How to Boost Online Awareness of Your Brand

How to increase brand awareness online

Here are nine ways to increase your brand awareness online. For best results, use a combination of these strategies.

1. Create a unique and recognizable logo.

A logo is a powerful marketing and branding tool that helps you stand out from the competition. Your brand’s logo is the most recognizable element of your brand image, helping you create a consistent brand story. A strong logo that represents your business, its mission and values can entice customers to engage more fully with your company. When you think about some of the most successful companies in the world — such as Amazon, Google and Facebook — their logos likely come to mind immediately, as recognizable as the companies themselves. 

Cecilia Gates, founder and creative director of Gates Creative, emphasized the importance of building brand recognition via a high-quality logo. 

“Once consumers recognize your brand, they’re more likely to choose it over unfamiliar options,” Gates explained. “That recognition builds trust, fosters loyalty, and lays the groundwork for a strong and lasting brand perception.” 

Your logo should convey a clear message and resonate with your customers. Keep it straightforward and clean — the most successful logos are often the simplest. Choose one or two colors that represent your brand. While a logo isn’t your brand, it’s the most visible part of it.

2. Build a user-friendly website.

Your website design plays a huge role in creating an interface that users actually want to engage with. You want them to feel comfortable, encounter a clean and visually appealing layout, and move through your site without hitting roadblocks. Your goal is to keep customers on your site, not drive them away.

Good design is a mix of technical know-how and common-sense layout choices — a balance between looks and logic. For example, if your homepage doesn’t feature compelling, helpful content right away, most visitors won’t stick around. In fact, according to ContentSquare’s 2025 Data Explorer and Insights report, 45 percent of users leave a website due to poor usability or layout issues. Another widely cited stat says 88 percent of visitors are unlikely to return after one bad experience, making those first impressions count.

Here are some best practices to keep your visitors engaged:

• Use bold headings and bullet points to summarize key info
• Strategically place offers, visuals and product details
• Optimize to create a mobile-friendly website (your site needs to look great and function well on phones and tablets)

Gates emphasized how important your site becomes once people learn about your brand. “It’s a space to expand on your brand story, showcase your products or services in detail, and reinforce your messaging in a more immersive and informative way,” Gates explained. “In that sense, while the website may not be the start of the awareness journey, it plays a vital role in strengthening and converting that awareness into trust and action.”

3. Write a blog.

Small business blogging can do wonders for brand awareness. Your blog can stand alone or be hosted on your website. If you are meticulous about the quality and type of content you produce, you stand to gain repeat readers. Provide value to your readers by creating meaningful blog content that is informative or entertaining. It’s also important to post consistently; a stagnant or outdated blog may look worse for your brand than no blog at all.

4. Stay active on social media.

Your social media presence is an incredible opportunity to increase awareness of your brand. Social media provides direct access to your customers, helping you engage them in meaningful dialogue.

Increasing your activity on your social media accounts means more engagement with your customer base. According to Statista, there are over 3 billion active users on Facebook, 2.5 billion on YouTube, 2 billion on Instagram, and almost 1.6 billion on TikTok. If your business isn’t on at least one of these platforms, you’re missing out on customers on a global scale. Each social media platform appeals to a distinct demographic, so you’ll want to determine which ones work best for your business.

Post regularly and engage in conversations with your audience. Ensure your social media brand voice is consistent and cohesive across all channels. Once you’ve begun scaling your social media activity, consider investing in social media marketing to put your brand in front of your target audience.

5. Enlist influencers to market your brand.

Influencer marketing has exploded in popularity, and for good reason: influencers can help your business grow. In fact, according to Morning Consult’s 2025 Influencer Guide, nearly half (45 percent) of social media users say they “often” or “sometimes” buy something after seeing a social media post about it. 

If it’s appropriate for your brand, consider partnering with influencers whose audiences align with yours. You don’t need to convince Kim Kardashian to market your products — niche influencers with complementary audiences can be highly effective. According to Influencer Marketing Hub’s 2025 benchmark report, most Instagram influencers (over 75 percent) are nanoinfluencers with between 1,000 and 10,000 followers. Microinfluencers make up the next biggest group (14 percent).

Gates agreed that influencer marketing works because these social media stars are akin to trusted friends for their followers. “It’s essentially modern-day word of mouth — but with reach and impact,” Gates explained. “When an influencer genuinely connects with a brand and shares it with their audience, it creates an authentic recommendation that resonates far more than traditional ads.” 

6. Use a variety of media, including video and podcasts.

Using different media types and maintaining a presence across multiple platforms can significantly enhance brand visibility.

“It’s important to prioritize multiple platforms for brand awareness because each platform reaches different segments of your audience in unique ways,” Gates advised. “People consume content differently — some prefer watching videos, others enjoy reading blogs, and many scroll through social media for quick inspiration. By showing up across various channels, you increase your chances of being seen, remembered and engaged with.”

