16 trends to increase brand awareness in 2021

Every day, your customers are bombarded by brands. Almost everyone has the Internet, it is easier than ever to attract customers and increase your commercial brand awareness, but this brings you to a question: how to make your brand stand out from the crowd? How can you ensure that people interact with your brand in a sea of logos, memes, social media pages, websites, infographics, etc.?

The answer is simple-to implement brand trends-but some work is required.

If there is a brand, brand trends will always exist, so to find the best location for your specific business, you need to find a balance between the delicate balance of new, fresh, tried, and true. Fortunately, when it comes to increasing brand awareness, Brand Bucket has the information and resources you need to make the most impact.

One important thing to remember about your brand is that this is basically who you are as a business. What is your goal? Is it important to you? How do you want to change the world? When you know your company and business, you can better market and gain more visibility.

The following 16 brand trends will continue to receive attention in 2021, and you will want to try one (or all!) for yourself.

16 brand trends will increase visibility in 2021 and beyond

1. Go retro

Vintage is nothing new (pun intended), but it has always been one of the most popular and enduring style trends of the 2010s. Despite their popularity, retro brands are still an excellent way to stand out, especially when it comes to logo and packaging design.

How do you “retro”? When creating a vintage design, there are some rules to follow:

Stick to a (hand-drawn) image: This image should be a unique image that represents your brand. If your company sells boating accessories, consider hand-drawn pictures of canoes or sailboats. Wrap this picture in a logo or frame that also carries your company’s name.

Add “determined date”: Most old-fashioned logos are in the story-telling “Est. 1848” (or any year the company was founded). Even if this is the first year of your company, or you are a novice, the year of establishment will still be traced back to the “outdated” corporate logo, where the year of establishment is always an important part of the design.

Use a “weathered look”: The main charm of retro design is that it looks retro. With this in mind, make sure to provide a weathering effect for images and text to make the logo look stale.

2. Visual content

How to create eye-catching visual content + 11 visual content ideas?

No matter what industry you are in, it is becoming more and more difficult to obtain and maintain the attention of the audience online. You only have a few seconds to attract their interest, so creating compelling content is crucial.

Although we all understand the value of content marketing, how you develop content is as important as what you deliver. Providing consistent, interesting content will increase traffic, thereby increasing brand awareness, engagement and (eventually) sales.

But in a world where everyone is fighting for consumer attention, how do you provide compelling content? A: Include visual assets in your content strategy. The human brain can quickly process visual information, and people remember what they see and hear more than what they read.

What is visual content?

Visual content is any content that contains visual effects or is primarily based on images. Examples of visual content include videos, infographics, photos, charts, and GIFs.

Why create visual content?

We often say not to judge a book by its cover, but our brains are born to do so. Therefore we “eat with our eyes”-we like things to look good. The visual effect that accompanies your content is what the audience sees first, whether that content is an advertisement, product packaging, business card, social media post, or anything in between. Therefore, these visual effects are potential customers’ first impressions of your brand, and they will use them to decide whether your brand is attractive to them.

To illustrate how effective visual effects are in attracting visitors, consider the following statistics:

In 2016, more than 60% of B2B marketers and small businesses plan to increase investment in video marketing strategies. (CMI)
On average, tweets with pictures get 150% more reposts than tweets without pictures. (Centre point)
On average, Facebook posts with pictures are 2.3 times more engaged than posts without pictures. (buzzing)

The point is that the visual design left an impression on the visitors. You must learn how to use them wisely.

Except for the first impression, the importance of visual stimulation has not diminished. Once the eyes are no longer involved, the brain will know that it is time to move on. Digital marketers pay close attention to engagement metrics because they show how many consumers respond to or interact with content. Among all the possible customers that are contacted, those who interact with the content are the customers who stayed from beginning to end. Visually stimulating content facilitates participation because it forces users to continue watching, reading, or experiencing the content.

