Down and Dirty Tips for Building Your Brand

As a marketer, you know that your work is never really done. You can’t count on yesterday’s positive interactions with customers to carry you through today and into tomorrow. Instead, you’ve got to be on your game, day in and day out. You must constantly be staying up-to-date with your customers’ needs and interests, with the ability to go with the flow, adapting and evolving as quickly as they do. Ultimately, this is the only way to harness the power of social proof, or social influence, and continue to attract new customers and make sales. After all, no one will want to talk about your products or services and what they’ve done for their lives unless they feel a sense of loyalty and connection to you as a brand. 

So, how the heck do you build and maintain awesome consumer relationships that will establish the social proof  and genuine credibility you so desperately crave? Well, it’s going to take some elbow grease, and you’re going to have to be willing to get down & dirty and up-close & personal with your clients. Sound good? Good! These tips are a great place to get started:

Let The Numbers Talk

Prospective customers are much more likely to pay attention to your brand or take action if they know that a whole lot of other people have already done so. This means that the more people you’ve got talking about your brand on social media, the more “likes” you earn, the more “shares” you get… the more likely it is that your reach will continue to snowball and influence the masses. Make sure that your customers actually know that your social media presence exists so that they can talk about you and follow your brand. And if they don’t like your stuff on their own, give them a little incentive. Offering special discounts to first-time followers or entering those who like your posts into special drawings will make a huge difference.

Turn Customers Into “Celebrities”

Everyone wants to be famous! Why not give your loyal customers their 15 minutes by offering up the spotlight on your website or social media channels? Let your followers know that people who leave positive comments and testimonials on Yelp, Google, or other review pages will be entered into a regular contest to be featured on your page. Make a big deal about it, posting a cool video that talks about what makes that customer special, and allows them to share what they love most about your brand. The honoree, and their friends and loved ones, will share your post like crazy, giving you free advertising.

Let Customers Fill in the Blanks

Some customers won’t leave reviews or comments simply because it takes too much time, but there’s a way around that. Create fill-in-the-blank memes or status updates that call for simple, one-word responses from customers. Perhaps you post a picture of your logo with a caption that reads “My favorite thing about YourBrandName is ___” or an image of your latest product that reads, “I use ProductX when I ___” This will get the conversation going about your brand, letting new customers know that existing clients already love you and that you can be trusted.

Create Case Studies

Take some time really getting to know your most successful customers and how your brand has improved their lives and/or businesses. Creating in-depth and detailed case studies that highlight these VIPs will not only make your existing clients feel valued, and thus more likely to promote your brand, but it will also add to your street cred and social proof, thus growing your business.