Going the Distance: Four Ways to Build a Better Customer Loyalty Program for Your Brand

It’s easy enough for a customer to join your loyalty program, especially when you’re offering an incentive such as discounts. All your customer has to do is give out some basic information, and voila! They’re in the fold, a brand new loyalty member with your company. From there, it’s happily ever after. You offer the perks; they stand solidly by you, bringing you their continued business. Simple. Or is it? In reality, just how many of those customers are act ively participating in your loyalty program? Do you know? Sure, loyalty program memberships are on the rise according to market research company eMarketer, having jumped 25 percent in the space of just two years. However, that figure may be a bit misleading. The truth is that, while loyalty program sign-ups may be more numerous, active participation in such programs is actually in decline. At the time of the study, the average US household had memberships in 29 loyalty programs; yet consumers were only active in 12 of those. That’s just 41 percent. And even that meager figure represents a drop of 2 percentage points per year over each of the preceding four years, according to a study by loyalty-marketing research company COLLOQUY.

When discounts just aren’t enough

So what’s a brand to do? How can you make your loyalty program worth your customer’s while—as well as your own? After all, gaining a new loyalty member doesn’t mean much if your customer isn’t actively participating in your program. Consider this: Does your customer loyalty program offer members anything different from what your competitors are offering? Chances are your program includes discounts. That’s a given. And what customer doesn’t appreciate a good discount? But when every other company out there is providing this staple benefit in comparable amounts, it becomes less and less likely that customers will remain loyal to any one particular brand. Frankly, it’s all too easy for customers to get lost in a sea of loyalty member discounts. They’re everywhere. In fact, just under half of internet users perceive that all rewards programs are alike, according to a 2015 eMarketer survey. The key to success, then, is to differentiate your business from the crowd. If you can offer your customers something unique and valuable beyond the usual discount, chances are they’ll be more likely to stick with your brand. Here’s some inspiration from companies who get it.

Virgin: Reward more purchases with more benefits.

That’s not to say you need to get rid of discounts entirely. In fact, nothing could be further from the truth. Customers still love a good discount. The goal is to be creative in terms of the loyalty perks you offer. Take the Virgin Atlantic Flying Club, for example. As part of its loyalty program, the airline allows members to earn miles and tier points. Members are inducted at the Club Red tier, from which they can move up to Club Silver and then Club Gold. Here, it’s not just a discount. It’s status. And people respond to feeling important, elite. Still, even where the rewards themselves are concerned, Virgin is motivating loyalty customers with some pretty attractive offers. At the Club Red tier, members earn flight miles and receive discounts on rental cars, airport parking, hotels and holiday flights. But as members rise in tiers, they get even more. At the Club Silver tier, members earn 50 percent more points on flights, access to expedited check-in, and priority standby seating. And once they reach the top, Club Gold members receive double miles, priority boarding and access to exclusive clubhouses where they can get a drink or a massage before their flight. Now that’s some serious incentive to keep coming back for more. Discounts are still part of the equation – but they are designed with innovation and personal value in mind, elevating them to more than just savings.

Amazon Prime: Pay upfront and become a VIP.

What if your customers only had to pay a one-time upfront fee to get a year’s worth of substantial benefits? It may not sound like the smartest business idea at first glance. But take a closer look. Amazon Prime users pay a nominal $99 a year to gain free, two-day shipping on millions of products with no minimum purchase. And that’s just one benefit of going Prime. It’s true that Amazon loses $1-2 billion a year on Prime. This comes as no surprise given the incredible value the program offers. But get this: Amazon makes up for its losses in markedly higher transaction frequency. Specifically, Prime members spend an average of $1,500 a year on Amazon.com, compared with $625 spent by non-Prime users, a ccording to a 2015 report from Consumer Intelligence Research Partners.

Patagonia: Cater to customer values.

