6 Actionable ways to promote trust in your HR-related business
Gaining trust is an essential but often elusive part of a business’s growth strategy. The fact that ‘trust’ can be vague and means different things to different people doesn’t help the issue, but it’s an undeniable strength to have this in a brand.
It can be gained in a variety of ways too, so it might not be easy for businesses to know what to prioritise and where to start. For HR especially, there are certain boxes that need to be ticked to establish their confidence. This means suppliers with a tailored strategy will be streets ahead.
So what are 6 key ways to promote trust?
Know your audience
Be human
Actively connect with customers
Demonstrate expertise
Excel in employer branding
Be patient
1. Know your audience
We all know this is the basis for any successful company and most have it down pat, but getting it right helps build confidence in your brand.
When you know your audience inside out - their needs, values, fears and desires - you can cater for them in a unique way. And if audiences feel that you understand them, they’ll more likely trust that you understand how to overcome their problems too.
A big part of this is listening. What are their values? What are their problems? What content do they respond well to? There are a few easy ways to find this out.
Read HR publications
A great place to research this is HR publications. HR Magazine, People Management, HR Grapevine, HR Director, HRZone and many others are filled with topics that HR needs to hear about. Reading these will give a good indicator or trending subjects, interests and styles that can be applied to your own content and messages for HR professionals.
Get active on social media
Join HR Facebook groups, connect with HR professionals on LinkedIn or Twitter or follow #HR or #DisruptHR hashtags, for instance. There are a lot of great conversations going on that reveal useful insights about HR needs and preferences.
Posting your own topical questions on HR subjects is also a great way to get timely responses from your target audience on social media. Or, easier still, set up social media polls that people can answer at the click of a button to give you accurate and quantifiable responses.
Then be proactive. Create blog content, articles, explainer videos and infographics that channel this research and provide your customers with answers. Share insights from key publications that will help your audience. Show that you understand them and can help them.
2. Be Human
Brands need to show their human side to make an emotional connection. You want people to see your personality and values, as it makes it easier for customers to relate to your business, while developing trust.
Show off your personality
Getting active on social media, hosting webinars or letting your knowledge shine through blog posts are perfect for showing your human side. Let them see the real people behind the brand, especially if your product is tech-based.
Key to getting this right is making sure that whether your content is written, on video or in an image, talk to people the way you would speak to them in real life. This makes your content relatable, readable and engaging for broader audiences.
Be transparent
Being open with customers is important for authenticity. Let them know what’s going on and this will help them to see a genuine brand. Really sugar-coating a situation won’t resonate with audiences and overly ‘salesy’ marketing techniques do not create authentic messages for customers. Every business should communicate with caution and care.
3. Actively connect with customers
The more people get to know a business, the more easily they’ll feel confident in it. So businesses that regularly interact with their customers form stronger relationships and create greater ties. Reaching out to customers to provide genuine help can create a dynamic where audiences actively seek opinions and solutions from your specific brand. In other words, it creates brand loyalty.
Use social media for two-way conversations
To create real connections, don’t just broadcast at audiences. Talk with them.
Interact with relevant posts. Give advice through your own or shared content. Include strong Calls To Action on posts. Make people feel that their opinions are important and in return, give them a useful reply, helping them out. Creating relationships that are mutually beneficial encourages customers to connect with brands and strengthens trust between the two parties.
4. Demonstrate your expertise
Put simply, when people know you as a expert in your field, they will turn to you for guidance. This is a clear sign that people trust your brand.
There are several ways to demonstrate this.
Gain earned media
Earned media is when those outside of an organisation promote a brand based on merit and without being paid to do so. For example, when a journalist mentions your brand in an article. This is an excellent way of demonstrating expertise because it shows that others believe you are credible and a great source of authority in your area.
In fact, it’s such a great marketing tool that earned media is the most trusted marketing source for buyers.
Plainly, when others promote your expertise, it shows you’re a reputable source.
Win awards in your niche
There are a number of highly respected award programmes in the HR niche and entering these is well worth the time if you want to demonstrate expertise.
A win shows the market how strong your work is. Having those Award Winner emblems on your website, email communications and proposals shows it’s not just you who thinks your work is strong - independent judges do too after comparing them with others. This is a great sign for potential customers.
As well as this, it’s really helpful for building connections and rapport with current customers. After all, showing a current client that you think their project has been so successful that you want to promote their work through the award process establishes a greater confidence in the progress you’re making with them.
Demonstrating expertise in this way ingrains ideas of your subject authority and mastery of your niche.
5. Excel in employer branding
HR is often on a mission to create a great workplace for employees. As such, HR suppliers with strong employer branding can help impress their audience and gain trust.
Why is employer branding important?
Because employer branding is all about how a company treats, values and works with their employees, this shines through when employees talk to others.
In fact, employer branding is so important for building trust and a great reputation that 96% of businesses believe employer branding can actually positively or negatively impact their revenue.
Need some examples of great employer branding? Check out some of our favourites here.
6. Be patient
Building trust in a brand just doesn’t come overnight. It requires long-term relationship building and nurturing. It means being consistent in product and service levels over time, and addressing any issues fairly and quickly. It means reiterating messages to your audiences so they instinctively feel they can rely on your brand and that starts now.
Just know that taking action creates loyal customers that respect, admire and return to you - again and again.
Find out how trustworthy your business appears to HR buyers by starting your free PR audit with us today. We’ll help you understand how strong your brand’s presence is in the HR market and provide you with tailored recommendations. All with no obligations. Learn more here.