It’s not easy to establish oneself as an authoritative brand, but the considerable advantages are worth the work.
When you’ve gained trust, potential consumers and clients rely on you and confide in you — it’s difficult to fathom that trust not resulting in a sale (eventually).
But how can a firm begin to establish, or expand on, its credibility? Content is a wonderful method to do it, and I’ll go through my recommendations in this post.
Answer your target audience’s queries
There’s practically no chance that you’ll become an authority if you don’t do this. People rely on brands to give the information they’re looking for, so if your content marketing doesn’t include those answers, you’re not demonstrating to your readers why they should trust you.
You may establish authority while also expanding brand awareness by developing on-site information that provides this type of value. In other words, you can establish yourself as an authority to those who are unfamiliar with you.
This content approach’s effectiveness is aided by the fact that it incorporates various other search engine optimization tips. The use of multiple types of backlinks, including tiny text links and websites to link out from, as well as negative keywords and social media platforms like LinkedIn, helps to ensure that when you get down to brass tacks, Google knows who you are in a hurry. With this method in place, your website becomes more attractive to potential customers.
Create newsworthy reports and articles
One of the most effective methods to demonstrate your power is to continue to seek out new information and insights. You may accomplish this by putting a high value on original research.
You not only add value to readers by creating your own studies, surveys, and reports (also known as data journalism) based on new facts or discoveries, but you also have something interesting to offer the media.
This has two advantages: gaining media exposure and increasing brand authority. Backlinks from high-quality sources, such as other websites, can signal to Google that you’re an expert.
Make use of the knowledge of your own experts
Some companies are created entirely around a certain character, such as Steve Jobs with Apple, but these examples might be frightening. If a company has subject-matter experts (or SMEs), they can benefit from the same approach.
How to put this approach into action: If your internal experts have never spoken with the public, see whether they’d be willing to write blog entries or quotes for your website. Use Help a Reporter Out (HARO) to contact them as sources for news stories that are relevant. Assist them in demonstrating their expertise in ways that are useful to readers.
Highlight positive reviews, case studies, and other evidence of expertise
There are many varieties of authority signals, ranging from testimonials to reviews to social media share counts. It’s all about knowing which ones make sense for your products or services and determining the best location for them.
Your objective is to demonstrate that you know what you’re talking about by referencing third-party verification. Your audience shouldn’t just believe you when you claim to be competent; other people may also verify your excellence!
How to put this plan into action: If you don’t already have this type of content, consider how you might get it. Inquire about a quote from your top clients. Review your finest customer reviews for products. Call out any media mentions you’ve received in the past year. After that, include this data on your homepage as well as conversion pages to boost confidence when and where it is important.
Collaborate with other well-known companies
If you align yourself with other companies that you admire and who are treating their consumers/users correctly, some of that same faith might be bestowed on you if the company’s respect is reciprocated. You’re also reaching a new audience by collaborating.
Consider which companies you might work with. There are various methods to collaborate without utilizing content marketing, such as referral systems, but there are also ways to collaborate that are content-specific.
How to Use It: List as many brands as you can that appear to have a natural fit in goals or values. How might you collaborate to provide something of value to both of your target audiences?
Give a few of your secrets away
This can be daunting for many marketers, particularly executives in the C-suite. Why should you give away your secrets?
It’s a fair question, and it doesn’t always apply. However, in some situations, particularly for service-based enterprises, sharing knowledge and breaking down how you do it may actually increase trust.
What you should know about how to do this: Consider what information you have that you can share, even if (and especially) if your competitors haven’t. You may make a significant first impression of being open with your sector in a manner that others aren’t able to. Of course, don’t act stupidly; but consider the issue and see what makes sense.
Conclusion
Investing in content marketing is one of the most potent methods to increase brand authority. You’re showing your own knowledge and applying your skills by producing content that’s useful to your audience.
By continuing to build on your plan with the methods listed above, you can dramatically raise the probability that your audience will not only recall your brand but also begin to trust it. Furthermore, because you’ve established an excellent link portfolio and exhibited authority, it’s likely the Google algorithm will recognize your authority as well, resulting in improved SERP ranks.
