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Generally, the foundation of business is human and your customers who are obviously humans want to do business with brands that share similar values, brands that are truthful, genuine and dependable and all of this boils down to authenticity, and authentic marketing. Brands that practice authenticity in marketing is being intentionally true to the heart of their brand and its message. The days of growing your business with marketing techniques that are not genuine are long gone as customers want to do business with businesses that share their values, represent themselves as they truly are, and support the causes they are about. Being authentic simply means that you are real, genuine and you are being true to who you are as a brand. It means that you are presenting yourself and your brand from a place of genuineness and sincerity in order to create real connections with your customers. As an authentic brand, you already know your customers, their values, and why they constantly patronize you. This means that you don’t apply the wrong gimmicks to attract customers who aren’t in your target audience because you understand that violates your audience’s trust. Some of the major traits of authentic brands include being nonjudgmental, welcoming, honest, teachable, expressive, and considerate, therefore, if you want to make your brand more authentic, observe the above-listed traits and see if those traits represent your brand, then, identify where you can begin making adjustments.
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Importance Of Authenticity
- Builds Customer Loyalty: Building trust with your customers automatically makes them loyal customers who will always return to your services or products repeatedly. As a result, you’ll grow a community around your brand that makes it stand out from the crowd.
- Authenticity ignites the human bond: Business is Human because you tend to deal with humans and as humans, the flow of positive energy increases when both parties are honest and genuine. The chances of negative energy and trust issues arise when there is ingenuity.
- Authenticity opens the door to vulnerability: When your brand is authentic, it has a way of dropping the false trappings of title, status, and formality. Human beings want to connect with your brand on a human level and this can only happen if your brand operates in a way that’s open and honest, even while acknowledging your shortcomings and mistakes.
- Ability to Learn: Authenticity allows you to learn about others, including your customers. If you are constantly afraid of opening up, letting fear be the guide as opposed to love and compassion, you tend to miss the wonderful experience of learning about other businesses and your customers on a deeper and more meaningful level.
- Authenticity changes your perspective: When you no longer need to hide behind what others want you to be, say, or do, you put aside falseness, ingenuity and lies and open up to a world of endless and positive opportunities. Chances are that you will begin to see business and the world at large from a very different perspective and you tend to also step into the full version of yourself.
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