Sometimes, the draw for consumers isn’t saving money or getting a great deal. The eco-friendly outdoor clothing company Patagonia figured this out back in 2011, when it partnered with eBay to launch its Common Threads Initiative: a program that allows customers to resell their used Patagonia clothing via the company’s website. Why is this program important to customers? And how does it benefit Patagonia? The company’s brand embraces environmental and social responsibility, so it was only fitting that they create a platform for essentially recycling old clothing rather than merely throwing it away. The Common Threads Initiative helps Patagonia build a memorable brand and fierce loyalty by offering its customers a cause that aligns with deep personal values. OK, so their customers get to make a little money, too. Everybody wins.

American Airlines: Gamify your loyalty program.

If you’re going to offer your customers a loyalty program, why not make it f un? After all, engagement is key to building a strong relationship with your customer. And what better way to achieve that goal than making a game of it. American Airlines had this very thing in mind when it created its AAdvantage Passport Challenge following its merger with USAirways. The goal: find a new way to engage customers as big changes were underway. Using a custom Facebook application, American Airlines created a virtual passport to increase brand awareness while offering members a chance to earn bonus points. Customers earned these rewards through a variety of game-like activities, from answering trivia questions to tracking travel through a personalized dashboard. In the end, participants earned more than 70 percent more stamps than expected – and the airline saw a ROI of more than 500 percent. The takeaway: people like games.

Stand out from the crowd.

Your approach to your customer loyalty program should align with your overall marketing approach. Effective branding is about standing out, not blending it. Being memorable is key. To this end, keep in mind that loyalty programs are no longer a novelty. That means that yesterday’s strategies won’t work moving forward, so look for ways to rise above the noise, setting yourself apart from the cloying drone of countless other cookie-cutter programs.

How 3 Big Brands Went Hard Core With Content Marketing (And the Lessons You Can Learn From Their Success)

In spite of all the hype that surrounds content marketing these days, many businesses still have lingering questions about exactly how to use content as a viable marketing strategy:

• What exactly is content?
• How do I know if this approach is right for my business?
• What resources do I need?
• How do I measure the return on our investment?
• My company sells widgets, so why would we need it?

In the face of such uncertainty, it's human nature – and therefore the nature of business – to look to those around us for guidance and inspiration. This is especially true for brands that have earned our respect. We may not always have access to the carefully guarded data behind their decisions, but where and how those organizations invest their marketing dollars is telling.

So let’s look at how three top brands – a lifestyle products company, a professional services association and an e-commerce behemoth – are investing in content to build relationships with customers and drive sales.

Cooking up content with Williams-Sonoma

Known for its high-end kitchen products, Williams-Sonoma has crafted a customer experience that’s far different from buying discount cookware off the rack at big box stores. Instead, the company has built a lifestyle brand around the idea of just how rich life in the kitchen can be.

As a result, it's no surprise that Williams-Sonoma's website is well stocked with content about the food-lover lifestyle, including recipes, wine, entertaining ideas and gardening tips.

The brand, however, has taken content-as-marketing-strategy a giant leap further by developing a website dedicated solely to kitchen design and remodeling – Cultivate.com – with features like premium photo galleries for design inspiration and a database of remodeling professionals aimed at helping readers create their dream kitchens.

Cultivate content partnerships Williams-Sonoma style

With Cultivate, Williams-Sonoma has done something noteworthy by forming strategic partnerships with both premium brands and remodeling professionals. As a result, they've created both a high-quality remodeling resource for consumers and a powerful sales tool for business.

It's a win/win/win scenario.

First, Williams-Sonoma wins because these partners, incentivized to provide great content for the site, bring additional expertise and value to readers while simultaneously easing the resource burden of producing so much high quality content. Williams-Sonoma can equip your kitchen with gadgetry, but "A Shopper's Guide to White Marble Counters" is outside the brand's focus. Fortunately, premium tile company and Cultivate partner Walker Zanger has the expertise and credibility with customers to fill that content void.

Second, the partners win because William-Sonoma has created a micro-marketplace and platform for engaging with customers already primed for their products. The site's powerful photo gallery feature lets users search kitchen designs by color, layout, style and cost, and all of the content is professionally produced by design and architectural firms eager to feature their services.

Last and most importantly, readers win because they get a better resource for kitchen remodeling, with professionally written content, expert advice, special offers and carefully curated products – all in one convenient package.

