Picture this: you spend months planning a wedding. You’ve made decisions on everything, from the floral arrangements to the catering.

Everything has been chosen and selected with intentionality.

Now the big day is here, and you can’t wait to see all the guests. But then you notice no one is there.

You spent all this time, money, and resources to find that no one has shown up. Then you remember, you didn’t send out invitations.

Okay, that scenario seems crazy, right? Who forgets to send out invitations to their own wedding?

Sadly, this set of circumstances can happen to business owners who spend much of their time investing in their brand, website, or operations and neglect their digital marketing efforts.

In order to increase your visibility and gain more customers, you must invest in awareness strategies.

The Importance of Awareness

Customers have to know you exist before they even have a chance to consider you as an option for their needs. Therefore, you must be actively engaging in marketing activities to let more potential customers know about your organization.

We’re not here to suggest “all publicity is good publicity.” Your awareness strategies should be targeted, on-brand, and actively build into trust.

Start-ups have the hardest time breaking into new markets. People don’t know anything about the organization, and therefore, awareness is essential to survival. On the other hand, long-standing organizations in communities may neglect awareness strategies because they believe their brand name will carry them.

Purchasing decisions are changing. According to Invoca, 81% of retail shoppers will research online before making a purchase. If you aren’t able to be found online, you’ll be missing out on growth opportunities. For the two types of businesses mentioned above, awareness is crucial because both have the ability to reach new customers who may not have otherwise been exposed to the brand name.

How to Build Online Awareness

Have we convinced you to take online awareness seriously? If so, you might wonder where to invest your time first. Awareness can feel overwhelming, and we know you don’t have an unlimited marketing budget. The following four strategies are the most cost-effective and results-oriented ways to build online awareness today.

1. Social Media Marketing

Social media is one of the best ways to get your brand in front of people. You can even do this successfully without spending money; however, social media ads do have the advantage of building more awareness.

Social media is an outlet for community, engagement, and connection. While most users don’t go on these accounts to make purchasing decisions, it happens. An influencer posts about their new favorite product. One of your neighbors posts about a positive experience with their new landscaping company. Your mom shares a post for a new restaurant in town for you to go to together.

While these examples don’t feel like advertising, brands are being put in front of users who may or may not have sought them out. This is why, as an organization, the content you are posting should be authentic, engaging, and share-worthy. You never know whose feeds you’ll be able to come across.

2. Search Engine Optimization

Whether or not you have brand authority, search engines will be a valuable resource to connect to potential customers. Google sees over 8.5 billion searches every day. People are consistently searching for answers and solutions to their problems. Whether it’s to find a new roofing company or a potential college for their child, they’re visiting search engines to narrow down their choices. You don’t want to miss out on being an option they see in those search results.

By combining search engine optimization (SEO) tactics like technical improvements and user experience with intentional content marketing offerings like blogs, resources, and eBooks, your organization can position itself to rank for the keywords and phrases most associated with your business and offerings.

3. Paid Advertising

Search engine optimization tactics can be a long-term strategy that takes time to start seeing the results from your efforts. Paid ads can be the short-term solution to see the immediate results you’re looking for.

Social media ads are a cheaper option to get in front of users. Depending on your target customers and industry, you can advertise on Facebook, Instagram, X (formerly known as Twitter), LinkedIn, or Pinterest to increase your followers or expose new people to your brand.

You can also leverage a combination of display and search ads on Google to create a retargeting rhythm that consistently puts your brand in front of users. While this opportunity requires both time and monetary investment, you’ll be able to see more results right away.

4. Brand Consistency

While not necessarily a channel, brand consistency is a strong strategy. Think of your favorite brand, whether it’s a retail store or a restaurant. Even without seeing its logo, you could probably identify its messages based on fonts, colors, slogans, or photos.

This is because this brand has remained consistent and memorable in your mind. You subconsciously begin to trust them the more you see them. However, if a brand does something uncharacteristic or inconsistent, you might question its validity and even its ability to expertly fulfill your needs.

Every piece of content, written or visual, should be tied to your core messaging and brand. It’s a simple but powerful way to build trust and awareness with current and potential customers.

Types of Online Visibility

To effectively build awareness, it’s essential to leverage a mix of strategies. Each plays a unique role in connecting your brand with the right audience.

Paid

Paid strategies, such as digital advertising, offer immediate results by putting your brand in front of specific audiences. At PHOS, we help clients create high-impact paid campaigns, like social media ads or Google Ads, to maximize reach while optimizing ROI. Whether it’s launching targeted search campaigns or retargeting website visitors, paid visibility can act as a powerful catalyst for growth.

Organic

Organic visibility builds trust and authority over time without using advertising spend. By creating SEO-optimized content, such as blogs, eBooks, or FAQs, your brand becomes discoverable to people searching for answers online. This also includes posting to your social media profiles.

Earned

Earned visibility is the most authentic form of brand awareness. From customer reviews and social media mentions to backlinks from trusted websites, this type of exposure is driven by the trust others place in your business.

Awareness Metrics to Measure Success

Brand awareness can be one of the hardest to measure because it can often be subjective. However, you can track key metrics to better understand your awareness campaigns’ success.

  • Impressions: How many views your content or website has received. Multiple views can be attributed to the same person.
  • Reach: How many unique users have seen your content.
  • Engagement Rate: The percentage of interaction your content or website has received. This is measured by dividing the total number of engagements by the number of people reached.
  • Visits: How many times users have landed on your site.
  • Conversions: The amount of desired actions a user has taken. Examples of this include phone calls, forms submitted, newsletter subscriptions, or downloads.

How Awareness Interacts with Trust

We know that awareness is simply half of the equation. When you increase your visibility, you have more people that could work with you. If these people don’t trust you, they won’t work with you, making your awareness efforts fruitless.

Think back to our wedding analogy. Imagine you sent out all the invitations but didn’t spend any time investing in planning and preparing for the wedding. That’s what happens when you invest in only awareness and neglect trust.

What Is The Trust Funnel?

Being a trustworthy organization is no longer a nice to have in today’s marketing. People need to be aware of your organization, but they also need to trust you.

We break down the trust funnel, four factors of trust, and how to build online trust in our free eBook.

DOWNLOAD THE TRUST FUNNEL EBOOK

Partner with the Trust & Awareness Experts

Are you excited about the potential to unlock more growth online for your business? At PHOS, we’re your trust and awareness experts! For over a decade, we’ve helped hundreds of small- to mid-sized organizations build trust online and grow their business through awareness strategies.

Want to chat more about your specific needs? Contact us today—we can’t wait to hear from you!

Bailey Revis

Bailey is dedicated to infusing joy into every single touchpoint she has at PHOS with team members, clients, and our community. As Director of Marketing, she oversees our incredible team of marketers, supporting them as they foster great relationships and exceed our clients’ goals.

Outside of PHOS, you’ll likely find Bailey talking non-stop about Taylor Swift, enjoying an abundant amount of cold brew, curating incredibly niche Spotify playlists, or chasing sunsets.