Ironclad – How to build trust with branding

There’s one value I hear crop up more than almost any other. Trust. It’s by far the most common thing that people want to associate with their brand. And why wouldn’t they? Having a trusted brand means more sales, so business owners always want to understand how to build trust with branding.

It’s really little surprise. When consumers trust a brand, they’re more likely to buy from it and ultimately, recommend it to others. Trust is the foundation of growth. Without it, your business cannot succeed.

When your brand’s word is Ironclad, it is unbreakable. This is the foundation of enduring loyalty – a bond between client and brand that begins with the first interactions and lasts long after the two have parted ways. A brand with this level of trust drives customer engagement and ultimately fosters long-term success.

But how does a brand earn this? And how can it build trust with branding?

In this article, I’ll show you some methods for how to build trust with branding.

 

Understanding Your Audience

Firstly, look back at the final sentences above – you’ll notice I use the word ‘earn’. That’s because you cannot expect your audience to trust you – trust is theirs to give and you must show your audience exactly why they should do so.

And how do you go about doing that? Clients are savvy and have far more choice than ever. How you build trust with branding is a vital step in creating longer-lasting relationships.

 

Identifying target demographics

Firstly, you need to know and understand your audience. While most people build trust in a similar fashion, the reasons for who they trust are much more complex. Therefore, the more you know about your target audience – their likes, needs, desires and fears – the more easily you can build a brand they will likely trust.

The best place to start is to identify your target demographics. Age, gender, location and interests are useful to help you build your brand to attract these people, but to build lasting trust you’ll want to go deeper.

If you want to build trust with your branding, you need to really get to know your demographics on an emotional level. Understanding their needs, wants, fears and desires can have massive benefits for your branding efforts. By focusing on these four dimensions, it’s easier for you to address your audience’s emotions and build trust.

• Needs are rational – they are the basic requirements that people need for survival. Food, water, shelter etc.
• Wants are emotional – they are the things people long for. They are the things that add to people’s quality of life.
• Fears are negative emotions – triggered by the potential of bad outcomes. They are what people are trying to get away from or what they are repelled by.
• Desires are positive emotions – triggered by the potential of good outcomes. They are what people are trying to get to or what they are attracted by.

The use of all four of these in your demographics can help identify areas where you can build an emotional connection and inspire trust.

 

Understanding consumer values

Consumers are more likely to buy from brands that share their values than ever before. So if you want to build trust with branding, understanding what your audience values is vital.

This brings up an important point – trust should be the outcome, not the value. This is simply because EVERY business wants to be trusted. So it is not something that uniquely identifies your brand and telling your audience you value trust is a waste of energy. They know that. No brand wants to be seen as untrustworthy.

Showing HOW your brand gains that trust is where the magic lies.

Using deeper values that show how you can be trusted is a far better way of standing out while also making a deeper promise. As an example, one value could be tenacity – you always get a job done. Showing that you never give up instils a sense of trust in the audience far greater than simply stating your brand value is ‘trust’.

Additionally, shared values can be a great way to build strong levels of trust in your brand. For example, if your audience champions a cause such as being eco-friendly, building this into your values will create a stronger connection with them, allowing you to earn their trust more effectively.

Comparing your values with your client’s is a great way to see where you have the opportunity to build trust with branding.

 

Consistency and Authenticity

With an understanding of your audience, the next stage in using your brand to build trust is to focus on consistency and authenticity.

Both of these words are thrown around A LOT in business, so it’s vital to understand what they mean for branding.

 

Consistent Brand Identity

In short, consistency is what helps you maintain a recognisable brand identity. You don’t see large brands change their colour palette every few months, so neither should you. Consumers recognise and associate various aspects of your brand identity with your business, from colours to tone of voice. This creates feelings of familiarity that build trust.

Therefore, your brand identity must be consistent. Consumers and clients seeing constant changes become confused and lose trust in that brand. Remember, confusion is a barrier to purchase, so if your branding creates confusion, it actively affects your bottom line.

Every element of your branding needs to be consistent and reflective of the experience. Your visual elements, such as logo, colours, typefaces and imagery, plus your voice and tone, all need to be consistent with your message. Purpose, values, vision and mission should align and have no messy contradictions.

The more aligned and consistent your brand identity becomes, the easier it is to trust.

 

Authentic Brand Storytelling

Trust isn’t built by logic. It’s created on an emotional level. A great way to build trust with branding is to use the art of storytelling. We use stories for a variety of reasons, but the most effective ones build an emotional connection with the audience.

Share your brand story, mission and values in a relatable fashion. The more an audience can relate to your message, the faster you’ll gain their trust. Clients are looking for a genuine connection, so being authentic and telling stories that show your heart and mission shows you want to nurture connections too.

If you use storytelling to build trust, make sure it’s genuine. Trust is lost if people feel like they’ve been fooled. Authentic storytelling means being honest with what you put out there. Bumping up figures or adding a false gloss to events can have the opposite effect on your intent. If you create an idealised version of your brand that you can’t deliver, you’ll lose trust fast. 

