When wanting to boost your brand profile, it can pay to be creative. Here are three ways that can have a big impact on how your brand is viewed by your customers.
Read more: How to track, measure and improve your brand health, our free online guide.
1. Improve your social proof
When your Facebook news feed pops up with your friends' amazing trip to Hawaii, and you wish you were there too. Or, when your best mate posts a picture of the new Mini Cooper they just bought, and it just happens to be your favourite car (and you stare blankly at the rusty 1992 Corolla you've got parked outside).
That's social proof. Put simply, the desire or want that is created when someone finds out that others are doing something. So they, in turn, feel that they should be doing (or buying) that same thing. And this is how social influence works (especially today with social media being the new/only way many people communicate with the world). This is often how people can learn about your company.
Here's who to leverage for social proof:
- User reviews: this is the most cost-effective strategy. Encouraging your customer to leave reviews on sites like Yelp or Trip Advisor can work wonders, and also boost the SEO traffic to your website. A word of warning though, as obviously what you want are positive reviews, so knowing that your employees provide excellent service and that your customers are generally happy with you, is a must.
- Brand ambassadors: this can be celebrity endorsements or even sponsorship of shows or sports teams. The key is to get the word out there and lots of positive buzz going. A bit of awesome PR goes a long way.
- Expert sources: Depending on your business, using statistics or expert quotes, can enhance your credibility, and even more so if they are shared on by a credible source (such as a renowned authority on the subject, think Harvard Business Review or the like).
- WOM: Ah the good old wisdom of your friends. Word of mouth may be the hardest thing to achieve or influence but if you’re doing enough positive things and a good job of customer experience and overall satisfaction, your word of mouth could be doing its job for you.
Negative social proof can be massively detrimental to a brand, and could dissuade customers as opposed to encourage them. However still, positive social proof (letting people know this that "this is what everyone else is doing, why aren’t you doing the same", is often the most effective strategy for getting people to act.
Related content: What are the brand tracking KPIs for a brand manger to monitor?
2. What do you stand for?
Being on the same page with your customers, and sharing the same values is a key factor to building a strong and lasting relationship with your customers. Shared values has been described as the main reason customers have a brand relationship.1
So, tell your customer what you stand for – and crucially, know yourself what you stand for first and foremost. If you’ve done the proper research and due diligence beforehand, you know what your ideal target audience and customers relate to the most and can see how you could align to those values. Getting the right brand insights, and surveying your customers to get their feedback is an important step to get this tactic right.
3. Surprise, we did something nice for you!
Doing something nice for your customers (freebies, special discounts or exclusive access) is always a good idea, but even more so when it is unexpected. This is when the gesture is more powerful, and leaves a stronger impression on the receiver, and is more likely to be remembered in a positive way.
So even if they haven’t bought anything in a while, or haven’t interacted with you at all for a year, do something nice for your customers. You may want to play this card only with your VIP or higher value customers (those who spend the most), as assumedly, these people will end up buying more than you average customer would over their customer lifecycle.
For this reason alone, customer segmentation is one of the best things you can do for your business strategy.
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