7 Effective Ways to Nurture Brand Authority in Your Niche

Say, would you be as interested in reading this if you were browsing a doughnut catering shop’s blog instead of a video marketing company’s?

Most people wouldn’t.

Don’t get us wrong; there are plenty of gifted bakers out there who also happen to be geniuses at digital marketing. We’ve met a few 🤤

But online, what you seem to be good at is often as important as what you are actually talented at – at least when it comes to getting people through the door and paying attention.

That, in a nutshell, is what makes brand authority such a vital piece of successful digital marketing strategies and why we are talking about it here today 😉

So, grab a doughnut, pour some coffee, and let’s go over seven effective ways to nurture your company’s brand and become a go-to reference in your niche!

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(Animated explainer video created by Yum Yum Videos)

What is Brand Authority? (And Why Us Marketers Like to Make a Big Fuss About It!)

Like it or not, the way a potential customer feels about your company plays a huge role in whether they do business with you or go straight to the competition.

What’s worse, it’s something that has precious little to do with the actual quality of what you offer and everything to do with the way people think about your brand.

In other words, it’s why you don’t even bother looking at boxed wines when you are looking for a nice Cabernet.

Not to be confused with its more famous cousin, brand awareness, brand authority speaks to the way your audience perceives your company. How much they trust what you say about your products and the degree to which they see you as someone who knows – and are good at – what they are doing.

Think of it like this: brand awareness is what you use to get people to find you; brand authority is what you need to keep them around long enough to make a sale 😉

7 Effective Ways to Nurture Brand Authority in Your Niche

Fine, fine! – I hear you say – brand authority is a big deal. But how do I go about getting it?

Well, first thing I’d say you should keep in mind is to be patient! Like most forms of trust and reputation, you can’t build them overnight or in a rush.

The second thing would be that, as with most things online, you can build up your company’s image and authority through compelling content. In this case, content designed to impress upon people that not only do you know what you are talking about but that you are also pretty great at what you do.

Easy as pie, right? Well…

While the above sounds nice in principle, there’s no surefire “roadmap” to building brand authority. In fact, the number of strategies and types of content available to you will vary a lot depending on your company’s size and resources, the kind of business you are in, and the type of audience you are after.

What we can and will do here, however, is give you a few content-creation strategies that have proven to excel at brand authority building across most niches.

So, hold on to your cups and don’t spill any coffee. We are going for a marketing ride!

1. Leverage High-quality Educational Video Content

Blatant bias aside, it’s no secret that high-quality video content outperforms other forms of media when it comes to marketing. Not just because audiences tend to engage more with videos (which they do), but also because video gives you incredible flexibility to pursue and achieve all kinds of marketing goals.

And if we are talking brand authority building – which we are; I just double-checked the title! – few tools can be as effective as educational videos!

By making high-quality videos covering the topics your audience is interested in, you give the people what they want and do it the way they want. Moreover, you provide value to viewers while getting more exposure and establishing associations that have people thinking of you when they think about your niche.

For example, we’d hope that you remember Yum Yum Videos next time you think about effective video marketing… or just enjoying a good doughnut. 😁 Both are equally fine by us!

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2. Get Involved in Online Conferences and Industry Events

Whatever niche your company happens to be in, there is a content circuit of interested people that has grown around it.

From huge IT conferences in Las Vegas to small curated groups of enthusiasts and consumers on Reddit or Quora, we live in a world where the free exchange of ideas is valued.

Why not be a part of it?

Once you start getting involved in industry events and participating in conferences and online discussion groups built around your niche, you start reaping a lot of benefits from a brand authority standpoint:

You get your brand out there – making connections, staying updated, and adding to the conversation in meaningful ways – and you get endless opportunities to acquire valuable and relevant information to share with people interested in the same things your company can help them with!

Also known as “potential customers” in fancy marketing lingo.

Just think of it this way: If you were a guitar player, would you pay more attention to advice coming from someone who listens to a lot of music or from someone who’s playing concerts week after week?

Don’t know about you, but we’d pick Hendrix over any Spotify user every day of the week, regardless of how passionate these were about guitar solos!

3. Showcase Testimonials, Reviews, and Case Studies

Remember what we said about brand authority being the product of showing to your audiences that you know what you are talking about and are good at what you do? Well, case studies and testimonials can be that stone with which you kill those two proverbial birds!

