Why should I trust you?

In this digital age, it’s sometimes impossible to verify the validity of information; gaining consumer trust is not easy and can be exceedingly difficult to achieve for your brand. Marketing Associate Jermaine Reyes provides us with some of his strategies to gain your target market’s confidence.

As a small to medium size business owner, you may have aspirations of building a brand that people around the world will know, love and ultimately buy. And everywhere you turn there is someone giving you advice on how to build that killer brand. But let’s pause for a moment. Before you make any big investments like changing your logo, creating a tagline and developing all of the visual elements that make up a brand, ask yourself why anyone should trust your company in the first place. A brand will fail to achieve its goals and long-term sustainability if it does not gain the trust of potential customers and prospects.

Gaining trust today isn’t easy and can be difficult to achieve. Nonetheless, by following a few simple rules when preparing your marketing strategy, trust can be gained, with a solid brand that produces strong customer loyalty.

Here are a few tips to get you started!

Deliver on your brand promise

A brand is a promise, so make sure you know what your brand is promising to your customers and always deliver on that promise. It’s that simple. By not delivering on that promise you will likely tarnish your company’s credibility. For example, if your company’s promise is personalized customer service, and every time a customer calls they get placed into voicemail, then you have destroyed that promise and that customer no longer will believe you.

Be authentic and real

People can sense a fraud a mile away, so be genuine with your audience. Identify what you want your company to stand for and then make it relevant to your audience. No one will believe in a company that changes their value proposition every three months. People take comfort in consistency and certainty in brands they choose. It takes restraint to avoid jumping to the latest fad. What you’re really after is the long term pay off of brand recognition!

Put the focus on customer needs

Focus less on what you want and more on what the customer is looking for. Too many businesses focus on what they think the customer needs to know, instead of listening for what the customer wants to hear. Take the time to invest in researching what your customers want and need from your brand, and learn as much as you can about their buying behavior.

Share a voice they trust - your customer

People love to share experiences, and the same goes for satisfied customers. You can be sure that a happy customer will talk about your company. This is ultimately the most effective marketing tool. In such a crowded marketplace, it’s become really tough to break through the clutter. By having a group of customers who are your brand ambassadors, you can easily break through with an authentic voice that sounds different—and adds a human element to your brand. Tactics include testimonials, case studies, customer events where you invite prospects, referral programs, blogs, and the list goes on!

Take a look at some of Mezzanine’s client testimonials to see the impact these can have for your business.

Remember - People buy brands they trust and people follow brands they believe in. What brands do you believe in?

To learn more about strategic marketing planning, download the executive guide featuring practical tips for success from 65 CMOs.