In addition, visually exciting content is more memorable. When someone receives a pleasant and engaging visual stimulus, the brain will be more likely to concentrate and remember the information it processes. You may meet potential online customers who don’t yet need your product or service, but they will in the future. By stimulating them visually during their interaction with your brand, they are more likely to remember you when the information is relevant. This also makes visually pleasing content easier to share, because the longer people remember it, the more likely it is to find it relevant to friends or family.

How to make visually exciting content?

For a long time, visual stimulation has been the biggest concern of marketers. If the eyes are bored and not stimulated, then the brain will draw the viewer’s attention to other things. In the digital age, consumers are exposed to multiple different brands and information at the same time, and “other things” are likely to become the content of competing brands. In other words, if your visual effects cannot provide a high level of stimulation, then your online potential customers will be more likely to betray your competitors.

All these reasons provide a convincing argument for the relationship between visual stimulation and customer retention, which may have started the wheel of how to make more visually stimulating content. Before these wheels push you in the wrong direction, it is important to see how you can improve your visual content.

Quality comes first: As mentioned earlier, quality is an important indicator of your brand. When you seek more visually impactful content, please pay close attention to the images and other visual affects you use. The visual effects are great, but bad or low-resolution visual effects are not.
Relevance depends on quality: Just like avoiding bad or low-quality images, you want to avoid visual effects that are not relevant to the information provided. In other words, don’t include visual effects to add visual effects. (See: cats.) They should be meaningful and relevant to what is being discussed.
The cover is crucial: we already know that people will judge a book by its cover. Your initial visual effect should be the most eye-catching because the user will only stay on the page for a few seconds before deciding whether to stay or leave.
Excessive stimulation is real: if there are too many visual effects, the brain will not be able to accurately process everything. Think of it as an action movie: Although there are scenes of explosions, lasers, and car chases, there are also slow scenes to develop the plot and characters. Why? Because if the whole movie is an action movie, we will be overloaded, and our brain will mentally keep us away from this experience.
Vision carries the eyes: For decades, researchers have been studying the way the eyes move on the page. By understanding eye tracking, marketers can ensure that the viewer’s eyes move logically on the page to get all the important information. An image is a way of influencing the way someone’s eyes scan a page. We are naturally attracted to images, so by placing them strategically, you can control where your eyes move.

Types of visual content

In this article, let’s discuss how visual content such as infographics and videos encourages visitors to convert.

1. Create impact with correct typography

Unlike people who read books, visitors on a website don’t read the content from left to right and then browse to the next line. In fact, almost nothing happened in the progress. Visitors will either go directly to find what they need, or they will stop if something more interesting attracts their attention-for example, another brand of detergent has a 30% discount.

Today’s designers are using typography to attract and maintain the attention of visitors. The size, shape, and position of different fonts will enhance your message, and you can focus on where you want it most.

Consider the bold font on this page. The cursive font and the typewriter font complement each other, giving the website a retro and personalized feel. Using colour to emphasize certain words will attract attention and set a positive tone.

2. Visually present data with infographics

Would you rather read huge PDFs full of statistics and long sentences, or colourful infographics that use simple icons and text to display information? The choice is obvious. Including a well-designed infographic in your blog post or web page can persuade people to stop and see what you have to say.

But will it increase the conversion rate? Here are some convincing evidences:

Image increases memory retention. People who hear the information will only remember 10% of it after three days. However, if the information is paired with the image, they may remember 65% of it in the same period. Compared with three paragraphs of text, it will be easier for people to read and remember the infographic detailing the health benefits of bananas. The more time visitors spend on your content, the more likely they are to convert.
More stocks lead to more exposure. According to NN Group, the sharing and likes of infographics on social media are 3 times that of any other type of content. Since people are more likely to share posts with infographics, it can help you attract more people on social media faster.

3. Adding video

It is estimated that adding videos to marketing emails can increase click-through rates by 200-300%. Need more evidence? Other research shows that 73% of American adults are more likely to purchase a product or service after watching a video explaining the product or service.

