When you operate a brick and mortar store or business, it’s easy to build credibility. Your customers can see, smell and feel your store environment, see your products in two-dimensions and they can see and talk to real employees who are working to make the business successful. All of these attributes make a business seem credible and real. In an online environment, you as a business owner don’t have the opportunity to appeal to a customer’s senses. You have to find pragmatic ways to build the credibility that will make your online brand respected and profitable.

What Customers Expect From a Credible Online Business

Realizing the shopping experience online is much different from that in a retail store, customers have adopted a different set of criteria for considering a e-commerce brand to be credible. They are looking for a unique website that creates excitement. They a looking to see the site is functional and easy to navigate. They are looking for information regarding site security in order to feel safe transacting business with the company through its website. They want to know they can contact you, which makes the company seem transparent. Finally, they are looking for information confirming the brand is viable. This might be in the form of a blog filled with interaction or customer reviews that confirm the brand delivers what it promises.

Delivering the Message

Once you have built a website to serve as your storefront, you need to find ways to build credibility and deliver your brand’s message. On the Internet, viral campaigns are one of the best ways build credibility. As word gets passed from one user to another, awareness of your brand grows. As long as the message is positive, you brand stands to become a credible phenomenon.

How Viral Campaigns Build Credibility for Your Brand

When good content goes viral, anyone who sees it becomes a carrier. If the message of the content inspires them, they will pass it along to friends who will pass it along to friends. In a social media environment, the content permeates the Internet is rapid fashion. Once your brand becomes known in these social media communities, it automatically has credibility because a large community of users has given it life through sharing.

Another place viral campaigns can be effective is through blogs. When your blog or blogs from within your industry start lighting up with your brand name, the brand becomes a potential player in the market as people are discussing your company. As valuable as credibility is among potential customers, it is just as valuable to establish credibility within the industry. There is nothing more credible than other companies considering your brand to be real competition.

Focusing on Content

When you launch a viral campaign designed to promote your brand, you have the opportunity to build lasting credibility. You could also fall flat on your face and stick your brand with a weak reputation. The direction your viral campaign takes the brand will likely be determined by the content. In order for a viral campaign to be effective, it has to have certain characteristics.

1. Visual Content Attracts Viewers – No matter how willing viewers are to read your text, it is usually videos or images that first draw their attention. If the visual information is interesting or exciting enough, they will be more than happy to read the text and share all of it with friends.

2. Sending a Clear Message – The message in your content has to relay what you want viewers to know about your brand. If the message is unclear or confusing, it might make the brand seem unreliable or not get passed along.

3. Play to Your Audience – Your viral campaign needs to be directed at the audience you feel best fits your brand’s demographics. Design your campaign to illicit emotional responses from your target audience and they will feel inspired enough to share it with people who might appreciate as they do.

4. Keep It Simple – On social media or blogs, people tend to have short attention spans. If you want them to experience your campaign from start to finish, keep it short and simple. It makes them more likely to take it all in and pass it on to others.

5. Make Your Content Consistent – If your viral campaign involves multiple pieces, you want to make sure the content is consistent from one to piece to another. By avoiding a fragmented message, you can at least establish credibility for you brand by showing consistency.