B2B Brand Awareness: How to Measure It, and Why You Should Care
Your B2B marketing campaigns can be executed to achieve a variety of SMART goals. However, as you may already know, most of these goals fall under one of these broader categories such as:
- Awareness: You want your target audience to be familiar with your company’s brand, mission, products, and services.
- Attitude: You want your target audience to have a positive perception of your company’s brand, mission, products, and services.
- Action: You want your target audience to convert and become a loyal customer.
As a manufacturing or industrial company, you may find yourself tending to focus more on the attitude and action goals — and I don’t blame you. With brand ratings, customer satisfaction surveys, and conversion tracking, these goals are easy to measure, and it’s easy to see their impact on your marketing return on investment (ROI).
But those results don’t come from just anywhere. They come from effort you put into brand awareness, the first essential step of the buyer’s journey. Let’s take a closer look at how to measure B2B brand awareness and why you should care.
How to Measure B2B Brand Awareness
Brand awareness is a bit of a vague idea, but that doesn’t mean you should shy away from it. You may not be able to get the clear-cut numbers you’re used to, but there are still plenty of ways to gauge success. Below are some great key performance indicators (KPIs) to look for, both quantitatively and qualitatively:
Quantitative B2B Brand Awareness Measurements
Although there isn’t specific numerical data that can track brand awareness, there are some numbers related to it that you can draw conclusions from. So if you’re a numbers person, there is hope! Here’s what I’ve got for you:
Direct Traffic
Direct traffic is a metric that tells you how many users visit your website by typing your company’s URL into a search engine. Consumers discover brands through sources like social media and digital advertising, so this can give you a clue as to how well your marketing efforts are working to raise brand awareness. Because if they’re aware of your URL, they’re aware of your brand.
However, it’s also important to keep in mind that direct traffic measures all the people that visit your site by typing in your URL — including those that use your site regularly, like your sales team, customer service team, etc. And measuring those visits won’t give you much valuable information about qualified leads.
Here’s a few things you can do to help:
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- Filter them out - You can filter these types of visitors out of your direct traffic results by blocking their IP address from your analytics. That way, they just won’t show up anymore.
- Benchmark - You can monitor direct traffic before and after you start working to improve brand awareness. Likely, your current direct traffic is a good example of the people who already use it. If you see a big spike after your awareness campaign, it’s an indication that your efforts are working.
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Organic Volume
Organic search volume is a metric that determines the number of times users type a specific query into a search engine. You can look at your brand-specific keywords — such as your company name, products, or services — and see how often they’re being searched. Because, again, if people are searching for brand-specific keywords, they’re aware of your brand.
Some good online tools for tracking organic search volume include:
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Social Engagement, Reach, and Mentions
Social media engagement, reach, and mentions all work together to provide a good gauge on your B2B brand awareness. Let’s break down what each one specifically measures:
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- Engagement: the number of likes, comments, or shares that your posts receive.
- Reach: the number of people each of your posts reach, which is usually tracked through business accounts on platforms like Facebook, Instagram, and LinkedIn.
- Mentions: the number of times your brand is organically mentioned on social media, through tags, comments, or hashtags.
If people are engaging with your posts, seeing your posts, or mentioning you in posts, then they know who you are. That's brand awareness.
Qualitative B2B Brand Awareness Measurements
Things can get a little cloudy here, but stick with me. There aren’t any numbers with qualitative measurements for B2B brand awareness, but there are still useful metrics to use, including:
Brand Awareness Surveys
Brand awareness surveys are used to see if consumers have heard of your brand, and if your brand is one of the first that comes to mind within your industry. They usually have questions like, “Have you seen an ad from [Company Name]?” or “What’s the first brand you think of when thinking about [Product]?” While many of these are done online or on social media, you could also conduct them in-person or within focus groups.
Google Alerts
Google Alerts is a helpful tool that notifies you whenever your brand is mentioned on the internet, either by a news outlet or third-party organization. It helps you measure how many people are talking about you, as well as what they’re saying — without having to search through endless Google search results to find the answer.
Why Is Promoting and Measuring B2B Brand Awareness Important?
More than anything, B2B brand awareness is important because if your target audience doesn’t know who you are, you’re not going to make many sales.
It’s the first step in the buyer's journey, and it’s one you don’t want to skip. By focusing on good brand awareness, you fuel the rest of your flywheel and set yourself up for success in the long run. Alongside that, brand awareness can build your company’s credibility and boost trust among consumers. The more your target audience hears about you, the more likely they’ll be to learn more about you and put you as top-of-mind in your industry.
Turns out, emotions like trust aren’t just for B2C companies. In fact, they can be even more important for your B2B because you’re trying to win over teams of people, not just one person. When the whole team knows who you are, what you do, and what you stand for, it’s sure to set you apart from other options.
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Brand awareness is paramount for most B2B companies, including manufacturing and industrial companies. The more you're known, the more business you'll grab. If you're having trouble increasing brand awareness or even just understanding where you're at now, Evenbound can help.
