Sarah Woodhouse

Build trust signals for your brand to unlock next-level trust and loyalty

Sarah Woodhouse — Tue, 19 Nov 2024 12:47:24 +0000

Trust is an invaluable asset in business. It is the foundation upon which relationships are built, and it significantly influences customers’ decisions about whether or not to engage with your company.

In an era where businesses face ever-increasing competition, trust is not just a nice-to-have; it is essential for growth and visibility. Google’s evolving algorithms now factor trustworthiness as a core element in its ranking criteria, making it crucial for businesses to understand how to foster meaningful connections with customers and prospects alike. Building trust involves strategically positioning your company to showcase its credibility. This is where trust signals come into play.

How to build trust signals

A trust signal is any piece of evidence that reassures prospective customers of your reliability. These signals act as indicators that reassure your audience that your business is reliable and professional. These signals could be a variety of things, a positive review, an industry award, or a high-quality backlink from a respected website, trust signals serve as proof points that build confidence and help customers feel more comfortable about choosing your business over competitors.

Trust signals can be particularly effective when displayed on your website or included in your communications efforts. A genuine positive review from a client on your social media can be a fantastic trust signal. Trust signals can inform different sections of a business growth strategy, including inbound marketing, outbound marketing and your website.

Become trusted by Google

The rise of E-E-A-T (Experience, Expertise, Authoritativeness, and Trustworthiness) has meant that businesses must go beyond basic SEO practices. Google’s search algorithm now rewards content that offers an authentic, helpful experience, positioning those who follow these principles higher in search rankings. Websites that fill their pages with low-value content, stuffed with keywords and designed merely to rank, will find themselves penalised. On the other hand, if your business consistently provides high-quality, useful content tailored to your audience’s needs, it will be recognised by search engines, enhancing your rankings and, importantly, your credibility.

The role of the media in gaining third-party trust signals

Public relations (PR) is another crucial aspect of building trust signals. Through strategic PR efforts, businesses can secure positive media coverage that enhances their credibility. Mentions in respected publications or websites add legitimacy to your business and serve as a strong signal to both customers and search engines. Being associated with reputable outlets or receiving awards from established industry bodies can drastically improve how your company is perceived.

Be a Thoughtful Leader

Transparency plays a pivotal role in building trust and customers are increasingly scrutinising businesses not only based on their offerings but also on their ethical standards and business practices. Becoming a Thoughtful Leader is about taking an outward-in approach by focusing on what is needed in the world and looking at how your business can be a force for positive change. Whether it’s your approach to sustainability, your treatment of employees, or the transparency of your supply chain, being open about your operations fosters trust. PR agencies can help you communicate these aspects clearly, ensuring that your audience understands your values and is more likely to trust you with their business.

Embrace customer and influencer feedback

The power of positive word-of-mouth and third-party endorsements cannot be overstated. While paid advertisements can promote your offerings, they don’t carry the same weight as independent validation. A glowing review from a customer or a favourable mention from an industry influencer is far more effective at establishing trust. Customers are more likely to trust what others say about your business than they are to trust what you say about yourself.

When it comes to customer reviews, their role as a trust signal is invaluable. Reviews serve as powerful social proof, demonstrating that your products or services have satisfied others. Case studies, too, can act as trust signals, showcasing the real-world impact your business has had on its customers. Potential clients can see the tangible benefits of working with you, making it easier for them to make the leap from consideration to conversion.

Manage your online reputation

But while reviews are crucial, businesses must also recognise the potential downside. Negative feedback, particularly on social media, can rapidly escalate if not managed carefully. Social platforms are places where customers can share their opinions publicly, for better or worse. Monitoring these channels and responding promptly to both positive and negative comments is essential for maintaining a strong, trustworthy reputation. By addressing complaints or concerns transparently and professionally, you can demonstrate your commitment to customer satisfaction and reinforce trust in your brand.

As people make their decisions with online research, the importance of online trust signals will only increase. Businesses that focus on providing valuable content, securing credible endorsements, and maintaining transparency will find themselves better positioned in the long term. Trust is not a one-time achievement; it is an ongoing effort that requires constant nurturing.

AI increases the value of human trust signals

In the future, the integration of AI and automation into customer service may challenge trust in new ways. With the rise of AI-generated content and automated systems, consumers may become more wary of what they see online. To combat this, businesses will need to emphasise the human aspect of their operations, ensuring that their brand remains genuine, relatable, and accountable. As AI continues to change the landscape of customer interactions, businesses that prioritise human connections and transparent communication will have the upper hand in building trust with their audiences.

Use trust signals to set your brand apart

Trust signals shape how your brand is perceived, both by customers and search engines, and they play a crucial role in fostering long-term relationships. By strategically incorporating trust signals into your content, PR efforts, and customer interactions, you can build a reputation for reliability and credibility that will set you apart in a competitive market. The businesses that truly understand the importance of trust and invest in it will reap the rewards of stronger customer loyalty, better rankings, and sustained growth.

Communicating your ESG efforts through content marketing

Sarah Woodhouse — Mon, 29 Jul 2024 11:34:55 +0000

Effectively communicating your Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) credentials through content marketing is an essential prerequisite of companies of all sizes today.

