Trust between brand and audience is an important building block of success. This is a quick guide to setting the foundations of becoming a trusted brand.
When it comes to trusted brands, customers are like moths to lightbulbs — they will flood in droves to what is considered a trusted brand and they won’t mind spending slightly more than average with them.
Markets these days are extremely saturated. More and more companies are finding it harder to get their brand to stand out as the most trusted in their niche. The fact that there are now so many different business formats, including online and bricks-and-mortar, make it even harder. No stone seems to be unturned — no matter where you look in both the online and offline world, there are businesses squeezed into every sector. And when you are competing against other businesses that have been around for years, that squeeze feels even tighter…
There is one thing that can help you stand out in such a saturated market — your customers’ trust. Make sure that you are the most trustworthy lightbulb in the room so that everyone buzzes around your brand.
That can be very difficult in a room that is blinded by bulbs. But building trust is still possible. Ready to make your brand one of the most trusted of the bunch? Here’s a quick how-to guide on becoming a trusted brand.
6 Steps to Becoming a Trusted Brand
1. Transparency
Even if you are just in the early stages of establishing your brand, we are sure you already have content on your website. This is good as it offers your customers some form of transparency, which is key when building a trusted brand. Blog posts can keep them up to date on your company’s recent news and the website copy will inform them a bit about the operations within the business. All of this information makes your brand and company come across as very accessible.
Communication shouldn’t start and end at your site, though; it’s also worth setting up a marketing newsletter so that you can regularly touch base with customers. It’s your big chance to be open and honest and to give the public as much information about your reliable product.
Don’t forget that it’s this reliable product that will push sales. It needs to be of the highest quality so that it can act as your trump card when you go up against your competitors. If there is anything lacking about your product, then there is little chance of your customers returning to it and they might all flock to your competition. Plus, a poor product could result in a dent in your customers’ trust as all those adverts you put out that showcased how great your product was could now be seen as slightly devious…
2. Communication
Something else that customers really appreciate is clear communication. They might have a lot of questions about your company and products, especially if you are relatively new to the market. Be prepared for quite a few inquiries. Don’t see this as a bad thing, though; in actual fact, it’s your time to shine! If you answer all questions put to you on public forums and social media, then you make the questioner feel heard and impress others who happen to spot your interaction.
But wait, what happens if some of your public communications with customers turns sour? Believe us, this can happen even to the most trusted of household names! It could be a negative comment on a Facebook post or a bad review on a comparison website. Firstly, it’s important to note that you should never be tempted to delete any of this negativity. Other customers might notice that these bad comments and reviews start to disappear and that is hardly going to fill them with trust. If anything, it could make them think that you have something to hide. It’s much better to address the negativity. Leave a reply to the customer and try to work together towards a resolution.
3. Accessibility
If your customers can’t reach you at all, they may well think that you’ve gone into hiding. And a company in hiding certainly isn’t a trustworthy one! Place your address, telephone number, and main email address in a clear and visible spot on your website. It’s even useful to roll out a live-chat feature on your website as well so that web users can shoot your customer service team a quick question whenever they have a niggling issue.
4. Trust
Your customers won’t trust your company if you don’t. So, you need to work at building trust in your team members. Without them, there’d be no way you’d have the time needed to promote your company through sales, marketing, and word-of-mouth. Make sure you are transparent with them and tell them everything that is going on within the company. If you leave them in the dark, it could damage their trust and rumors could start developing — you didn’t set out to create a rumor mill as a business!
Ensuring that your employees are happy in their roles will also pay off as well. They will really shine in their work, and this will be very noticeable to your customers who interact with them.
5. Familiarity
One thing you will notice if you take a look at big trusted brands is that the majority of them are household names. This is what you need to aim for. There’s a clear path to becoming such a familiar name — you need to design a strong brand with instantly recognizable colors and logo that customers will be able to familiarize themselves with. If you check out our post about the importance of brand logos, you’ll discover how to create one that will effectively represent your company.
Being consistent is also part of being familiar. The more consistent you are, then the more your branding will stick in everyone’s mind, making you highly recognizable. The key to achieving this is keeping your branding the same on all kinds of publications and materials and ensuring your message is always the same in company communications. Eventually, this will reinforce your place on the market.
6. Give and Take
You can’t expect the world from your customers — why not treat them from time to time? Customers will really appreciate the odd freebie or discount code every now and then. It’s a great way to reward them for their loyalty. If your business is B2B then you can give away ebooks, webinars, and cheat sheets.
Build A Stronger Relationship to Become a Trusted Brand
Trust is the basis of any strong relationship, hence the term trusted brand. But in order to improve that trust, you need to make the relationship as strong as possible. Before this starts to sound too much like a couples’ counselling session, it’s important to point out that you can no longer coast on without working on this trusting relationship with your customers anymore. The competition out there is far too strong. Before you realize it, a competitor might sweep them off their feet and you’ll be left with a declining sales and market share.
Try out the tips above so that your brand’s heart doesn’t end up broken!
Originally published at https://www.latana.com.
