Businesses have a lot to think about this 2022. Construction is not an exception. If you are a construction business owner, most of your focus probably includes strengthening your company as a whole and re-establishing what was lost in previous years. Today, your target customers are now looking for trust.
So, if you want to increase the level of trust your customer base has in your business, building brand authority online is the answer. And with the right mix of digital brand-building tactics, you can always carry your construction company to its next growth target.
In this blog, we will talk about brand authority, its importance, and seven actionable ways to build your very own brand authority effectively.
What is Brand Authority, and Why Is It Important?
Brand Authority refers to the continuous trust a brand has earned among your clients and the extent to which they see your construction brand as a subject-matter expert. A range of factors can influence authority, including compelling and robust content, strong engagement over social media, and an active online presence.
Having an impressive brand authority in tandem with brand awareness can further increase and boost conversions for your construction business. The two factors work as powerful forces on your target prospects, intensifying the effects of your digital marketing efforts. The more clients learn to trust your construction business, the more they will patronize it.
With a strong brand, your prospective customers will be more likely to interact with and use your content upon seeing it. Also, having a strong brand authority can do one of two things, and it’s like hitting two birds with one stone. See below:
· Retain a loyal client base that seeks you out first, even before turning to your closest competitors.
· Attract the attention of popular influencers within your sector, who can then use their authority to promote your brand.
How to Build Brand Authority Online and Become Authoritative?
Building your brand authority, especially online, begins with boosting your visibility through Search Engine Optimization and content marketing tactics. Search engines use thousands of factors to determine how relevant and powerful your website is clear. Three top factors are relevant to the content, compelling meta description, and quality links.
There are a lot of ways to build your authority online. With the following actionable ways, you can craft a strategy that best suits the needs of your construction business.
1. Determine your target audience’s most asked questions
If you want your construction brand to be an industry expert, you have to go above and beyond. You have to know more what your customers and their needs. To do this, you have to fully understand what your prospects ask every day while considering your service offerings.
Determining what your clients and prospects are asking seems like an easy task. However, it is not always as simple as you think. Below are some tips that can help you figure out what your prospects are asking as they make their way through the buyer’s journey.
- Talk to sales: Perhaps, the first thing you must do is talk to your sales team. They know better when it comes to your clients. Ask what some of the most asked questions that they constantly answer are. How do they usually ask these questions?
- Become an expert on personas: Define clearly every different persona you have and their unique path through the buyer’s journey. This will help you better understand what your clients are asking when.
- Keyword research: Conducting keyword research is a great way to begin understanding your target prospects’ search intent and what they are asking when searching for answers. You can choose whether to do this organically or use some tools.
2. Create Authoritative Content
Now that you will know what your target audience is asking, it is time to create content that can answer such questions. But how can you guarantee that your content is authoritative? This comes down a lot to the presentation.
Your target prospects want concise and precise answers to their questions. So, if you attempt to burry those answers with huge blocks of meaningless graphics, prospects will bounce from your page quickly and end up on another site. Below are some tips to make your content straightforward and audience-focused:
- Include easy navigation to what your readers are looking for in your content.
- Establish a user-focused design for your content that is easy to read.
- Use data research and facts when necessary to prove your expertise.
- Always mention all experts and sources with a bio, name, and, if possible, links.
3. Use Social Proof to your Advantage
Social proof refers to the psychological phenomenon wherein people copy other people’s behavior under the assumption that these actions are somewhat reflective of the correct behavior. So, how can you take advantage of social proof? How can you integrate social proof into your marketing content? Here are some examples of social proof you need to incorporate into your content.
- Customer reviews
- Case studies
- Client testimonials
Pro Tip: When incorporating or writing social proof within your content, make sure it highlights your services and products in the words of your clients. Your target prospects focus more on what others say about your business than what you say.
4. Raise your profile with coveted industry-wide awards
While we asked you previously to take advantage of social proof, we want you to showcase all of your awards. You can be widely recognized in the construction sector if you acquire awards. In fact, winning awards from a trade group within your industry can help raise your business profile online. While social proof like customer reviews and client testimonials are proven useful when getting recognition online, your awards can take you to another level of acknowledgment.
So, start displaying badges and seals from any awards you have won across your construction website. Always take steps further.
5. Be Genuine
An essential thing you can do to build your brand authority successfully is to be who you say you are. Always be genuine. By simply following through on the promises you made for your target prospects, you prove your reliability and trustworthiness to your customers and prospects.
Again, we like you to focus more on content and social proof. These two go so far. But if you fail to provide a great user and customer experience, your buyers will not return, regardless of how much authority you have established. Yes, you want to educate your prospects. But you also want to convert them. So, by being genuine and treating all your online interactions as personalized relationships rather than business transactions – you will be one step further toward creating a solid foundation of brand authority.
6. Be a guest blogger on authoritative sites
Every industry has a collection of blogs that track the latest trends today. In fact, the industry you belong in has now been bombarded with the latest trends and technologies. Over the years, construction has become modernized, and there are a lot of solutions today that streamline processes and workflows. These topics have been the most talked about and tackled in the blogs.
We suggest you do guest blogging. Guest blogging, especially on relevant and related sites, allows you to showcase your knowledge and expertise in construction to others. This tactic can bring organic traffic to your website while building brand recognition and solid trust among your potential clients.
7. Develop and Host a Podcast
Quality content does not need to be limited to images or texts. A podcast allows you to reach a whole new subset of your audience in the market. There are a lot of people today who prefer to connect to your brand through an audio format. You may also generate enthusiasm and build your brand as an industry expert by:
- Exploring topics relevant to your client base
- Inviting guests in and outside of your industry
Every touchpoint is the opportunity to build brand authority within your industry. By focusing on developing content like podcasts across different channels, you can demonstrate to others your expertise and knowledge.
Start Building Your Brand Authority with ConstructionMarketing.io
This 2022, building brand authority will be far more important than ever before. In a market that educated consumers and skeptical buyers fuel, your target prospects have to know that they can trust the brand they decide to do business with.
So, as you plan your marketing campaigns this 2022, make sure to build it with a solid foundation based on brand authority. Partner with a reliable agency like ConstructionMarketing.io that can help your brand grow exponentially, and we can help your company build authority online and within your industry.
Our range of digital marketing services is designed to help construction businesses build authority online. Our goal is to showcase you in public to recognize you as an industry expert. We ultimately aim to elevate your company above and beyond and show your target customers that you are in a league of your own.
Contact us today and learn more about the many services we offer.