Without trust, you have nothing.
You could have the most innovative product, the coolest brand visuals, the slickest website, millions of followers on social media and a message that galvanises your ideal clients into buying from you – but if they can’t trust you, you’re in shit street.
The easiest way to build brand trust is to deliver what you promise.
But even that’s not enough any more.
Buyers are more discernible now than ever before. This could be because Gen Z are ripping up the rulebook and demanding more transparency from brands. It could be that they’re making decisions based on alignment with their own personal values.
OR It could be that so many people have been burned by magical marketing messages that promise the moon on a stick but only deliver disappointment and regret (I’m not bitter about this – honest!)
PURCHASING POWER
Statistics from the 2023 Edelman Trust Barometer show that 78% of those surveyed said that their purchase isn’t the end point. They said that what they uncover after their purchase is what increases brand loyalty.
This shows that the customer journey doesn’t stop at the point of purchase.
Beyond purchasing or using a product, 79% of those surveyed said that they directly engage with brands in other ways, such as consuming brand content, participating in brand activities and connecting on social media.
This highlights how important it is for your content to appeal to existing customers, rather than focussing solely on attracting new customers.
The survey results from Edelman demonstrate the need for brands to invest in customer retention via different channels and communications tactics, but you also need to consider how to attract those buyers into your funnel and into your store (digitally or IRL) to begin with.
PR FOR THE WIN!
As a PR Specialist and Communications Consultant, I’m obviously biassed, but prioritising Public Relations is the fastest, most effective way to communicate with a mass audience. Building your own audience is crucial to building trust and loyalty with those who have already purchased from you, but it takes time, effort and budget.
It’s far easier and less time consuming to tap into someone else’s perfectly curated audience, as that relationship has been built over years, even decades. In turn, that audience has built trust and loyalty with that media outlet and their content (which has been created to either inform, educate or entertain.)
However, I’m not naive to the fact that trust in ‘the media’ is at an all-time low. I’m also conscious that using the phrase ‘The Media’ doesn’t do media outlets justice.
When people refer to ‘The Media’ they think of newspapers and news programmes, rather than podcasts, radio stations, industry magazines and glossy mags/lifestyle titles etc. As a consequence, other media outlets are either tarred with the same brush when referred to as ‘The Media’ or people consider them to be something else entirely.
DIRTY TACTICS
It’s fair to say that journalism has changed over the years and that has contributed to the decline in trust in mainstream news outlets. This is due to shady tactics that have been exposed (such as the phone-hacking scandal), to over-sensationalism and clickbait style headlines that contribute to a divisive society.
(The irony here is that marketers have been using clickbait headlines in their emails and social media posts for years, but apparently that’s ok!)
In defence of journalists, newsrooms have become unrecognisable to what they were 15-20 years ago, thanks, in part, to the explosion of digital news, which requires feeding 24/7. Coupled with the fact that attention spans have decreased over the years, along with becoming desensitised to the type of content we’re consuming.
I’m not saying this to give them a hall pass, but it’s important to understand why journalism is in the state it is today.
As for most businesses, it’s becoming increasingly difficult to stand out in a crowded marketplace, especially when digital content is free to consume and media outlets rely heavily on advertising to be able to produce content (I purposely removed the word ‘quality’ from that sentence as we all know that some of the content produced is scraping the bottom of the barrel.)
TRUST IN THE MEDIA
Your trust in the media will depend on several different factors, such as your political steering, your class and how well your values align to each publication, their journalists and the content they’re producing.
The broadsheets have always been deemed to be more respectable as they produced content for an ABC1 socio-economic audience, whereas the ‘red tops’ such as The Daily Star, The Sun and The Daily Mirror were seen to be for the lower classes.
As such, the topics they covered and their writing styles had to meet the needs of their audience. This hasn’t changed and I doubt it ever will.
When looking at which media outlets Britons trust the most, results of a 2023 YouGov poll may surprise you (especially as there has been so much controversy surrounding the BBC this year).
When it comes world news, the UK has been ranked at the bottom of the list for the first time, according to another report from Edelman, which has been featured in this article by the Press Gazette
SPECIFIC TARGETING
Despite there being a lack of trust in the media, it’s important to remember why you’re using media outlets to communicate about your brand, your products and your services: to reach a wider audience in a faster amount of time.
Your ideal customers and clients are still consuming content from media outlets, whether it’s The Sun, The Guardian, The BBC, lifestyle titles such as Stylist or industry trade outlets such as HR Today or The Menopause Review.
If you look at their circulation figures you’ll see what I mean. On the flip side, there are plenty of other media outlets that are being consumed by your ideal customers and clients, so you don’t even need to consider being featured in news outlets to spread the word about your brand.
TRUST IN SOCIAL MEDIA
Upon reading about trust in the media, you may be thinking that you’ll stick with social media to build your brand profile, but the outlook isn’t too rosy for social media channels either 😱.
Since the rise of social media, we’ve also seen the rise of the spread of fake news and misinformation and not everyone can tell the difference between truth and fiction. Plus, social media as an industry isn’t regulated, whereas media outlets are.
Media outlets are governed by codes of conduct, so they have to use sources that have been substantiated and verified.
Granted, they may not reveal the identity of these sources, but they have to work ethically and morally when sharing information (and when they don’t, it’s exposed, they pay the price financially and reputationally).
