How to build brand awareness for your eCommerce business

Online shoppers tend to gravitate toward brands they’re familiar with and trust. Such a preference highlights the importance of investing in your brand identity and eCommerce brand awareness.

Establishing a solid brand identity is crucial when thousands of businesses are vying for consumer attention. To build brand awareness, you have to do more than just design an eye-catching logo or memorable tagline. It’s also about creating a connection, building trust with your customers, and creating your online brand.

A 2018 study, “Secret Life of Search”, found that 82% of searchers choose a familiar brand for the first click, regardless of where it ranked on the Search Engine Results Page (SERP). The study lends considerable weight to the importance of brand awareness, brand trust, advertising, and other factors that come into play when winning clicks on search results pages.    

If you’d like to learn more, keep reading to understand why brand awareness is so important and for some useful tips.

Importance of brand awareness for eCommerce companies and how to build it

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The eCommerce landscape is fiercely competitive, and to stand out from the crowd you must invest in building brand awareness. 

Jeff Gapinski, the co-founder of Huemor, echoes this:

“In 2024, your eCommerce website needs to set you apart from your competition. Your site is the only way to make a long-lasting impression and instill trust in your customers. Once you achieve that, you are set towards more sales.”

If you work on your company’s brand awareness, it will play a key role in influencing your customers’ behavior, achieving your marketing goals, boosting site traffic, and increasing customer loyalty.

In addition, successful branding will evoke positive emotions in customers, be perceived as more valuable, and reduce the cost of customer acquisitions. You’ll be able to spend less on advertising campaigns because customers will be more likely to find you through referrals, social media, repeat business, and organic search. 

User-generated content can be very helpful in boosting your brand awareness. It can take the form of images, videos, audio, text, or a mixture of them all. 

It all sounds very exciting, but how do you go about building your eCommerce brand awareness? Let’s explore some suggestions.

Create interesting and informative content

A critical part of creating eCommerce brand awareness is creating interesting and informative content. Not only that, it also has to make you a thought leader or authority in your niche. 

It all comes down to E-E-A-T. In other words, your content must demonstrate Experience,  Expertise, Authoritativeness, and Trustworthiness. 

You’ll need to do some research to see what questions people are asking search engines in your field. The content you create should explore or answer those questions. 

Another way to boost awareness of your eCommerce brand is to look for content collaborations with other companies in your industry. In the world of brand awareness, it’s not just what you know but who you know as well.  

Be active on social media, use social advertising, and pay-per-click advertising (PPC)

Social media can be a powerful tool for eCommerce brand awareness. However, to make the most of social media and its many platforms, you need a solid strategy that aligns with your brand identity and sparks meaningful interactions.

Start by finding the platforms your target audience uses, then reach out to that audience and watch your brand awareness soar. Your brand should be present across all social media channels and with logos and colors, you should create a cohesive brand experience. 

Create compelling posts that speak to your audience such as informative articles, product highlights, behind-the-scenes glimpses, customer testimonials, or entertaining videos. If your content resonates and leaves a lasting impression, people will want to share it.

PPC (pay-per-click) and paid social campaigns also play crucial roles in enhancing brand awareness. PPC ads introduce your brand in ads that your target market can see. Creating ads that show off what your brand is all about means you start to be a bug in the ear of your potential customer base.

Provide excellent customer service

Excellent customer service plays a pivotal role in boosting eCommerce brand awareness. While companies typically allocate substantial budgets to marketing campaigns, they sometimes overlook a more cost-effective and sustainable approach. Prioritizing customer support and fostering brand engagement can be very effective. 

If you provide top-quality customer service, customers will share their positive experiences about your brand with friends and family. This word-of-mouth-free advertising can be very beneficial for your business.

Start by prioritizing the delivery of exceptional service at every customer interaction. When customers reach out with concerns or questions, be sure to respond promptly. You should also ensure your customer service channels are easily accessible and responsive. 

Practice active listening and show your customers that you hear them and that their concerns matter. Your customers will appreciate proactive problem-solving and feel valued when their issues are resolved quickly and efficiently. 

