Have you ever Googled a company before making a purchase? Or scrolled through social media reviews to gauge how other customers have fared? As a business owner, you can also expect your customers to do the same.
All the information someone can find about your business builds up to your brand perception. As you can imagine, how you’re perceived online makes a big difference in the success of your marketing efforts.
Let’s get into exactly what brand perception is and how to monitor it.
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What is brand perception?
Brand perception goes beyond just a logo and a tagline. It encompasses everything from customer experience and product quality to brand values and social responsibility.
Here are just a few inputs that make up the perception people have about your brand:
- Website: This includes the appearance, content, and user experience for all of your web pages.
- Branding: Your logo, mission statement, brand colors, and tag lines are part of your branding.
- Social media presence: What you post, where you post, and how you engage with followers fall into the social media presence bucket.
- Customer experience: This includes how customers feel about your products and service and how they share their experience online and in person.
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Why should you measure brand perception?
Think of brand perception as your reputation in the schoolyard. If you’re known for being reliable, trustworthy, and cool, classmates are more likely to befriend you.
In the business world, a good reputation results in more people becoming your loyal customers. But if rumors paint a different picture, you might struggle to gain trust. That’s why it is important to understand and measure brand perception.
A strong brand perception builds trust and loyalty, ultimately driving sales. It’s the invisible force shaping customer decisions and propelling business success.
When you track and quantify your brand’s perception, you can take action to shape it. Say you learn that people feel like your services are overpriced. Are they actually higher than your competitors? If not, you can launch some messaging to address that misperception.
🧠 Free guide: 26 Ways to Use Psychology in Marketing
How to measure brand perception
So, how do you gauge your brand perception? The good news is there’s a toolbox full of tactics at your disposal.
1. Surveys and questionnaires
The best way to find out what your customers think about your brand is to ask them! Here are three different ways you can gather customer feedback directly:
- Customer satisfaction surveys: Use tools like Google Forms and SurveyMonkey to create custom surveys to assess customer satisfaction with your products, services, and overall brand experience.
- Brand awareness surveys: Design surveys that measure how well your target audience recognizes your brand name and logo.
- Brand attribute research: Ask customers to rate your brand on key dimensions like quality, reliability, and customer service.
Here’s a great example. Alisha Arnold helps Airbnb hosts improve their rankings and get more bookings. Her goal for this year is to return to one-on-one coaching sessions. So, she set up a survey her followers can participate in to weigh in–and win prizes:
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2. Social media listening
Another way of determining how your brand is received in the market is by listening to those talking about it on social media.
Here’s how you can do that:
- Sentiment analysis: Tools like Brand24 and Mention offer sentiment analysis features. These tools scan social media posts and comments for mentions of your brand and then categorize them as positive, negative, or neutral.
- Hashtag monitoring: Both Brand24 and Mention also allow you to track hashtags related to your brand and industry. This helps you understand how people talk about you and identify emerging trends.
- Engagement metrics: 51% of the most memorable brands are those that engage with their customers on social media. Analyze native social media analytics to gauge engagement around your brand. Look at metrics like likes, shares, comments, and replies to understand how your audience interacts with your content.
3. Online reviews and ratings
As mentioned above, potential customers will want to know how your brand treats people who do business with you. And they’ll do so by visiting the reviews and ratings you’ve received.
So, spruce up your record by doing:
- Review analysis: Claim your Google Business Profile, Yelp account, and other business listings. These platforms allow you to respond directly to reviews, both positive and negative. So, check them regularly.
- Rating systems: Analyze the average star ratings given to your products or services on platforms like Google Shopping and industry-specific review sites. These ratings offer a direct indicator of customer perception.
Here’s how one brand uses its great ratings. Smile a Lot is a Canada-based dental care business. Their official Instagram profile proudly displays high ratings and positive reviews their customers leave for them.
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4. Focus groups
Use online communities like Facebook groups or niche online forums on Reddit that are relevant to your industry. Here, you can engage in discussions and pose questions to get a feel for brand perception among your target audience.
Try searching for your business’s name in these forums. If you search for the products you sell, you may also see how your competitors are perceived.
