8 Highly Effective Ways To Communicate Brand Credibility Using Your Online Presence

Credibility and trust are arguably two of the most important elements of a successful online marketing campaign. As 46% of customers are prepared to pay a higher price when doing business with a brand they feel they can trust, it becomes evident that credibility even trumps cost.

Customers value transparency: 66% of them feel this is one of the most attractive qualities a brand can have. And since they will need about half a second to form an opinion about your website (and online presence in general), you will understand just how important it is to communicate your brand’s credibility effectively. 

Get Certified Experts To Create Your Content

If you invest a substantial amount of resources into creating content that generates traffic and leads, this content will likely be the first point of contact a visitor has with your brand. 

This can quickly turn into a double-edged sword, as your content then needs to be good enough to subtly but firmly guide said visitor further down your funnel. Ideally, you want them to engage right off the bat — leave a comment, share your article, or subscribe to the newsletter. Don’t expect them to convert after a single blog post.

You should also consider it a win if they come back. A returning reader has started to trust you and develop a relationship with you that you can leverage into a transaction at a later point in time, when they actually require your product or service. 

If they bounce and never come back, there is something missing in your content. Quality is often the missing link, as an abysmal amount of blog posts published on the web have zero substance to boast.

However, even if your content is well-researched, you may be failing to communicate to your audience that your writers are experts in their field.

Take a look at this guide focusing on the best mattresses. The brand has done several things right to show their readers that the people behind the post are trustworthy. The author herself is a certified sleep coach, and you can easily check her credentials by clicking on her name.

The article has also been reviewed by a doctor, whose credentials are also readily available. There’s also a neat “fact checked” button at the top, so readers are shown that the post they are about to read is reliable well before they even scroll through the introduction.

Tell Detailed Customer Stories

Showcasing your customers is always a great way to demonstrate your credibility. Case studies give you ample opportunity to wow your audience in a much less sales-oriented manner than your regular website copy. 

The key here is making the customer the hero of the story. Don’t make it all about you. You are much less important than the customer or client. You are shrinking a spotlight on them and what they have been able to achieve (with your help).

Case studies that focus on you as a brand will never be as effective. Your leads don’t care about you, as harsh as that sounds. They care about solving their own pain points and achieving their own goals. Don’t ever expect them to care about your business nearly as much as you do or as much as they care about themselves. 

If possible, let your customers do the talking. Ideally, you want to use a video format for some of your case studies, as they will communicate more information and, more importantly, emotion. FE International’s “Sell Your Business” landing page does this very well. They ask great questions in their video, and they communicate the value of doing business with them through the eyes of one of their clients.

They’ve also made the video extra informative, along with the simple addition of helpful timestamps.

If you would rather stick to written case studies, take a look at phoenixNAP for inspiration, specifically the article structure. They present the challenge, the solution, and the benefits their clients have seen. They also provide several testimonials from the clients themselves, which add an extra layer of credibility to the article. 

Publish Evergreen Content That Becomes Go-To Reference Sources

Turning your website into a trusted source where players from your industry go to find specific information will automatically raise the credibility levels of your brand. This may be quite the challenge, but it doesn’t have to be as hard as you might think. 

Think of Wyzowl and their yearly video marketing statistics research. It is quoted far and wide, but they don’t actually do anything super complicated to gather their data. They send out a questionnaire to their customers and write their study based on that. You can do the same.

You don’t have to create research-based posts. You can create a simple source of crucial and easily referenceable information that is important to your target audience. The stock market holiday list on MarketBeat is a great example. Traders will need it often and can easily bookmark it for future use. 

You can use social media to spread the word and prove to your followers and the industry at large that you are a valuable source of information. Semrush is a great example of a company that does this well. Their Twitter feed is full of snippets that are incredibly valuable and that demonstrate their level of expertise effortlessly. This Tweet, for example, explains position tracking metrics in a nutshell, and it’s a great resource for someone who is new to the industry. 

Also note that there is another benefit to creating this type of evergreen content that is easily shareable, linkable, and retweetable: it gives your audience something for nothing. 

Teach Your Audience For Free

In order to demonstrate your credibility and your expertise, you should create something of value for absolutely nothing. This will prove to your audience that you are not just here to take their money. Show them that you are more than just a faceless brand whose only interest is its bottom line. 

Simply writing blog posts that share real, actionable value is a great way to start. It comes with so many of the benefits we’ve already mentioned: it helps you drive traffic, earn backlinks, and get shared on social media. 

Take a look at any of the posts on the Ahrefs blog, for example. Most of them tell you how to use their tool to achieve a certain SEO or content marketing goal. But even when you strip away the brand-oriented copy, you are left with tons of valuable advice you can use, even if you are using SEMRush. They are one of the best brands to look at to learn how blogging for business should be done. They even have an entire course about the subject!

