<p>But how do you get to the stage in your own business when the mere sight of your logo — or your target customer hearing your name — creates a level of recognition that automatically relays what you do and what you are about? This is great brand awareness. Below, we’ll explore what brand awareness is, how you can create and monitor your own campaign and some examples to give you some inspiration.</p><h2>What is brand awareness?</h2><p>Brand awareness is the extent to which a brand is recognised and remembered by consumers. It's essentially the first step in the customer's journey towards making a purchase decision and can ultimately result in a target audience identifying a brand among a sea of competitors. This recognition can be driven by various elements such as the brand name, logo, slogan, and even the visual and emotional associations people have with the business.</p><p>It’s important to note that brand awareness can be positive or negative. Many businesses have negative brand awareness — not to be confused with poor brand awareness — and prospects may be extremely familiar with what that brand or company does, and still choose not to purchase from them. This may be due to ethics, morals, previous controversies or a poor-quality product. Poor brand awareness, on the other hand, relates to a business’ lack of recognition amongst their prospective customers.</p><h2>What are the benefits of increasing your visibility?</h2><p>There are a plethora of great benefits to building your brand awareness, from building trust and credibility to fostering customer loyalty and advocacy. Let’s explore the key benefits of increasing your brand's visibility:</p><p></p><h3>1. Builds trust and credibility</h3><p></p><p>When consumers frequently encounter your brand through various channels, they develop a sense of familiarity. With familiarity comes trust, and people are more likely to buy from brands they trust.</p><p>Increased visibility can also position your brand as an authority in your industry, especially if you’re creating thought-provoking or useful content that caters to their pain points. And consumers are more likely to rely on brands that are seen as experts in their field.</p><h3>2. Can help to expand your customer base</h3><p>Putting your brand in front of more people allows you to reach a broader and more diverse audience. This can be especially valuable when you're looking to expand into new markets or demographics.</p><p>With more people becoming increasingly aware of your brand, you can turn these prospects into paying customers.</p><h3>3. Sets your brand apart from competitors</h3><p>In a competitive landscape, having strong brand visibility sets you apart from competitors. Customers are more likely to choose a brand they know and recognise over one that they haven’t heard of before.</p><p>Staying top-of-mind can also help to ensure that your brand remains at the top of your consumers’ thoughts, even when they're not actively seeking your product or service.</p><h3>4. Encourages loyalty</h3><p>Brands with high visibility often enjoy greater customer loyalty as customers who are familiar with and trust your brand are more likely to make repeat purchases. Satisfied and loyal customers may also become brand advocates, actively promoting your business to friends, family, and their social networks — and this word-of-mouth marketing is a free and powerful way to widen your audience.</p><p>Learn more about how to foster loyalty with our <a href="https://www.feefo.com/us/business/resources/customer-experience/customer-loyalty-guide" target="_self">customer loyalty guide.</a></p><h2>How to identify your target audience</h2><p>Before you can effectively build brand awareness and launch successful campaigns, it's crucial to pinpoint your target audience so your efforts aren’t wasted. Understanding who your ideal customers are, creating detailed personas, and employing segmentation strategies are essential steps in this process. Let’s break it down in more detail:</p><ol><li><strong>Identify your ideal customer base</strong> — Start by reviewing key demographic factors such as age, gender, and location to provide a foundational understanding of your potential customers. Then, you can dive deeper into their interests, values, lifestyles, and behaviours. Understanding these aspects helps you connect with your audience on a deeper level.</li><li><strong>Understand their needs</strong> — Identifying their challenges and pain points is crucial, as you can then work out how your product or service can address or resolve their issues.</li><li><strong>Create detailed personas</strong> — Once you’ve gathered all your insights, build detailed customer personas to represent a segment of your target audience. Each persona should have distinct characteristics and preferences and also reflect the pain points you gathered in your research.