How to Boost Your Brand’s Credibility

Credibility is kind of nebulous, isn’t it?  You hope that by starting a business and putting your products out there that you’ll eventually be able to prove yourself to your customers. In reality, credibility is hard to come by. It takes a lot of work, and sometimes you have to pay a lot of money. If you’re determined to boost your business profile, then here are some steps you need to follow.

Analyze Your Brand

Before you can do anything, you must know yourself. What’s your company’s purpose? Your mission? Why do you want to do what you do and sell what you sell? If you don’t know, other than to make money, then you haven’t spent enough time building a brand.

Your brand helps you develop your message—the message that your buyers will see and hear. If it doesn’t jive, then you lose credibility. Without a lot of hard work, you may never see it again.

Tune Your Voice

Are you saying the right things to reach your target buyers? Consumers are super savvy. They’ll turn away from a voice that’s not quite genuine. If your voice doesn’t match your brand, then you have some serious tuning to do.

Analyze those buyers and make sure you’re actually reaching out to the right people. Sure, you want to look hip and trendy, but if your buyers aren’t concerned with that, then you’ll have wasted time and sent them running in the other direction. Or, maybe your voice is a little too stuffy for the millennial crowd you’re trying to reach. It’s all in the tone.

Update Your Website

It doesn’t matter who you’re trying to reach or what you’re trying to sell; if your website hadn’t been updated in over three years, you’re way behind the times. There is a good chance your load times are too slow to keep your buyers on the page long enough to make your case.

Also, if your site isn’t easy to read on every single mobile device out there, you’re losing credibility. Fortunately, this is one thing you can fix. Work with a website developer as soon as possible to update your site’s appearance and function. Once you announce to the world that your website has been overhauled, your credibility will skyrocket.

Monitor Your Social Media

No one likes a one-sided conversation. If you don’t monitor your social media platforms and respond to comments, questions, and complaints, you’re forcing your customers to talk to themselves.

Take a few moments each day to sift through the mentions on your Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram feeds. If you work with other platforms, include those in your engagement time, too. Start with the complaints and questions immediately, so your buyers know you’re not running from problems. If you have time to banter with your brand’s fans, you’ll only further elevate your status.

Acknowledge Your Reviews

Nothing stings more than a bad review, but you have to hold your emotions in check. If there is a legitimate claim in your bad feedback, address it immediately, with all the professionalism you can muster. Not only are you likely to keep that customer, but you’ll also impress anyone who happens to be looking on.

If you discover flames and trolls, don’t react—unless you want to laugh. It’s a fact of business that the bigger you get, the more haters you’ll draw out of the woodwork. Remember that savvy shoppers will see these trolls for what they are. They’ll appreciate your ability to keep calm and even see the humor in the situation.

If you’re struggling to build credibility, give us a call. We can help you jumpstart any of these steps so that you can reach new heights more quickly than you thought possible.