Dear Girls is an emotional well-being organization for Black women. Besides a Discord group and an active Instagram page, the brand has recently put out a call for its members to join a focus group. That will give them a source of direct feedback from the organization’s core audience.
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5. Net Promoter Score (NPS)
Net Promoter Score, or NPS, measures customer loyalty by asking how likely they are to recommend a company’s product or service to others. It’s a great tool for incorporating customer feedback into your strategy.
Negative NPS feedback acts as a red flag, highlighting areas where brand perception needs improvement. The proactive nature of NPS surveys demonstrates your commitment to customer success and a willingness to enhance brand perception.
There are several free NPS calculators available online. Tools like SurveyMonkey’s NPS Calculator allow you to create and send NPS surveys to measure customer loyalty and their likelihood to recommend your brand.
6. In-depth interviews
Do you know who your best customers are? You know, the ones who use your product the most, have maximum lifetime value (LTV), are willing to give feedback, and have switched from a competitor brand to yours recently?
If you can identify them, involve them in:
- One-on-one conversations: Schedule video calls with a handful of loyal customers or those who haven’t engaged with your brand recently.
- Stakeholder interviews: Expand your perspective by interviewing key suppliers and partners.
Ask open-ended questions to delve into their experiences, motivations, and overall brand perception. Their insights will reveal blind spots in your brand perception and expose areas for improvement across the customer journey.
7. Search engine data
Monitor how often your brand is searched for on search engines, which is an indicator of brand recognition and interest. Use tools like Google Trends or the Google Ads Keyword Planner to monitor how often your brand name and related keywords are searched. This will indicate brand awareness and interest levels.
Identify and analyze variations of your brand name and associated keywords. Look at branded terms (product names, taglines) and non-branded terms related to your industry. This helps reveal what aspects of your brand or products are attracting the most attention.
Let’s say you work for Four Seasons HVAC, a Chicago-based HVAC contractor that offers heating, air conditioning, plumbing, and electrical services. Keywords like “HVAC service” and “air conditioner repair” are as relevant to them as branded key phrases like ”four seasons heating and cooling.” By keeping an eye on the search volume of their branded keyword, they can see if they are gaining or losing popularity. They can also track the People Also Ask section on Google to see what kind of questions people are asking about them.
You can also set up Google Alerts for your business or industry topics. You’ll get emails straight from Google whenever relevant content pops up on the search engine.
8. Local events
Participating in local events is a powerful way to engage directly with the community and gain valuable insights into brand perception. Select local events that align with your brand values and target audience. This could include community fairs, trade shows, sports events, or local festivals. Sponsoring such events is also a good idea.
Once you have chosen events to participate in, use your social media, website, and local advertising to promote them. Monitor the engagement these announcements receive to gauge initial interest and sentiment.
At the event, use surveys or quick polls at your booth to collect immediate feedback. Offer a small incentive for completing these surveys, like a discount or free sample of your products. Pay attention to how attendees react to your products or marketing materials. Direct interactions with the audience will provide qualitative insights that are as valuable as structured survey responses.
After the event, analyze the surveys and feedback forms that you gathered. Look for patterns or recurring themes that indicate general sentiment towards your brand.
How to improve brand perception
To enhance your brand perception, start by listening closely to your customers. Use surveys and social media monitoring to gather their honest feedback. Address the negative reviews and comments quickly and constructively. This will show that you value customer input and are committed to improvement.
Next, amplify the positive. Share customer success stories and positive reviews on your platforms. Engage actively with your audience on social media, respond to queries, and join conversations. This demonstrates your brand’s commitment to customer satisfaction and its active presence in the community. Participate in local events to achieve the same results.
Finally, measure the impact of your efforts by tracking changes in customer satisfaction and brand loyalty over time. Adjust your strategies based on what the data tells you, and make sure your brand consistently aligns with customer expectations and industry standards.
Boost your brand perception
Brand perception may feel like a secondary metric to measure your business’ success. But it underpins every other tactic you use to find and sway new customers. A great brand perception can make your ads more efficient, your social media marketing more energetic, and your lead-generation efforts more effective. So, take a little time to monitor your reputation. It’ll pay back handsomely.
