Engage and Convert: Leveraging Brand Awareness To Reach New Audiences

Ever feel like you’re pouring your digital marketing efforts into a black hole? You’re not alone. Effective marketing can be challenging for many growing brands, regardless of industry. Things might seem fantastic on the surface- a solid mass of followers, likes, and hearts, but these vanity metrics only go so far. There’s a difference between casual followers and customers. Casual followers are great for building brand visibility, but eventually, you want that connection to evolve into a customer relationship. Then, the challenge becomes ensuring you connect, engage, and nurture your audience to become brand-loyal fans. It’s time to embrace and tackle the three critical levels of brand awareness: unaware, aware, and loyal, and learn how to leverage awareness levels in your digital messaging to reach new audiences and earn worth-of-mouth referrals. When you harness the power of the brand awareness spectrum in your marketing efforts, you create a perpetual system of customer generation, which will help future-proof your business. The ultimate goal is to provide balanced branded content that serves each level of awareness so your business can continuously attract new customers, delight your existing audience, and reward loyal purchasers. So, let’s get into how to do it.

The Unaware

These individuals have yet to learn your craft beverage brand exists. Think of them as untapped potential (pun intended). People who fall into this unaware bucket have yet to discover your brand; your sole purpose is to introduce yourself. This level is also what marketers call a “cold audience.” Think about this being your first chance to make a good impression, which means you need to be thorough with details, provide supporting information about your brand that allows you to start a relationship with them, and, most importantly, will make them stop scrolling or scanning to learn more about you. This content phase is not rocket science; it’s as simple as answering these questions: Who are you? What do you make/sell? How do I buy it? And then repeat that type of content multiple times to reinforce your brand presence. An excellent example of this would be a social media post about your taproom, including the products you offer, the location, the website address, and your operating hours.

The Aware

This audience knows your brand exists but has yet to commit fully. They’re your brand’s casual daters, occasionally purchasing but have yet to be loyal. Picture them as the festival-goers who sampled your beer recently but are still exploring other options. This phase is also known as “consideration” in consumer decision-making because the individual is not set on a favorite brand. To bridge these fans over to being loyal customers takes time, effort, and intention. Considering how many other brands compete for their attention, you have to serve up content that holds their interest, which is more complicated than it sounds. Some common themes that can help you move the needle with this group include education, entertainment, inspiration, behind-the-scenes, storytelling, and social proof. In a 2023 study by Hootsuite about the Social Media Consumer, 56% of survey respondents said they enjoy branded content when it teaches them something. Followed closely by 55% who said to make them laugh, and 47% wanted stories of inspiration. Creating content for your brand-aware audience must also be authentic- that means you’re not just tossing up photos of your cans and captioning posts with emojis. You are putting thought into your copywriting so that it sells without directly selling. The idea is to create a long-term customer relationship, so you must bring valuable information that will move them closer to a purchase decision. An example of a brand-aware marketing tactic would be a blog post on your website that speaks to your brand’s origin story and then repurposing that post into an email marketing campaign, so that your audience feels that they know you personally.

The Loyal

Meet your brand’s devoted followers-the ‘Loyal ‘. They’ve committed to your brand and regularly promote your beverages to others. This is where the magic of word-of-mouth marketing comes into play. Imagine them as the regulars who camp at your taproom, proudly wear your merch, and convert their friends into fans. These are also your loyalty or mug club members. This group of customers is different because you don’t need to educate them about your brand as much as the Unaware, but they need to feel in the loop about your happenings and be rewarded for their patronage. You’ve already done the heavy lifting of getting them on board with your brand, and now it’s time to keep them happy so they become unofficial brand ambassadors. Positive reinforcement works well to ensure this audience feels noticed and appreciated. An excellent example of this type of marketing would be a text message to your loyalty club members with a coupon code for a discount on branded merchandise.

The Importance of Casting a Wide Net

A marketing strategy that addresses all three brand awareness buckets is crucial for casting the widest net and reaching new audiences. It ensures that you’re not just broadcasting your message to the void but engaging with potential customers at every stage of their journey with your brand. By tailoring your content to meet them where they are—whether they’ve never heard of you, are just getting to know you, or are already your biggest fans—you create a more personalized and effective marketing approach. This type of strategy can withstand downtimes in the market but also allow you to thrive during upswings. No matter what the content format- social media post, email, landing page, advertisement – by ensuring that you have a well-rounded content marketing program that spans all phases of the brand awareness scale, you can be confident that you’re building a solid brand following with clear purchase intent.

About The Author

With over 2 decades of experience in the food and beverage industry, Julie Rhodes is an expert in off-site beverage sales, digital marketing, leadership, team management, and distributor partnership management. She is the owner of Not Your Hobby Marketing Solutions, an educational services and strategic business consulting company built specifically for small to medium-sized craft beverage companies where she teaches owners, operators and teams how to work smarter, not harder. She is also a freelance business journalist and active public speaker, belonging to multiple state brewery guilds and cider trade associations. She was the 2023 Mentor of the Year for the Brewers Association, sits on the BA DEI Marketing and Communications Subcommittee and teaches marketing and sales for multiple business of craft beer programs at the university level.