5 Tips for Boosting Your Credibility Through Branding
Your brand is a series of promises. Credibility can be thought of as the confidence customers have that you will fulfill your promises to them. It is something that your customers believe you are and believe you have. Credibility is a matter of perception and reputation, which your brand helps establish and create. A credible brand consistently delivers on its promises, maintains transparency, and aligns its actions with declared values. Credibility is built over time through positive experiences, reliable products and services, ethical business practices and effective communication.
Credibility is important in business for many reasons, two of the most important being money and talent. If you want to get money to start or grow your business, you must be credible and trustworthy. Regarding talent, people want to work for a business that is proven and established, with good processes and practices. Credibility is a competitive advantage. Credible businesses are trusted more and thought of first by customers who are looking for solutions to their problems. They have a track record of success and provide evidence of that. They win industry awards and earn recognition.
Branding plays a key role in increasing and enhancing credibility. Your business not only wants credibility, it wants access to opportunities that come along with that. Many of the strategies used to create a brand can also be leveraged to help a brand grow its credibility. Let’s look at 5 tips for boosting credibility through branding.
Tip 1: Showcase Your Knowledge & Expertise
One excellent way to boost credibility is by showcasing your expertise through published content. A few great examples include writing guest blogs and articles and appearing as a subject matter expert guest on podcasts and interviews. Particularly valuable for consultants and thought leaders are opportunities to provide keynote speeches and presentations at conferences and events. During these opportunities, you can lean into brand storytelling and personality to create moments that connect you to people. Your presence in spaces where expertise is expected and expressed helps establish credibility in the minds of your audience. Don’t know where to start? For about three years, we did a series of monthly livestream workshops. Not only do we have years of evidence of our branding expertise, we have tons of content that we can repurpose.
Tip 2: Show Off When Others Take Notice (Earned Media/Awards & Testimonials)
In today’s fast-moving marketplace, it’s not enough to do great work “in the shadows.” You must shine a light on how you are helping clients achieve outcomes. Having press and features, especially in well-known outlets, are great for boosting your credibility. If you don’t have any features yet, that’s ok. But if you do, be sure to display them prominently on your website home page and social media profiles. Everything counts, even a listing in your neighborhood newsletter or local paper. Let people know about the good you are doing in the world.
Tip 3: Always Include Your “Signature”
Your signature is not just the thing you put on checks and documents. In the sense we mean it, your signature is the unique thing that you do. It could be your unique, proven methodology or approach. It could even be the way that you use language or symbolism. The key idea is this: what is the unique AND valuable thing (whether tangible or intangible) someone can get from working with you that they would not get somewhere else. It’s not just a differentiator, it’s a difference. Sometimes it’s not what you do, it’s how you deliver.
For many coaches, consultants and other consultative service providers, this means their process. Highlight your process, the systematic, successful way that you design and deliver client solutions. Demonstrate how this process has been successful in different settings and situations. Don’t just tell it, show it. This creates security and confidence for the client who is considering buying from you.
Tip 4: Make Your Digital Brand Align and Shine
Your online presence is a great place to showcase your experience, expertise and skills in powerful ways. It is an extension of your brand personality and presence, reflecting how you desire to show up and be noticed.
One important factor is to make sure your social media and branded profiles are up-to-date and include accurate and appropriate supporting narrative and highlights. These spaces are prominent ways that people can find you, so they should align with what is shown on your website and feel like they’ve been written by the same person/people. It should be clear and convincing, matching up the online you and the real you they have met or will meet, while also making it easy to make the next step.
Tip 5: Let Your Success Speak For You
The point of this tip is to highlight your success in helping your clients achieve their goals through the use of Testimonials & Case Studies. Nothing is more powerful than showcasing your ability to solve problems for your clients through their own words about the outcomes you helped them achieve. The goal here is to go beyond reviews and recommendations, to really emphasize the results and returns you have helped produce for those who have trusted you.
Particularly for service providers, being able to demonstrate that you’ve helped past clients get results and that other people had a good experience with you is crucial to online credibility. Showing what you’ve done for someone else helps potential clients start to visualize the results that you could help them get, too.
If you lack credibility, here are three quick steps that you can take to instantly boost your credibility. First, perform an audit of your personal/professional brand. You can hire a specialist or have a trusted colleague review your profiles and properties to ensure there is consistency and clarity across channels. Next, remove whatever is not helping you establish or maintain credibility, including things like poorly-written copy, grammatical errors, outdated information and low-quality images and graphics. Lastly, make intentional connections with credible, well-established professionals who are connected to people in your network. Ask your peers and connections for introductions to the professionals for the purpose of growing your network and expanding your sphere of influence.
Conclusion
Credibility is important for every professional and every practice. Credibility is built on a number of things we’ve outlined in this blog, but chief among them are consistency and confidence. A credible brand is built on showing up, delivering results, and fulfilling brand promises in a consistent way. Your brand is a key component in creating and maintaining this credibility, and the result is a brand that is trusted, supported and referred.
Enthuse Creative Can Help
Enthuse Creative can help your business build its brand and grow its credibility through our brand strategy, design and management services. Please reach out to us today for a free consultation.
