Building trust is the foundation of every solid relationship between a company and its prospective customers.
Today’s consumers want — and expect — authenticity out of the brands that they engage with. And if you can’t deliver, you’ll see it reflected in your sales.
Brand authenticity refers to your ability to be open and honest with your audience, not just about your values and morals but also about the less attractive things like your missteps and your flaws. It’s about embracing who you are as a brand, a company, and a culture and building trust through transparency — instead of attempting to fake it through obfuscation.
So how can you let your brand’s authenticity shine? Here are some ways to make true and lasting connections with your customers based on who you are and not just who you want them to think you are.
Share Your Origin Story
Before there was a product, a marketing strategy, and a sales quota, there was an idea.
Your company’s origin story tells your customers where you started and where you’re headed. More so than just answering questions about the steps you took to get your brand off the ground, it helps explain the mission behind your product or service and what, at the end of the day, you’re striving to achieve.
Circle back to your “About Us” page and look for ways to build authenticity into your story. It could mean reframing your origin story to center it around your brand’s values or including some of the mistakes and failures that you’ve overcome. It could also mean positioning yourself in the context of your industry, acknowledging the broader problems that you’re seeking to address.
Your origin story isn’t the only place that you can put your brand’s authenticity front and center, but it definitely should be part of the process.
Take Customers Behind the Scenes on Social
One of the biggest social media tips is to think of social channels as windows into your brand’s soul. What you share and how you engage has real power to bolster your brand authenticity and endear you to your customers, and there’s a lot to be gained by using it to give your followers a peek into your company culture as well.
Some of the various ways to bring brand authenticity to light on social include:
- Showing how you onboard clients and follow up with prospects
- Giving followers an inside look at your marketing process
- Showing what your CEO does to prepare for quarterly meetings
None of this is glamorous, and it might not even incur tons of engagement. What it does successfully however, is make your followers privy to the inner workings of your company, even (and perhaps especially) the boring stuff. It shows them you have nothing to hide and that, at the end of the day, everything you do is done with your customers in mind.
Build Brand Authenticity Into Your Content
Your company values need to underlie every aspect of your content, from the topics and ideas you cover to your tone and your overall message. After all, if you’re not coming off as authentic in your content, you’re going to have a tough time convincing customers of that authenticity in other places.
As a rule, you should be consistently creating content that highlights the expertise, morals, and methods of your team and your company. And similar to social media, you should be giving customers an insider look at how the wheels turn.
There are lots of brands who do a good job at this. Here are a few examples:
Dove
Since their first Real Beauty campaign in 2004, Dove has managed to make their brand name synonymous with self-love and acceptance. And they’ve done such a good job of relaying this message in their marketing and ad content that their mission has become inherently intertwined with what it means to buy and use Dove products.
Southwest Airlines
Airlines aren’t in the business of putting customers first — you know this, the travel industry knows this, and Southwest knows this too (and they’re not afraid to talk about it). The company has done a great job marketing themselves as the nice guys of travel, building a message around not just what they do right (hello free checked bags) but how these policies are designed to combat the morally devoid practices of their competitors.
Patagonia
Patagonia has a clearly defined mission statement to cause no unnecessary harm to the environment with its products. From donating 1% of all sales to grassroots organizations to developing programs to reduce chemical use in their supply chain, Patagonia shows that they practice what they preach, in turn building a foundation of trust that gives consumers confidence in their purchase.
Don’t be afraid to be you. Be authentic in your marketing and your practices, and show your customers what it really means to partner with your brand.