With every marketing campaign you launch there are basically two things you are trying to accomplish. The first one is pretty clear off the bat: you want to inform your audience about the products or services that you offer or are about to launch. However, the second may be even more important, and when done correctly, can go a long way to guarantee your brand a chance at standing the test of time.

I’m talking about establishing your brand as an authority in your industry--not only in terms of having a great offering but also in terms of standing within your industry.

This should be one of your major goals as a business, and here are a few reasons why:

The Power of Brand Authority

Consider these two stats from one study on brands:

• 45% of your brand image (the way people feel and think when they come in contact with your brand) can be attributed to what you say and how you say it.
• 54% of people don’t trust brands.

A lot of what makes your brand great depends on what you say and how you say it, but the majority of it is out of your hands. Also, the odds are stacked against you from the get-go since the majority of people don’t even trust brands.

Brand authority is simply not something you give yourself. The people who don’t like brands don’t do so because the brands told them not to--they hate brands because brands generally fail to live up to their many promises. Most brands end at the sales pitch and never go beyond. They never make a sincere effort to genuinely connect with their audience on an emotional level.

Most brands fail to understand that brand authority is mostly dependent on your reputation at large.

Brands aren’t built in a day either. A brand is not so much the result of that one major move as it is the result of a series of small ones. It is something that develops organically among your audience each time they come across marketing collateral that isn’t specifically trying to sell something to them but actually being helpful. It is something for which you must be ready for the long haul as you put yourself out there, partnering with local events and charities and making your business known.

The payoff for taking the time to build a brand is that it makes it many times easier than otherwise to keep existing customers and bring in new ones. You know you’ve arrived at this point when your customers can say, “Each time I choose to make a purchase with this particular brand I can rest assured of getting value for my money.”

To Conclude

In the end, establishing your brand as an authority enables your business to become more than just the products and services you offer. When you establish yourself as a brand authority, your audience can turn to you for answers. You become a go-to source for wisdom on every issue in your industry. And this trust translates to business as well: whenever you launch a new product or service your audience is likely to be interested in it on the strength of the fact that they trust you and your offerings.

That’s why brand authority is so important--it can turn your audience to an army of loyal fans and passionate followers of your business and products.