Are you Sending Mixed Messages? Build Your Credibility and Brand

As a product or service provider, you may not realise the background messages that you’re sending through ALL of your communications. This can have a detrimental effect on how others perceive your business.

Mixed messages can come from all angles. Observers may notice incongruency between what you say when marketing and what you say informally. Try to keep to a happy medium of positive messages without the ‘push’, especially when using your ‘Twitter’ account. Tweets pop up on your blog, your LinkedIn, all over the place, and yes you are being judged.

Website Copy No-no’s

Other incongruencies arise right on your website. For example, many people who create their own web ‘copy’ put across a ‘corporate team’ image that belies the fact it is really just themselves available. After reading the book “A Brand Called You” by Peter Montoya, I think you might reconsider this approach.

Another credibility builder is to provide evidence for any promise statements you make. A promise statement is like: “We react quickly to customer needs”.  Without evidence it is just another marketing filler. Better to think how you really do that in practice, e.g. “Our usual turnaround for email enquiries is 24 hours”.

The best possible evidence for service is a testimonial. In your pile of customer emails or letters, see if you can find a one-line testimonial that drives home your point. If they are more generic in nature, consider having your testimonials on your sidebar – along with their photo if possible.

What Do You Say When Someone Asks: “What Do You Do?”

As I’ve learned from Marketing Consultant Deborah Jackson, we also must practice our ‘pitch’ so that when people ask what we do, we don’t completely blow that opportunity. For example when I used to be asked “what do you do?”, I answered “I’m a copywriter”. Then would ensue a conversation where the person thought I was a patent attorney (protecting copyright)!

With just a little tuition in Attraction Marketing, I now know that if I respond “I help small businesses build a bigger prospect list through the medium of words” (or some such), it meets with a much more genuine (and non-confused) interest.  What could you say that puts across what you do very well and gives you a pinch of credibility?

So whether you are an online merchant or an offline service provider, pay attention to all outgoing messages and credibility factors… and let the company marketing jargon go by way of the dinosaur.
Feedback on this post is welcomed.

Comments are closed.