IT CAN’T GET ANY WORSE!
Every year Ipsos produces trends reports and opinion polls and in their latest ‘Global Trustworthiness Monitor’, state that social media is seen as the least trustworthy of those included in the report.
This is due to several factors. As well as the rise in fake news and the spread of misinformation, cyberbullying and child safety play a critical role in how trustworthy social media is seen to be.
While the report highlights that Governments are seen to be responsible for the regulation of social media, it also states that businesses and social media agencies need to play a bigger role in taking responsibility for the information that they share.
BRAND ALIGNMENT
As a business owner, it’s important to also consider who you’re working with to represent your brand. This could be:
➡️ Other brands you’re collaborating with
➡️ Influencers and ambassadors who are creating content on your behalf
➡️ The user-generated content that you’re sharing.
‘Going viral’ seems to be the holy grail for brands at the moment, but does the content creator behind the virality align with the values of your brand? Does their audience match your audience, in terms of the demographic, beliefs and values? Has it actually contributed to an increase in sales? 🤔
Interestingly, research carried out by Qualtrics showed that 39% of respondents said that they don’t see celebrity/public figure/athlete endorsements as a significant part of their buying decisions, which is worth bearing in mind before attributing your comms budget on ambassadors and influencers.
TRUST IN BRANDS
While the information I’ve shared so far looks bleak, it’s a stark reminder that as a buiness owner, you need to do your due diligence when choosing which platforms to use to communicate with potential and existing customers/clients.
It’s also a great reminder of the importance of choosing the right channels to share your message, products and services with the right audience.
No doubt you’ve seen all the hype about Gen Z and how they’re influencing purchasing decisions, but don’t forget that while Gen Z may be ripping up the rulebook, it’s totally irrelevant to your brand positioning if you’re not targeting them.
To target your key customers effectively, it’s important to truly understand which platforms they’re using and the type of content they’re engaging in so that you can double down on these efforts (rather than wasting time on the latest trend that *probably* won’t deliver the results you want.)
Also, there are many factors contribute to brand loyalty:
👉 Price
👉 Perceived Value
👉 Product deliverables
👉 Customer service
👉 Handling complaints
👉 Consistent messaging
👉 Engagement
It’s important to focus on each of these factors, rather than putting effort, energy and budget into marketing if the customer journey and overall experience is below par once they’ve spent money with you.
COMMUNICATION IS ESSENTIAL
According to Sprout Social’s ‘2023 Sprout Social Index’, 51% of consumers think that the most memorable thing a brand can do is respond to customers on social media. Another 76% notice and appreciate when brands prioritise customer support and value how quickly a brand responds to their needs.
Unsurprisingly, humanising your brand can also influence purchasing decisions and increase customer loyalty.
Unless you’re living under a rock, you’ll have noticed that ‘personal branding’ is having a bit of a moment (especially on LinkedIn). And while I’m not the biggest fan of the message surrounding the personal branding message (branding is branding, regardless of whether it’s for a person or an organisation).
I do believe that showing the people behind the brand, and being transparent about what goes on behind the scenes, helps customers and clients feel better connected to your mission, vision and values, which further builds trust.
YOUR REUTATION MATTERS
How you communicate with your audience will impact your reputation, regardless of the platforms you use to communicate with them.
As a public-facing brand, whether you’re B2B or B2C, it’s important to know how to respond in a crisis (which could be as simple as receiving negative feedback on social media, or a low Google/Trip Advisor review).
Knowing what not to do is just as crucial to your reputation and the trust people have built in your brand.
I’ve written two different blogs that will give you more insight on what to do/not to do in these situations. One is specifically about ‘The Joe Wicks Effect’, which you can read here.
The other one is a more general look at what to do when the shit hits the fan, which you can read here .
MAKING INFORMED DECISIONS
Everything I’ve included in this newsletter makes for grim reading and you may be questioning if any media channels or platforms can be trusted.
The trouble is, communicating with existing and potential customers and clients is crucial to the growth and profitability of your business.
This blog hasn’t been written to dissuade you from using public platforms to raise your profile and build trust in your brand, but to get you to think more strategically about where you truly need to be seen by your target audience.
If you believe everything you see and hear online, you’ll fall into the trap of thinking that you need to be where all the cool brands are, that video content is the only thing that works and that long-form content is dead!
As such, you’ll waste time, energy and money chasing trends that move you further away from what you actually need to be prioritising (which isn’t always easy when the CEO is demanding to be on TikTok!)
PRIORITISE REGULAR CHECK-UPS
My recommendation would be to audit your brand comms channels and the tactics that you’re using every six months to:
➡️ See what’s working and delivering results
➡️ Understand where the gaps are
➡️ Put a plan in place to close the gaps, deliver better results and become more profitable
The one thing we can’t buy back is time. It would be lax of you to just assume that the tactics that have historially worked, or are currently working, will do so forever.
Platforms change, the way people consume content changes, buying behaviours change – if you don’t keep up you’ll simply be left behind.
GIVE IT TIME
Building trust takes time, but losing it only takes seconds.
As my favourite quote by Warren Buffet says:
“It can take 20 years to build a reputation, but five minutes to ruin it. If you think about that you’ll do things differently.”
You haven’t come this far to only come this far.
To find out about how I can help support you with your growth and profitability goals while also building and maintaining your reputation and brand trust, you can schedule a consultation call with me here