Implement a referral program

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Referral or affiliate programs are a good way to bring people in and get them to know your business better. By doing so, you’re increasing brand awareness. 

There are many other benefits associated with introducing a referral program, aside from being a way to build brand awareness. Firstly, your website and store will get organic traffic through new users. Build the referral program into your website and you can increase traffic further. 

A referral program is a good way for your customers to share their love for your brand with friends and family by giving them discounts and offers and receiving rewards for sharing their love. 

Leverage influencer marketing

Influencers can be the best brand ambassadors and they have become a popular marketing strategy. Authentic endorsements can significantly boost your brand’s visibility. Consumers trust the opinions of the influencers they follow, meaning an endorsement for your brand can boost your brand awareness and increase your customer base extensively. 

The influencers you connect with don’t have to be expensive celebrities. Micro-influencers with smaller but more niche audiences are more affordable and ROI-effective. A great place to look for influencers is social media platforms like TikTok and Instagram.   

Optimize your SEO and mobile SEO strategy

SEO (search engine optimization) plays a pivotal role in brand awareness. Optimizing your SEO strategy, including mobile SEO, can significantly boost your brand recognition in several ways:

• Visibility: High search engine rankings put your brand in front of a larger audience.
• Authority: Being on the first page establishes credibility and expertise.
• Engagement: Quality content showcases what your brand knows and offers.
• Differentiation: SEO helps your brand stand out from competitors.

SEO and brand awareness go hand in hand. By weaving branding elements into your SEO efforts, you can elevate your rankings while becoming a recognizable brand name. 

Blogging and guest posting

Regular blogging about relevant issues will increase your visibility and deliver a more authentic voice behind your logo, trademark, or website. All it takes is for one person to relate to a blog you’ve written and it’s got the potential to go viral, thereby increasing your audience and potential customers. 

Guest blogging can also significantly enhance your brand awareness and contribute to your overall marketing strategy. By contributing valuable content to reputable platforms, you’re exposing your brand to a wider audience. 

Guest posting allows you to showcase your expertise and establish yourself as a thought leader in your niche. Well-crafted guest posts can drive traffic to your website.

The final benefit of guest posting is that it opens doors to potential clients, collaborators, and business partners. Indirectly, it generates leads and expands your network. In addition, it boosts brand authority, improves brand awareness, provides high-quality backlinks from authoritative sites, and builds valuable relationships with other bloggers and websites.

Produce a podcast

Over the last few years, podcasting has grown in popularity among the general public. Such a boom has led to more companies using the platform to expand their audiences and build awareness for their brand.

Podcasts are very effective if you want to build brand awareness because they help you build authority and leadership. They can also strengthen your brand recognition by drawing audiences and creating a buzz around your name. 

Use the Metaverse

The metaverse is becoming increasingly relevant in a world where virtual and physical realms are merging more and more. An interconnected virtual universe where people can interact and explore with no boundaries has the potential to become a powerful tool for brands. 

Why does the metaverse have potential? There are several reasons why:

• Reach global audiences: The metaverse allows you to reach global audiences without physical boundaries. You can target customers in any country without the need for an expensive international marketing campaign. 
• Create unique experiences: In the metaverse, you can create immersive experiences that engage customers on a deeper level. Examples include virtual product launches, virtual events such as fashion shows, and interactive showrooms.
• Increase brand visibility: You can use the metaverse to boost your brand’s visibility in the virtual world and increase exposure. 
• Enhance customer relationships: You can build relationships with existing customers in the virtual world, which ultimately benefits your brand. 
• Generate brand interest: Using the metaverse for brand awareness can help generate interest in your eCommerce products among potential customers who are unaware of your brand. 

Wrapping up

One of the most important things to remember if you want to increase brand awareness for your eCommerce business is that it’s not going to happen overnight. Deep brand awareness often takes time. Coca-Cola and Nike may be instantly recognizable brands today, but it didn’t happen overnight. 

That being said, you may still get some good results after just a few months. The key is to try a mix of tactics and be consistent with your efforts. 

Let’s give you a golden rule to take away: be unique, memorable, and prepared to conquer the online world. Above all, let your brand shine brightly.