Metaphorically speaking, of course! Never hurt our cute, feathered buddies 😊

By producing and showcasing successful case studies and glowing testimonials – and here, video content is once more your strongest ally, make sure to partner up with a video marketing agency for more personalized content – you get to present your brand in the best possible light and do so from an arguably impartial, third-party standpoint.

What’s more, you get to provide actual helpful data on your industry or details about how your company works without it feeling like you are bashing your audience over the head with a marketing mallet – all while nurturing your brand authority by sharing success stories that your potential customers can see themselves reflected on!

We believe the technical term for that in marketing is “win-win” – which also happens to be our office’s lovely pet parroquet name.

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4. Establish Your Brand on Social Media

Nowadays, social media platforms give you a host of ways to connect with and engage your target audience, other industry leads, influencers, and even potential partners.

Which makes not having a robust social media profile for your brand a cardinal sin in digital marketing!

Now, do consider that these platforms are but a medium – channels to give you the opportunities to nurture your brand’s authority and perceived reliability, so you still have to do the legwork.

BUT…

You miss 100% of the shots you don’t take, and if you aren’t positioned already when the opportunities come around, how can you benefit from them?

Work on giving your company a solid foothold on the social media platform your audience favors most, and progressively grow that presence with excellent content to raise your profile within that ecosystem.

Do it right, and you’ll have another piece of digital real estate where people can not only find you but enjoy and share with others content that improves your standing in your niche.

5. Become a Contributor on Authoritative Sites

Another great way to improve your company’s reach and overall stance is to provide quality content as a regular contributor on authoritative sites in your industry.

What constitutes an “authoritative site“, though, changes from industry to industry. So, it is essential for you first to find out where your audience goes to read their blog posts or find their information.

Otherwise, you’ll just be like that weird healthcare insurance company that keeps trying to guest blog on BuzzFeed.

The good news here is that most sites appreciate having a knowledgeable, expert take on topics their audiences might benefit from, and the more you do it, the easier it gets!

Once it’s all said and done, you can have a whole repertoire of content online, driving new eyes to your digital presence and engaging with posts that tell them how well-informed, helpful, and definitely cool you and your company are! 😉

6. Create and Provide Whitepapers, Industry Reports, and Analytical Studies

The perfect alternative for a company that has more budget than time! And hey, time is money, friend!

Creating industry reports and analytical studies might sound like a daunting proposition, and it may very well be one, depending on your niche! However, do keep in mind that in this data-driven world we live in, it has become cheaper and easier than ever to gain access to an astonishing amount of consumer data, patterns, and analytics you can use!

Moreover, when you develop this type of content with the specific intent of building brand authority, you get to benefit from it twice:

Once as you yourself deepen your understanding of industry-relevant data that can help you improve your strategy, and another when you share it with an interested and appreciative audience that can benefit from it as well!

Pro tip: This sort of content can do wonders for authority building in b2b scenarios, where clients tend to appreciate this type of in-depth, insightful content to inform their decision-making.

7. Host an Industry Podcast

While podcasts have been around for a while now, the format has seen a rise in popularity of late.

Partly because audiences have grown used to this style of long-form, informal, in-depth content, and also because the format has become much more accessible and approachable through platforms like Spotify and YouTube Music.

Best of all? Podcasts hardly ever compete with the rest of your marketing efforts for your audience’s attention, as they are mostly meant as a type of primarily audio content that people consume as they take care of other things.

In that sense, creating and hosting an industry-relevant podcast gives you a unique opportunity to open up your brand to an entirely new audience base while still synergizing perfectly with the rest of your brand authority content.

Don’t know where to start? We’ve got you covered!

There are plenty of resources online that can help you with the technical side of things. But if you are unsure about the sort of content you should include in your podcast, why not start by exploring niche-relevant topics and interviewing industry-recognized figures? These are always great additions to your brand authority-building strategy!

Wrapping Up

If you’ve read this far, your doughnut and coffee are probably gone by now. But, hopefully, you also have a much better understanding of brand authority and how to go about establishing it for your brand!

Now, it’s time to put these things into practice and start thinking about which of these content approaches would work best for your brand, audience, and niche, and go for it!

In the meantime, we are going to get a second doughnut to celebrate – don’t judge! – as we wait to see all the excellent brand authority-building content you are going to start making from now on.

Best of luck!