Many companies underestimate the value of trust, which is difficult to achieve. Whether they believe they compensate with high-quality products or top-notch social media, businesses might soon find consumers don’t trust them when it comes to profit-driven transparency, coverage on environmental harm, or even influence over governments.
One of the most recent issues in matters of trust is greenwashing. The practice has been observed in businesses that aim to appeal to environmentally conscious audiences, but rather than implementing genuine strategies, they merely market themselves as eco-friendly.
Companies that were once renowned for their products have been revealed to greenwash their way into a new audience, including Lavazza, which claimed its coffee pods are compostable, IKEA, which used illegally sourced wood for its products, and the Lloyds Banking Group for running a misleading social media campaign.
In hindsight, these companies still continue to operate successfully, but they lack customer trust, which impedes loyalty and long-term prosperity. Here are some tips to help you avoid this as a company.
Prioritize cybersecurity
Experiencing a data breach or cyberattack is the fastest route to losing customer trust. These incidents are the result of a lack of investment in cybersecurity measures, inadequate employee training, and a lack of understanding of how hackers operate. While avoiding such an attack is not entirely possible, companies can still make more efforts to manage them and navigate them with a response plan.
Making cybersecurity a business priority demonstrates a genuine concern for the safety of customer data, which must be protected in order to respect regulatory compliance. Besides that, consider the following:
- Provide thorough training to employees on cybersecurity;
- Establish a company culture based on cyber resilience;
- Use a password manager for business and access all passwords safely;
- Implement data encryption to protect it from unauthorized access;
- Conduct regular security assessments and audits;
- Develop an incident response plan;
Improve transparency in communication
Most companies utilize social media posts to communicate with their clients, but also to influence their opinion of the brand. In many cases, they don’t address challenges or mistakes, nor do they disclose information that could make them appear as the “bad guys”.
Lush, for example, is considered one of the most transparent brands when it comes to its journey towards sustainability. It is committed to improving its operations by completely eliminating palm oil from its supply chain, as well as reducing its dependency on packaging by selling products without it.
The business kept customers updated on its latest strategies while being mindful of the challenges ahead. This is what other organizations must do to gain people’s trust: recognize their failures or slow pace of adopting innovation, and continue pursuing their goals.
Experiment with influencer marketing
Companies began collaborating with influencers several years ago, when social media exploded and audiences grew to follow the content of a specific person. It has only recently been recognized as a reliable marketing strategy, as it helps humanize a business while offering influencers who provide real value online an opportunity to grow.
There are also numerous ways to implement such a strategy, including giveaways and affiliate posts, as well as product reviews and account takeovers. The more organic the collaboration is, the more trust is built around the company’s efforts to appeal to its audience.
Some of the best examples of such methods include:
- Gymshark’s social media brand ambassadors who feature their products on social media;
- Dunkin’s campaigns with celebrities like Ben Affleck and Ice Spice;
- Dove’s solid campaigns such as #ReusableIsBeautiful, or #DetoxYourFeed;
Take advantage of user-generated content
User-generated content is an innovative marketing strategy that allows companies to enable users to create content about their brand. These are usually social media posts that may or may not tag the brand itself, but review its products and services in a way that’s helpful for a new customer. Besides reviews, UGC can also be in the form of blogs, live streams, or podcasts.
While this may seem similar to influencer marketing, the key difference lies in the compensation for the individual. Influencer collaborations are typically arranged in advance, whereas UGC is used to raise awareness about your brand, rather than promoting or explaining it.
GoPro, for example, has the best way of taking advantage of this strategy. Users of the camera primarily post their videos and images, typically while engaging in sports, resulting in a vast amount of content. The business encourages them to post by providing a dedicated hashtag #GoPro, so they can upload these videos to official social media content.
Learn to be authentic
Last but not least, the most difficult tip is to be an authentic business. This starts from what you post on social media to how you design products, so it’s more of a journey to establishing a feature that separates you from the competition.
Authenticity can take the form of human communication with customers, rather than leaving pre-recorded messages. Try to make every interaction between employees and customers as natural as possible, getting straight to the point and providing candid responses.
You can think of being authentic as establishing a friendship in which you are genuinely yourself. As a brand, it’s essential to be aware of the impact you have on each customer interaction. This includes tips such as being genuinely interested in their feelings and thoughts about the product or service, as well as being open to negative feedback and working to improve what’s currently missing. Of course, this should be part of a cutting-edge customer experience.
Final considerations
Starting a business and operating for a while may not be that challenging, but creating a culture of trust and certainty is surely a difficult task. Convincing people of your company’s value on the market requires time investments to showcase your best intentions, including prioritizing the safety of their personal data through cybersecurity, communicating as transparently as possible about wins and failures, and being authentic in engaging with people.
