A How to Show That You’re an Ethical Brand

You may have the best intentions, but if you want to be perceived as an ethical brand by your ideal customers — whether you’re a small business or a larger venture — you need to be able to show people that you can ‘walk your talk’ when it comes to how you intend to — and already have — made a difference.

This means being transparent and providing evidence of your efforts where people can find it; online, in print and on social media.

It might seem daunting to demonstrate how your brand is actually making a difference, but it’s an effort worth making. Plus, if you want press coverage as a small business, evidence is invaluable to backup and boost your reputation.

If you’re positioning your business as being ethical and purpose-led, you have to be able to prove that you are actually doing something different to your commercial competitors.

The best place to start is your website. Give people access to PDF versions of annual reports and other documents that prove your status, so that they can immediately find out what they need to know.

Social Impact Reports

It can be really helpful to create a social impact report when you need to be able to demonstrate the effects your business is having; this needs to define the key benefits your brand offers both long and short term, and who will benefit from them. Include:

· Your mission statement — this has a critical role in guiding your ethical brand’s strategy and activities. Think about it as the first step to proving your social impact.

· Evidence of the ways in which the brand’s activities line up with your overall mission statement and any long-term measurable goals.

· Key measurements and results — by clearly stating your goals then collecting and analysing the results, you’ll create material that you can report on, giving people evidence of how your brand is doing, and what changes you could make.

Testimonials

As with any business, an ethical brand needs great testimonials from customers, and people that you’ve worked with in the past. Try to ask for testimonials from all happy customers but make a personal approach if possible as we’re all used to being asked for reviews for everything we buy or do online.

If you ask people personally for a testimonial, nine times out of then they will be happy to oblige. Add these to your website and don’t be afraid to use them on social media either.

Facebook and Google reviews can be a great source of positive feedback too.

Social Media

Don’t underestimate the benefits of social media when you want to get the message across about the impact you’re having.

Platforms like YouTube give you an opportunity to connect with people who care about what you do, and you can share information and ideas on faster moving platforms like Twitter.

Research hashtags and follow people who work in similar industries — as well as key players in ethical branding and marketing. Engage with other users and don’t simply post your own news.

Whether you work in healthcare, tech, animal welfare, environmentalism or social justice, making your brand transparency in an audience-friendly way (that is, creating content that is easy to understand and engaging) is likely to be shared on social media. So you reach even more people and potentially extend your impact.

This social sharing gives people who are interested in the topics a chance to interact with it. Get involved in relevant discussions — they will give you insight and might help get you noticed.

Media Coverage

If a journalist has deemed your business trustworthy enough to write about it or interview you on TV or radio for millions of readers or viewers, this speaks volumes of your status as an organisation that is truly having an impact. If you’d like to pitch to the press, here’s some advice.

To find out more about how to raise your profile as a purpose-led brand, visit my website.