Speaking of courses, they are another great way to give something to your audience for free. Whether you host webinars or create downloadable courses, or just host a bunch of videos on YouTube, a teachable moment is always going to improve your credibility. As long as you actually know what you are talking about, needless to say.

Take a look at Jasper’s SEO course. Much like Ahrefs, they have nailed both the self-promotion part and the value-for-free element. They demonstrate the power of their AI solution while also giving you countless tips on improving your content marketing tactics and ranking better. 

Give Your Company A Relatable, Human Face

Credibility is also demonstrated by putting a human face to your brand. This makes you much more relatable and prevents you from inadvertently morphing into a faceless, soulless brand in the minds of your customers. 

There are different tactics you can try. For example, you can:

• Show your key management on the homepage of your website.
• Show the office atmosphere with short snippets on social media.
• Ask all staff members to update their LinkedIn profiles and list the company as their current place of employment.

Let’s look at Menlo Coaching as our example. They feature images of their founders in the hero section of their homepage. You can also choose to watch a short video where the two of them tell you a bit about the business and show you some of the atmosphere on the premises. 

Video is a great way to show your human side. You don’t have to make it long — a couple of minutes will do. Make sure to focus on how you can help your customers rather than just focusing on your own story. 

For a great example of showing your human side on social media, take a look at the Sephora Instagram. Their staff is often recommending products via Reels, but they also feature a lot of their Beauty Directors and Advisors in “day-in-the-life” style videos, where you get to see what it’s like working in one of the biggest beauty companies in the world.

Align Your Brand with Credible Voices In Your Industry

Your brand can also gain a credibility boost by aligning itself with other voices in your industry that have already made an impact on your audience. If you can get someone your audience is already a fan of to work with you, their credibility will rub off on you. 

The key here is choosing the right voices and the right influences. You don’t want to work with someone just because they have a lot of followers or because they’ve worked with other brands. In fact, you should aim to work with someone who has never endorsed a similar brand before — someone who is already a customer and a fan, and who you know will wholeheartedly recommend you. 

Care less about follower counts and more about credibility. Smaller online influencers often have much more dedicated audiences who view them as friends and who are more likely to trust a recommendation coming from them.

ATH is doing a great job. Their YouTube channel features videos with athletes who show their audience what a day in their life looks like, how they train, and how the brand fits into their routine. This helps inspire viewers and demonstrates not only the brand’s credibility but how it can fit into the life and goals of the viewers themselves.

Highlight Social Proof On Social Media

Social proof is a great tool to have on both your homepage and your product pages. Testimonials and reviews will boost your credibility by demonstrating how others have experienced your brand and what you were able to help them achieve. 

The key is to keep it real. Don’t show reviews that sound too good to be true, and try to select them so that they speak to different aspects of your business: product quality, delivery times, ease of purchase, customer service, and so on. 

Don’t forget that social proof should also not be reserved for your website alone. If you also use them on your social media profiles, you’ll be able to demonstrate your credibility across a channel that is often the first one leads see. Don’t expect them to click through to the website to see what you are about. Show them on your social media profiles very clearly. 

Thankbox is a great example of this tactic. They share their Trustpilot reviews on Instagram and show their followers that their service is considered truly stellar by others. This makes it much more likely that they will see a surge in click-throughs, and their website is then further optimized to help visitors easily find the type of card they are looking for.

Demonstrate What You Stand For

Finally, show your audience who you are and what you stand for. 66% of US customers would rather do business with a sustainable brand, and that number is only expected to rise. 

If you are already doing something for the planet, make sure it’s clearly demonstrated. Patagonia has a page dedicated to dissecting their footprint and detailing what they are doing to help the world become a better place.

A Good Company has an even more detailed impact report that shows why their products are superior to their competitors’. This page alone is enough to convince their core audience to convert, but it also does a marvelous job of showing even those who have not before cared about their impact on the planet how they can make a difference. 

Whatever it is you stand for as a brand, make sure it’s clear to see and that your audience is aware of it across all of your channels and outlets. The more you show you care, the more likely they will be to choose you. 

Wrapping Up 

While these eight suggestions can help you more effectively communicate your brand’s values, credibility, and ethos, don’t forget that there is an even more important step that needs to be taken first. 

If you happen to lack substance and credibility, none of these tips will help you hide the fact. If you have not aligned your values and your voice with your target audience, they won’t be as interested in your offer, nor will they hear you clearly. 

Get all of your ducks in a row, so to speak, before you start considering credibility communication tactics. Select one (or more) of these tactics only once you’ve made sure that you are aiming for the right people with the right product, service, and content.