How to online build recognition of and trust in your brand in a world of fake vs real

Everyone knows that running a business is hard. It’s hard to build up your brand so that it gets recognised by enough people, who also trust it sufficiently, to be able to make it sustainable and profitable. In fact, these two things – customer recognition and trust – make all the difference when it comes to the survival of any business. However, building recognition and trust is particularly hard when no-one knows who you are – and the biggest problem with obscurity is how it affects your bottom line because obscurity means that no-one is buying from you.

Building online brand recognition and trust

What’s more, in our modern digital age, an age of social media in which there is so much hype about fake news, inauthentic claims and online fraud, just how do you connect with your market and build trust when just about everyone is questioning authenticity at every level and trying to separate fact from fiction?

People buy from businesses they recognize and trust

It’s a fact that most people tend to stick with who and what they know – and buy the products and services from businesses they recognize and trust. What that means for your new brand, product or service is that you’ve got a bit of a job on your hands. Before you can even start to worry about your competition you’ve first got to sort out your obscurity problem.

However, while the online marketplace is a noisy and cluttered one, and rising above the level of obscurity is the name of the game, it’s also a great leveller of the playing field too, because even a small business can become a recognisable brand online, if you do it right.

5 ways to build recognition and trust

So, just how do you raise your business above the obscurity level, and build recognition and digital trust with your audience in our digital age? Here are 5 key ways to do that.

  • Ensure you only provide high-quality content on your online channels, including your website and social media profiles. But while the quality of your content is always important, how you deliver that content is crucial too. The digital audience is fickle and their attention span is very short, so good content has to be presented in appealing and interesting ways.

  • Talk about the things that matter to your audience on your social channels. The online world is a world of ‘connections’ and ‘engagement’. People connect and engage with the topics that matter to them – and when they find a like-minded business, they are more likely to engage more readily with it too.

  • Be personal. Personalization is very important if your business is based on your personal brand. As we said, the online world is all about ‘connections’, so make it easy for your audience to connect with you by making the person behind your brand visible to them – as someone with whom they can connect and to whom they can relate. A simple thing like sharing a photo or video of yourself so people can see and hear who they are dealing with is very valuable.
  • Be helpful. This is one of the best ways to build trust. Providing valuable information, always being ready to answer questions, consistently showing that you know what you’re doing, and doing what you say you will do, will, over time, enable you to build the reputation that your business needs to convince people to start buying form you.
  • Cultivate customer reviews. You could be good at what you do; you could deliver what you say you will; but until someone else vouches for you, you’ll not make much headway in the online marketplace. In the digital age, people about to making a purchasing decision first go online to see what others have to say about the products and services they’re looking for. In other words, purchasing decisions today start with reviews. So, reviews from other people, people who have bought your product or service are fantastic for building credibility – do everything you can to encourage online reviews, especially Google business reviews, and ask your customers for testimonials to place on your websites.

When all is said and done, be consistent and clear about your message, product or service, ALWAYS stay true to your word, consistently share valuable and value-adding information, and use your social media channels to engage in the true sense of the word with your customers and prospective customers. If you do these things, you’ll soon start to acquire the recognition and build the level of trust you need to ensure your business will prosper in the online marketplace.

Want help to stand out above the noise of the online marketplace?

As a full-service digital marketing company, Net Branding has been successfully helping clients across New Zealand build awesome online brand recognition. So, if you need a hand with building the level of customer recognition and trust that your business needs to prosper, then get in touch with the team at Net Branding today.