</li><li><strong>Consider your messaging</strong> — As well as building a profile for each audience segment, you should start considering how your brand should communicate with them. Think about what your personas think, feel, see, say, and do to help you craft content and messages that resonate with them emotionally.</li><li><strong>Map out a journey</strong> — Create <a href="https://www.feefo.com/uk/business/resources/customer-acquisition/customer-journey-mapping-guide" target="_self">customer journey maps</a> to visualise the touchpoints your personas have with your brand throughout their decision-making process. Different personas will have various interactions with your business, so knowing which stage is best to target your personas enables you to optimise each touchpoint for maximum impact.</li></ol><h2>How to build a brand awareness strategy</h2><p>A well-thought-out strategy is the cornerstone of successful brand campaigns. Let’s explore the essential components of creating an effective strategy.</p><h3>1. Have a solid branding strategy</h3><p>The first step to putting your name out there is to have a solid brand identity that accurately displays your company’s mission, vision, and core values. Think about what you want your brand to stand for and what you want it to be known for in the market.</p><p>With your identity outlined, you want to make sure that your brand strategy aligns with the preferences, needs, and aspirations of your target audience. Your brand should resonate with your ideal customers and be consistent to ensure you foster reliability.</p><p>Creating logo, colour palette, typography, tone of voice, and imagery guidelines helps to keep your branding consistent. Once established, it can be rolled out across all touchpoints, from your website and social media profiles to packaging and customer interactions.</p><h3>2. Draft a unique value proposition</h3><p>Showing why your business stands out and how it addresses customer concerns that other brands don’t give you a unique and competitive edge. Clearly articulate what makes your brand unique and why customers should choose your products or services over alternatives.</p><p>You can also go one step further by highlighting the specific benefits that customers can expect to receive from your brand.</p><h3>3. Use customer feedback</h3><p>Customer feedback has proved time and time again to be an incredibly powerful tool for bettering your business.</p><p>Not only do <a href="https://www.feefo.com/us/business/resources/customer-retention/consumer-trends" target="_self">64% of customers read reviews before making a purchase,</a> but <a href="https://hbr.org/2010/07/stop-trying-to-delight-your-customers" target="_blank">80% of businesses use customer satisfaction scores</a> to analyse customer experience and improve it.</p><p>When crafting<a href="https://www.feefo.com/uk/business/resources/customer-experience/customer-survey" target="_self"> customer surveys,</a> tailor them to seek feedback from your customers that gives you insight into how your brand messaging, products, and services are resonating with them. Then, using your findings to respond to customer input can be seen as a genuine and thoughtful action that gains their trust.</p><h2>How to use social media to increase your brand awareness</h2><p>Social media offers an effective platform for brands to promote themselves, maintain customer relationships, and find new leads. It’s common for people to hear about new brands because a friend or contact mentions them on social media, tagging them in a post when they’ve really enjoyed their product, making it a highly effective way to generate new leads.</p><p>As social media is one of the most cost-effective ways to promote your brand, here are a few of our top tips for how you can use social media as part of your brand awareness strategy.</p><h3>Pick the right platform</h3><p>It can be hard to keep up with all the different social media platforms. We get it, but you don't have to use them all. Instead, choose the right ones for your target audience. Use your persona research to focus on which platforms your customers, potential customers, and audience spend their time.</p><p>Just focusing on a maximum of three sites – for example, Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter – will ensure your marketing efforts are both targeted and manageable. Below is a quick social media platform categorisation table* to get you started.