 

Using Promises and Delivery to Build Trust With Branding

Branding is the act of communicating with your audience – and it means making promises about what you’ll be able to deliver. One of the fastest ways brands LOSE trust is by having a service that doesn’t match with the client’s expectations. As such, it’s important to ensure your brand identity matches the brand experience that clients are likely to have.

A brand experiencing a disconnect between identity and experience will likely be selling well but has a problem with retention and poor reviews. Ultimately, these end up harming the business as word gets out – previous customers share their mistrust of the brand, which can be hard to repair.

 

Quality Products and Services

 

Having quality products and services is a given – it’s not often people actively want poor quality. However, this is slightly deeper than aiming for the highest quality – it’s more about matching quality and expectation.

Think about two watch brands – Rolex and Holzkern. Rolex watches are of objectively higher quality, while Holzkern is more affordable. Both are quality products, but you expect different levels (and thus price points) because of the brand. And because of the price points and branding, both have good trust and customer satisfaction. This is because the products match expectations – both brands have set their marketing and price points at levels that are appropriately met by the product quality.

Your branding should match the quality of your products and services. Trust is built when people get what they expect. If your brand promises more than you deliver, people feel cheated.

Remember, great branding is not a fix for a terrible product or service!

It’s also important to note that this works the other way too. If you have bad branding but an incredible product or service, people may feel wary of buying it because you haven’t matched their expectations for what a premium brand looks like. If your branding makes your product or service look low quality, that’s what the audience will expect and they’ll stay away.

 

Fulfilling Brand Commitments

Fulfilling brand commitments is a great way to build trust – and this process goes beyond the point of purchase. It’s true that you generally make your brand promise before the sale, but additional touchpoints afterwards are a great way to build further trust.

Showing that you care about your client’s experiences after they’ve bought from you is a great way to build trust. A great aftercare service, ways customers can get in touch and other post-purchase interactions are a great way to continue the brand experience and gain extra trust from existing clients.

From a branding perspective, it’s important to view these interactions as cyclical. If you’re ever confused about what your brand stands for, customer reviews are a great place to see where your service shines. Additionally, if someone gives you negative feedback, ensure you take it on board and fix brand systems with the feedback in mind. People are more likely to trust you if they feel listened to.

 

Transparency and Communication

Speaking of feeling listened to, transparency and communication are vital elements to building trust in your brand.

Trusting relationships are built on open and honest communication. Therefore, it’s important to show transparency in your brand practices. Clear communication about policies and changes can build trust, even when you have to deliver bad news. If people know what to expect, they can plan accordingly. When things change suddenly, it creates a bad impression.

Be upfront about your brand’s practices, expectations and even challenges. Creating transparent practices shows you have nothing to hide, building confidence in your brand. Even when you have to deliver bad news, be open and upfront with it. Presenting potentially negative news alongside proposed solutions is a great way of showing that you care.

Clients want to feel looked after – so even when unexpected setbacks arise, if you can show what you intend to do about them, you’ll maintain and even build trust.

Being transparent and communicating, especially with negative news, shows you respect your clients. This fosters a closer relationship.

 

How to Build Trust with Branding Using Social Proof

It’s all well and good telling people what your brand stands for and what they can expect – but you’ll build trust faster if you can prove it.

This is where social proof comes in. Using customer testimonials is a great way to build trust with branding. Using testimonials and case studies helps showcase the experiences of real customers – further adding to your credibility. Future customers are more likely to listen to a past customer than the brand itself, so endorsements are worth their weight in gold.

There are many ways your branding can showcase positive reviews. Social media is a great place to show feedback – making testimonial posts a part of your social media strategy is a no-brainer. Asking clients to record video testimonials is very powerful and helps build trust quickly.

Social proof is the third-party validation of your branding efforts and should not be underestimated when it comes to marketing your brand.

 

Conclusion – How to Build Trust with Branding

Building Ironclad trust with your brand isn’t a ‘one-and-done’ exercise – it’s a continual process that involves dedication and attention. There are certainly times when you’ll pay closer attention to it – such as when you’re looking at your overall strategy – but it’s important to be aware that trust is more easily lost than gained.

To recap, the key strategies you can use to build trust with branding are; understanding your audience, maintaining consistency, being authentic, delivering on promises, showing transparency and utilising social proof.

Most of these are ongoing processes that you should be implementing into your brand as soon as possible. As your customer expectations evolve, so should your branding – showing your audience that you’re willing to meet them where they are is a great way to build trust.

Using your branding effectively to create trust means building it with your customer’s needs in mind. Removing ego from the equation and understanding how you can better communicate with clients will make your branding speak to them on a deeper level. It lets you understand their problems better and make promises you can keep.

If your brand’s word is Ironclad, it is unbreakable.

And that’s when people will fully trust it.

 

If you’re looking to build a more trustworthy brand identity, check out Brand Adventurer – a deep-dive workshop that uncovers the unique and authentic face of your brand.