There are thousands of fitness influencers, health and wellness companies, and fitness facilities around — check it, a simple search for “fitness” on YouTube gives “About 30,200,000 results”… so how in the heck do you influence someone to choose your services over that of a competing one just down the road? In order to build and maintain an army of customers, you must first be able to build and maintain trust through creating a culture of transparency.
Transparency is about being real. It’s about not bullshitting. And it’s about being honest with your followers, fans, and audience. Transparency is appealing in a raw, human sort of way. Just as you appreciate when interactions between your peers are honest and sincere, why would you want anything less from people you hope to do business with?
It is no longer seen as a virtue to be private. It seems like every few weeks, tons of companies leak personal details of their new business endeavors and consumers eat it up. And on the other hand, we see companies publicly apologize for mistakes they’ve made and as consumers then think, “Good for them for taking responsibility for their actions.” Either way, transparency wins because transparency generates trust.
A culture of transparency forms when boss men and women of an organization explicitly showcase their own personality and true self, and encourage other team members to do the same. So basically.. transparency starts with people. Raw, human, flawed people.
When an organization’s representatives are transparent, it sets up an easy road for the organization to follow right behind them.
All of these virtues of transparency are vital to the success of your online marketing goals.
1. Be transparent about your successes… and your failures.
You are going to make mistakes. You are going to fail in some aspects. Businesses are run by people and people are flawed. The mistake isn’t going to make or break your business, but how you handle it could. People almost always appreciate raw honesty more than a sugar coated lie.
2. Be transparent about the price.
There’s rarely a need to hide the pricing of a product or service… they’re going to find out eventually. Besides, nothing turns a customer off more than a shady conversation about money. Ensure your customer knows exactly what they are getting in return for their hard earned dollars.
3. Be transparent about unsatisfied customers.
If people aren’t happy, don’t attempt to hide it. You can’t control what people are going to write on social media or Yelp. Rather than delete every single negative comment in a frenzy or hoard resentment towards the haters, deal with it openly and honestly. Reach out to them. Find out what went wrong. Learn from it and do better next time.
There are countless stories of companies and individuals with pie on their faces because they failed at dealing with unsatisfied customers — or in the wake of a PR disaster did poor damage control. At the risk of getting political, look at what happened to Hillary Clinton’s campaign back in 2016.
4. Be you and your fans will follow suit
This may be the most important. People connect you to the company, so you as a leader should embody transparency. One of the best ways to be express your true self is to create that transparent culture on your social media. We know a thing or two about social media, so give us some insight into your thought processes, your trials and errors and let us express the real you to your audience in the most optimal way possible.
A culture of transparency is the way businesses should run, and it is absolutely something that we pride ourselves on at FEAD MEdia. What you see really does meet the eye with us. It is our ultimate goal to express your true transparent self on your platforms in the best way we possibly can.