Videos can be used to evoke emotion, explain how your product or service works, or introduce your company. It can help potential customers face your name, thus making your company more relevant. The key is to keep it within 2 minutes (for some social channels, even 30 seconds may be ideal), optimize for mobile devices, and ask questions or make fun of the content in the title.

4. Create a gifgraphic

Speaking of using video, you can also upgrade static infographics by merging animations. Gifgraphics is still relatively new, which means your content will stand out. Although some marketers worry that it may be difficult to produce gifgraphics, it’s worth the effort to present your message in a more attractive and dynamic way.

5. Use high-quality photos with text overlays

Using eye-catching photography is a strategy that should always be in your pocket as a marketer. Images make the content more interesting, and if you start with high-quality images, it’s easy to overwrite the references. Photos with quotes or annotations are very easy to share and can quickly gain attention on social media.

If you’re creating a campaign for Instagram, it’s obviously important to use high-quality images, but it’s also effective on Twitter. Tweets with photos are 150% more likely to be reposted than tweets without photos. If you are worried about your ability to create shareable pictures, don’t worry. Many companies, such as Lucidpress, have templates that you can use to create clear and compelling visual effects for your next article or status update.

6. Add comics or memes

If you want to add a little sense of humour to your marketing strategy, making comics or emoticons is one of the best ways. Memes-like those tweets posted by the restaurant chain Denny’s-can provide excellent social engagement if you do it right. Beware, because you must be careful not to overtake your brand. Comics are also easy to recognize. If humour is not part of your brand’s voice, comic-style fonts and formats will bring a more relaxed atmosphere and make it easier to explain complex products or themes.

7. Present information in the tool

Making content interactive is another way to interact with potential customers while demonstrating the value of your product or service. This runs a variety of tools to help readers find out which streaming services they want a bandwidth speed test calculator.

There are two benefits here: you can get a lot of traffic on the main tool page itself, and you can also include smaller widget versions of the tool on other pages to inspire readers to act. Clickable graphics linked to your tool can also attract the attention of readers who are browsing other articles or blogs.

8. Make a test or checklist

As a marketer, your job is to convert potential customers into sales. Use visual quizzes or checklists to help potential customers figure out what they already have, what services they need, and how your product takes them to the next step.

You can also use interactive graphics to collect email addresses and create custom ad targets. For example, if someone takes a home safety test, they may be interested in follow-up information on how to fill in the gaps to ensure the safety of the family. You can then provide that information and ultimately lead them to sell products to meet that demand.

9. Charts & Graphs

Charts and graphs are a quick and easy way to visualize information. They make complex information very easy to understand and share regularly, because it saves others the work of creating graphics to explain original concepts or statistical data. Just make sure you don’t sacrifice clarity for style. If your readers are pressed for time, clear and direct diagrams are usually the best approach.

10. Screenshots

If using screenshots in your content sounds easy, it’s because it is. Include screenshots to show customer recommendations, create step-by-step tutorials, or introduce new features in your product. If you are talking about content that people can customize (such as a toolbar), screenshots will provide clear context and make your point easier to understand.

11. Flowchart

A lot of online content involves complex and sometimes confusing processes. In these cases, try to simplify the concept using flowcharts. Breaking down an idea will give your readers an insight into the larger picture-and where they fit into it. Don’t be intimidated by building a flowchart yourself. There are many tools to help you create clear custom charts and put your ideas into practice from start to finish.

Key takeaway

To keep up with other brands, you must incorporate visual design into your marketing strategy. The key is to do this purposefully so that your content stands out from other content. If you, do it well, we believe you will see great rewards for your efforts.

3. Try the Shapeshifting logo

When you think of a company logo, you usually don’t think of a change. The logo is the anchor of the brand-the logo is identifiable in any changes that may occur to your business. Remember when Slack changed its logo and Twitter was upset?

This might make you think it’s best not to use a logo, but Slack is ahead of the game. Changing the logo can keep your brand fresh and invigorating, and more and more companies are creating multiple versions of their logos instead of traditional versions.