Even if you don't have a Cultivate-sized budget, your business can still take advantage of content partnerships and the benefits they provide. The key is to identify other companies that compliment – not compete with – your products or services.

For example, a business law firm could partner with both a CPA and management consultancy to create an advice blog serving local business owners.

Or, as a starting point, consider having other businesses provide some guest posts for your company blog. This toe-in-the-water approach allows you to test how well their content resonates with customers and which potential cohorts are the right fit, all before diving into a content partnership.

Just like cooking, gardening and most other things in life, it's often wise to start small, learn from both your mistakes and your success, and then grow from there.

Content from REALTORS that really hits home

The National Association of REALTORS (NAR) has long positioned itself as the foremost authority on home ownership, and its impressive credentials back up that message. It's the largest trade association in the U.S. with over 1 million members and its own political action committee.

So it makes sense that its brand message to potential clients is that Realtors, as experts on everything from property values to legal issues, are essential to navigating the complexities of buying or selling a home.

The challenge when selling professional services, however, is that you are, according to best-selling marketing author Harry Beckwith, "selling the invisible." There's no product to return for a refund if the customer is dissatisfied, and the stakes are often higher, both in cost and risk. So building trust with your clientele before they sign a contract is critical.

NAR is using content to build this trust and reinforce the perception of its brand as a network of specialized experts through HouseLogic.com, an exhaustive information resource dedicated to all areas of homeownership, including:

• DIY home improvement and maintenance
• Working with contractors
• Outdoor and green living
• Understanding insurance, home financing and taxes
• Education about home ownership legislation and causes
• Working with a Realtor

Want to gauge whether to tackle a home improvement project yourself or hire a contractor?

What's the difference between a standard home equity loan and an FHA 203(k) loan?

Who are Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac?

HouseLogic holds the answer. So what key content lessons does HouseLogic hold for the rest of us?

Build content the REALTOR way

First, build to your brand. HouseLogic draws visitors in with content about curb appeal and customized kitchens, but it doesn't stop there. Rather, it moves beyond these themes common to thousands of other sites and addresses issues more critical for homeowners – issues only the NAR could speak to. This depth and breadth reinforces the REALTOR brand as the definitive information resource for homeowners.

If you're a product company, create content that mirrors the space where your products intersect with your customers' lifestyles. If you provide services, make sure your content approach supports the emotions that you want customers to associate with your brand, whether trust, enjoyment, security or convenience.

Second, hire pros as much as possible. Realtors want you to rely on their professional expertise, so HouseLogic follows that thinking by using experienced content creators who are knowledgeable about the topics they're covering. For example:

One writer covering home decor and improvement, is a "HouseLogic contributor and builder of luxury homes in McLean, Va. She’s been a Homes editor for Gannett News Service and has reviewed home improvement products for AOL."

Another who writes about DIY repairs and remodeling, "has written or edited over 60 books on home repair and remodeling for The Home Depot, Lowe’s, Better Homes & Gardens, Sunset, and Reader’s Digest. He's a former contractor with decades of hands-on experience."

Your organization may not have NAR's resources, but that doesn't mean you shouldn't invest in creating as much great content as your budget allows. In these freelance-friendly times, there are writers and editors aplenty. Or save yourself the hassle and outsource your content entirely to a trusted digital marketing firm that understands the intersection of the Web, content and customer experience.

And don’t forget about photography and video production – two other content areas where it's typically better to hire a pro than to do it yourself. For some brands, a slick video may seem to sales-y while a more amateur style video could come across as more genuine.

Keep in mind, the main objective is not to simply to look professional but to build your reputation as an expert in your field, and hiring a professional can help you find that focus.

Content to cart with Amazon.com

While Amazon.com has built an e-tail empire hawking content such as books, movies and music, the brand's approach to connecting with customers through content is just as impressive.

Unlike Williams-Sonoma, NAR and probably 99 percent of other companies using content to grow their businesses, Amazon has chosen to buy rather than build, to purchase a stake in pre-existing communities and their rich content rather than producing their own. And boy have they picked winners.

IMDB.com (Internet Movie Database) is essentially the Wikipedia of film and television. The content is entirely created by the user community, covering cast lists, photos, trailer clips, script overviews, production notes, trivia, industry news and much more. It's the destination site for lovers of film and television.