</p><p style="text-align: center;"></p><table class="styled-table" style="text-align: center;"><tbody style="text-align: center;"><tr style="text-align: center;"><th style="text-align: center;"><p style="text-align: center;"><strong>Platform</strong></p></th><th style="text-align: center;"><p style="text-align: center;"><strong>Largest Age Group</strong></p></th><th style="text-align: center;"><p style="text-align: center;"><strong>Majority Gender</strong></p></th></tr><tr style="text-align: center;"><td style="text-align: center;"><p style="text-align: center;">Facebook</p></td><td style="text-align: center;"><p style="text-align: center;">25-34</p></td><td style="text-align: center;"><p style="text-align: center;">56% male</p></td></tr><tr style="text-align: center;"><td style="text-align: center;"><p style="text-align: center;">Instagram</p></td><td style="text-align: center;"><p style="text-align: center;">18-24</p></td><td style="text-align: center;"><p style="text-align: center;">52% male</p></td></tr><tr style="text-align: center;"><td style="text-align: center;"><p style="text-align: center;">X (formerly Twitter)</p></td><td style="text-align: center;"><p style="text-align: center;">18-29</p></td><td style="text-align: center;"><p style="text-align: center;">61% male</p></td></tr><tr style="text-align: center;"><td style="text-align: center;"><p style="text-align: center;">LinkedIn</p></td><td style="text-align: center;"><p style="text-align: center;">30-39</p></td><td style="text-align: center;"><p style="text-align: center;">57% male</p></td></tr><tr style="text-align: center;"><td style="text-align: center;"><p style="text-align: center;">TikTok</p></td><td style="text-align: center;"><p style="text-align: center;">18-24</p></td><td style="text-align: center;"><p style="text-align: center;">54% female</p></td></tr><tr style="text-align: center;"><td style="text-align: center;"><p style="text-align: center;">Snapchat</p></td><td style="text-align: center;"><p style="text-align: center;">18-24</p></td><td style="text-align: center;"><p style="text-align: center;">51% female</p></td></tr><tr style="text-align: center;"><td style="text-align: center;"><p style="text-align: center;">Youtube</p></td><td style="text-align: center;"><p style="text-align: center;">15-35</p></td><td style="text-align: center;"><p style="text-align: center;">51% female</p></td></tr></tbody></table><p style="text-align: center;">(Data sourced from <a href="https://www.statista.com/" target="_blank" style="text-align: center;">Statista</a>)</p><h3>Show your personality</h3><p>It's common for a brand's social media presence to start looking like every other brand. Rather than making an effort to stand out, they play it safe by just posting a link or a photo and adding a couple of hashtags.</p><p>If you want to raise your brand awareness, you need to go the extra mile. People want more than just links and promos – that means showing your brand's personality. Give your brand a distinct voice by posting human-centric content that makes it sound human rather than a bot.</p><h3>Don't be afraid to have an opinion</h3><p>Showing your brand's personality means not being afraid to let it have an opinion. People increasingly want brands to take a stance on the issues they feel passionate about. But just parroting what everyone else is saying won't do much to raise brand awareness.</p><p>Don't be afraid to stand by your brand's principles. It's a great way to get people talking and help you stand out from everyone else, but you need to tread lightly and avoid alienating your audience. Don't just stir things up for the sake of clicks: be bold because they’re your brand's genuine values.</p><h3>Polish your profiles</h3><p>When a follower looks at your social media profiles, they should be able to recognise your brand straight away. You also want them to understand what your brand is about quickly. From your profile images to social bios, how you set up your profile will determine whether people will recognise your brand.</p><p>But, you have just a few seconds to get their attention and tell them who you are. Therefore, an uncluttered, well-optimised profile with a good photo will clearly spell out your brand to anyone who doesn't already know you.</p><h2>How to measure brand awareness</h2><p>How can we measure brand awareness for our businesses? While it’s difficult to get inside a customer’s brain, there are plenty of metrics we can explore to both measure and monitor this.</p><h3>Web traffic</h3><p>The traffic to your website is a great place to start. By taking a benchmark of daily, weekly, or monthly traffic volumes before you begin, you can accurately track this over time to measure any increases.</p><p>We suggest monitoring the following web traffic metrics:</p><ul><li>All traffic volume</li><li>New users vs returning users</li><li>Traffic sources: particularly organic, direct and referral traffic (direct will show the volume of people typing your web address straight into their search bar, whereas referral will demonstrate traffic to your website from other sources)</li></ul><h3>Social listening</h3><p>Social listening tools are a must-have for anyone taking their brand awareness seriously. These tools allow you to track social media mentions and conversations about your brand, whether or not you are tagged. This can also support you in addressing any complaints or <a href="https://www.feefo.com/uk/business/resources/customer-experience/negative-reviews" target="_self">negative reviews</a> — another bonus point for good brand perception — and can help you monitor mentions.