In this blog series, I talk about some of the ways you can build your business’s credibility. You can find part 2 here.

But what exactly is credibility?

Credibility is about building trust. So, first and foremost, you need to be honest. Simple as that. Then make sure you are perceived as expert in your field. You do this by demonstrating your technical knowledge without expecting the customer to understand the technical details. Even if they are technical themselves, they aren’t going to look at the details until they are already interested and you have gained their trust.

In order to understand your customers’ needs, you need to know who they are. If you don’t already have a defined target audience, you can read my blog “Who should your business be marketing to”. If you haven’t defined your target audience, you can’t build your credibility. You need to demonstrate that you understand your customers, anticipate their needs, and that you know what their problems are. You need to be perceived as credible in the market.

Building credibility is part of your long-term marketing strategy. It is more about brand building than immediate sales, but that doesn’t mean it cannot generate sales. Credibility building is above the sales funnel  (before the customer becomes a prospect). 

Credibility-building content, especially when it comes to large purchases, is also something most customers will look at after they have already purchased to reassure themselves that they made the right choice. A good B2C example of this is the purchase of a car. Studies have shown that customers do more research after buying the car than they do before the purchase. Engineering products and services are often very costly and involve a long sales process. The decision-makers often need that same reassurance after the purchase — after all, it could be their job on the line if it goes wrong!  So, keep doing credibility activities. Trust me, your sales guys will be grateful to have something in their hands to promote your credibility with the customer.

Remember — all these activities in this list get your brand out there at the same time as building credibility. People are seeing you and your company's brand in a positive light. I don't know an engineering company where credibility, knowledge, and technical understanding aren't part of their brand. No, I don’t mean their logo. I mean their brand   — what they are and what they mean to their customer.

Think education, not sales

Content

Make sure that your content includes educational material on all of your channels: your social media, blogs on your website, and videos. Be consistent across all your communication channels. When it comes to media formats, learn to embrace variety as well. Produce educational content in multiple formats: record a video, write a blog, or create a podcast. Get creative with it.
Don’t be afraid to share, either. Share things from the media, journals or wherever you find information that will be of interest to your audience. Especially if it helps your customers in some way, solves their problems, or gives them industry insights. Even if you didn’t produce that article, it shows you're knowledgeable enough to find it.
But all of this comes down to knowing your audience.

Case Studies

Most engineering businesses struggle to get permission to do case studies. Sometimes there is simply nothing you can do to get a case study from a specific client. But a “No” is often down to one of two reasons, which are both easy to fix. 

You might be talking to the wrong department or the wrong person. The person you’ve approached might not have permission to let you do a case study. Often, instead of sending you to the right person, for example, their Managing Director, they simply say “No”. So, find the correct department and the right person who can authorise a case study. Keep in mind that they might not be your direct contact within the company.

Another reason could be that you are asking the wrong way; case studies can benefit both you and your client if spun right. Case studies are often written in a way that makes the customer look bad because they concentrate on the problems. This makes sense, and if the customer agrees, it is great to show how you solved their problem. But if you focus on the improvement that has been achieved for your customer, and even better, for your customers’ customers, then they will be more likely to give their permission to the case study.

Make sure to involve your client’s marketing department too. If you can get marketing contacts at your customer’s company and explain to them why you are doing a case study, together you can frame it in a way that becomes PR for your customer as well — they want to get their name out there too! Plus, if you frame it in the right way, the customer will be more likely to add their name to the case study rather than insisting on anonymising it. A case study with a specific company name, rather than the vague “Company A in the Food & Beverage industry”, is much better for your credibility. People reading an anonymised case study might have doubts and questions: why are you not naming them? Is the case study even real? However, a case study with Company A is still better than no case study.

Case studies will also help you to get speaking engagements. People who hold conferences and invite speakers to such events prefer speakers who can talk about their case studies rather than simply go: “My product is brilliant”. The press also absolutely loves case studies, so these will be great for your PR as well. You can learn more about PR in Part Two of this blog series.

Quick Wins

Building your credibility is part of your long-term strategy, but as with everything, there are some quick wins. Begin by making sure that some of your social media posts are educational. Start writing blogs and publish them on your website. Don’t forget that your website is the digital space you own, and it remains the most important communication channel for most engineering businesses. Blogs are also brilliant for your SEO (search engine optimisation). People will be far more likely to find you because Google ranks websites higher that are updated regularly. And despite what you might think, it isn't actually about having to post every week or every month. The trick is to stick to a regular time interval. That's what Google likes. For more on SEO, check out my interview with James Holden. He was full of valuable tips on how to make search engines your friend. 

Closing thoughts

Whatever you do, and this counts for everything, really, make sure you keep doing it. Consistency is absolutely key.

What is also vital is trust. Credibility is a form of trust backed up by your knowledge. Your customers trust that you know what you’re talking about. Therefore, consistency and honesty are essential to building your credibility. When people think of educational stuff, they might first think of something dry, perhaps a bit dull, but actually, it's emotionally engaging. People want to trust you. They will start to feel like they know you, especially if you've got individuals who add their names to your content. Whether it's the company's founder or not, customers will start to feel like they know that person, which is important for building an emotional connection. Emotions play a huge part in any purchasing decision. Engineering companies often overlook the importance of this factor, but at the end of the day, people still buy people. So, trust and emotional connection are inevitable and don’t discount the power of curiosity either. Make these educational posts as interesting as possible because humans are inherently curious and love to learn about new things.

If you would like to discuss promoting your expertise and making your complex simple, email me at samantha@labrakita.co.uk or call me on 07791 521439.

Author: Samantha Tonge, Managing Director, Labrakita Marketing