When you’re cleaning your house, do your ask your partner to plug in the vacuum cleaner or the Hoover? At a spa what do you call the whirlpool – a whirlpool or a Jacuzzi? When you’re at a bar, do you ask for a glass of cola or a Coke?

These are all terms called ‘proprietary eponyms‘, and they are the height of brand awareness. These products and brands have become so well known that they replaced the generic term for them in language. So, for instance, Hoover is a brand of vacuum cleaner, Coke is a type of cola or soda, and a Jacuzzi is a certain brand of hot tub or whirlpool.

For a company to become a proprietary eponym, it has to have the most amazing brand awareness. Admittedly, you may not achieve this level of brand awareness within your business but that’s okay, all you want to do is achieve a high level of awareness, not necessarily the epitome of brand awareness.

There’s no quick fix for a brand or product becoming a household name, what you can do is take steps to achieve the best brand awareness possible. Of course, that’s easier said than done, right? The good news is that when it comes to brand awareness, building brand awareness is easy to do if you know what steps you need to take, that is.

Want to know how to make building a prosperous and profitable brand that is well known easier for yourself? Then have a read of for a guide to the steps that you should take for a smart approach to building brand awareness.

Utilise referral programs

You can’t expect your customers to spread the word about your business for free. However, if your customers know that they will get a ‘perk’ for spreading the word about how incredible your company and its products or services is, they will gladly tell everyone that they know about what you offer. You need to make it worth their while. Get creative and come up with a unique way to encourage your customers to refer your brand to their friends.

Showcase impressive content

Another highly effective way to build brand awareness is to create and deliver incredible content. Want a company that everyone talks about? Focus on creating the most amazing content for your website. What you want to do is have your website filled with the most amazing pieces of content – content that has click sexy titles, is interesting and informative, and is highly shareable. If you want to make a name for your brand, you need to be sharing some incredible pieces of content.

Take advantage of social media

You are most probably already on social media, but are you taking full advantage of it? The chances are that the answer is no, you’re not. However, just because you aren’t taking advantage of social media, that doesn’t mean that you can’t change that. Put a plan of action in place that will ‘shake up’ your company’s social media efforts and make a bigger impact. Don’t just share statuses and tweets, share content that has the potential for better results – think blog posts and infographics, for instance.

Build local partnerships

Want to establish your brand as leaders in your field? It can pay to team up with another local company and work together on building strong customer bases. Find a company within your industry, but that isn’t a direct competitor, and team up with them. For example, say your company offers energy efficient light bulbs, you could team up with another company that offers energy efficient gas boilers and energy saving advice. They recommend your light bulbs; you recommend their services. You can share customers and increase brand awareness more easily.

Freebies

Everyone loves a freebie. If you are attending any sort of industry event, it’s vital that you incorporate lots of freebies into it. Of course, what’s crucial is that any freebies you’re giving away are properly branded up with your company’s name, logo and contact details. The good news is that it’s not just promotional events that you can use promotional products for, you can use them at any time, it’s just a case of knowing how to use them effectively and get them into the right hands. To learn more about doing so, it could be worth doing some research online to better understand the approach that other, more successful businesses take to doing so.

Host competitions

Want to build your social media reach and brand awareness while doing so? Then a great step to take is to host a competition, because competitions get people talking and sharing your content, exposing your brand to a much wider audience range. The best approach to take is to put together a fantastic prize – this could be a gift hamper or free use of one of your services. This prize can then be shared on social media, and then ask anyone who wants to be in with a chance to win it to share the post, follow your company social media accounts on all channels, and tag two friends. You’ll be amazed at the traction a competition will give your brand in terms of building awareness.

Be unique

One surefire way to build brand awareness is to take a unique approach to your company. If you operate your brand in a way unlike any other, then you are much more likely to become a company that is highly talked about. This could simply be being completely green and paper-free. It could be by taking inspiration from Google HQ and creating an office that’s just as cool as their office. It could be giving every customer who visits your store a free brownie and cup of coffee. Waitrose offers every customer a free coffee or tea, and they’re famous for it. Take a leaf out of their book and do something that builds positive brand awareness.

Want to take a smarter approach to brand awareness? The steps above will help you to do that – take note, implement them, and you should see your brand’s awareness start to bloom.