Okay, so you have a product. You have a brand you want to convey, and you want to make sure you do it in a way that people will respond to. When looking at your long term strategy for enforcing your brand, it is important to look at all three of the C’s and make sure they are in line:

1- Content. Is it enforcing the brand and message you want?
2- Consumption. How are you going to get people to see it?
3- Credibility. Do people believe that they will get what they are looking for.

For this post we will focus specifically on Credibility. The first step to getting people to trust that you or your products can deliver what they are looking for is to understand who your target customers are (and are not), and what you want them to expect from you. This will obviously be very different if you are clothing or a soda that want its customers to believe it will make them seem younger and cooler than it is if you are trying to convince people that your router is more secure than anyone else’s. But there are similarities.

Look to who or what your customer base already listens to and trusts. This is known as the “guru method.” Find someone or something that is already trusted in regards to the message you are sending. Then find ways to leverage them to get your message out. This is actually easier than it might sound. There are a few items to look for:

1- Customers. The lowest hanging fruit could be your current customers. If they are recognized as being very hip, or very security conscious, or in any way synergistic with the brand you are trying to convey, then you should ask them if you can get quotes from them for your web site and other materials. Perhaps they will let you put their logo on your site. They may even be willing to help with a white paper, or even a commercial.

2- People already trusted. If there are individuals who are trusted in your space, then find ways to opt them into your message. This might mean hiring someone for a quote or a commercial, but not necessarily. Perhaps you can get quotes from articles written by the person which enforce your message. Try to get permission to quote these, and use them in your messaging to support what you are saying.

If your product is truly innovative in your space, try to opt in same of the more vocal, visible guru’s. Offer them incentives such as advisory board seats and compensation if needed. Go to them humbly, ask their adivce, and follow up with them often to build a relationship. That way they feel opted into what you are doing, and they will want to tell others about it.

3- Blogs. Find out who is trusted in the space. Comment on their blogs. this will make you visible in the space, and create links to your site and blogs in turn which brings you credibility (and SEO.) Link to Blogs of trusted people. If they see your name keep popping up they will get curious who you are. If they write about you or link to you this can be a huge asset.

4- Speak. Try to get on panels at events for the space you are in. Simply being part of a panel implies your credibility (assuming you don’t make an idiot of yourself.) Be vocal in breakout sessions.

5- Stumble. If you’re not aware of StumbleUpon you should be.

6- Deliver. I cannot tell you how may times I have displaced competitors due to missed timelines. Many times it’s not even because the new timelines are unreasonable. It’s because they did not deliver what they promised. This breaks down trust and credibility. Ask yourself this: would you hire an applicant if you knew they had lied to you? I wouldn’t.

This entry was posted by Steve Spencer on Monday, June 11th, 2007 at 2:46 pm and is filed under Advertising, Marketing. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.