Move With Speed, See Faster Results
The higher your credibility, the easier closing the deal becomes. Yet, there are so many avenues to choose when growing the brand image, yet not all are created equal. You can spend months and even years trying to get people to recognize your authority, with little to no results.
So, where should you spend your time and effort? There are three avenues we will choose, but the main answer is this. Spend your efforts in places that are the most public with high exposure.
While things like interviews may be helpful, if they are so a select audience of 10 or less listeners/viewers per interview, it will do little to the expansion of brand image. I have seen businesses try to expand, yet go on podcasts where there are clearly no listeners. They have done press releases, with no email list to show the release to.
Do not fall into these paid traps. Here are some little to no cost items you can implement right away.
Get Client Reviews On All Platforms
When you meet someone new, they will Google you (or a variation of it. Yahoo, Bing, ect). What will the search results show? Are there any reviews on there?
See, most people brag about working with clients, yet one search result shows that no one is speaking about them. Some of the best ones you should work on getting, depending on your industry are:
Facebook
Yelp
UpCity
BBB - Better Business Bureau
Your Website - Obvious but some of you do not have any
YouTube - Does not have to be on your channel but get some reviews on YouTube
Thus, the more people you meet and the more that you become searchable, they will be drowning in reviews of what it is like to work with you.
Become An Authority On Your Subject
Do you write blogs, give presentations, or get a lot of likes and engagement on one platform for speaking on a subject? When you become known for something, it makes it easier to justify your brand being the brand for that subject.
Here is the great part of this all. The more you speak on the subject, the more you become associated with it. There is a downfall with this, before we continue.
Let's put an example to explain the downfall. You are a doctor and start speaking on YouTube about nutrition. If you are not known for nutrition and only have 10% knowledge on nutrition, eventually the truth will come out and you will either need to learn faster or you will be dismissed as a joke.
Just because you speak on something, does not mean you are going to be respected for it. Want more respect? (Get more reviews).
Go Transparent
Businesses try to hide the brand's real issues when they arise. Yet, when something goes
wrong, we can either choose to hid or admit to it and make it better. Burger King on many occasions has made issues with their social media marketing tactics and came out to say "We were wrong, it should not have been put out and we are sorry".
They never got cancelled.
Humanity is becoming a huge part of all brands, and thus we need to strive to show that human side to our brands. The more you hide behind a business name, the more inhuman you will seem and the less credible we will feel about you.
Show your employees from time to time, add their pictures to the signatures of their emails. Let the potential client know what Samantha, the rep responding to the email, looks like.
What People See, People Believe
As a rule of thumb, try to remember this. people forget what they hear, but they remember what they see. Brand Image is just that. Visual. The more you can grow a visual stimulus of your credibility, the more it will be believed.
Once you say something, it needs to be backed up by something else. Feelings and emotions will only carry you so far.
Which of these three is your business lacking in the most? Which one would give you the best return on your time?
Leave any questions or comments below in the comment section.
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