However, there are three key trends surrounding ESG at the moment to be aware of:

The first is the politicisation and controversy of ESG as a term despite general recognition of underlying values, leading to “greenhushing”, particularly in the US.
The second is changes to sustainability reporting requirements, particularly in the EU.
The third trend is changes to greenwashing legislation to enhance consumer protection.

In this piece, we’ll explore how these trends affect small to medium businesses, and how creatives can use content marketing to effectively communicate their small business’ ESG efforts.

The ‘anti-ESG’ movement may seem distant, but it can have a knock-on effect, generating distrust around the term and associated action. This can create a discouraging and difficult atmosphere for ESG communications.

Meanwhile in Europe, there has been a shift towards more disclosure to drive transparency on corporate responsibility, such as the Corporate Social Responsibility Directive (CSRD). This has created opportunity for communications professionals, although it has also increased the pressure on sustainability professionals as the default team to handle sustainability reporting. For example, a survey by PWC found that 60% of businesses have not involved their technology function and teams in assisting with data collection for their CSRD.

While the requirements of the CSRD currently affects large businesses, it is likely that they will trickle down to small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs).

From a consumer perspective, there has been a real focus on consumer protection in recent years with the release of the Green Claims Code in 2021. While the primary focus is consumer-facing communications and advertising, the rules apply across the board and creative agencies should use this as a guide to check if their client’s sustainability claims are misleading, protecting all parties from legal fallout.

Greenwashing is also mentioned in the Digital Markets, Competition and Consumer’s Bill, which has been in the pipeline for the last year and was hurried through parliament due to the general election on the 4th July. The most recent amendment of the Bill, explicitly states that it is seeking to ban greenwashing through its policies and states the need for a legal definition of sustainability.

How does this apply to content marketing?

Typically, one might associate greenwashing with misleading statistics, or words, but it is important to remember that the Green Claims Code applies across all contexts—including visual, such as graphics, imagery and videos.

For example, Innocent smoothies was accused on greenwashing in 2022, after one of their adverts called for consumers to “get fixing up the planet” by choosing their products. The sing-song jingle, and animated animals gave the impression that buying Innocent drinks would solve climate change— and was deemed to be misleading. Indeed, Innocent is owned by Coca-Cola thelargest known contributor of branded plastic.

It’s important to consider tone and context as well as any written content when marketing sustainability and climate claims.

Creatives for Climate lay out guidelines very clearly in their anti-greenwash guide for agencies which creatives can consult when creating any form of consumer-facing content marketing.

Using an impact report to content market your ESG efforts

An annual report focuses on the business performance of the organisation that year, whereas an impact report focuses on the impact the organisation has on people and the planet.

Generally, an impact report communicates your ESG goals and strategy, and reports on your progress in achieving these. You can tie this into your organisation’s mission and culture. For example, if your goal is to reduce Scope 3 carbon emissions by 20%, you can describe how you strove towards this, and list your actual Scope 3 carbon reduction. You might have used a company culture initiative to achieve this—such as implementing a cycle to work scheme, or a travel policy.

Transparency about your results is important—remember the selective omission anti-greenwashing rule! If you didn’t achieve your goal, being honest will build trust, and the accountability of the impact report will encourage your organisation to reassess their strategy.

An impact report can set out your ESG goals, and align your business’s goals with frameworks, such as the UN Sustainable Development Goals. Each industry will have its own frameworks to work collectively towards an industry impact—such as Ad Net Zero for the advertising industry.

It’s important that these are part of your organisations business strategy. For example, if your organisation focused on SDG 3 ‘Ensure Healthy Lives and Promote Wellbeing For All Ages’, and perhaps you focused on overhauling the work wellbeing or sickness policy, or providing a gym membership as a work perk, as well as corporate donations going towards global health charities that year.

You can then look at the effects of this – by focusing on health did your staff feel more motivated? Were there fewer sick days taken? How did their mental health fare? Did you have any feedback from the charities you donated to? You can include any quotes from your staff or other stakeholders. Weaving compelling stories in amongst your data points makes it more interesting and adds authenticity.

Another part of the impact report, as with any content, is data visualisation. Having clear and engaging visuals will help readers understand your data and statistics.

How to market an impact report

As a public-facing document, it’s important that your impact report fulfils anti-greenwashing guidelines and the Green Claims Code.

As such, any assets syndicated from this central report should be checked as well, especially in the context of a social media profile. For example, only posting about the “good” parts of the report, or only sharing certain targets might be perceived as selective omission. Making sure you always link to the whole impact report so the reader can find more detail is also pertinent.

You can maximise the value of your impact report by breaking it down into social media assets. For example, you can take the key highlights and turn that into a graphic with icons for LinkedIn titled ‘Our top three impacts this year’.

Any data visualisation, or images can be repurposed as a visual for a LinkedIn post, along with a link to the full report.

TikTok

Video footage of any volunteering projects, or of employees cycling to work etc can be made into a light-hearted TikTok post. You could create a highlights reel from the last year of positive impacts, or even make a TikTok asking your staff if anything surprised them from the impact report.

