Communicate your brand with authenticity
There is a lack of trust in brands today. Why? Manipulative marketing and sales tactics have created distrust among consumers – especially the younger generations. These "old school" tactics have caused the average consumer to think twice before opting in or spending their hard-earned cash. It's understandable. How do modern marketers battle the past and build trust with their target customers?
What does it mean to have an authentic brand?
The word "authentic" appears to often be abused and misused these days. What does it truly mean to be authentic as a business or brand?
The definition of authentic is, “representing one’s true nature or beliefs; true to oneself and therefore worthy of belief.” This means your brand is trustworthy and that your entire team believes in and understands the purpose of your business.
When communicating your authenticity, look to your "why." A business's brand values are guided by your why.
Why have you built this business?
What is the heart and soul of your company based on?
Are you only in business for the money? Is there a higher purpose?
What is the motivation behind the existence of this business?
For Beckmann Collaborative, we run this business to support our families and communities. Yes, we want to earn money for our hard work. Our brand values express who we are as a team and the kinds of partners we want to work with. Those values include Freedom, Wisdom, Integrity, and Collaboration.
3 Ways to Communicate Your Brand Values with Authenticity
Once you clearly define brand values for yourself and your team, it is much easier to communicate in a real, authentic way. There are many ways to express your business' brand values in an authentic way. Customers should understand what your products and services stand for, not just what they do or provide. This is how you build real trust with those customers.
1. In-Person Events
The next time you attend a conference or networking event, prepare yourself by setting one simple goal - connection. More specifically, your goal is to establish a connection with 1-5 people who can potentially get value from your business and whom you can provide value to in exchange.
To attract the right prospective customers, partners or supporters, consider the way you talk about your brand. Are you pushing it like a used car salesman? Or perhaps you are being timid and not giving your business enough credit for your achievements. Authentic communication is a two-way process where the key to success is in listening to the other person. Once you understand and identify with the person, then your conversation is molded to his or her needs / interests.
And it is okay if you meet a kind person who will get no value from your business. Build a connection anyway. He or she may be in a new role two years from now or have different needs. Showing up with a generous spirit will make a difference.
2. Personalized Communications
Email marketing is still an effective medium to reach customers and prospects. However, delivering the same generic message to everyone is where many businesses fail. This realization led the Beckmann Collaborative team to be excited about the possibilities of using a CRM and automation software to improve our own personalized communications such as email marketing.
Customers are people, not numbers or datasets. It's important to treat them as such. Whatever you can do to create personalized communications (email, chat, phone, etc.) will make a huge difference in how your brand is perceived by customers. You don't want to be the company or organization that is known for sending spamy, generic messaging that adds zero value. That kind of content probably does not align with your brand values.
- Find a CRM, Email platform, or Marketing Automation software that allows you to use merge fields in your messaging. This means you can insert the information you have gathered about a prospect or customer, such as first name or birth date, into your messages. The more information you gather (also the quality), the better you can segment your messaging and customize it.
- Do a good job of learning about customers /clients by asking the right questions and documenting it on the software platform you choose to use. If you're not sure what questions to ask or how to gather that information, then ask for support.
3. Goodwill Messaging
This is when you show your target audience that there is more to your business than selling. Sending a message for the sake of doing the right thing can show up in many different ways:
- Social Good Donation. Is there a non-profit organization that your business contributes to in some way? There is no reason to keep that a secret. Share with your audience why you like the organization and invite them to get involved.
- Company Culture. Do you go above and beyond to support your team? That is a part of your brand values, so it's logical to share that in your public-facing content. This approach will help you to recruit new employees in the future as well as develop a connection with your customers in another way.
- Just Because. Have you ever called up a friend or family member with no agenda other than checking in? You simply wanted to tell that person you care. Why not treat customers similarly (without getting too personal or weird)? We have sent out emails such as a Random Acts of Kindness Day email to our clients, news articles that relate to them, birthday wishes, etc. Why? Because we like them enough to care, and we want to show it.
4. Consistency
While content is king, the king is just a figure head without his queen - consistency. As you are writing blog posts, social posts, emails, website copy, or other content, your brand voice should be consistent. Whatever voice, style, and wording that reflects your brand should always be used.
This becomes more of a challenge once your business begins growing and you must educate staff about the brand. As you grow, be sure to integrate brand values, mission, and company culture into your onboarding process. You will avoid confusion among the team and your community, and you will create continuity in your brand communications.