Different logos can be used for various applications: one for your website, one for your application, one for your social media, and even for different customer groups (children, adults, singles, and family):

In short, you can change the logo as needed. Technically, you can have as many logos as you can, but I recommend using three to four logos for best results.

4. Get a sense of the future with abstract shapes

If you don’t like retro, why not be futuristic with abstract and geometric shapes? Abstract shapes, grids, and straight lines have very modern meanings, and each of them can give your brand a new look. Pair your shapes and lines with a color scheme that represents your brand:

5. Try to mix old and new with pixel art

So maybe antiques and the future are not your business. Fortunately, these options are endless. Pixel art is a brand trend that has both retro charm and future modernity. Pixel art is regarded as exciting and retro and has always been a popular brand trend. Pixel art is also called 8-bit art, and it is about using monochromatic squares (i.e., pixels) to create an image that represents your brand. In addition, you can also write the brand name in pixels to make the logo a work of art:

6. Simplicity is fascinating

For some brands, simplicity is fascinating. For others, the best details are the best. Highly detailed brand logos are usually inspired by Art Deco and Baroque styles, and can be executed with hand-drawn illustrations, which include techniques to make images more in-depth and dramatic. This poster of “The Merry Widow” is a good example:

Prosperity, embellishments, feathers, leaves, flowers, eyelashes and hair and other small details, parallel lines, patterns and interlocking jitters, crosshatch lines and shadows can all make your brand stand out:

7. Bold

A bold brand is an unforgettable brand, so don’t be afraid to take risks with your image. This can be performed by using dramatic photos, dramatic drawings or artwork using bold colors, lines and patterns. These two very easily recognizable logos (MTV and Rolling Stones) are not afraid to be bold:

8. Use ghost letters

Ghost letters or printed fonts, in which the outline of the letter has a transparent interior, so that the viewer can see the background image from outside the letter, which is an increasingly popular trend. For companies with unique names and brand images, ghost letters can be a great brand trend:

9. Neo-minimalism

The minimalist appearance has a certain degree of simplicity, which can make the brand logo more memorable. Neo-minimalism is minimalism and can be reduced even further: there are fewer details, more room for negatives, and images and text are rarely used. This view represents a concise, fascinating and messy atmosphere, such as the Avalancha logo:

10. Stand out with 3D

In this age of modern technology, 3D does not go wrong, because 3D can be performed in many ways. You can animate the 3D logo and brand art to make it more exciting, you can draw 3D images and logos by hand to get a modern and retro feel, you can create visual effects around 3D images, and can also bring Your “realism” is attributed to your brand.

Using 3D images is a great way to stand out, because it is an eye-catching art form that attracts the audience and exudes a dramatic atmosphere:

11. Use negative space

Last year, when it comes to logos, the use of negative space seems to have become more and more popular among brands. From the digital introduction:

“In art and design, negative space is the background space around and between the subject of the image. For example, in a picture of palm trees against the sky, the shape of the tree is the positive space. The sky and the space between branches and leaves are negative space.”

Spartan Gold Club demonstrates the use of negative film space in the logo:

12. Create eye-catching labels

Without the # tag, you really cannot start a business in 2021. Hashtags are a great brand strategy because they make all your company posts easy to use and only need a striking phrase or idea to navigate. Now, various brands are using hashtags to keep content connected even when it is spread on the Internet, such as the example as below:

13. Put your brand on fun freebies

Everyone likes free things, and this is a great way to make your brand stand out. If you have free gifts and have a logo on the gifts to give to loyal or potential customers, please make full use of it. Free stuff can be anything, from hats and T-shirts to keychains and lanyards, but the more unique and related to your brand, the better-such as these creative mint jars with AAA phone numbers:

14. Create a storytelling seal

Part of selling the brand is the marketing brand story. By reading more, studying how competitors tell stories, studying old storytelling trends in the world of media and marketing, and focusing only on ads and other ads to tell a compelling story, spend some time learning to become a better storyteller People time.