Blogs

There is plenty to be written around the notion of an impact report: why are they important for SMEs? How did you conduct yours? What did you prioritise? What problems did you encounter?

A blog is also a chance to dive deeper into a subject from the report, for example why your organisation chose your particular charity. Or perhaps a team member would like to share personal testimony about something from the impact report—an intern might share their story and their steps since leaving the internship.

In conclusion, communicating your ESG efforts is an intimidating task, but through creating an annual impact report, you can create a reliable central document to create content assets across a range of channels.

Unlock the power of employer branding to build a workplace identity that attracts talent and drives success

Sarah Woodhouse — Tue, 18 Jun 2024 10:15:44 +0000

A competitive job market means that attracting and retaining top talent is now a paramount challenge for companies across industries.

UK businesses are reporting difficulty in finding the skilled talent they need, with cross-sector shortfalls reaching an 18-year high in 2024 of 80%.

It’s one of the reasons why employer branding has become so critical for businesses looking to market themselves. More and more business leaders are recognising the pivotal role of employer branding in showcasing company culture, values, and opportunities.

Having a proactive employer brand strategy keeps a business in control of the company’s image and champions a positive workplace culture with proactive communications at its core. From recruitment drives and reputation management – to communicating brand values and culture both internally and externally.

Businesses have a desire for sustainable growth with low attrition and to support this, it has become essential that companies talk about the benefits of working with them. Work in the field of employer branding has increased for AMBITIOUS as the intensity of securing the brightest and best talent becomes a core business objective.

In this article, I’ll share my five top considerations when building out an employer brand strategy.

The need to showcase why people should want to work with you

An employer brand campaign is about crafting a compelling narrative and showcasing the company’s culture, values, opportunities, and work environment to attract, engage, and retain top talent. It involves strategic initiatives aimed at shaping and promoting an organisation as an employer of choice.

Identifying what sets the company apart as an employer and why people should want to work there begins by conducting an internal audit.

This is combined with external market research and sentiment analysis to understand the current perception of the company.

The strategy will involve developing a cohesive narrative that reflects the company’s culture, values, and mission. This will be communicated to priority employee target audiences through engaging content—such as videos, blogs, social media posts, media articles and employee testimonials. Leveraging both online and offline platforms ensures that these communications will reach a wide and diverse audience of potential candidates.

Think about your offer, and this goes way beyond pension schemes and benefits packages

If people believe in what you stand for as a company, they’re more likely to want to work for you. When considering what aspects of the company to highlight as part of an employer brand strategy it’s essential to be clear on your mission and purpose. This is increasingly important for younger generations. It’s important to note that the role of employer branding is not to structure benefits packages.

Aspects to highlight could include:

Personal development opportunities, such as skill enhancement and access to a professional coach. But it could also be the opportunity to get involved in ‘nonbillable’ responsibilities which enable the employee to help move the business on, and spot new growth areas. Not only does this take the pressure off of the front line, but it also provides an opportunity for the employee to make a real difference to the company.
Your organisation’s commitment to employee well-being. For example, in response to demands for more flexible work, it’s now imperative to showcase flexible work arrangements, remote work policies, and initiatives that support a healthy work-life balance.
Programmes that recognise and reward exceptional performance, such as employee of the month/year, bonuses, and incentives tied to achievements or milestones.
The organisation’s culture. This is a huge area in itself. It’s important to communicate policies in place that speak to Equality, Diversity and Inclusion (ED&I), which can resonate strongly with candidates seeking alignment with their personal values. The company’s involvement in the community, sustainability efforts, or corporate social responsibility (CSR) programmes also appeals to candidates who value socially responsible organisations.

Engage existing employees in communicating your employer brand

One of the most effective ways to communicate the company as an employer of choice is through current employees. Encourage them to share their experiences and insights about working at the company through branded and personal social media profiles. Make them the advocates of the business by encouraging them to be brand ambassadors. Engage employees in content creation via internal channels but also at employee-centric events.

Ensure that company communications are consistent with employee communications across all channels to align the employer brand message with the actual employee experience. This will help to build trust and credibility among potential candidates.

Use employer branding to attract a more diverse workforce

A successful employer brand strategy can help you to attract a more diverse workforce as a result of helping to get more people through the door for interviews.

With any employer brand campaign, it’s important to establish key performance indicators (KPIs) to measure the success. This could include metrics such as application rates, engagement metrics, employee retention, and employer reputation scores.

Make sure that your employer brand strategy evolves with the company

It’s also important to look at employer brand not as a siloed activity, but as a fundamental strand of activity that develops and expands with the company. The employer brand narrative may also need to change to remain relevant and competitive in attracting top talent. Therefore, it’s important that the strategy responds to feedback, market trends, and changing candidate expectations.

Employees are a core audience in your comms strategy

In summary, employer branding is an ongoing process that requires dedication, collaboration between HR, PR, marketing and other departments, and a commitment to nurturing a positive employer reputation in the eyes of current and potential employees. After all, employees are a core audience, equally as important as the customer audience.

