Your customers' instinctive reaction to your brand is strong. It can make or break a sale, create years of loyalty or be the reason they will recommend your brand to anyone they know. And with customers spending 20-40% more on brands they've interacted with on social media, your social channels are now the control center of your brand's value. It's a tough game. You want to make sure you're posting quality content. And you want to make sure that that quality content finds the right audience... You want them to feel it too. But it's totally doable. By understanding the mechanics behind brand equity - those elements that turn one-time customers into your biggest fans - you can fully harness the power of your brand equity control center to create content that will make customers love you every time. Here's what you need to know:

What is the value of branding? In case you missed our full guide to marketing, brand equity is about how consumers perceive your brand. This "gut reaction" is influenced by the experiences consumers have with your brand and is what can set you apart from your competitors. If you're wondering what factors influence brand equity, you'll want to hear what Kevin Lane Keller (Professor of Marketing at Dartmouth College) has to say. In his book, Strategic Brand Management, Keller reveals that creating brand equity is about shaping how you shape how others feel about your offering. Keller breaks brand equity into four main categories:

ProfileWho are you? This is about how well users recognise your brand and understand what you stand for as a business.

Source:What are you? This refers to how well your offering serves the needs of your audience and how well your content (such as images and videos) captures the essence of your brand.

Judgements: what do they say about you? This is about how people respond to your brand and how they feel about you, based on the perceived quality and credibility of your business.

Echo: what do they say about you and me? This is about how connected the audience feels to your brand, represented by behaviors such as repeat purchases, a strong loyal community and active engagement with the brand on social media.

How do customer interactions affect their feelings towards your brand?

If users have a good experience with your brand (such as easily navigating an easy-to-use website or seeing useful and relevant social media posts), this will create positive brand equity. However, if users have a bad experience with your brand (such as a slow website, difficult checkout process, or poor customer service on social media), this will negatively impact their view of your brand. The more positive interactions your customers have with your brand, the more likely they are to feel connected and loyal to you. Conversely, after a series of bad interactions, your customers are likely to feel frustration and even resentment towards your brand.

What are the benefits of brand equity?

Charge a higher price for products and services (as the public perceives your brand as higher quality than your competitors) You boost repeat business and ensure that your customers return and prefer your brand Convert your customers into brand advocates who will extend your brand reach and encourage others to shop with you Ultimately, brand equity can have a significant impact on your financial performance. With a stronger connection to your business and a sense of loyalty to your brand, customers are more likely to spend with you and even encourage their network of friends and family to do the same.

What is the relationship between social media and brand equity?

Social media has a huge impact on your brand equity - but don't just take our word for it. 54% of users use social media to research their next purchase 64% of customers would rather message a brand on social media than call them for customer support 79% of consumers expect brands to respond within 24 hours to their social media messages 60% of people cite poor customer service as a red flag when making a purchase online So here's another way to think about it - when comparing your brand to another, social media has over 50% influence on your customer's purchase decision. And a great way to make the most of your social channels to deliver brand value is with a strong visual marketing strategy.

How to boost brand equity through social media marketing

Did you know that using a distinctive colour can increase your brand awareness by 80%? And since it takes users just 0.05 seconds to form an opinion about your brand online, creating an eye-catching and consistent visual identity is what will set your content apart from your competitors on social media. One of the best ways to create a compelling visual identity is by designing brand guidelines. This document outlines exactly how your brand should be represented in all marketing materials, including fonts, colors, logo placement and even suggested images. To ensure that your brand identity is consistent across all social media channels, the best place to start is with an audit of your existing platforms. Check that your brand is being applied correctly on each platform and that your content accurately reflects your desired brand identity:

• Your logo is used as your profile picture on all social media channels.
• You have designed branded cover images that make use of your brand colours and fonts
• Your social media posts use the same colours, fonts, images and brand logo to create meaningful brand awareness across all platforms.
• With consistent branding, your audience will be more likely to recognize and remember your brand on social media and will be more likely to engage with your content when it appears in their feed.

Use social media to gather real-time feedback from your audience

Social media offers a number of important opportunities to collect real-time feedback from your target audience. But are you leveraging these tools to your brand's advantage? If you want to improve your brand's user experience, it's important to understand how your followers really feel about your brand's content.

Fortunately, every social media platform has a range of interactive tools to get instant feedback from your followers:

• Take a poll on Instagram Stories to see what style of content people prefer to see from your brand.
• Use the Instagram Stories "Questions" sticker to ask for feedback on topics you'd like to cover in your upcoming posts.
• Add a call to action in the captions of your posts that asks users to respond to your post using a specific emoji or reaction.

Start with these and enhance your brand equity, ensure your social media presence is consistent, tailored to your audience and allows opportunities for two-way conversations. Treat your social media channels as an extension of your customer service experience and you'll soon be able to proactively reach new audiences, respond to queries in a timely manner and ensure users have a positive experience with your brand from day one.

Nikos Karakousis

Junior Marketing Assistant