This Budweiser commercial is a great example of storytelling using only images and songs:

This big beer brand “Guinness” is a great example of storytelling using only images and gif:

These storytelling skills can also help you.

15. Show off a little personality!

Although social media is designed to connect people across the globe, it can also make it easy to hide behind a company’s mask. But you must be real and show who you really are to win the trust and relationship between the company and the customer. Therefore, building a unique voice like a real person can bring about huge changes.

Get some tips from Netflix’s Instagram page:

And Twitter page:

16. Cooperate with unknown influencers

The popularity is good, but you may want to branch off the Instagram model and have thousands of followers for your specific brand. The most influential people are the ones who fit your brand. If you sell ice cream, you may not want people with fitness influence to work with you because it can send mixed messages. Look for eccentric, a little offbeat influencer who have unique fans who are more suitable for your brand.

Final thoughts

Express a tone through brand image and voice to reflect your identity as a company and the person behind the company, thus helping you stand out from the many brands that only embellish it Is and cross its T.

Follow these 16 brand trends to increase your business visibility in 2021 and beyond. Use them all or choose some that suit you and observe your business growth!

10 tips for building brand awareness in 2021

Navigating business processes under the new normal can pose many challenges for start-ups aiming to gain more brand awareness. The visibility factor of physical stores, billboards and posters is no longer the most effective marketing tool to gain exposure.

In the past, marketing campaigns used multiple platforms to gain brand awareness. In today’s climate, it is now almost entirely dependent on online platforms. This means that it is now more important than ever to adopt more effective customer engagement strategies to attract your target market-they may not have heard of you.

But don’t worry, we have already provided you with protection. In this article, we explored 10 ways to help your brand gain traction in the new normal and continue to thrive in the consumer business.

How to build brand awareness under the new normal?

1. Put customer user experience as the top priority

Fundamentally, customer user experience should be your top priority. This is how a potential visitor decides whether your brand is worthy of participation and further inspection. Customer retention depends largely on the limited time and experience of browsing your brand’s social media accounts or website.

Consider your current customer experience strategies and how to improve them, especially online. Invest in website performance tools to keep website loading speeds low, purchase powerful e-commerce software to ensure fast and seamless transactions, and reliable email marketing services to ensure that your emails enter your customers’ inboxes correctly.

Don’t ignore customer support either, we should respond to queries and complaints in a timely manner and develop a plan to deal with negative brand experiences. By prioritizing a better customer experience across all major touch points, customers will be more engaged, spread the message, and bring more visibility to your brand.

2. Let your personality shine

Most of the time, the new brands that stand out are highly personalized brands. Regardless of whether your product or service is in a highly competitive industry-adding something that makes your business “you” makes it easy for customers to see it from others.

Think about the personality of your brand and stick to it. It should include more than just your logo and beautiful design; this is what makes you unique and valuable to customers.

Your personality will resonate with customers-so even if you sell exactly the same products as another brand, your personality will attract customers to use your brand more than anyone else.

3. Publish comprehensive expert posts on your website

If your brand has not yet reached its credibility, try posting expert reviews on your website. A review can increase the readership and brand exposure that already has a following.

It creates a win-win situation for your brand and related experts. From your perspective, your brand has gained a new audience to view posts, increase credibility and sales. For experts: free publicity and exposure.

If done correctly, an effective summary can open many opportunities for both parties. The new normal should not be separated from this strategy, because collaboration is done entirely online and with people with industry expertise.

4. Submit guest posts

A subtle and effective way to attract visitors and promote your brand is through visitor posts on reputable websites.

There are many benefits to submitting guest posts to your brand’s website. It improves search engine results, website traffic and backlink building. Your brand can attract new visitors by leveraging the content of guests with similar market segments.

The important thing to note about guest posts is that providing a valuable source of information is the key to keeping your audience interested in your brand. It does not necessarily focus on your product or service; after all, no one likes a sales position.

Be wary of practices that allow your guest blog referrals to be rejected to ensure you get published. Soon, you will soon appear in front of your target audience through these larger sites.