How to supercharge your corporate LinkedIn profile in eight steps

Sarah Woodhouse — Wed, 29 May 2024 11:02:36 +0000

Whether you’re an individual setting out to be an industry thought leader or a brand seeking leads, LinkedIn is a valuable tool for business success.

Think of your profile as your digital shopfront. It’s the first impression you make on potential employers, clients, and collaborators. Get it right, and you’ll see a positive impact on your brand and bottom line.

This guide will help you craft a compelling LinkedIn profile, from your photo to SEO optimisation. We’ll cover everything you need to maximise the potential of LinkedIn for you, your team, and your business. Here are eight steps to consider.

Clear and consistent visuals and branding

If you’re a business, make sure that you have a high-quality logo or brand mark as your profile image and header. Make sure that you are following LinkedIn’s most up-to-date design rules, or else it will end up cropped and distorted.

To fully weave your brand throughout your entire Linkedin ecosystem, a professional photoshoot for your team is a good idea. This way, you and all of your team members will have brand and visual uniformity.

Create a compelling summary headline

Make sure that it accurately reflects your role, experience, current position, and your value proposition. Be clear and concise for anyone visiting your LinkedIn profile for the first time.

You can also take your headlines a step further. Use online search keyword research to insert valuable relevant keywords into your headline. Having these keywords present in your LinkedIn profile can have positive impacts on your overall search presence. Having a high presence in SERP is a crucial part of digital PR and Online Reputation Management.

For instance, if someone is searching for Project Management Specialists in the construction sector, if your keywords are tuned into your LinkedIn profile, they will have a much easier time finding you both on and off the platform.

List your skills, endorsements and recommendations

Listing your own skills and experience is one thing, but it’s even more powerful when these come from your colleagues, recruiters, clients, and peers.

Having others endorse you, and your teams, helps further validate your key skills and proficiences. So canvas colleagues, clients, end users and whoever you can, to add endorsements and recommendations. They serve as incredibly powerful trust signals that can showcase your capability and credibility.

Post relevant content regularly

The frequency and cadence of output and engagement on LinkedIn are very important.

Posting irregular content and updates serves very little benefit. You will need to get into the mindset of regular, relevant content.

Have a content strategy in place that includes long-form feed posts of LinkedIn blogs by company thought leaders. LinkedIn is also prioritising video as its content format of choice, so think about how you can take your written thought leadership and convert it into an engaging and entertaining video.

Like, share, comment…engage

LinkedIn runs on engagement. Respond promptly to comments on posts from your business page. This will show that you place value in being part of a wider industry community. Don’t be a monolith in your sector.

You can also engage your internal teams, by sharing their own Linkedin content on your main business page. Celebrate achievements or share a great post on a pressing industry topic.

Engage with content from your connections. This could be industry influencers and key decision makers, media or other thought leaders within your professional network.

Carefully manage your online reputation

In business, your reputation is your bond. Ensure that your teams understand that when they are online, they’re representing the interests of the business. There’s a code of conduct when it comes to being on Linkedin, professionalism comes before personal opinion, this isn’t Facebook.

If anything should arise that could damage that, then you need to approach the situation very carefully. This is where crisis management comes into play.

A ‘crisis’ could be a negative review or criticism aimed at your business, but it could also be something a lot more serious. Ensure that you’re prepared with an effective crisis management policy.

Test and learn

LinkedIn is indeed a very competitive place to set out your stall. There are 830 million members on the platform and 67 million listed companies. Whichever way you look at it, that’s a lot of noise.

Challenge yourself to consistently deliver high-quality content and engage with your audience. But most importantly, know what’s working for you and what’s not to get noticed. To do so, adopt a test-and-learn mindset. Don’t be disheartened if a particular post doesn’t land. Learn from it and go again.

Enjoy the process!

These practical tips will help you to create a compelling and engaging LinkedIn profile that acts as a springboard to a richer professional network. Enjoy the process of building relationships, sharing knowledge, and growing your influence within your industry.

Strategies and tips on using TikTok for business

Sarah Woodhouse — Mon, 22 Apr 2024 12:54:07 +0000

By 2023, TikTok boasted an astonishing 1.7 billion users worldwide, comprising nearly a quarter of the global population. In the United States alone, the app had 150 million active users, while the UK counted over 23 million.

This exponential growth solidifies TikTok’s position as one of the leading social media platforms globally. Notably, almost half of Generation Z is active on TikTok, a demographic trend with significant implications, as we’ll delve into later.

The platform’s user engagement is remarkable, with over 1 billion TikTok videos viewed daily. Moreover, TikTok disclosed that nearly 1.5 million UK businesses leverage the platform to enhance their operations. Given these staggering figures, the surge in TikTok marketing is unsurprising. Perhaps it’s time for you to consider harnessing the power of TikTok for building your brand?

Finding your target audience on TikTok

When you think of TikTok influencers, who comes to mind first? Perhaps a Kardashian or another universally recognised celebrity, or maybe an unknown teenager dancing in their bedroom. But what about Laura Pomfret, Holly Holland, or David Poku?