</p><p>As well as social listening, other key social media metrics to review are:</p><ul><li>Social media engagement</li><li>Followers</li><li>Social media messages</li></ul><p>You can also set up <a href="https://www.google.co.uk/alerts" target="_blank">Google Alerts</a> for your brand name, industry, product or service. This will send you an email (at the frequency of your choice) tracking all mentions online for the keywords you set up, allowing you to track brand mentions over time.</p><h3>Branded search volume</h3><p>As well as potential customers typing your website straight into Google — realistically, this is likely to occur during a follow-up visit to your website rather than the first occurrence — prospects may search for your name, product or service using search engines.</p><p>What’s great about this is that there has to be brand awareness prior to them searching for you, and if this increases over time, it’s one indicator that your brand awareness strategy is heading in the right direction.</p><p>To learn more about search engine marketing, take a look at our <a href="https://www.feefo.com/uk/business/resources/customer-acquisition/organic-traffic-seo" target="_self">guide on how to increase organic traffic to your website here.</a></p><h3>Net promoter scores</h3><p>Using your<a href="https://www.feefo.com/uk/business/resources/customer-experience/net-promoter-score" target="_self"> net promoter score (NPS)</a> is a solid method that allows you to understand your brand perception from the inside out. Instead of asking new customers how they found you or monitoring interactions from prospects, ask your current customers how likely they are to recommend you based on their experience so far. This is a good indicator of positive brand perception and, again, can be benchmarked and re-visited over time.</p><p><a href="https://www.feefo.com/uk/business/features/nps" target="_self">NPS</a> is one simple question: how likely are you to recommend us to a friend, relative or colleague?</p><p>This is answered on a scale of 1–10, where the following bands apply:</p><ul><li>Score 0–6: Detractors – Unhappy customers who are likely to go elsewhere and possibly damage your brand with word-of-mouth.</li><li>Score 7–8: Passives – Satisfied customers but could be swayed by the competition. Not necessarily brand loyal.</li><li>Score 9–10: Promoters – Loyal customers who will continue to buy from you and refer your brand to others</li></ul><h2>Examples of brand awareness campaigns</h2><p>One of the first examples of an effective brand awareness campaign is this video by <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=owGykVbfgUE" target="_blank">Old Spice. </a>Uploaded in June 2010, it quickly gained 5,600,000 views in 24 hours, and it now has over 61,000,000 views and is still, to this day, remembered as one of the first examples of a viral brand campaign video, shaking up the modern marketing world in the process.</p><p>Hashtag brand awareness campaigns have also proven to be very effective. Key examples include:</p><ul><li>#IceBucketChallenge: Generating <a href="https://www.als.org/blog/understanding-impact-ice-bucket-challenge-als-associations-finances#:~:text=The%20Ice%20Bucket%20Challenge%20generated,services%20for%20people%20with%20ALS." target="_blank">$115 million</a> for The ALS Association in 2014 through the Ice Bucket Challenge</li><li>#ShareACoke: Increasing annual sales volume by <a href="https://www.mrs.org.uk/pdf/US_COCA_COLA_-_FINAL_TWO.pdf" target="_blank">11% YoY</a> by encouraging users to buy and gift a Coke through personalised bottles</li><li>#ShareYourEars: Raising over <a href="https://vanessacgomez4.medium.com/the-success-behind-disneys-shareyourears-campaign-9145c361d173" target="_blank">$1 million </a>by asking customers to tweet #ShareYourEars and donate $5 to Make-A-Wish for each tweet. Disney later doubled the amount, donating $2 million.</li></ul><h2>Increase your brand awareness today</h2><p>To conclude, brand awareness is critical for businesses that want to survive in the long term. Before even thinking about the campaigns to run, start with audience research to narrow down your targeting, platforms, and the types of campaigns that they are likely to respond well to. From this, you can consider which platforms and content will serve your audience the best.</p><p>Make sure your message is clear, aligns with your brand, and, most importantly, is consistent across all platforms. In doing so, you are sure to create a successful brand awareness strategy that drives results.</p>

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What is Brand Awareness and How Do You Build a Successful Campaign?