Similarly, DPReview.com (Digital Photography Review) has been providing in-depth reviews of cameras and photography equipment for years, building a large and engaged community of pro and amateur photographers who share their questions and insights in forums and their photos in galleries.

It's not difficult to see why Amazon would want to tap into these content communities. Ads and obvious calls-to-action allow site visitors to easily move from an article about a movie or camera to the corresponding product page on Amazon.

But Amazon has very impressively exercised much restraint here, choosing to be present in the content but not dominate it. In other words, Amazon didn't start meddling with what the community had built. To do so would have meant a breakdown of user trust and therefore site traffic and sales. They don't care which camera or movie you buy, as long as you're buying it from Amazon.

Connecting with content communities

Amazon is a trail-blazing company in many ways, and their decision to to plug in rather than publish on their own is a path worth considering, especially for organizations just starting out with content marketing.

You don't have to build a great content site if you can buy one that's already providing great content and has a loyal following. If that sounds too expensive, then look for a small but respected blog in your niche market to use as a test project.

If you can't buy at all, you can still make the most of other people's content by growing your own presence in their communities. Engage in forums and contribute content to their sites.

If you do buy a site, stay out of the way. DPReview's press release about being acquired by Amazon includes a reassuring "we-won't-break-it" quote from Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos: “DPReview.com is by far the most authoritative source anywhere for straight talk about new digital cameras. We at Amazon.com have been their fans for a long time, and we extend a big welcome to the dpreview.com team.” The release goes on to reassure everyone that the site "will continue to function as a stand-alone operation."

It will be tempting to try to bend the conversations and content in your favor and promote your products extensively, but such heavy handedness is a quick way to kill an online community. Don't ruin the trust that's already been created between the site and its followers.

These themes of building trust and providing value are the common threads that connect Amazon, the National Association of REALTORS, Williams-Sonoma and every other company that's doing content marketing well. It is without a doubt the most important lesson we can learn from their examples.

10 Keys to a Successful Marketing Partnership

You would never try to write your own legal contracts. You certainly wouldn’t dream of trying to perform your own root canal. In fact, you probably wouldn’t even attempt to change the oil in your car.

There’s a reason these tasks are left to the professionals. They require a high level of expertise to ensure success. One misstep could have disastrous consequences.

The task of growing your business is no different. Getting and keeping customers is the very lifeblood of your organization, and as such, must be handled with surgical precision. Don’t shortchange your business growth goals or leave the critical process of building community around your brand to chance.

There are many hidden costs of do-it-yourself marketing – not the least of which are a loss of time, loss of focus on running and managing your business and loss of money if you are still playing by the outmoded rules of old marketing. If you are not capitalizing on every opportunity to engage with your customers and prospects via new technologies and new media, your competitors will, and you’ll be left behind.

Yes, you need the creative resources of an agency. But more than that, you need a trusted business partner that is invested in your long-term success. It’s not about flashy ad campaigns or catchy slogans. It goes far beyond advertising and branding. Trustcasting agencies are experts in more than just the creative arena. The real value in working with a trustcasting agency is applying creativity to every element of business growth.

When you choose the right trustcasting agency, you’ll have an equal and proactive partner in the growth of your business.When you choose the right trustcasting agency, you’ll have an equal and proactive partner in the growth of your business. Nothing is more important in today’s marketplace than cultivating and nurturing your core group of customers. Finding them, engaging them in community, building their trust and putting their passion to work to help you grow – this is the specialty of the trustcasting agency.

Working with a trustcasting agency requires you to do more than give your blessing to creative campaigns and sign checks when the invoices arrive. The best marketing partnerships start with you. You must come to your agency with an open mind but armed with clear objectives, good perspective, creative ideas and solid data. You must be prepared to back up their efforts by creating a culture of quality and service within your business to ensure that you practice what you preach.

Following are 10 practices you must implement in order to actively engage with your trustcasting agency in promoting the growth of your business.