Holly and Laura, known as @Financielle, and David Poku, under the handle @PokuBanks, represent a burgeoning trend known as #FinTok. As the name suggests, FinTok focuses on financial advice on TikTok. David delves into the risks of unregulated advice and offers tips to avoid online scams, while Holly and Laura simplify financial jargon and tackle questions like ‘should I rent or buy?’

Together, they amass over 350,000 followers, with the FinTok hashtag accumulating nearly 5 billion views. This underscores the diversity of niches on platforms like TikTok, where attentive exploration can uncover an engaged audience for any business.

TikTok videos reign supreme in content creation!

When it comes to posting videos on TikTok, insights from Sprout Social Media’s 2023 Index report offer valuable guidance on effective content strategies. Short-form video emerges as the top-performing format, unsurprisingly, given its high activity and engagement levels. Therefore, prioritising short-form video content is crucial for your TikTok channel, as Sprout’s report indicates its superior engagement compared to longer formats.

Moreover, the versatility of short-form videos allows for easy repurposing across other platforms like Instagram, amplifying their value. To further enhance your marketing efforts, consider leveraging dedicated paid advertising options through TikTok ads.

In essence, integrating video content into your content strategy is essential. But what does this entail in practical terms?

Crafting a tailored content strategy

When utilising TikTok for business, the specifics of your content will be entirely unique to your brand. Your TikTok channel serves as your platform to narrate your story in your distinctive brand voice, so embrace experimentation.

Many successful TikTok users approach content creation with an open mindset, recognising that testing and learning are integral to maximising TikTok’s potential. The platform’s algorithm can be unpredictable; a piece of content may initially receive minimal engagement, only to thrive upon reposting weeks later. Maintaining an open mind, a willingness to engage with trends and themes, and the confidence to accept that not every attempt will resonate are crucial for TikTok success.

As a business account, consider posting content that enhances brand visibility and awareness.

Develop content that embodies your core values

Be authentic. This is particularly important with TikTok for business. The most successful businesses and brands using TikTok are doing so without filters or pretence. It should be an honest portrayal of your corporate values. TikTok users want authenticity, so give it to them.

Tell your story

Whether you’re a local butcher, an emerging tech scale-up or a global mega-corporation, everyone has a story to tell. Use the platform to show and tell your story, knowledge and experiences to your TikTok community.

Showcase your people

Put your people front and centre.

Give them the latitude to create engaging content on their own terms (obviously with the businesses’ best interests in mind). This kind of user-generated content typically performs very well on TikTok and is a strong method of enhancing and amplifying employer brand.

Share knowledge and expertise

Try to teach your target audiences something they don’t know. Our FinTok examples above do an excellent job of breaking down complex subject matter into educational and easily digestible audio clips.

Entertain

Social media platforms are entertainment platforms. The content you put out into the world has to be entertaining. You have less than two seconds to hook in your target audience… so it has to be entertaining above all.

Collaborating with partners and creators

To further grow your presence, creator collaborations could be the next step.

You might not consider TikTok a defecto B2B platform… and you might be right. But, remember that not too long ago, neither was Facebook. Neither was Instagram.

The B2B creator and influencer space on TikTok is still emerging. Forward-thinking businesses can get in on the action early and explore partnerships with emerging creators, influencers, industry experts and thought leaders.

Again, look at the great example of FinTok, with billions of views all relating to financial advice. The odds are, that if you’re a business looking to engage with creators or direct users, there will be a pool of people out there for you.

When you do reach the stage of working with creators and influencers. There is yet more interesting data from Sprout Social, on the engagement rates of smaller creators:

5k-10k followers: 76.23%

10k-50k followers: 37.77%

50k-100k followers: 27.87%

100k-250k followers: 20.43%

250k-1m followers: 16.59%

1m+ followers: 12.69%

As the data shows, smaller-level creators are having much more cut-through with their audiences, when compared with higher-followed accounts.

TikTok and the talent crisis

The battle for young talent is a sector-agnostic challenge. But could TikTok be the answer to many-a-businesses recruitment woes?

In December of 2022, PR Week delved into this concept, with some very interesting anecdotal evidence, to prove that TikTok is already having a major positive impact on recruitment and employer brand.

Battenhall

“It’s been a huge driver of recruitment interest for us,” says Taja Woods, senior account executive at Battenhall. She adds that the agency’s most popular video was directly responsible for more than 50 job applications.

Here Be Dragons

“Every time we post something cool, within the next week our inbox goes mad. That’s normally people looking for their first job or an internship, so it really is Gen Z. These are people looking to enter the workplace for the first time, who’ve identified marketing as a discipline they might want to get involved in, and have looked it up on TikTok, found our channel and gone: ‘That’s a bit of me.’”

Emerge

“We have seen a significant increase in job applicants, new business and awareness as a consequence of our TikTok presence,”

TikTok offers business account users a platform to showcase their values, their culture and their ways of working in new, exciting and engaging content. The largest age demographic on TikTok is the 18-24 category, at 36%.

This younger audience is key demographic in the talent crisis and we can see from these three examples, that TikTok is already working to attract both potential candidates, new customers and new business.

If it’s working for them, then why can’t it work for you?

