When it comes to building a loyal consumer base, the most significant thing to achieve is trust. This is one of the key elements that play a role in sustaining a successful business. This trust can be earned by being transparent in your approach and leveraging the same transparency in your marketing strategy as well.
Brands need to present themselves as credible, real, and authentic in their digital strategy and the only way to do this is by leveraging transparency. Let’s dive deeper into this and explore the need for being transparent in digital marketing.
Impact on Business Growth
Transparent communication has a significant impact on business growth. In fact, research shows that transparency can increase sales by 20%. This can be because people want to buy from people and not corporations and being transparent about your human side and being vulnerable about your imperfections can be a great way to appear like a human as opposed to a corporation.
Moreover, this can also lead to an increase in your loyal follower base and nudge people to buy from your brand repeatedly. In other words, transparent communication can bolster profits and lead to economic stability & long-term sustainability through brand loyalty & repeat business from satisfied customers.
Consumer Expectations
Consumers have reasonable expectations from brands to be transparent in their communication. In fact, 81% of people believe that businesses have a responsibility to be transparent when posting on social media, and 85% of people say a history of being transparent makes them more likely to give the brand a second chance. This means that consumers expect brands to own up to blunders and are even willing to forgive them if need be. It has been said time and again that people want to see a more human side of brands and owning up to mistakes and presenting a transparent image is the way to do that.
However, being transparent is not limited to owning up to mistakes. You also need to be transparent about day-to-day practices, especially when it comes to the usage of sensitive information and data. 84% of consumers have agreed that they will take their business elsewhere if they don't trust how a company is handling their data. This means that consumers are concerned about how their data is being utilized and there has to be clear communication when it comes to these sensitive aspects.
Why Transparency is Important in Business?
Aside from fulfilling consumer expectations, transparent digital marketing practices also shed numerous benefits for the brands. Perhaps the most significant one of these benefits is that brand transparency creates trust & loyalty amongst consumers, giving them the confidence to buy from brands without worries.
Moreover, this can also have a direct impact on business growth by giving employees & partners reasons to feel engaged, committed & accountable to the company. Transparency as a core value is critical during difficult times, as it places total ownership & accountability in the hands of the business.
Transparency through communication
From the perspective of digital marketing, it can be alluring to capitalize on any new business prospects, however in some cases, this can lead to
secrecy and deceit at the expense of the consumer and this needs to be avoided at all costs. The most effective way to do this is by ensuring that brand communication is honest, authentic & straightforward. Your communication should directly reach out to your consumers and share all that needs to be shared without any attempt of concealing or manipulating information.
Aside from this, it is important for brands to be proactive on social media and talk to consumers, offering relevant information & responding to queries and feedback. This helps consumers realize that they are not all by themselves once they’ve made a purchase and strengthens the bond they share with the brand, ultimately making them a loyalist. Brands need to understand the value of raw, unfiltered feedback and provide the consumers with a platform to effectively share their feedback.
Strike a Balance
It can be overwhelming to strike a balance between secrecy and oversharing. However, with the following few tips, brands can ensure that their digital marketing strategy is transparent enough and provides the consumers with the kind of assurance that keeps them coming back to the brand.
The most significant thing to do here is to strike the right behavioral balance in your brand persona to build trust with the target market. This means that the communication should not just be authentic but also in line with the brand image so that it is in sync with the expectations of your target audience. Aside from this, brands also need to re-evaluate and structure the accessibility & connectedness of the brand to widen the scope of the communication.
Another highly effective tip is to be sensitive towards the nature of the medium that is being utilized and understand the dynamics of different mediums. This might give rise to the need to tweak conversations between brand & customers to suit the nature of the platform.
To conclude, a straightforward answer to the question of trust when it comes to consumers is to embed transparency into every part of your marketing and advertising ecosystem. After all, fraudulent ad placement or marketing tactics that don’t seem human won’t be impactful.
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