Credibility

Trust is the most important building block for your brand. To be credible, people need to trust you. If they trust you they will continue coming back for your products and services.

That's what sets big brands apart from the rest. They have built credibility around their promise and when someone is faced with a choice they will go with the brand that they know and trust.

In order to build credibility you can do the following:

• Deliver on your promise. You've decided what you stand for, now you need to deliver on that promise.
• Follow up. Whether it's a compliment, a complaint or a question, always follow up.
• Provide an amazing and unique experience. Go the extra mile to give your customers an experience they will never forget and start talking about.
• Show your credentials. Feature testimonials, press mentions, awards so that people can find out about them.
• Be open and share your knowledge. Start a blog, newsletter or any other way to share your knowledge.

Do the above and you will be credible and trustworthy.

Posted by Harry Mylonadis 

What You See is What You Get

How many gates and barriers do your clients need to cross before they speak to the people that do the work?

It used to be fine to have levels upon levels of management in order to manage the creation of work. Different people for sales, for account management and it built on from there.

With all the progress we've made in other parts of our work lives it's difficult to understand why we should keep those old ways of working. Not only does it cost more, it's not personal. The client might never meet the person that actually did the work. That's fine if you are producing widgets, but if you are making things that change people's lives then you need a personal connection.

From my experience, it works best if you involve your team in the first interactions with your client. Give them the chance to create a trustful connection. Your client will love the attention you give to them and the security that comes from knowing who you are working with.

Posted by Helen Amygdalaki // Lelou 

Say it Simply

Because of my interest and studies in computer engineering, I learnt from a young age, that if I wanted people to engage with me I had to talk about my interests simply and in a language that people understand.

Having studied in a field that is full of technical terms, jargon and acronyms, I know how difficult this can sometimes be. The way that universities studies are structured actually makes this worse, since you always have to write using all the possible terms and in a language that is not easy to understand. As one of my old lecturers told me a few days ago "Academics write for academics". As a result, when the time comes for us to talk to people about our passion, invention, innovation or product we start using terms that people don't understand.

Of course using terms and jargon when speaking to your peer group and people in your field is fine, as they will understand you. However, when you speak to the general public and people outside your field you need to be able to express your knowledge in common language and terms. If you do this, you will have people's attention and they will engage with you.

Here is an example that I came across on Apple's website:

Integrated memory controller.
With faster access to memory, each core can get straight to work on your data, rather than waiting for it to arrive. That’s why the new Intel Core architecture uses an integrated memory controller to connect fast 1333MHz memory directly to the processor. Together with up to 8MB of shared L3 cache, the integrated memory controller helps your applications run at peak performance.

Here is how the same controller is described on Intel's website:

Feed more data to the processor with the integrated memory controller
The Intel® Core™ i7 processors incorporate an integrated memory controller which handles the data flow between main memory and the execution engine. This means faster access time to memory and less latency for requests. Now applications can feed more data to the processor and you can spend less time waiting for results.

Do you see the difference? The first explains the technology as simply as possible, so people can understand why this makes a difference. In the second example, and because the intel website is not consumer focused the technology is explained in more technical terms.

We know you have the knowledge and that you are good at your job, but you need to be able to communicate this to your audience. The only way that you can grab people's attention and engage them is by speaking to them in a language that they understand. Speak as simply as possible and people will listen.

Posted by Harry Mylonadis 

You Need Their Trust #BrandingThursdays

People will buy from you or your business when they trust you. To win their trust you have to do several things and one of them is use branding effectively. Your brands message needs to be honest and real. That way people will engage with you and ultimately you will gain their trust.

Other ways branding can help you is with the use of the right colours, shapes and images.

Always be original and human and in the end it will pay off.

 

Posted by Harry Mylonadis