For your company to continuously grow, it will have to build brand equity. Lucky for you, we’re here to give you the rundown on brand equity, its importance, and how to build brand equity with Instagram.
What is Brand Equity?
Brand equity defines the powers of brands. From their competition in the market to how their audience connects with them and feels about their organization, it all comes down to the company’s perceived value in the market.
Throughout the years, brand equity has always remained highly relevant. However, in the new digital space of business and marketing, it’s essential to keep up brand equity in the intensely competitive digital world.
From the entire idea of brand equity, to how it relates to social media and its engagement, to tips on how to maximize a brand’s equity through employees and brand ambassadors, we have you covered with this article.
Importance of Brand Equity
When your brand has positive brand equity, people will be loyal to you over other competitive products or services, even if that means spending more money on your brand versus others.
Since your consumers will respect your brand more, they will feel more connected to your company over your competitors.
At the same time, negative brand equity can tarnish a company’s reputation rapidly. If this happens, consumers will look to competitors and trust them rather than your company.
So, how do you increase brand equity?
- Increase loyalty to your brand
- Associate the brand with positive values
- Improve the quality of products and services
Over the years, big-name companies have built substantial brand equity. Some companies who have a lot of brand equity in the market from their loyal customers and positive brand image are Apple, Coca-Cola, and Starbucks.
Increasing brand loyalty can be challenging if many of your customers and clients constantly change. Using a loyalty point and reward system however can promote repeat business as customers and clients receive perks.
Another way to encourage people to come back is through a brand ambassador program. By becoming a brand ambassador, they have access to exclusive products and rewards, and can feel like they are part of your brand’s team. While this can promote loyalty, it is still vital that people associate your brand with positive values.
You can display your core values through your mission statement and positive social media content. But people won’t always take your word for it as the brand. Having trusted brand ambassadors who review your product and honestly share what they think of your brand allows people to see that you are an authentic brand.
Social Media’s Impact on Brand Equity
It’s no secret that building brand equity takes time and making an effort to connect with your audience. There’s no quick solution to building positive brand awareness with your consumers. But, genuine effort from the company to promote outstanding products and services does not go unnoticed.
With the rise in social media, people have nearly unlimited access to companies that have never been seen before in years past. This rise has increased the need for brands to be actively engaging on social media to show off their values, products and services, and creativity between all hours of the day! Transparency is unavoidable and must be taken seriously.
While social media won’t solve all challenges related to brand equity, it can be a tremendous help connecting to your target audience and how they perceive your brand. With social media, people expect more from brands. So, your company must put genuine effort into its social media.
Not only is social media helpful for connecting to an audience, but social media platforms are essential for word-of-mouth marketing. Social media is the space where people engage with brands, employees, leaders of companies, and more. So, it’s no surprise that social media channels significantly impact your company’s brand equity!
Personable Social Content
Your brand also needs social content from others outside the company. Social media users are eager to engage with brands that feel personable. Act on social media as if your brand is a person. The brand should be professional but still have a personal touch that allows people to see what goes on behind the logo.
While utilizing social media, use captions and written copy to encourage engagement and conversion among followers. By creating written content that sounds more humanized, brand equity will increase since the audience will be more interested. Between more comments, more website clicks, and widespread attention, people stay loyal to companies that sound like genuine people and not just salespeople.
Brand Ambassador on Social Media
Brand Ambassadors are a powerful way to build brand equity. Connecting with micro-influencers and ambassadors is an incredible way to spread word-of-mouth marketing about your company. Brand ambassador marketing allows people to see your brand through the eyes of someone else.
With the help of ambassador software, brands can easily manage a brand ambassador community. These brand ambassadors can create content to promote the brand and share it with their followers. This content will instantly get your brand more exposure, awareness, and potentially new customers. Additionally, more exposure can lead to increased engagement and loyalty on social media. After all, with a positive online presence and more sales comes positive brand equity!
Employee Advocacy on Social Media
An employee advocacy strategy can have a significant impact on brand equity. Brands succeed through word-of-mouth marketing and recommendations from people they know. And again, people turn to social media to research reviews and information on brands and their products and services.
Employee advocacy is all about engaging employees to be present on social media to advocate for your company. From sharing insights to creating content, contributing to the company’s social media effort can significantly impact the company’s brand equity.
Customer Support on Social Media
Social media offers an impactful way for customer support to continuously strengthens brand equity. Customers can have conversations with brands directly to engage with them, get their problems solved, and ask any questions they may have. The more conversations and engagement your company has with customers, the more brand equity improves.
With quick responses, clarifying transparency, and creating a positive experience brand equity will be increased and customers are more likely to share positive views of your brand, its products, and services.
But, this effort can go beyond your social media team. Customer support, HR and your product team can all help participate on social media to build brand equity..
Final Thoughts
Building brand equity takes time and effort, but it offers long-lasting positive benefits that can lead to lasting company growth. With help from social media in combination with brand ambassadors, employees and other team members like customer support, you can better connect with your audience and customers while building brand equity.
