5 Methods to Boost Your Company Image
There are simple steps to start a business, but if you want everyone to know about it, you need to make it shine. You can differentiate from the competition in many ways, but what will really set you apart is a company image that is respectable and sustainable. There are many overlooked threats in the business world, but the challenge of boosting your company image is the most delicate one that requires a strategical and wise approach.
We’ve gathered some methods that will get you on a track in no time.
1. Meaning & Value
Before you start growing your business, you need to know precisely what you’re going to grow. Your brand is much more than a clever marketing campaign with a catchy tagline and a pretty logo – underneath all that is the need for personality and connection. It needs to be recognized by your audience and communicate something unique, which means it needs to have a personality that stands for something. Before you invest in your marketing efforts you need to perform a detailed assessment of your brand, pinpoint what makes it unique by understanding the rational and emotional concerns of your audience and asking yourself does it solve their problems and how. In other words, before you inform people of your purpose and vision, you need to have a clear understanding of what is it you’re offering to the world.
2. Build a Bond of Trust
Marketing efforts can be pretty expensive, but not if you know how to use the word of mouth. The cheapest and most effective way is one of the customer-driven strategies. In order to turn them into loyal promoters and advocates of your business, you need to meet their exact needs and to do it better than anyone else. The whole point is to aim at solving problems they face, giving them the attention they deserve and treating them with kindness. This will not only bring you publicity but will also establish your reputation which is a foundation stone of your company image. And the first step to all this is to understand the importance of their feedback. In order to build a strong and durable bond of trust, your interactions with customers need to be consistent, dependable, and honest.
3. Start in Your Own Yard
If you want to obtain loyal customers, you need to be aware that they want to do business with people, not an institution. As your image is managed by your communication and advertising skills, it’s also managed by the atmosphere of the physical space where customers encounter your business. This means that one of the most effective means of differentiation is through your employees – if they can provide and demonstrate responsiveness, reliability, credibility, courtesy, and competence, that will certainly boost your company image. That’s why it’s very important to value them and establish a healthy company culture. This process begins already in the recruitment phase where it’s mandatory to employ people based on their potentials and abilities, staying clear from discriminatory hiring practices. Your employees need to be treated in an ethical way – they all want to be more than individuals who simply get the job done. People are looking for safety and security, and since workplace injuries are a common part of every business, it’s mandatory to have a trusted and competent work injury lawyer who will make sure that the rehabilitation requirements of every individual are met accordingly. Employees are your most valuable assets, and the proper worker’s compensation is the most important mean of their protection.
4. Embrace Storytelling
There is no quicker way to boost your company’s image than showing the human side of it. And the best way to do this is to share your personal story. Maybe you think yours is not particularly interesting, but it doesn’t have to be a Hollywood movie – every company has its struggles and they make a perfect David and Goliath story full of experiences your audience will have no problem connecting and relating with. It is not the point whether you have a story or not – you certainly do – but how you craft it. It needs to be done in a relatable and authentic way that will form emotional connections with your customers. But don’t just talk about yourself – establishing a successful blog that provides valuable information will certainly set you up as an authority in your line of business.
5. Find a Cause
Nothing creates a positive company image more than charitable events, but running a charity campaign is worth only as long as you’re honestly involved in the cause, which means you really have to believe in it. Forcing yourself to find a cause, especially the one that is related to the activity of your company, can be quite exhausting. But when you look at the alarming effects of air pollution and global warming, respect for the environment comes as a natural cause to support. This doesn’t mean you have to invest large sums of money into various green movements – you could simply make the ‛recycle, reduce, reuse’ practices a part of your corporate social responsibility efforts. Simply switch to more energy conserving appliances and bring in some recycle bins, and there’s no person alive who won’t appreciate this improvement of the relationship between your business and the planet.
These methods rely one upon the other, and only their combination will make your company image truly shine. Everything depends on your relationship with the customers, where your employees are the linkage, your brand a solution for their problems, and your stories the source of emotions and authority. Finding the right cause will seal the deal, and the planet is constantly in need of help.
Author Bio:
Alexander Hunkin is an Australian based startup advisor with in-depth experience in growing business. His meaningful and strategic advice has helped in setting and growing many startup companies in Brisbane and Perth. Alexander is also a content creator for different niches. The top ones are business, career, finance and marketing. He aspires to share his experiences and is always on the lookout for the next opportunity to enhance his skills. When he isn’t busy working, you can find him cooking exotic meals, scuba diving and cycling.