Good discipline goes a long way

Your business – and the promotion of it – thrives on your ideas. You must have a clear vision for your company: How will it grow? What do your customers need, and how do you address those needs? How do you create a brand that people embrace as part of their own identity? How do you excite your fans to the point of being your evangelists?

The only way you can make the time you need to grow is through vigilance with regard to organization and productivity.Achieving this level of clarity requires an investment of time, effort and focus – with the greatest emphasis on time. The only way you can make the time you need to grow is through vigilance with regard to organization and productivity.

Efficiency creates more opportunities for profit, while disorganization has significant opportunity costs. Having the right work environment saves you time and money every day. Steve Strauss, author of The Small Business Bible, coined the term R.O.O. (return on organization, estimating that “increased R.O.O. can yield up to an extra two hours of productive time a week and up to an additional six percent of revenue.”

For a business owner or marketer, good time management is just as important as sound financial management. Eliminate distractions. Stop multi-tasking. Clear your desk and clear your mind.

Give yourself the time you need to take a step back and gain perspective. Focus on ways to improve your internal operations, your employee morale, your customer service and your product or service offering, and bring your best ideas to your trustcasting agency.

Out of order comes inspiration

Once you’ve organized your work environment and maximized your productivity, you’ll find that the space and time you’ve created for yourself paves the way for inspiration to follow.

The good news: inspiration can come from anywhere at anytime. Keep your eyes open, be present in the moment and be an active observer of the world around you. Blogs, Twitter, books, magazines, art, friends, neighbors, customers – any of these can be the source of your next big idea as long as you are perpetually searching and constantly in tune with your passion for growing your business.

The challenge of inspiration is that you never know just when it will strike. Ideas don’t arrive on schedule. In fact, they are probably least likely to come when you are sitting in front of your computer. More often than not, your best thinking happens when you are driving, cooking, sleeping or even brushing your teeth. Make sure you always keep your journal or smartphone at hand so you can jot down a note whenever and wherever you might be.

Part of being a good entrepreneur is being a good steward of ideas. Don’t allow inspiration to pass you by without capturing it, and don’t allow the motivation behind it to dissipate before you explore all the possibilities that lie therein.

Every idea has the potential to become something valuable, even if you can’t immediately recognize how to execute or monetize it. That’s where your trustcasting agency comes into play. Bring them all of your ideas – no matter how rough and unrefined. They’ll help you sift through them, identify the gems and polish them into a brilliant and actionable business growth strategy.

Playing the numbers game

It’s a fact: business growth requires some degree of trial and error. However, that’s not to say that you can’t tip the odds of achieving success in your favor.

In today’s marketplace, good marketing is more cost-efficient than ever before, but it all starts with good data. You need a solid foundation in order to ensure that your efforts are driving revenue rather than undermining profitability.

The key is having good metrics in place – metrics that go much deeper than just measuring traffic to your website. You need to quantify your core business operations. At the most basic level, you must know the real cost to acquire a new customer and the lifetime value of that customer.

There are a number of factors that play into these figures: What brings your customers in the door? What motivates a them to make a purchase? How much do they spend? How many times do they return? What brings them back, and who do they tell about their experience? If they leave, where did they go and why? By answering these questions, you can determine the level of investment you must make in your marketing and trustcasting efforts in order to continue to grow.

If you have a Web presence and are active in social media, it’s also critical to keep a finger on the pulse of your online community. Again, it starts with the basics: the number of visitors to your site, what brought them there, how long they spend there and what causes them to leave.

But in the Web marketing universe, where community building is essential to brand building, you must take this analysis much further. Is your online following growing, and if so, how quickly? What is the ratio of active members to total members? How many mentions are you getting in the social web, and are they positive or negative? Are your fans sharing your content and links with their friends, and are their friends then passing these on to others within their own networks?

If this sounds daunting, don’t worry. Your trustcasting agency can show you how to take your business processes and break them down to the numbers. Together you can examine the data to determine what’s working and what’s not and use this information as a baseline for improvement. In doing so, you can be sure that you are making a sound investment in growth, not just spending money and hoping for a good return.

There is no substitute for consistency and quality

Now that you’ve made an objective analysis of your business operations, it’s time to take a subjective look at your brand and its perception in the marketplace.