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<p>In this article, we'll discuss the importance of a strong brand image, how to build one, and the value of collecting and monitoring customer reviews to shape consumer perceptions of your business.</p><h2>What is brand image?</h2><p>Brand image is the impression customers have of a business, shaped by their interactions and experiences, be that positive or negative.</p><p>By developing their brand personality, tone of voice, and other strategic elements, businesses can influence their brand image and contribute to how customers perceive their brand. However, regardless of how it is shaped, consistency is key. The ideal brand image is one that's instantly recognisable by consumers.</p><p>It's often the case that businesses learn from their mistakes as they go in order to improve and strengthen their brand presence, or, in some cases, re-brand entirely. In order to develop and stick to relevant and appropriate branding, knowing and listening to your customers is key.</p><h2>Why is brand image important?</h2><p>Without a consistent brand image, there's no way for consumers to tell businesses apart — and certainly, no reason for them to choose one over another.</p><p>That's why it's no surprise that the most successful companies are usually those with strong branding and values. When a brand presents itself consistently and authentically, it creates a sense of trust and reliability in the minds of customers. They know what to expect and can rely on the brand to deliver on its promises.</p><p>In fact, a <a href="https://sproutsocial.com/insights/data/social-media-connection/" target="_blank">Sprout Social</a> study found 57% of customers will increase their spending if they feel connected to a brand, and 76% will buy from them over a competitor. So there's no denying the importance of brand image.</p><h2>What is the difference between brand image and brand identity?</h2><p>In simple terms, brand image is how people perceive a business, while brand identity is how the company wants to be perceived.</p><p>Businesses have the power to control and shape their brand identity by developing their personality, values, tone of voice, and more. And this contributes to the way their customers think of them – their brand image.</p><p></p><p></p>

<h2>How to build a strong brand image</h2><h3>1. Determine your values and mission</h3><p>Building a strong brand image requires a solid foundation: understanding your brand and its identity. It all begins by determining your values and mission, and this becomes the guiding compass for your brand identity, ensuring that everything you do aligns with these core elements.</p><p>Knowing your mission and values enables you to create a strong brand image that resonates with your audience. In fact — our <a href="https://www.feefo.com/uk/business/resources/business-insights/brand-perception-report" target="_self">2021 Brand Perception Report</a> found 74% of Brits always consider a brand’s values before purchasing from them. When consistent, this clear and authentic representation of your brand helps you to be perceived as reliable and trustworthy, building a loyal customer base. A study by <a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/michaelfertik/2019/01/14/as-trust-among-consumers-wavers-authenticity-is-critical/" target="_blank">Forbes</a> even found 86% of people say authenticity is important when deciding what brands they support.</p><h3>2. Identify your customers</h3><p>A crucial step in building a strong brand image is identifying your customers; before you can effectively connect with them, you must truly understand who they are.</p><p>Take the time to conduct market research and gather insights about your target audience, understanding their demographics, preferences, needs, and behaviours. This knowledge forms the foundation for creating targeted messaging and experiences that resonate with your customers.</p><h3>3. Let your personality shine through</h3><p>Reaching the heights of major brands like Nike and Google may seem a long way off, especially with so many brands now vying for consumer attention both online and off — but every brand has got to start somewhere.</p><p>All of the best and most well-known brands own what they do. They transcend their product by creating a personality that sets them apart from their competitors.</p><p>Giving your brand a distinct voice and persona that your audience can relate to is the first step toward making your business more engaging and memorable to consumers. The oversaturation of products and services across most mainstream industries means that, more often than not, it doesn’t matter how good your product is if your brand personality doesn’t get people excited.</p><p>With so much competition, people will simply go elsewhere as soon as there’s something more interesting, so give them a reason to stick around.</p><h3>4. Spread the word using social media</h3><p>Once you have established a compelling brand identity, you can start promoting it. Brand awareness has always boiled down to one thing: word of mouth. Getting people to talk about you and your brand has been integral to marketing a business for years, and what started in town squares and around office water coolers has now found a new home online.