Consider the following approaches: 

• Visual content: Focus on creating visual content, especially brand videos. Whether you post long-form tutorial videos or 30-second clips, find a video flow that works for you and your audience, and post regularly to maintain consistency.
• Mixture of content: Gates emphasized that diverse content, including short-form videos, in-depth articles or interactive posts, keeps your brand fresh and adaptable. “A strong content mix not only boosts visibility but also helps reinforce your brand message from multiple angles, making it more memorable and impactful,” Gates added.
• Podcasting: Podcasting is another media form that helps you reach your target audience. Consistency is key — podcasts are easy to launch, but building a loyal following takes time and effort. Choose a topic and episode format that will resonate with your audience. You might also consider interviewing relevant or high-profile guests to attract a larger following.
• Repurposing content across channels: Maggie Swift, co-founder of Unframed Digital, noted that a multi-channel approach doesn’t always require creating new content for each channel from scratch. Strategies like repurposing blog content can be effective. “Users move between Google, Instagram, YouTube and newsletters seamlessly, so a single-channel strategy limits exposure,” Swift explained. “We’ve seen brands achieve [four times] higher engagement when repurposing blog content into reels, carousels and video pins, all anchored to the same core message.” 

7. Invest in online reputation management.

Online reputation management is exactly what it sounds like. Every established brand has an online reputation, and customers can adversely impact it. We’ve all seen posts from disgruntled customers complaining about companies or services. Taking the time to understand how reviews work — and how to respond to online reviews — can help you control how your business and brand are seen online.

Investing in an online reputation management platform can help you stay on top of how your brand is perceived online. If there are negative reviews or misinformation about your business, you can quickly address the problem and strengthen your reputation. 

Before partnering with an online reputation management organization, Gates recommends conducting “social listening” to understand the current status of your reputation. “Take time to monitor what people are already saying about your brand or products across social media, review platforms and forums,” Gates advised. “Understanding your current reputation gives you a clearer picture of where you stand and what needs attention.”

If you move forward with a reputation management service partnership, Gates says setting clear, specific goals is essential. For example, you may want to: 

• Improve review scores
• Increase positive mentions
• Manage a specific issue affecting your reputation 

“And above all, make sure the company uses ethical, transparent practices,” Gates added.

Jennifer Aube, head of marketing at Econet Controls, agreed that an ethical online reputation management partner is critical. 

“Reputation management should be about building trust, not hiding imperfections,” Aube said. “Look for a firm that helps you respond authentically, encourages satisfied customers to share real feedback, and strengthens your brand’s credibility across search and review platforms.”

8. Boost all content through search engine optimization (SEO).

A thoughtful SEO strategy can improve your website’s ranking on major search engines, which can significantly enhance your site’s click-through rate. The top spot on a Google search page captures 27.6 percent of all clicks. That’s 10 times higher than the search result in the 10th position.

Creating optimized, high-quality content that fosters engagement on your site is the simplest way to improve your search engine ranking, resulting in more visitors to your site. 

Aube emphasized that appearing prominently in search results is crucial for long-term brand visibility and trust. “When someone searches for a product you offer — or even adjacent keywords — you need to show up with authority,” Aube advised. “This means optimizing product pages, FAQs and blogs for both branded and non-branded keywords, securing review placements, and targeting Featured Snippets and Google Shopping results.” 

9. Maintain consistency in your message.

Above all else, arguably the most important factor in building solid brand awareness is staying consistent across all channels. 

“Consistency breeds credibility,” Swift explained. “Regardless of platform or audience, cohesive visuals, messaging and tone signal professionalism and build recognition. This means alignment across meta titles, social bios, ad creatives and landing pages because even subtle inconsistencies can erode trust.” 

Gates echoed this point, emphasizing the importance of maintaining a cohesive brand image and voice.

“Your visual language, including colors, typography and imagery, as well as your brand voice, should remain cohesive and recognizable across all touchpoints to build familiarity and trust over time,” Gates said. “Clear brand positioning also plays a critical role; consistently communicating who you are, what you stand for, and what you offer helps anchor your brand in the minds of consumers.”

Gates also stressed that consistency should be grounded in authenticity. “Regardless of industry, people gravitate toward brands that feel real and speak directly to their values, needs and lifestyles.” 

Why online brand awareness is important

Brand awareness is vital for a number of reasons:

• Customers who are unfamiliar with your brand won’t buy from you. Brand awareness is your first opportunity to introduce yourself to potential customers. If they don’t know you exist, you won’t even be considered when it’s time to make a purchase.
• Brand awareness fosters trust. When customers are familiar with your brand, they’re more likely to trust it. And since people are more willing to spend money with companies they know and trust, this can lead to higher sales.
• Brand awareness keeps your business top of mind. It can also create strong associations. For example, Band-Aid, Q-Tip and Kleenex have built such strong brands that people often refer to their names instead of the product categories (bandages, cotton swabs and tissues). While achieving this level of recognition is rare, the goal is to have your brand come to mind first when customers need what you offer, keeping them loyal to you instead of your competitors.
• Brand awareness fosters community and supports customer identity. For certain iconic brands, customers can’t see themselves using a competitor’s product. For example, many iPhone users would never consider switching to Android. Once customers are familiar with your brand and its benefits, they can begin to identify with it and form a brand community around it with others who feel the same way.
• Brand awareness builds brand equity. Once your brand is firmly established, it becomes more valuable. This allows you to charge higher prices than competitors, raise capital more easily, attract strategic partners or even increase your company’s sale value.

Devon Vocke and Jennifer Dublino contributed to this article.