Sit down with your trustcasting agency and inventory everything that you put in front of your customers – from your signage to your business cards to your merchandise displays to your advertising and website.

Evaluate each element with critical eye. What do these things say about you? Do they all work together cohesively to make a clear and deliberate statement? Or are they sending mixed messages about who you are and what you stand for? Worse yet, are they turning potential customers away because they project a lack of professionalism or quality?

Your customers can always tell when you cut corners, and it undermines their trust in you. As you work through this process, a good exercise is to look at the best of the best – companies like Apple, BMW and Nike that have mastered quality in the perception of their brand. What trends do they follow? What is the common thread that runs through everything they release into the marketplace?

For example, Apple has built their name on unparalleled quality in design, and nothing reaches the consumer that doesn’t reflect their unrelenting dedication to protecting this reputation. From their products to their packaging to their stores to their ads, Apple is invested in sending a clear and consistent message that they stand for innovative, beautiful design. As a result, when people do business with Apple, they know exactly what to expect time after time.

You can’t fake quality. Your customers can always tell when you cut corners, and it undermines their trust in you. Instead, you must recognize the importance of quality as a way of demonstrating respect for your customers and be committed to preserving the integrity of your brand through and through. With the help of your trustcasting agency, you can ensure that just like Apple, BMW and Nike, it is your name that is synonymous with quality in your market.

Keep your enemies closer

It is the curse of the entrepreneur to be obsessed with the competition. And, to a degree, that fixation can be quite productive.

If you’re like many business owners, you probably think that your competitors know more than you do, are doing more and are doing it better. However, if you want to get and stay ahead, don’t just assume – analyze.

Be your competitor’s customer. Pay close attention to each and every aspect of your experience. What kind of service did you receive while you were there, from the moment you set foot in the door until you left? How do they organize and present their merchandise? Did you walk away with a positive impression? What are they doing to build community around their brand? What kind of incentives do they offer customers to become their fans and evangelists?

Get every detail down, and feed this information to your trustcasting agency. Together, you can determine whether your perceptions line up with reality and mine this information for opportunities to outperform your competitors and conquer your market.

That being said, it’s also important to keep your focus on your competitors in check. It’s necessary to keep tabs on what your competition is doing but not to the point where it becomes a distraction from or a detriment to doing what is best for your own business.

Don’t fall into the temptation to follow your competitors or replicate what they are doing successfully. Instead, allow your trustcasting agency the freedom to try new things. You need to carve out your own niche in the marketplace, create your own identity, offer something unique to your customers and cultivate your own community of dedicated followers.

Everyone is in marketing, everyone is in sales

No matter what business you are in, you are in the customer service business. Brands are built on engagement. You may get only one chance to make a first impression, but the reality is that each and every impression counts toward earning and sustaining customer loyalty.

Good customer service is the proof in the pudding of your brand promise. Good customer service is the proof in the pudding of your brand promise. Your marketing investment is nothing but money down the drain if you don’t back it up with relentless dedication to ensuring that every customer experience reflects the values you claim to stand for.

Your trustcasting agency can help you initiate the trust-building process through honest, communication that demonstrates respect for the customer. But if the customer has a bad experience face-to-face, the foundation you’ve worked so hard to establish will be quickly destroyed. You can’t win loyalty through even the best, most well-crafted and sincere marketing messages; you must earn it through a series of positive experiences over time.

When a customer comes through your doors, your employees are the ones that make or break their experience. Every detail – from their appearance to their demeanor to their attitude to their response to requests or problems – shapes the customer’s perception of your brand. If they have a negative encounter, they won’t lose faith in your staff member, they’ll lose faith in you, and you’ll lose the lifetime value of that customer.

As a result, marketing is the responsibility of every person in your organization. From the first impression to the last, you must place value on every interaction and every event. Don’t be complacent in expecting that a certain percentage of customers will inevitably have problems and be content to offer an apology after the fact.

Indoctrinate your employees on the importance of service that goes above and beyond expectation at every opportunity. Teach them how to anticipate needs before they are even expressed, listen attentively for concerns and proactively address problems. Continuously seek out and improve areas of weakness. Make every encounter as personal as possible, no matter how large or small your business.