</p><p>Social media has become the platform of choice for businesses looking to grow their brand's online presence. With <a href="https://www.statista.com/statistics/278414/number-of-worldwide-social-network-users/" target="_blank">4.89 billion social media users worldwide in 2023</a>, It's safe to assume that if your brand isn't present on at least some of these platforms, you're missing out on a huge opportunity.</p><p>For your social media to really contribute towards improving your brand image, you need to be proactive. You must establish your own unique voice that speaks directly to your target market and then work towards establishing a presence that's both engaging and shareable.</p><p>For some, this could mean direct promotion, giveaways and competitions. For others, it could be establishing a social presence that is more personable and indirectly linked to the product or service on offer. There's no right or wrong way to do social; it really is all about understanding your audience and creating content you know they'll engage with.</p><p>The one thing that is universally agreed is that you need to be consistent and active in whatever you do. Post content regularly and engage wherever possible in conversations about your product or industry, using established hashtags to show up in the feeds of people who are interested in your sector.</p><h3>5. Collaborate with influencers and brand partnerships</h3><p>Encouraging respected social influencers in your field to endorse your business in some way can help elevate your brand by introducing it to new audiences. When partnering with reputable individuals or other companies, your brand naturally becomes associated with quality. It starts to be used and spoken about as a brand people respect, trust and ultimately want to buy from.</p><p></p>

<h2>How do customer reviews play a role in developing brand image?</h2><p>It's not only celebrities and industry experts that can act as brand ambassadors. Your existing customers are some of the most powerful advocates your brand has at its disposal, and to ignore them would be a waste.</p><p>A <a href="https://www.inc.com/craig-bloem/84-percent-of-people-trust-online-reviews-as-much-.html" target="_blank">study</a> found that 84% of customers trust online reviews as much as they do personal recommendations. When people hear the real experiences of your customers, it resonates on a personal level and helps to establish trust and confidence in your business.</p><p><a href="https://www.feefo.com/uk/business/features/respond-to-reviews" target="_self">Customer reviews</a> can also help you understand new perspectives through the eyes of customers. And these insights can inform future brand identity decisions, pivots or tweaks that influence what customers think of your brand. And using an independent review platform like Feefo is a great starting point.</p><p><a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/lauren-murrell/" target="_blank">Lauren Murrell</a>, the co-owner of<a href="https://bysarahlondon.com/" target="_blank"> By Sarah London</a>, says that collecting customer reviews with Feefo has helped her brand build consumer trust from scratch:</p><p><em>"Prospective customers can see the feedback from real, verified customers, which further builds that positive feedback loop of trust. At By Sarah London, we are about quality, transparency and trust, which is why Feefo works so well for us. That sense of connection it gives us informs much of what we do. We can connect with customers in a way many other legacy brands cannot."</em></p><h2>What insights can be collected from customer reviews to improve brand image?</h2><p>By paying attention to what customers are saying about your business, you can gain a deeper understanding of how your brand is perceived. That's why the more accurate and insightful data behind review platforms, the better.</p><p>With a customer review platform like Feefo, you can gain access to the following insights:</p><h3>1. Business perception sentiment</h3><p>Feefo automatically analyses your feedback for you, giving you valuable <a href="https://www.feefo.com/uk/business/features/consumer-insights" target="_self">insight</a> into <a href="https://www.feefo.com/uk/business/features/customer-sentiment-analysis" target="_self">customer sentiment</a>. This can paint a detailed picture of what matters to your customer, helping you assess whether your brand image aligns with your goals. That way, you can address any issues or concerns that may have gone unnoticed before, ensuring your brand development strategy is effective.</p><h3>2. Product quality sentiment</h3><p>The people inside an organisation understand why their products and services are great, of course — but this isn't always felt as keenly by consumers. Collecting reviews lets businesses determine the real opinions on the quality, value and relevance of products directly as seen through the eyes of the people using them.</p><p>Learning whether or not a customer would recommend a product hugely indicates their experience and the likelihood of them reiterating that experience to others.</p><h3>3. Customer experience quality sentiment</h3><p>No matter how strong a brand image, it won’t be able to survive continued poor experiences, and so the customer experience (CX) quality sentiment is one of the most important measures a business can use to determine its relevance and quality.