Some brands seem to have appeared out of thin air. Suddenly everyone knows who they are, what they do, where you can buy them and that they’re the next big thing. But how? What is it that makes the brands pop so hard that they’re everywhere, and seemingly organically? Is it a case of sinking a lot of money into it or is it a case of the creative cat that got the cream?
Get your notebook, custom roll labels, pens, pencils and all your other creative bit together and get ready to have a brainstorm.
Firstly: what is brand awareness? It is the level of familiarity the public has with your brand. It relates to your logo, name, and anything else that they might associate with it. Your product or services will be linked in with that. It’s about trust and recognition.
Here are a few ideas about how you can use other brands to learn a couple of lessons on growing brand awareness.
Shutterstock Licensed Photo – By Tang Yan Song
Buffer and Guest Blogging.
The ever-popular scheduling platforms used guest blogging as its weapon of choice. Buffer wrote 150 guest posts and grew at an astonishing rate. In fact, it went from zero to over 100k users in nine short months. Each guest post contained valuable content, curated for the blogs it appeared on. By providing great content for the audience it was aiming to attract, they built an entirely engaged audience. Smart!
Yelp and Making it Social
Known for user reviews and recommendations, by ‘Yelpers.’ Each Yelp contributor has a profile, and each review adds to that. It began to grow into a community; reviews become more trustworthy when posted by the Yelp Elite. Members can become friends, chat online, and meet at Yelp events. Since it’s opening, it has gathered over 142 million reviews. Yelp has made reviews personal, and relatable. By adding a profile, you can confirm it is a real person behind the screen. Making it personal, made it powerful.
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Dropbox and Refer a Friend.
One of the most used way to share files with friends and family. Dropbox were smart with their growth plan; users could send a signup link via social media or email to friends. Once the friend signed up, the link sender would get more storage space. This increased signups by 60%! By giving a small piece of their product away, they gained much more regarding growth. Clever.
Evernote and the Closed Beta.
A gorgeous collaboration tool, great for note-taking and streamlining your projects. Cleverly, Evernote started as a closed beta. Over the course of four months, users had to sign up, and forward invitations to the network in order to get access to the service. This created an extensive network and a lot of buzz. After only four months, there were around 125k signups. Which is huge for a closed beta.
None of the ideas above would have taken a lot of cash to run, it was all about the service and engaging the right people. All of the companies mentioned above are very recognizable, and that is due to how they handled their growth. By thinking creatively, making a connection between their service and the client, they prospered.