Building brand awareness is a major concern for all business owners, regardless of whether they have a small business or a large one. After all, how people react to and interact with your brand can only be determined by their awareness that your brand exists to begin with!
One of the major ways to build brand awareness is by use of branded visuals. We tend to be more immediately attracted to visuals versus written content, and graphics are easier for us to remember, too.
A foremost example of brand visual is a company logo that should be memorable (like these). Generally speaking, your logo is the “face” of your brand; it’s what your customers are most likely to think of when your company is mentioned.
So how do you get your company logo to work and help you build brand awareness? Let’s look at six different ways.
Include Your Logo On Every Page of Your Website
This is a little bit of a no-brainer, but it’s important. Your logo is designed to be used. So if your website design doesn’t include your logo, at least on the main pages, it’s definitely recommended that you remedy that!
Typically, where a company logo is located is at the top left-hand corner of the main pages of the official website. Of course, there are no rules about this, and if you feel that your logo would fit the flow of your site better in a different location, then go for it. However, placing your logo in the top left-hand corner gives it more immediate visibility, as that is the area we tend to look at when first examining a web page.
You could also include your logo in the footer of your site, as many official websites do. Or both!
The main point is that your website should be branded, and you can use your logo to do this.
Use Your Logo On Promotional Items
Another time-honored way to use your logo as a brand-booster is to use your logo design on promotional items. Promotional items like pens, key chains, tote bags, and t-shirts are all relatively inexpensive ways to advertise your company.
You could also choose some more unusual, fun, unique promotional options, like umbrellas and coffee mugs.
Your logo should feature prominently on promotional items.
Create Free Branded Downloadable Content
An even more inexpensive way to get your logo to work for you is to attach it to free downloadable content. With downloadables, which also work as promotional items, the main investment is simply in the design. It won’t cost you anything past that, as you can simply share the content via your website and allow your customer to print what they want, at their own cost.
Make sure to use your logo to brand your content, ideally on each page. You can do this in much the same way that you would brand any other items that you sell.
Update Your Logo
If you’ve had the same logo for some time and you’re looking for a way to garner new interest in your company, consider redesigning your logo for a fresh, updated look.
This doesn’t necessarily mean rebranding everything for your company — though sometimes that’s needed, too.
A simple logo redesign can be as basic as changing one element of your logo, such as a color or the choice of font. Even subtle differences can draw new attention, especially if you direct that attention by asking for feedback from your customers. When people are asked for their opinion on a subject, they automatically pay closer attention — and the more attention your logo gets, the better it is for your brand awareness.
Hold A Logo Design Contest
But sometimes it requires more than just asking for an opinion. Sometimes, in order to get the most out of customer attention, it means asking for input.
If you’re already considering an update or a redesign for your logo, why not consider opening it up to your customers to suggest your new logo design? This expands customer awareness and leads to greater customer investment in your brand.
And there’s almost no better marketing technique than allowing for user-generated content!
Use Different Logos In Rotation
And who says that you have to have only one logo, anyway? Why not have a few of them and use them in rotation for different occasions?
A great, and very famous, example of this is Google. It’s true that Google does have a commonly used logo. But the company also mixes it up regularly, allowing for others to design variations and new takes on the “official” logo. This means that Google can send new messages with its logo design, acknowledge people, events, and holidays, promote ideas, and direct attention in certain ways. There’s so much attention and feedback regarding Google’s changing logo, it’s a clear case study in the fact that a “static” logo isn’t always the best way to go.
While your company may not have the viewership that Google does, there’s still no reason why you can’t be brave and shake it up with a roster of logos for different occasions. Just like with Google, if your logos are well designed, the very fact that they sometimes change will garner more attention from your audience — and boost your brand.
Author Bio
Andrew Hoffman is a creative freelance writer who specializes in topics related to small business and startups, digital marketing and branding.