It is a common perception that brand awareness is better suited to consumer related brands. The truth, however, is far from it. B2B companies can greatly benefit with creating a brand and showcasing it effectively. Building a unique corporate brand help you to stand out from your competitors, provide common ground for company stake holders and reduces business-related risk. Building brand awareness is a long-term continuous project, where you continuously evolve your strategy according to your business growth and external factors that impact your business.

Traditional methods of creating brand awareness (such as newspaper ads) are expensive and non-targeted. Social media offers your B2B the opportunity to create a unique brand and showcase your brand story. In this article I will discuss how to use social media to create brand awareness.

Create a Strong Brand Identity

Your brand name is the first point of contact for any prospective client. Your aim is to create an awareness strategy that makes your brand known and is associated with the business that you do. An example would be that whenever you think about Intel, you are reminded of chips and computers. Similarly, your brand name should be synonymous with the services or products that you offer. Your efforts should ultimately be targeted towards making your business an industry leader.

Social media can help you create a brand identity by giving you a platform (such as LinkedIn company page) to showcase your brand name, unique identity, brand story, history, values, and idea behind your business.

It is highly recommended to use the about section on your company page (whether on LinkedIn or Facebook) to give an overview of your business, provide website link, include your industry, and contact information. The about section is a good place to talk briefly about your brand values and brand story.

Brand story, values and identity can be discussed in company posts as well. Short form content like infographics, pictures and written posts work well on social media. Use this space to talk about different aspects of your brand. Video content performs well and can communicate more information in a short amount of time.

Visual Design is Important for Brand Awareness

Visual design includes your brand’s logo, colour palettes, typography, icons, and aesthetics. When developing design elements make sure they are optimized for digital environment and retain their integrity when enlarged or reduced in size. Make sure that the colour palette that you choose should look visually appealing on mobile screens and computers. Similarly, your logo should be responsive, this means that it can be scaled down without losing its design elements.

Your design elements should be at the forefront on your company’s social media pages. Your profile image and cover photo should follow a coordinated theme and should communicate your brand’s identity.

When you post on social media, make sure that you follow the colour palette and typography of your brand. It is also a good idea to include your brand’s logo in photos and videos shared on your social media.

Make sure that the logo, colour palette and typography is consistent throughout your website and social media pages.

Posting Consistently can Improve Brand Awareness

Posting frequency is one of the overlooked aspects of brand awareness. Your followers and prospective clients need to consistently be reminded of your brand identity, values, and story. Your job as a business owner is to make your brand story interesting and relatable. Secondly, you need to focus on rolling out social media posts on a consistent basis. A monthly content plan can help you keep track of your social media content and posting times.

Analytics play an important role in awareness. They can tell you which one of your social media posts performed well. You can then refocus your efforts in creating content that does well. This strategy works for both paid and organic reach.

Paid versus Organic Approach for Brand Awareness

There are two ways to increase brand awareness on social media: organic and paid reach. Organic reach simply means that you post content on your page and track its progress. Posting pictures, short written posts, and videos make up your content that you can post on your company page for organic reach. The organic approach takes some time to make an impact, but once you have healthy audience engagement it is easier to maintain.

Paid awareness campaigns use the content on your company page or designed ads to reach a target audience. Awareness campaigns can quickly bring in engagement and followers but continuously need a marketing budget to maintain. Paid awareness campaigns are great if your business is new and not many people know about your brand. They can greatly improve brand identity and recognition. Although established brands do run awareness campaigns when they rebrand, or they want to introduce a new product or service. Awareness campaigns can bring in more followers and engagement on your posts.

Link your Social Media to your Website.

Awareness campaigns and tactics can get you more followers and engagement, but these efforts are better utilized if a call-to-action (CTA) in included in your ads or organic posts. The CTA should result in lead generation and conversions. Therefore, it is highly recommended to link your social media to your website landing page. Your landing page should be responsive and should be an extension of your awareness campaign. Make sure that your website is optimized for speed and mobile devices. Similarly, you need to add links to your social media pages on your website so that it is easier for your audience to stay up to date with your company’s activities.

Conclusion

Social media is a powerful tool to create brand awareness, especially for B2B’s. Brand awareness begins with creating a strong brand identity on social media. This can be done by creating content that tells your audience your brand story and values. Visual design is another important aspect of brand awareness. It provides uniformity and recognition to your brand. You can promote your brad on social media through free (organic) approach or paid ads. You should utilize these methods equally to reach more people and create a positive community. Finally, remember to link your social media to your website and your website should be optimized for speed, SEO, and mobile responsiveness.

Want to develop your B2B awareness strategy? Here is an in-depth guide on how to get started, click here.