Creating authentic content for your brand and being transparent in your actions is an incredibly powerful way to build a loyal following.

There’s an old industry joke that states the most crucial thing in marketing is authenticity, and if you can fake that, you’ve got it made. While that may have worked once upon a time, in today’s digital age, people can smell a rat instantly, so really, the joke’s on you. Creating authentic content for your brand and being transparent in your actions is an incredibly powerful way to build a loyal following. It can build deep connections, create trust and even have your audience care about you and what you do, and for you, the business owner, there’s nothing better than that. Most people are exposed to more than a dozen marketing channels every day, including various social media platforms, emails, Google searches, websites, radio and TV. Take email marketing as an example, the average consumer receives multiple marketing emails every day – ‘EOFY sale’, ‘We thought you’d like these’, ’25 per cent family and friends discount!’. Some could receive in the hundreds. But consumers are savvy, and what this volume of information does is actually make them less tuned into marketing messages because they become familiar with the approaches and all the copy starts blurring into one, so they become unaffected. 

What does this mean for you? You begin losing any cut-through because everyone is saying the same thing, and consumers scan through the volume of marketing and move on. Nothing gets any real attention. The result – you lose out on sales.

.: Brand Strategy

The good news is that you can overcome this. How? Well, as mentioned earlier, authenticity is key. The best way to get through to potential buyers is to build your brand’s personality, as well as your own, letting people get to know you on a deeper level. People want to have deeper connections with the brands they do business with. Suppose a brand can make an effort to speak to their audience on a more personal level. In that case, people will respond positively because the dehumanisation of society resulting from the digitisation of communication has led to a lack of personality and effective communication. Consumers are not interested in gimmicks but rather seek genuine brands and come from a place of sincerity, and brands that understand and embrace this will find that people will respond to them very strongly.

.: Understand Your Audience

The first step to being more authentic in your content marketing is to make sure you fully understand your audience, the values they hold dear and subsequently to ensure your brand reflects those values. If your audience is particularly focused on compassion, then you need to build your brand to show that your focus is also on compassion. It’s also important to be articulate, so people understand what your brand stands for. Avoid using jargon and hyperbole and get to the point because it will help your audience understand quicker what your brand represents. Sales talk is off-putting and is the perfect way to make consumers disengage from the conversation you’re so desperate to have with them.

.: Attributes Window

Next, understand that people are drawn towards attributes such as friendliness, warmth, honesty, thoughtfulness and open-mindedness. They also like brands that teach, help and assist them, and are not just about the brand themselves. Followers become loyal when they have access to easily digestible and readily available information, when they know it’ll be easy to solve a problem they might encounter, and the brand is friendly and approachable. It’s about making it straightforward for people to access what they need. You only need to look at the success of a little American technology company bearing fruit for its logo to see how this rings true.

.: Add Value

When it comes to video content – and this is where it’s really at in this technology-driven era, you need only look at the rise of video platforms such as Tik Tok and YouTube – understand why you are creating the video (building brand awareness? Educating?), plan and be strategic. Ensure the quality is good, be it shooting from your phone or a full-blown set-up, or you can put viewers off, but don’t be rigid as though you’re reading from a script. Above all, be consistent, you can’t build a loyal and long-term following if your views are all over the place. Deliver valuable content your audience wants to consume, and engagement will follow.

.: Deliver Consistent Message

Finally, it’s vitally important that your content reflects all these points mentioned across the entire organisation, whether it be your website, social media, or how you interact in stores. And everyone involved needs to be across this and know what it is you stand for and trust in your brand because it can be destroyed in one moment if not everyone is on board. Remember, your actions are as necessary as anything else.

In a nutshell, authenticity is your brand’s best friend. It is imperative to achieve success, understand your audience and share the same values as them, be focused on the authenticity of your brand, and believe in what you’re doing. Take the opportunity to form a deeper bond with your customers because if done well, these values are the sorts of things that people share with their friends and it, in turn, creates more loyal followers. Build deep connections, generate trust and if you can have your audience care about you and what you do, there’s nothing better than that.

At redbikini, we live and breathe all things video production, offering more than 20 years’ on-set experience. redbikini and our digital marketing arm, LOOP, which we launched in 2020, helps South Australian businesses set clear, realistic and measurable goals to generate growth. Together we offer an affordable, step-by-step digital marketing program that identifies opportunities and helps take your business to the next level.