</p><p>The consumer sentiment around a brand's CX can often throw up issues and perceptions that were not considered internally, and is a hugely valuable tool for improvement. No business always gets it right, but they can always work to be better.</p><p><a href="https://www.feefo.com/uk/business/features/nps" target="_self">Measuring (Net Promoter Score) NPS</a> with Feefo can give you an instant snapshot of how your customers feel about your brand by asking about the likelihood of them recommending your service or products to others. This can help you understand where your business is succeeding and how it needs to improve. You can then make informed decisions and take actionable steps to enhance the customer experience and strengthen your brand's reputation.</p><h3>4. New product ideas</h3><p>New product development departments can gain a huge amount of insight for their future direction from business reviews. Common themes around a product issue or customer preferences can help influence future product decisions, increasing the likelihood of creating goods that meet consumer expectations. This, in turn, enhances customer satisfaction and reinforces a positive brand image.</p><p>And Feefo’s performance reports can help you easily <a href="https://www.feefo.com/uk/business/features/reporting" target="_self">discover themes</a> in your customer feedback, highlighting opportunities for new products or necessary changes.</p><p>To learn more and discover what your customers really think of your business, read our guide to<a href="https://www.feefo.com/uk/business/resources/business-insights/your-guide-to-feefo-reports" target="_self"> Feefo reports</a>. Or, discover how your business can use customer feedback to its advantage by reading our <a href="https://www.feefo.com/uk/business/resources/customer-experience/customer-reviews" target="_self">complete guide to customer reviews</a>.</p><h2>Build a positive brand image with Feefo</h2><p>There’s no doubt that creating a solid brand image is crucial to business success. And customer reviews play a key role in establishing trust and confidence by sharing real customer experiences.</p><p>So why not get started by collecting trusted customer reviews with Feefo? <a href="https://www.feefo.com/uk/business/enquiry/get-in-touch" target="_self">Get in touch today</a> to see how we can help your brand do more to become something memorable!</p><p></p>

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What Is Brand Image: How to Use Reviews to Your Advantage

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<p>Brand trust is central to building your business. Described as the ‘make or break difference for brands’ it relates to how customers expect to have a positive experience when they interact with you. It involves consistency in delivery of high-quality products and services. But it goes further, with 53% of respondents in a <a href="https://www.feefo.com/uk/business/contact">2020 Edelman survey</a> stating trust in the brand was second in importance only to price when purchasing from a new brand.</p><p>All age groups, gender and income segments saw brand trust as more important now than ever before and looked at the impact that a brand has on society, as well as how brands can protect individuals during times of uncertainty and change.</p><h2>What is brand trust?</h2><p>Brand trust acts as a signal to let your customers know that you’re worth spending their valuable time and money on. It’s invaluable, hard won and based on consistency. Your customers want you to meet their expectations, every time.</p><p>As Elizabeth Arden, founder of Elizabeth Arden, Inc. said: “Repetition makes reputation and reputation makes customers.”</p><h3>Shoppers trust brands when they:</h3><p></p><ul><li>Deliver high quality products or services</li><li>Receive good ratings and reviews</li><li>Charge a reasonable price</li><li>Treat customers fairly</li><li>Handle any problems quickly&nbsp;</li></ul><p></p><p>Brand trust comes from a combination of great products, consistently good service, meaningful customer interactions, great content, and glowing <a href="https://www.feefo.com/uk/business/features/advanced-analytics">customer feedback</a>.</p><h3>Why is it important to build brand trust?</h3><p>People buy brands rather than just products or services. Brand trust is what distinguishes you from your competitors.&nbsp;</p><p>Brands add value – we all know that a small white T–shirt from Balenciaga will cost significantly more than one from Primark.&nbsp;</p><p>Brands provide peace of mind -consumers are comfortable with what they’re offering, which saves decision-making time. And they express who consumers are – we identify with them – everyone can choose whether they’re a PC or a Mac.</p><p>A positive outlook on your brand, created through the delivery of consistently high-quality products and services, drives sales and creates loyal customers.</p><h2>How to gain brand trust</h2><p>Start with a clear value proposition - define what it is that you offer your customers and focus on providing that in as honest, fair and transparent a way as possible. Once your foundations are in place, then use social proof and reviews to build up brand trust.</p><p>People trust people, especially when they know their opinions are the real deal. In fact, <a href="https://www.feefo.com/uk/business/resources/business-insights/review-and-brand-growth-advice">84% of shoppers</a> trust real reviews from genuine customers even more than the recommendations of friends and family - making your customers your best salespeople.