5. Focus on building relationships, not sales

In the long run, building and maintaining customer relationships is more beneficial than focusing on increasing the number of sales. Customer engagement marketing is a strategy that helps customers build closer ties with your brand. By understanding your customers, your brand can have a reputation for predicting customer needs.

Unlike many marketing techniques that used to distribute information to a large audience, this form of participation is highly personalized. Contact individual customers by connecting various platforms in real time. Therefore, make potential and existing customers satisfied and loyal to your brand.

With the emergence of social media in the new normal, you can benefit from effective customer marketing strategies to popularize your brand name.

6. Start a contest on social media

Everyone likes free stuff——this makes social media contests a great way for your brand to increase its online influence.

There are many effective ways to optimize the game and let you stand in front of your target audience. First, make sure your giveaway is valuable to your audience and relevant to your niche. If you have your own products that you can give away, this is a great way to ensure that giveaway participants are already interested in your brand.

Then make sure to participate in the guide, such as following, liking, or commenting on related posts. Other options to make the contest more attractive include online voting, tagging friends, and sharing your posts.

7. Collaborate with influencers

In the past few years, influencer marketing has been one of the fastest growing strategies for brands to gain followers. The growth rate of social media influencers increases the chances of working with your brand. Today, 77% of marketers use influencer marketing to increase engagement, and as a result, 70% of millennials are affected to inspect and purchase products.

There are some best practices to be aware of when working with influential people. Start by working only with influencers who have a similar niche audience for your brand, agree on the type of content to publish, and then monitor the success of the campaign.

8. Invest in native advertising

Promoting your brand and business may mean considering a mix of strategies and platforms to truly capture the attention and interest of your audience. An effective strategy is to use native ads: ads adopt the form and function of the page on which they appear.

For example, native ads can link to blog posts in popular lifestyle publications. Blog content is not a complete promotion or publicity, but a more subtly and natural reference to the product or brand, rather than making it a central theme. On the contrary, content provides relevant and interesting (and valuable) information for the target audience to attract their attention and interest.

Another example: An insurance company specializing in workplace insurance published an article on their blog on how to increase employee retention. Then, the insurance company runs a local advertising campaign to promote the article. Potential customers (i.e., human resource managers or CEOs) who are trying to solve this pain point click to read the article and log on to the insurance company’s blog. The links and CTA on the blog page tempted them to learn more about the company’s insurance products and start their journey to discover the brand.

This is the charm of native advertising. This is an advertisement, but it will not disrupt the user’s online experience in an annoying and intrusive way like banner ads or pop-up windows.

9. Create a joint marketing campaign

Joint marketing activities refer to the cooperation of two or more brands to launch shared products or services. Both parties involved can benefit from this strategy.

Broaden your target market by sharing expertise with similar companies or brands that have different products but are suitable for cooperation. By promoting and publishing relevant content, you can easily share work and effort to increase visibility, so that more customers can double the possibility of knowing your brand.

You can use many different activities in joint marketing, such as joint webinars and live videos, online and offline shared postings, and even guest blogs, as we mentioned earlier. In this way, existing customers from both brands can browse the campaign and learn more about partner brands.

10. Be consistent

After using all the best strategies for building awareness for your brand, the last thing to remember is to be consistent in your online advertising campaigns. Especially when you start to get the attention of your customers, consistency is really the key.

As with most deep-rooted relationships, it takes time to build trust and connection with the audience. By maintaining consistency in quotations, content distribution, services, and other business processes, you can increase your credibility and value in the eyes of ideal buyers.

Create an editorial calendar for your online posts and promotions, and carefully monitor the performance of each campaign. Adjust which posts and activities work best, pay attention to customer feedback and comments, and soon you can become one of the superstar brands with the new normal social media space.

Key points

Just because we are in a new business environment surrounded by uncharted territory does not mean that you still cannot increase your brand awareness on a limited set of platforms. Introduce some of these strategies into your brand’s business strategy to make your brand appear in front of your audience and begin to see more customers influx.