If you’ve set up your own business then there are some essential principles which you naturally strive for:
• To be profitable and sustainable in the long term.✨
• To have an entrepreneurial vision on which your business can be built and grow from.✨
• To have an established, positive and integral brand identity which is trusted by its consumers. ✨
Accumulating brand trust (especially as a new business) is difficult under normal circumstances, let alone in a world of Covid, wherein we have turned to the digital online landscape. Brands must now address new customer priorities. As Maura Regan at Forbes noted, our consumers now have higher standards than ever. Have a read of her article discussing the relationship between brand trust and Covid.
So, how can you build brand trust through PR? Let’s find out:
Trust is defined as the ‘firm belief in the reliability, truth, ability, or strength of someone or something’. April White, over at ‘Trust Relations’, discusses the ways in which we build trust. After all, the one thing we want in life for our businesses, and selves, is to be trusted. Truth is built through consistency, honesty, an ability to provide, and an unquestionable sense of reliability.
Start at the top
Trust needs to be established from the core of your business. If it’s a part of your company culture, alongside your own personal ethics, then your company will embody trust. It’s often said, that you attract the energy that you give off. Henceforth, if you create a trusted brand image, then you will attract likeminded employees and customers. When your company expands, your trusted image will grow with it.
With social media having an ever-growing presence, it’s more important than ever to secure yourself a trusted reputation. People value opinion and authenticity, therefore it is no longer possible to rely on the media to ‘butter up’ 🧈 your brand image and ‘spin the narrative’ so to speak.
Have a read of our social media and PR tips for more information about this. 🆒
Watch your language
No, I’m not talking about swearing (❌!), but more so the use of language in your mission statement. When you notate your companies goals and objectives, make sure the language you use is confident and consistent. If you’re asked questions regarding your brand, be sure to keep your ‘business mission’ at the centre. Your mission is your ‘how’, it’s tactical and demonstrates to your employees and customers how they should act in their day to day life.
Demonstrate commitment to your cause
If you wear your passion on your sleeve then this will be portrayed through your PR campaign. If you don’t believe in what you’re doing, then your audience won’t either. In a global survey, 91% of consumers reported that they were likely to switch to a brand which supported a good cause. Cause marketing refers to the collaborative effort between for-profit and non-profit brands for mutual benefit. However, it can also relate to for-profit businesses who’s marketing programmes are based around a social or charitable cause.
By affiliating your business with a worthy cause which you are passionate about, you will demonstrate a trustworthy brand. If you have a cause which you believe in, then follow through your cause communications with authentic actions. As noted by writer, Emma Mulcahy, consumers are wise to marketing manipulation, so be genuinely aliened with your cause. Have a read of her examples of the best and worst brand purpose campaigns. ✨
Demonstrate credibility through others
As Jeff Bezos stated ‘your brand is what other people say about you when you’re not in the room’. Our PR campaigns have turned to digital culture, wherein we rely on the guidance of influencers and our peers to not only promote our brand, but scrutinise it. As consumers, we turn to others to establish who we should trust in the business world. Online relationships must therefore be as genuine as those in-person.
When establishing your creditability, whether it’s with your B2B or B2C communities, you should be:
🔸 Sensitive
🔸 Honest
🔸 Objective
🔸 Knowledgeable
Have a read these handy credibility tips.
How can we maintain our established trust?
One thing every brand must be aware of is crisis communication. Crisis communication protects your business against any crisis that may occur by providing the necessary technologies, systems and protocols which will allow your business to recover effectively. By having a crisis plan in place, it will allow you to feel prepared for potential scenarios, as well as demonstrate to your audience that you have a sustainable business. 👍
Remember to keep your eyes open to challenges and have a plan of action, have a read of my post discussing crisis communication for all of the details. 🆒
Some last minute tips ⏰
🔹 Ensure your content is valuable: 80% of your content should be of value to the consumer, not promotional content.
🔹 Engage: create a relationship with your customers, interact with them on a regular basis and reap the rewards.
🔹Keep up the consistency: not just in your brand imagery, but your language and ethics.
🔹Encourage reviews: give your customer a voice.
Find this helpful? Why not grab a coffee and continuing mooching though the GuidedPR blog ☕️✨
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About the Author:
Evie is a published writer, living and working in London. She’s a PR Assistant and Copywriter at GuidedPR. She holds a BA Hons in History from Royal Holloway and has accordingly worked within the culture sector and legal industry. You’ll usually find her scribbling down words in a coffee shop with a flat white in hand.
Find Evie on LinkedIn.
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