and you earn attention that lasts and, eventually, sells. Strong brand awareness is the product of clear thinking and real audience understanding.

• Smaller brands may do one thing really well, and want to focus on building awareness around that niche offering, so they focus on aided awareness.
• Setting clear objectives will guide your marketing efforts and allow you to measure your success.
• Avoid measuring awareness on a level that’s not useful to you, and make sure you are measuring awareness of your brand in the context that is most relevant to your business strategy.
• The disadvantage is that the consumer can claim to recall many brands when asked directly, but they just may not be salient, or relevant at time of purchase.

For instance, to increase social media followers, you can’t expect to do so in several hours. You’ll have a clearer roadmap to arrive at your ideal destination. Being more precise will lead you on the right path to goal achievement. You’ll take the required steps to drive sales and influence consumer behavior across the entire purchase funnel. Companies can gain new customers and boost sales when customers are more aware of the brand.

Think of iconic logos like the Nike swoosh or Apple’s apple; they are etched in the minds of consumers. A well-designed logo is a visual representation of your brand. Brand awareness is crucial because it lays the foundation for brand loyalty and trust.

Build a Unique Brand Voice

Ian has marketed for some of the world's best-known brands like Hewlett-Packard, Ryder, Force Factor, and CIT Bank. Inconsistencies can confuse consumers and dilute brand recognition. Conduct surveys and market research to understand consumer perceptions and track changes in brand awareness over time. They are especially effective for creating brand recognition among a wide demographic. Influencers can endorse your products or services to their loyal followers. Consistent posting and interactive content can boost brand visibility.

It goes beyond mere recognition of a brand’s name or logo; it encompasses the emotional and cognitive associations people have with a brand. GWI brand tracking helps you benchmark awareness in the market before and after you launch. Lead with local audience insight to guide creative and media choices. Then track recall and sentiment, and refine as you learn.

I’ll also make sure to include more visuals and an easier-to-follow layout. “In 7 months, I’ll increase our content quality by 10% by focusing on topics that engage our target audience. I’ll use online advertising and public relations strategies to get our name out there.” To do this, I plan to use content marketing, SEO, and social media to drive organic traffic.” You must have enough resources and commitment to spearhead this goal.

The hard part is measuring all of this consistently, across markets, over time. Measuring awareness can feel slippery, though the right metrics make it concrete. Your tone, look, and message should hold together wherever someone runs into you, from a short social video to the supermarket shelf.

Use it to spot gaps, refine positioning, and tailor your approach by segment. Ask a question in plain English, like how your brand is perceived against a rival in a specific market, and get survey-backed answers in seconds. Among younger audiences, ONE Championship had real pull, with 63% of 18-29s saying they "extremely like" the brand. Consumer insight puts their interests, behaviors, and values in one view, so your message reflects their reality rather than your assumptions. Segmentation and attitudinal data will help, pointing you the right way and taking the guesswork out. 57% of internet users want brands to be reliable (GWI Core).