Your products and services are the foundation on which your business is built, but they can’t guarantee its success on their own. Aside from providing your clients with great products or services, your business also needs to have a consistent and positive brand or public image.
A public image is how you present your business to the public and how they view your brand in return.
It may not seem as important as customer service or product development, but public image is connected with these parts of your business. Cultivating a positive public image is integral in keeping your business profitable.
Importance of Public Image to Your Business
Any professional digital public relations agency will tell you that a good public image is indispensable to a business.
Courting your consumer’s attention and keeping them interested will help your sales. Approximately 59 percent of consumers will purchase new products from a company if they’re familiar with the business. A further 21 percent of customers will buy products from a business because they like it.
Consistently making your business’s presence known to your customers is important in getting them to buy from you. The more often your customers and prospective buyers see your brand, the more you’ll become their go-to source for products.
Portraying your brand consistently on various channels, both traditional and digital, can increase your company’s revenue by as much as 23 percent.
Although you may not be thinking about your business’s public image, you could inadvertently damage it easily.
Events Harmful to Your Public Image
It can take just a single faux pas to seriously affect your business, especially if you’re running a small or medium enterprise.
Below are some of the most harmful things you can accidentally or intentionally do that will negatively impact your business’s image and your revenue.
1.Insensitive Decisions
Today’s social landscape is much more in tune with social, racial, and sexual concerns. Saying or doing the wrong thing or enacting the wrong policy can massively backfire on your company. Common insensitive decisions include making inadvertently racist comments, sexist hiring decisions, or using inappropriate language.
Even a seemingly innocuous decision can lead to complicated discussions. For example, Mattel’s release of a Dia de los Muertos Barbie has been the center of allegations of cultural appropriation. Analyze any potential fallout a business decision can cause before unveiling or implementing them.
2.Employee Behavior
Employees should reflect company values, especially when they’re on the clock. Unfortunately, when your employees engage in questionable or outright offensive behavior, your company can also be responsible for disciplining them. Otherwise, their actions will be linked to your business image and it could take months or years for you to get rid of the stain. Swift action is ideal in these cases, tempered with a nuanced response to the gravity of the situation.
3.False Promises
Advertising or implying one thing in your content or promotional material and reneging on it alter on is a sure-fire way to put your image in the trash. Social media makes it incredibly easy for slighted customers to publicize their complaints. Negative impacts to your image aren’t the only way making false claims to customers can hurt you. Customers can sue your business for false advertising, which can cost you thousands or even millions of dollars.
But what can you do to foster a great public image?
Hiring a reliable firm to handle it for you is a good step, but there are a few things you can do on your own.
Improving Your Public Image
The following are effective steps you can take when you’re cultivating a good public image for your company.
i.Consistency
In this regard, consistency doesn’t just mean posting content in a regular schedule. Your business should have the same tone and stance across your platforms. If you project your business as a serious and sophisticated brand on traditional media, your social media accounts shouldn’t be posting memes. Consistency helps your customers recognize your brand and connect with it through familiarity.
ii.Authenticity
Although your business’s primary concern if of course revenue generation, customers appreciate when you connect with them in a meaningful capacity. For example, charitable drives and altruistic projects in the wake of tragedies and natural disasters can authentic, provided you make it clear you’re not just pitching in for clout. Authentic brand image also means you provide services you advertise and that your claims aren’t unsubstantiated.
iii.Transparency
When businesses make mistakes, customers appreciate it when they own up to it instead of covering it up. Just take a look at what happened to Volkswagen’s stock when it came to light that the automotive company was actively hiding emissions. Be transparent about your business practices, product specifications and any manufacturing flaws to avoid scandal or lawsuits.
The face your business presents to the world is essential in selling your products. Start building it up today, so your business can enjoy the benefits in the near future.