Initiating your TikTok business profile

TikTok stands out as a powerhouse among social media platforms, making it indispensable for enhancing yourdigital marketing efforts. Beyond mere video creation, leveraging TikTok for business can amplify your online reach, bolster brand visibility, and foster deeper connections with potential customers, teams, and target audiences, in conjunction with other social media platforms.

Moreover, the barrier to entry is remarkably low. You don’t need elaborate production setups or expensive equipment to create TikTok videos—all you require is a smartphone and a willingness to explore creative possibilities.

The power of a negative review

Sarah Woodhouse — Wed, 27 Mar 2024 10:30:12 +0000

As buyers (whether that’s B2B or B2C) we’re increasingly savvy. Far from making purchasing decisions alone, we trawl the web in search of trust signals from the brands we may want to buy from, harnessing other people’s experiences, industry credentials, and client lists.

But as we acclimatise to the fact that we’re all hyper-connected by technology, companies are quickly recognising the transformative potential of negative feedback.

Yes, you read that right. B2B business growth depends on attracting new customers and minimising (if not eliminating) customer churn. Far from being detrimental, negative reviews can serve as catalysts for innovation, driving improvements and, from a PR perspective especially, create moments of awe. Embracing negative reviews can lead to PR strategy evolution, enhanced customer satisfaction, and opportunities for unforgettable experiences.

When a bad review is better than no review

Of course, in an ideal world, we wouldn’t be dealing with any negativity and we’d intuitively know what to deliver to which customer at any given time to determine the ultimate satisfaction. That is the endgame every business strives for and there is a huge opportunity to amplify success stories. But alas, the B2B buying process can be complex and it’s not always possible to deliver a one-size fits all strategy. Perceptive companies don’t shy away from negativity, understanding that there are times when customers will be less than satisfied.

Thanks to the plethora of online communities and social media platforms, conversations can happen very easily and very publicly. These conversations represent the voice of the customer and they will happen with or without a brand listening in. Innovative brands tune in and embrace this feedback loop.

How to respond to a negative review

Leaving negative comments out in the open with no acknowledgment represents a missed opportunity to resolve that customer’s dissatisfaction. But worse still, it demonstrates to the outside world a lack of commitment to customer satisfaction, accountability, and to continual improvement, contradicting the ethos of every brand looking for sustainable growth.

Conversely, brands that actively lean into negativity as a key part of their strategy powerfully demonstrate a strong ethos for all the above. Rather than sweeping negative feedback under the rug, businesses can leverage it as an opportunity to showcase their responsiveness and accountability. By openly acknowledging shortcomings and demonstrating a willingness to listen and learn, companies can build trust and credibility with their audience, ultimately strengthening their brand reputation.

This relies on continuous auditing of channels to track mentions of your brand across various review platforms, social media channels, forums, and other online spaces. Tools such as Google Alerts, Mention, Hootsuite, and Social Mention can help you stay informed about new reviews and feedback in real-time. Knowing what’s being said about your brand is half the challenge, next is time for action. Here are seven tips for responding to a negative review to manage online reputation and foster trust and loyalty amongst customers:

Develop a structured process for monitoring and responding to reviews, assigning responsibilities to specific team members or departments.
Develop criteria for categorising reviews based on factors such as sentiment, rating, and specific issues mentioned.
Respond to negative reviews promptly, ideally within 24-48 hours, to demonstrate attentiveness and concern for customer feedback.
Maintain a professional and empathetic tone in your responses, acknowledging the customer’s concerns and expressing a sincere desire to address the issue.
Provide practical solutions or remedies to address the customer’s concerns.
Take concrete steps to rectify the issue and prevent similar problems from occurring in the future, demonstrating a commitment to continuous improvement.
Regularly analyse feedback from negative reviews to identify recurring issues, patterns, and trends. Use this information to identify areas for improvement in products, services, or customer experiences and implement proactive measures to address them.

The awe factor

Much has been written recently about the psychological power of awe. Feeling wowed or in awe is about shifting someone’s attention for a moment. It can improve our well-being and even positively affect our physiology. This Guardian report acknowledges that feeling awe is not only derived from a visit to one of the world’s natural wonders – more often, feeling awe is about people.

The way you handle negative criticism can be a powerful moment to create awe in your PR and business growth strategy. It’s an opportunity to show your human side, show customers you care, and then act with integrity to make things happen. Nailing it can be your superpower.

When to build negative reviews into your business growth strategy

There are instances when brands can turn negative reviews and incidents into positive PR opportunities that also impact a business’ growth strategy. Careful listening to customer feedback can help bring decisive action and continuous innovation.

For example, following concerns raised by mental health advocates about the portrayal of suicide in the Netflix series “Thirteen Reasons Why,” Netflix responded by incorporating trigger warnings and additional resources for viewers. The streaming platform engaged in meaningful dialogue with mental health experts and organisations to address the criticisms constructively, and publicly. By demonstrating responsiveness and a commitment to viewer well-being, Netflix transformed the negative publicity into an opportunity to raise awareness about mental health issues and promote responsible content consumption.