Trustcasting begins at home

The charge of a trustcasting agency is to help you meet your business growth objectives by facilitating the process of building and maintaining trust. Everything they do is centered around developing authentic and reciprocal relationships that are founded upon honest, two-way communication.

Most often, this process is focused on your customers, but cultivating trust and honesty within your organization is equally important.

Just as you strive to create a personal experience for your customers, do the same for your employees. Engage in face-to-face interaction whenever possible. Foster an environment that promotes open communication at all levels of your organization. Give every employee complete transparency in regard to their job tasks, why they are important and if their work came to a good effect.

Even more importantly, your employees are one of the most cost-effective sources of ideas that you have at your disposal. Your people are your eyes and ears. They are in the trenches of your day-to-day business operations and on the front lines of customer service. As such, who could be better qualified to identify areas of improvement and propose viable solutions?

Design positions in a way that allows every employee to provide input and experience personal growth. Listen to everyone’s opinions and let them know they are a part of the process and that their voices matter.

By encouraging employees to share ideas, you send the message that you are entrusting them with a stake in the company. In return, they will invest a higher level of trust in you and be motivated to always demonstrate honesty and fairness in their dealings with you and their colleagues.

Invest in your employees

Just as your best customers are your brand ambassadors, so are your best employees.

As such, your hiring practices are critical not only to the health of your brand but also to the success of your trustcasting agency’s efforts to further the growth of your business. There is a profound difference between employees who are competent in their jobs and those who actively contribute to your success.

It is essential to hire people who not only have the skill set you need but also are a good fit with your corporate culture. Seek out those who have an innate talent for leadership and put them in roles where they can help you keep your team motivated. Those who are passionate inspire others to want to work harder, too.

Once you have the best people in place, foster a culture of execution in which every employee is empowered to make decisions. Support them by developing a corporate philosophy that clearly defines the core values that drive your business practice and helps them understand what differentiates you from your competitors.

High caliber employees will be able to take this philosophy and apply it creatively to their tasks, the way they perform their work and the decisions that they make so that everything they do reflects and promotes the values your brand stands for.

Know thyself

As an entrepreneur, you are essentially in two businesses: the business of what you do and the business of promoting and growing your company. The mission of your trustcasting agency is to support you in achieving your business growth objectives.

Not every corner coffee shop wants to become the next Starbucks, and that’s okay. However, the success of your partnership depends on clearly defining those objectives. What is your purpose? To stand pat and realize a certain level of profitability? To expand to multiple locations? To own your market locally, regionally or even nationally?

What is your timeline for growth? Are you content to test the waters where you are, or do you want to pursue an aggressive expansion plan?

Just as importantly, do you have a stopping point, and if so, what is it? Not every corner coffee shop wants to become the next Starbucks, and that’s okay.

No matter the scope of your aspirations, you still need good marketing. It is essential to make the investment in creating a culture around your brand in order to sustain the longevity of your enterprise. However, your growth objectives hold the key for your trustcasting agency to determine the tactics and resources necessary to reach those goals.

Patience is a virtue

The final key is the most simple but perhaps the most important: don’t expect results instantly. Business growth is about increasing awareness, building trust and earning loyalty, a process that takes time and dedication. There are no shortcuts to cultivating real, authentic relationships with your customers.

Don’t get frustrated if things don’t work as you planned immediately, and don’t allow yourself to be paralyzed by fear of or anxiety about failing. Keep trying new approaches, slowly building on those that work well and shaving off those that don’t.

Through it all, maintain your motivation, passion and focus. Don’t try to be everything to everyone all at once. Stay true to your core brand values and concentrate on what you do best.

Above all, have faith in your trustcasting agency. They are in the business of understanding the culture of today’s consumer and creating platforms for long-term success. The methods of new marketing may feel unfamiliar, but in reality, the practices and principles of trustcasting are rooted in and based upon a timeless, proven approach to business development.

The ultimate payoff for your steadfastness and patience will be getting and keeping the best kind of customers – true, dedicated fans that identify themselves with and become evangelists for your brand.