By Nick Nelson

This is gonna be the greatest blog post EVER.

Did you believe me there? You probably didn’t.

Sure, I might think it’s an awesome piece of content. But I’m not exactly an objective source. Now, if you were to come across a post on social media from someone you know and trust, linking to this blog post and saying it’s the best thing they’ve read all year? That’s a different story.

Therein lies the immense value of social proof, which is only growing more impactful as businesses and society evolve into a new era. A survey from Kantar Media last year found that 93% of people trust brand recommendations from family and friends, while only 38% trust information from advertisers. Meanwhile, 84% of people say they trust online reviews as much as their friends.

As a marketer, accepting this reality may cause some discomfort: We can’t control what people say! That’s why a great product and customer experience are table stakes. But when those pieces are in place, today’s marketers can take plenty of steps to strategically encourage and elevate social proof and influencer content.

Building Credibility for Your Brand the Right Way: 4 Key Steps

Going above and beyond with transparency, highlighting third-party voices, portraying influencer authenticity, and creating buzzworthy experiences are among the best ways to build credibility in our current business landscape. A closer look at each:

#1: Embrace Radical Transparency

In business, the term “radical transparency” is usually evoked as an internal management philosophy — keeping employees looped into everything that’s going on, good or bad, to increase engagement and investment. I feel the concept can also be applied externally.

Heightened business transparency is largely happening on its own, in a digital environment where customers and communities can keep a closer eye on a company’s activities and positions.

Why not lean into this transparency? When you proactively put everything out there for people to see, it fuels a perception that you’re not trying to hide anything. That’s a huge credibility booster.

A few examples of transparency that might be considered “radical” but should really start to become the norm:

• Openly acknowledge and address negative reviews instead of burying them
• Share product/service pricing upfront instead of obscuring these important details
• Own the mistakes you make as a company, and share what you learn from them
• Recognize the relative strengths of your competitors in marketing materials, rather than playing up only their weaknesses
• Be forthright about who your product or service is NOT a fit for

If there’s one thing business buyers don’t like, it’s surprises. Given the stakes, nobody wants to find out down the line that there’s an unexpected cost, or unmentioned implementation complexities, or unspoken functional limitations.

Radical transparency helps eliminate surprises and can dramatically increase buyer confidence.

#2: Put Third-Party Reviews and Analysis Forward

As noted earlier, customers tend to be more interested in hearing what other people say about your solutions than what you say about them. …read more

Source:: Top Rank Blog

Author: Aaron