Another example of turning a negative review into a positive is the way that Amazon continues to respond to concerns about fake reviews on its platform. Amazon implemented measures to crack down on fraudulent activity, took legal action against individuals and businesses engaged in fake review schemes, and invested in technology to detect and remove fake reviews more effectively. By prioritising authenticity and trustworthiness, Amazon demonstrated its commitment to maintaining a fair and reliable marketplace, earning praise for its proactive approach to addressing a pervasive issue.

Rather than going silent, or arguing on social media, Ryanair chooses light hearted humour in its approach to negative reviews, with some posts even going viral. Some may think it’s brave to draw yet more attention to a negative view, but on the contrary, it serves to promote Ryanair as transparent, aware and in control, boosting customer trust.

Recognise the importance of your employer brand

It’s not just negative customer reviews that brands must be mindful of. As we face the additional pressures of a challenging economy and continuing skills shortages, the need to manage an employer brand is perhaps even more pressing to achieve sustainable growth with low attrition. In the same way that leaving a negative customer review unanswered can damage a brand, a negative Glassdoor review can do just as much damage if left. Employees are your best brand ambassadors. The same rules about acknowledging, being transparent about specific issues, and demonstrating that you’ve implemented any necessary changes apply here too.

An opportunity to innovate

Creating solid partnerships with customers and employees built on loyalty goes way beyond delivering the excellent service which is, essentially, expected. It’s as much about how a brand acknowledges criticism and implements meaningful changes. Leveraging negative feedback is an opportunity to let customers know they’re important, but it could also reveal your next business move or opportunity to innovate. Sounds straightforward – but are you doing it?

Where has your target market gone? How SMEs can roll with the changes to develop a business growth strategy with impact

Sarah Woodhouse — Wed, 06 Mar 2024 11:39:19 +0000

For businesses looking to scale successfully, a growth strategy detailing how to overcome current and future challenges is essential.

What might have worked well in the past has now been complicated by a rapid change in the way that we consume content, who we trust and how we live our lives. As the business landscape moves on in 2024, companies need to keep up with the industry and the latest tactics to see themselves grow.

What does a growth strategy look like?

Under the current business climate, a growth strategy for every stage of your business is more important than ever. Your growth strategy is a decision on where you plan to focus your business efforts to bring in greater profit in 2024. That could be:

· More customers – expanding your target market;

· Sales – selling more product/services to your existing customer base;

· Improving products or processes;

· Putting up your prices for existing products;

· Improving your revenue or profit margin – supplying the same products or service at lower costs to you.

A well-constructed growth strategy will usually include a combination of the above and can help your business expand sustainably or overcome the financial impact of a changed business landscape. Aspects could include market expansion, developing services and new technology innovations.

Where is my target market engaging?

We’re not in Kansas anymore, Toto. The business development landscape has changed rapidly in the past couple of years. The pandemic sped up the trend to work from home some or all of the time, which also impacted how customers interact with businesses. Home delivery and online marketing has replaced many physical interactions with customers.

The pandemic also contributed to the change in the sources of information that people trust. The number of people that previously had a high level of trust in broadcast and print media has plummeted with just 37% of people trusting the media now. More trust is placed in social media platforms – with many businesses now having a TikTok presence – and podcasts. Trade and business press have also turned to online-only delivery.

How to create impact with your growth strategy

PR is one of the fastest ways to drive business growth and increase market penetration. A good PR agency will have strategies to get to hard-to-reach audiences through non-traditional routes such as working with influencers and vloggers, creating video content to gain traction on social media sites, or securing your company CEO a guest speaker slot on a trending podcast.

It’s vital to develop a process to align your PR strategy with your growth strategy. For example, if you’re trying to bring in more customers from new demographics, your PR campaigns should focus on building your credibility in the places these demographics hang out – whether that’s on the business pages of the FT or with the influencers on YouTube Shorts. By adapting content and processes to work across a number of channels, PR can ensure your messaging remains clear and measure whether you’re hitting your development goals.

Employees are your best brand ambassadors

Your most important audience is not your customer base, but your employees. Keeping them upskilled and motivated means you have a crowd of brand ambassadors promoting your company whenever they leave the premises. It’s all part of building a positive employer brand.

Company costs to develop employees, such as increasing their knowledge of new technology, can be a sound financial investment for the future. Whether staff feel valued can determine the success or failure of your company.

If you do one thing this year

If your business isn’t trying out how AI and business function automation can make you more efficient, you’re already behind the curve. We’ve had well over a year to get to grips with large language models (LLMs) and systems such as ChatGPT and, when used well, applications for businesses are varied. As well as content creation, AI can be used by companies for working out how marketing and PR campaigns will be received by your target audience. It can also point out questions people will ask about new products or services, manage diaries of your sales people, assist with visualisation and analysis of sales data, conduct business impact analysis of PR campaigns, and automate certain customer interactions.

AI can’t replace the humans in your business, but it can save them time, freeing them up to do more strategic tasks and focus on growth. However, it’s a mistake to think your employees will get the most out of AI resources without any training in how to structure an AI prompt or how to tweak results to get from 80% success to 100%. Investing now in upskilling colleagues to use AI systems to reduce resource requirements and manipulate data can contribute to business growth.