&nbsp;</p><p>The more reviews you’re able to collect from your genuine customers, the more trust in your brand increases. And once you have a stream of positive reviews pouring in, you can start promoting them on your website, in your search ads, and in marketing materials to spread the word even further and continue to build a positive brand reputation.</p><h3>Prove the quality of your products</h3><p>Collecting product reviews gives you the perfect opportunity to showcase the quality of your products. <a href="https://www.edelman.com/research/brand-trust-2020">Honest reviews from real customers</a> help shoppers feel more secure they are making the right choice, as they get an unbiased view of the products on offer. <a href="https://www.feefo.com/uk/business/resources/customer-experience/customer-reviews">Reading feedback</a> from other customers helps make the buying decision so much simpler. <a href="https://www.feefo.com/uk/business/resources/customer-acquisition">Photo and video reviews</a> add an extra layer of trust by giving customers the chance to show off their experiences firsthand.</p><h3>Focus on your customer experience</h3><p>Improving your <a href="https://www.feefo.com/uk/business/resources/customer-experience/negative-reviews">customer experience</a> will create greater brand trust. Reach out to your customers to see how they feel about their interactions with you to find out where you’re doing well and where you need to improve. Feefo Surveys allow you to find out about any part of the buying journey, so you can gain insight on all your customer touchpoints.</p><h3>Climb the Google search results</h3><p>Collecting feedback provides search engines with plenty of user-generated content, which pushes your website up the rankings. Higher ranked sites show off your brand and help to build trust. As a Google Premier Partner, you can show your Feefo ratings and reviews on your Google My Business page too. If you want to read more about how reviews can help, check <a href="https://www.salesforce.com/blog/category/digital-transformation/">our SEO guide</a>.</p><h3>Keep an eye on what people are saying</h3><p>Monitoring what people are saying about you allows you to keep track of how you’re perceived. Brand trust can fluctuate over time and Feefo’s Customer Sentiment Insight tool can accurately measure the positive and negative customer sentiment from within your reviews.    </p><h3>Create loyal brand advocates</h3><p>Reviews carry on working long after they’ve been posted. If your customers are happy enough to sing your praises in a review, they’re likely to continue to do this on and offline, promoting your brand amongst their network and strengthening your reputation. Consumers respond well to recommendations from people that don’t work for the brand and haven’t been paid, making your reviewers credible and influential brand ambassadors.</p><h3>Show you can deliver on your promises</h3><p>Reviews give you the platform to publicly engage one-on-one with your customers. providing a platform to spark conversations, respond to queries, show that you’re willing to make improvements, and let everyone know when you make those changes. Just by addressing your current customers, you’re not only more likely to keep hold of them, but <a href="https://www.feefo.com/uk/business/resources/customer-experience">attract new ones too</a>.</p><h3>Turn critics into advocates</h3><p>Believe it or not, negative customer reviews can be just as useful as positive ones. They let you know how you can improve your business and help to build on your customers’ trust. The best opportunity lies within how you go about replying – a well written response could even turn your grumpiest customer into a loyal brand advocate.</p><p>Much better to receive a negative review highlighting an issue that lets you take action to address the problem than having negative feelings towards your business passed on to a customer’s friends and family by word of mouth.</p><p>Collecting customer reviews lets you take back control of that conversation and use the platform to publicly respond to negative feedback and help solve the customer’s issue long before it damages brand trust. In fact, openly and honestly admitting fault, and going above and beyond to solve the issue they’ve raised, shows your company in a positive light and helps further cement the level of trust people have in your customer service.</p><p>Find out more about <a href="https://www.feefo.com/uk/business/resources/customer-experience/negative-reviews">responding to negative reviews</a>.</p><p>With <a href="https://www.feefo.com/uk/business/resources/customer-retention/how-to-effectively-build-and-measure-customer-loyalty">95% of shoppers saying</a> they are more likely to be loyal to a company they trust, there’s no better time to start collecting customer reviews to build brand trust and prove to the world just how great your products and customer service really are.</p><p>Nine-in-ten customers are worried about fake reviews affecting their experience with a business - which is where we come in. As an invite-only review and insight platform, Feefo is proud to only collect real reviews from your genuine customers.</p>