Every brand in the digital world wants to be seen as an expert and gain customers’ trust. One of the best ways to achieve these is to implement compelling, relevant content marketing.
Your content should not only be used to promote your company for SEO purposes. This is a shortsighted approach to content marketing. You can establish brand authority by creating in-depth content that provides real solutions to your audience.
You probably have a content strategy that drives the goals and objectives of your content marketing. However, are you considering your brand authority and credibility? Are you focusing too much on the substance of your content?
If your content doesn’t offer a unique perspective, your prospects won’t be able to see beyond the surface of a problem and come up with new solutions. This, in turn, could negatively impact your brand’s ability to connect with customers and convert them.
To help you out, we’ve outlined the best practices you can incorporate into your digital marketing strategy to ensure that you put out blogs, articles, infographics, podcasts, and videos with content authority. These things can help with building credibility.
What is Brand Credibility?
Before discussing the best practices for building credibility, let’s start with the basics first. Let’s define brand credibility.
Credibility can be defined broadly as the belief in an entity’s intentions at a given time. It is made up of two components: trustworthiness and expertise. Thus, brand credibility can be defined as the belief in the information contained in a brand. This requires that consumers believe that the brand has the expertise and trustworthiness to deliver on what they have promised.
How to Build and Improve Credibility
There is no one-size-fits-all guideline for building brand authority and credibility through content. Many best practices can help you select topics and set goals, so your content is more in line with your audience’s needs. Here are some of them:
1. Use data and stats to deliver a powerful message.
Data and stats are helpful when you’re trying to build an idea. However, they shouldn’t be the foundation. You should use them as supporting details, not be the star of your content.
Before linking data and stats, make sure that your information is accurate and reliable. You can use research from advocacy groups, industry groups, non-profits, and thought leaders as examples.
Your content will be more effective if you include statistics and research. However, don’t just quote numbers and pieces of information from reputable sources. You have to explain and interpret them.
For instance, an industry group publishes a study on revenue loss and provides data without including any information about causes or correlations. Your audience will be more interested in your content if you add context using your experiences or data sets.
2. Provide actionable tips.
When people are motivated to act, the content they read resonates with them. It would be best if you were precise and not vague. Buyers will perceive you as more credible and authoritative if you provide detailed tips.
If your company creates software that automates workflows, you should clearly define how inefficiencies impact their operations and how you can fix them. They should be able to find solutions through your in-depth content.
3. Include quotes from your subject market experts.
Your content marketing plan can benefit significantly from the expertise of subject matter experts (SMEs). Content collaboration is not always easy, especially for large companies, but it’s well worth the effort to build brand credibility with your content.
Since they have the experience and expertise to support your content, engaging with internal and external SMEs can add great brand credibility. Your content will improve if you include quotes from thought leaders.
4. Ensure your content is updated and current.
You may find that what you thought was accurate yesterday is not relevant today. To ensure content authority and freshness, create a content calendar. It allows you to track the content and determine if it’s suitable for repurposing.
You also have to update your content regularly. Your audience will notice if you keep your content current and up-to-date with the latest news. If your audience stumbles on an incorrect blog post, it can damage your credibility. So, develop a process internally.
5. Provide your take on challenging topics.
There are some subjects in every field that can be daunting. They could either be complex or sensitive. Do not be afraid to take on them. Just make sure that you do it with integrity and respect.
Some of the most difficult or trivial topics are likely to be top of mind for prospective clients or customers. They could be looking for impartial clarity and guidance, so take the opportunity to provide what they need.
International or domestic conflicts are complex topics that blur the lines between business and politics. One good example of a challenging topic is how wars have affected some industries. It doesn’t mean you have to make a statement on the matter.
Instead, share the facts and consequences of the situation and offer your expert opinion to build credibility. Your audience will appreciate your honesty and your ability to tackle complex subjects.
6. Incorporate narratives into your content.
You have probably solved problems for your customers. However, many others are facing the same issues. It’s your opportunity to tell the story of how you helped others. This is a good way of showing them that your brand can positively impact their lives.
In preparing narratives, be as detailed as possible. Make sure that your audience will be able to understand the challenges, goals, and solutions. It will make it easier for new customers to know that you have worked with and for other people in the past.
7. Increase word count.
Google often considers longer content more trustworthy. Google will reward you if your content is detailed, but it must still be of high quality and easily scannable. Research shows that the first-page result averages 1,890 words.
When increasing your word count, you should not be too wordy. To break up large content blocks, use bullet points and headers instead. Each point should be given more detail and specificity using research, examples, and statistics.
How Advanced Digital Media Services Can Help
Putting out quality content is a great way to build brand credibility. You can attract more customers by using the strategies above because of your ability to dig deep into the topics that most concern you.
Emerging as an authority in your industry takes constant effort and a specific focus. It takes time to establish brand credibility. We at Advanced Digital Media Services are here to help you do that!
We provide full-service digital marketing, including top-notch content creation, to help businesses build and improve brand credibility. When you invest in our SEO services in Denver, we will help you navigate to the top of search engine results pages.
