Once upon a time, growing your reputation was simple. Deliver on your promises, communicate with clients, and boom… you’ve got a sustainable business.
But the world is changing, and the best entrepreneurs are changing too. All businesses start small; that’s just an inevitable fact. So acting on your reputation is more vital now than ever. When you achieve something, you need the world to know. No more business as usual – now you are building a reputation for your brand.
To start from the beginning, delivering consistently on your promises remains a fundamental part of building your reputation. You get closer to your customers, which means they are more likely to spread the news about your work. Getting results should be the first thing on your reputation checklist; the rest will follow.
Before my current work scaling Two Comma PR, my reputation was centered around the businesses I had grown in the world of tennis, The Apprentice, and beyond. During the launch of Shopping Slot in 2020, we managed to generate levels of impressions that would make any business owner jealous. So when I entered the public relations industry, I already had something behind me that said, ‘Yes, I know how to do this.’ That’s the power of getting results and building your reputation.
The inherent benefit of building a reputation in PR is that many people already know what you’ve done. It’s PR. This is where we come on to the ‘You need the world to know’ section. A reputation among your existing customers is great to have, but it isn’t going to lead to scalability. You need the people who never knew you existed to become your customers, and that’s achieved through having a brand story and press.
When modern consumers decide to buy in, they want to know that they are becoming part of a brand’s story. If you’ve already created a narrative that your existing clients have bought into, you’re halfway there. You just need your message to be universally identifiable and accessible. If not, find something that relates to more than just your products. It could be sustainability, next-generation technology such as NFTs, or added value for loyal customers. When you’ve got a strong story for your brand, you will stick in the mind of your audience for longer, and your reputation has a new way to grow. The only problem is you are still reliant on the consumer to spread your story.
Good news, if you’ve made it this far, then there should only be one priority left on your list: press. Press is one of the most effective tools available to boost your business’ reputation without even performing a service, rolling out a product, or committing time and energy to uninterested prospects. I’m talking about getting those achievements we mentioned earlier into online publications. You already have a compelling story, so the hard work involved in getting somebody to click on your article is already done. Good job.
Now, your reputation has no limits and can reach any corner of the internet at the click of a button. It has the potential to grow exponentially via an organic buzz around your brand. And guess what: your business is now scalable in ways you couldn’t have imagined before. There is an undeniable relationship between reputation and prosperity, and more entrepreneurs are taking note.
If what I’ve spoken about doesn’t resemble what you previously understood about building your reputation, good. It shouldn’t. A traditional business ethos should still be at the core of what you do. But to remain relevant, you should wrap it in an ambitious and aspirational brand story and press strategy that will resonate with your audience. If you’ve cracked the above, your reputation will start doing the hard work for you.