Do more of what works

Setting clear objectives and an actionable plan means you can measure the impact of your growth strategy: have you increased market share or penetrated a new market, added a business function or begun production of a new product line or service?

To maintain a rapid growth stage, it’s vital to carry out a business impact analysis of your growth strategy regularly to continually improve your critical business processes to adapt to each disruptive event (general election, anyone?) and industry pressure that occurs in 2024.

Where should you be investing your unused marketing budget this financial year?

Sarah Woodhouse — Thu, 01 Feb 2024 12:25:37 +0000

Marketing budgets have become far more proactive in recent years, and rightly so. The traditional approach of allocating budgets reactively based on previous performance is out and instead, marketing teams are taking a dynamic approach. To gain sustainable growth, budgets are allocated on activities that drive tangible results that propel the business forward.

At this point in the financial year, you may find that you have unused marketing budget in the pot. Here are some projects to consider investing in to move your business on.

Media coaching in an era dominated by digital communication

In an age where digital communication is the norm, opportunities to humanise the brand are a good investment. Investing in media coaching for your company spokespeople will pay off well into the future. The individuals you choose to represent your company can deliver far more than a polished image. They can bring authenticity, relatability and trust to your brand, driving engagement and loyalty.

No matter the platform, becoming an effective spokesperson requires practice and preparation and with many new and exciting media channels, the challenge is to ensure that your narrative is managed in the right way.

What is good practice in a TV news interview – such as a short and snappy sound-byte – is very different from good practice in a podcast appearance, where the host is likely to want an in-depth analysis of a subject. Online traditional media increasingly requires interviews to deliver clickbait headlines whereas LinkedIn allows you to be your own publisher, broadcasting your point of view and building your own community of followers.

Media coaching is a form of professional development for spokespeople which bolsters competence and confidence when dealing with all forms of the media. It is tailored to your company needs and blends theory and practice, so delegates learn new skills and tactics and develop techniques to calm the nerves in even the most daunting situations.

Online reputation management

One of the primary goals of PR is to protect and build the reputation of businesses and their leaders. As more and more business is now being conducted online, it makes sense that we view reputation through an online lens.

Threats to reputation are everywhere online. A quick Google search can be make-or-break for whether a potential client chooses you or someone else as consumers look for trust signals online. One tweet in poor taste can undo a decade of brand-building.

It’s therefore important to proactively build your online presence – this will not only benefit your business from a communications perspective but also build resilience, boosting the positive search results related to your business if a threat does emerge.

Investing in a combination of reputation auditing to surface any content that constitutes a reputational risk and a proactive reputation management strategy to tell your story, will give you greater curation over Google’s search results.

Crisis Communication Preparedness

You may have plans in place at an operational level for when challenges arise but you need to ensure you’ve also considered how plans will be communicated, by whom and through which channels. Having a plan, an agreed process and the necessary tools in place to communicate in times of crises means you can be confident of being prepared, informed and in control. This puts you in the best possible position to manage the reputation of the business.

A crisis communications plan provides a framework and set of guidelines for the business to follow when a crisis hits. It will include identifying the individuals, groups, and organisations that are directly or indirectly impacted by a crisis and considering the different response plans required for each stakeholder group via which communication channel.

Insights reporting

Whether it’s identifying the national and international trends that your business can have a voice on, analysing and deciphering search data, or digging deep into the current effectiveness of your communications, an insights reporting project will inform the communications strategy that will have a positive impact on your business.

Stakeholder workshops can help you pinpoint your key audience groups. From here, you can construct searches to capture online conversations that these groups are a part of, to understand the sort of content that will have cut through in the future for your business.

A landscape analysis will enable you to look deep into a particular topic, for example, retirement in the UK or the future of work. You can then track mentions across channels and analyse the data for audience statistics, trends and whitespace, allowing you to shape your future communications strategy to approaching these topics.

Tracking your share of voice and media profile against your key competitors across a range of different channels will allow you to benchmark over time and track the impact of your brand’s communications campaigns. You could also take this to the next level by cross-referencing mentions against business-critical topics.

ESG comms benchmarking

2023 was the year ‘greenhushing’ went mainstream. The term refers to businesses opting to keep ESG and sustainability commitments and actions quiet, for fear of sparking backlash or attracting additional scrutiny on their performance. While understandable, this approach stifles progress, creating a distorted picture of where action is – and isn’t – being taken. With the urgency of climate action, and an ever-growing expectation of action across the board on ESG, ignoring these issues entirely in communications and PR is rarely the correct course of action.

An ESG and sustainability communications benchmarking project can advise on the ‘outside-in’ risks which should be considered, as well as offering guidance on which channels may, or may not, be suitable for ESG and sustainability messaging. It may make sense to bring on a partner to address any communications gaps and inform a strategic approach to communicating on ESG and sustainability issues that are appropriate for your company and sector.

Invest in the future of your communications strategy

In summary, embracing a proactive mindset with your marketing budget can redefine strategies, moving the business forward and future-proof the brand. Consider investments that not only work today but give you valuable insights into the future, help you discover new audiences, assist with campaign ideation and enable you to have a voice on the topics that matter.