Visibility is one thing. Trust is another. Every organization wants to be more visible. A company can have a big following on social media, publish content regularly, and have a large budget, and not build the relationships that endear it to its target audience. The fact is, visibility is not the same as credibility. Visibility is important, but it isn’t everything, it creates an introduction to the organization, but trust gets people to choose that organization and keeps them around.
It is possible to create a brand that accomplishes both visibility and trust by giving people something to believe in. The first step before going about promoting a brand is to stop and think, “What do people want to know about us?” and “What do people think about our brand based on how they have experienced us so far?” The brand is more than a logo, website, or social media pages, and rather than trying to convince people that a brand is awesome, they should be presented with the opportunity to determine this for themselves.
How does the organization do this? By authentic storytelling. For example, an independent school is trying to market its academics and beautiful campus. While those things are important, prospective families want to know that their children will feel welcomed, challenged, and special. This is where meaningful stories and relatable moments make the audience feel connected and engaged. Nonprofits can use the opportunity to tell the impact of their programs. Small businesses can use the opportunity to share customer reviews or the story behind the business.
It can even be endearing when organizations share stories about their struggles. Being transparent and accountable really helps when building trust and credibility. Knowing what the organization is about and having the support of facts and personal experiences greatly help with brand consistency. It's about creating trustworthy experiences for the target audience that are a true reflection of the organization..
It is important to note that brand consistency isn’t just about what the organization says. It’s also about what they do. A brand might make promises, but if it is a trustworthy organization, it will deliver. When it comes to building trust, it's important for organizations to consider how audiences are responding to their communications. The strongest brands aren’t always the most visible, but they are the ones that people recognize as trustworthy, consider credible, and can confidently recommend.
Building a brand that people trust, feel connected to, and that drives growth and success requires strategic communications planning. Messaging created from an authentic lens gives people reasons to believe in the organization. Consistency reinforces what people can expect from them. Visibility creates opportunity for engagement, and data helps with understanding how to get better at all of it. So it’s good to be visible where it matters, but not necessarily everywhere.
Sometimes organizations do work across multiple channels without knowing where their audiences actually exist. That can be counterproductive. The best instances for reaching target audiences is to leverage the channels that they engage with most. For instance, a nonprofit that wants to grow its donor base might do so with intentional email and storytelling on LinkedIn. A local business may find more success with local search visibility, customer reviews, and community partnerships. The best bet is to choose the channels that are easiest for people to engage with consistently and meaningfully, versus trying to maintain a presence everywhere.
Data is the best way to know what is working. Whether website traffic analytics, email engagement, customer feedback, or social media sentiment, organizations can use these analytics to help them to understand how well their messaging is resonating with their audience, or what needs reworking. For example, they might have high website traffic but low inquiries. This may be a sign that the call to action might need to be revised. Or perhaps newsletters are getting good open rates, but people aren't clicking through. These may signal that there needs to be a reevaluation of the impact of the content, or the organization may need to make it more appealing for their target audience to want to engage with them.
Don't just focus on impressions, follows, and likes. The meaningful things like inquiries, referrals, repeat engagement, and audience feedback are where the real magic happens! Those are the things that get conversions. Data is a great tool, but sometimes, having an actual conversation with a customer, donor, or stakeholder can reveal things that the data can’t. The point is not just to gather data. It's to use it to make better decisions.
All these variables help a company build a better, more established, trustworthy brand, but none of it matters if they don't earn people's trust by showing what they stand for and following through on their promises. That is what gives people a reason to want to work with them, builds relationships, and creates opportunities.
If you're looking to strengthen your brand positioning, gain visibility, or leverage and deepen the connections you currently have, lets connect so we can assess what’s working, what isn't working, and how we can develop a communications strategy to help support your organization’s mission and vision.
