Even in this digital age, where consumers regularly make purchases without even seeing the item firsthand, “trust” still matters a great deal. According to a 2018 SurveyMonkey survey, trust in a brand matters “a great deal” or “a lot” for 65 percent of consumers and “some” for another 27 percent.
One of the surest ways to raise your trust factor is to position your business as an expert. Inherent among brands who’ve reached expert status is a degree of trustworthiness that helps them stand out from the crowd and gives consumers the confidence to take a leap of faith.
Here are seven steps for achieving that coveted expert label.
1) Blog Regularly: Authoring blogs about issues related to your industry is a great way to establish your knowledge and authority. Your blogs needn’t be overly long or appear as though they were written by a pro, as long as they speak intelligently and impactfully.
2) Get Published: Publishing blogs on your own media is great. Authoring columns for newspapers and business journals is even better. Reach out to local editors and see if they’d be receptive to you contributing a regular guest column about your industry. It’s a win-win: they get free work and you get free publicity.
3) Conduct Studies: Publishing studies and infographics will make your business seem super plugged into industry trends. Studies get picked up all the time by other publishers (see the intro of this blog) with proper citation, which can boost your name recognition and credibility.
4) Host Digital Discussions: Hosting a regular webinar or podcast is a terrific way to engage customers and dazzle with your knowledge, all while promoting your business. They also represent an opportunity to align with industry leaders, whom you can invite as guest speakers.
5) SEO Dominance: What do the four items above have in command? They all have SEO implications. Beyond the obvious benefits (i.e. page hits), the subtext of being ranked on Page 1 for relevant search terms is that you must be an expert, because why else would you be there?
6) Lights, Camera, Action: Whether it’s hosting webinars, producing how-to videos on YouTube or serving as a subject matter expert for broadcast media, representing your business on camera can alter the prism through which you’re viewed.
7) Apply for Awards: Earning awards might be more attainable than you think. Even at the local level, there are awards for practically every business category. Nabbing even one accolade will raise your profile and give your business an invaluable PR and marketing tool.
by Alex Altman
Learn more about setting up an business expert in the media by reading through our Insights.