Speaker 1: What's up Brand Builders, Stephen Horahan here at brandmasteracademy.com and in this video you're going to learn seven ways to build brand trust, loyalty and advocacy. So you can learn how to slowly build real relationships with your customers so they don't just buy from you once but return and bring their friends with them. Now the concept of brand trust is probably one of the easiest concepts to understand across the whole spectrum of branding and the reason for that is because the concept of trust in general is something that we all inherently know because it's part of our DNA and it's kept us alive for hundreds of thousands of years. Now as people the more others trust us the more likely they are to talk to us, to spend time with us, ask for help, lend their help, confide in us and protect us as well. Ultimately the more people trust us the more likely we are to survive and the concept of brand trust is pretty much the same. The more people trust a brand the more likely they are to come back, ask for help, offer their faith and ultimately their business. So how as brands can we build brand trust? Well again in simple terms the same way we earn trust as people by being open, displaying aligned values and following through on doing whatever it is that we say we're going to do. Trust takes years to build, seconds to break and forever to repair. Brand strategists will be the first to tell you that brand trust doesn't materialize overnight but results from well-thought-out brand plans and then follow up an execution on those plans. So let's bring this concept down to earth with some applicable techniques. Number one, benchmark and monitor brand trust. All branding and marketing relies on setting goals and measuring their success. Part of building brand trust will involve brand reputation management to set targets for brand reputation and to monitor those discussions that are happening online. It's difficult to quantify brand trust but brand managers can perform sentiment analysis to understand the target audience and how they feel towards the brand. Sentiment analysis involves gathering information across many online sources to build a picture of trust levels in the market and you can support this with customer surveys to gather insights from respondents that can inform further brand behavior. Also customers will feel valued when you take the time to hear what they have to say and then act upon their recommendations. Listening and making meaningful changes to your brand experience is a powerful way to build brand trust. Number two, be consistent. Brand consistency is critical in building brand trust among your consumers and of course a consistent brand experience across all touch points is absolutely critical. We have produced a video with 21 touch points to align for a consistent brand experience and I'll leave that link in the description but to name a few of those touch points you can include advertisements, social posts, videos, website, podcasts, environment, point of sale, packaging, vehicle wraps, direct mail, lead magnets, emails, blog posts, business cards, invoices, proposals, discoveries, consultations, onboarding documents, workshops, after sales service and customer support to name a few. Now of course consistency across all channels makes your brand recognizable wherever the consumer encounters it. Think of an apple store. You can visit an apple store in New York, London, Tokyo or Sydney and expect to see the exact same furniture, customer service, logos, fonts, displays, products and overall experience. Customers trust in the familiarity. Customer interactions, the conflict with the usual brand experience serve as harmful contradictions. An unexpected unfamiliar experience damages that trust. Modern consumers are more attuned than ever to conflicting messages so defend against mixed messaging by creating comprehensive brand guidelines to ensure alignment to present that same version of the brand through all of those touch points. Tonal voice guidelines can dictate verbal elements while brand identity guidelines can determine visual elements. Number three, be authentic. Now I know that seems like a bit of a no-brainer that any brand should be authentic in the messages that they put out there and how they engage with their audience but that's actually not the case. Most brands don't show up with that level of authenticity. They put a facade on and try and hide behind that facade but you'll find that brands that take the time to lay it all on the line, who show up as their authentic selves, who don't try to put on a facade that they are absolutely perfect, instead put it all out there on the line and engage with their audience through human interactions, through human engagement. If they make a mistake they put their hand up and say that they made a mistake. If they see something that's not right in the market they'll call it out. So show up with the authentic version of yourself. Make sure that that brand authenticity runs through every single touch point from the website copy to the customer service calls. Really take the time to instill brand authenticity as a value within your brand and then that will show up in your interactions with your customers. Number four, focus on relationships and not revenue. Don't underestimate the power of shifting your mindset from revenue to relationships. Developing and maintaining great relationships and great customer service to develop those relationships should be a number one priority not profits. Successful brands understand that loyal customers are their greatest asset because of the value that they can bring to the business long term. PWC recently found that trust is the number one differentiator affecting consumers purchasing decisions ongoing. They won't buy from a company they don't trust. They believe it's a company's responsibility to build that trust. In a head-to-head between two competitors they'll choose the company who they trust. So what does all this mean? It means that building trusting relationships with consumers must be the primary focus over making the sale and this philosophy holds water. You take care of the trust and the sales will take care of themselves. Number five, be transparent. Now it's not rocket science that customers don't like being lied to however being transparent and honest as a brand is more than just abstaining from lies. To build trust based on authenticity you need to be proactive and upfront in your branding and that means apologizing when things go wrong, being open about your business processes and removing any ambiguity or gray areas which could be seen as misleading. Companies like Buffer, the social media management tool, they make transparency a core value. They have a dedicated website sharing information on salaries, business goals, source code, business metrics and other things that are usually kept private. This transparency resonates with their customers. Brands that will apologize for mistakes and lift the veil on business practices seem more trustworthy to consumers. Attaching a face to the brand also helps consumers to relate to the company as well. So if there is a personal brand in and amongst the corporate brand then use that personal brand as a face of the business. Now of course authenticity and transparency they seem kind of similar but transparency is really about being open. It's about being open about business practices, about what's behind the veil of the business and not trying to sugarcoat that. Number six, create valuable content. Now much of modern branding relates to establishing yourself as an industry authority through a robust content marketing strategy. Modern brands need to frame themselves as solution providers. Customers have pain points that need to be resolved and you can solve their problems of course through your products and services but you should support this by offering helpful content as well. They have many challenges and you can help them with a variety of challenges through that content. So create webinars, create video tutorials, blog posts, downloadable ebooks, whatever works in your brand's context in a format that suits your audience. Now look if your brand offers helpful authoritative content then you build a reputation as a knowledgeable source that consumers trust. So becoming that go-to source for helpful content takes time and effort and it also requires a comprehensive content marketing strategy that addresses the issues that your audience faces. So think about the problems that your audience has. A great way to do this is come up with 100 challenges or 100 questions that they have and create a piece of content around every single one. And number seven, build social proof. Both trust and distrust are contagious. Now I already mentioned the pivotal role that social proof plays in building trust. Consumers sit up and take notice of what other people think of your products services and general brand experience. Another PwC study found that consumers will trust the views of other consumers over your branding efforts in most cases. So positive reviews represent an absolute goldmine for your business that you can leverage. Successful brands attempt to collect positive social proof and make it more visible to others. They amplify that visibility in the marketplace. So they'll share testimonials on their website and user-generated content on social media. Nothing quite sells your brand like evidence of customers enjoying your product or service or your brand experience or ultimately having that positive outcome. So gathering and sharing that social proof is a great strategy and it provides this positive reinforcement loop as evidence of trust breeds more trust. Now it should be clear that maintaining and earning trust is a never-ending task. Reliability, consistency, transparency and authenticity they're all guiding principles that you should never sway from in your branding efforts. Hard work can be undone quickly in the audience's mind and brand reputations can face irrevocable damage overnight. However fortunately building a trusted brand through an aligned brand experience pays dividends. Customers who trust brands become loyal. They choose your brand over your competitors. They advocate for your brand as well and they engage with your brand's communications. If it was easy every brand would do it. It's not easy, it's challenging, it requires hard work and it requires dedication. But like everything the best rewards are there for the few who prevail. Now if you want to dive deeper into brand strategy then this video here will help you out. Before you click it if you want to become a master of brand make sure you hit the like and subscribe to get new videos just like this. Until next time brand like a master and I'll see you in the next video.