The selling of user data has brought criticism from privacy advocates, politicians, and regulators. And two of Facebook’s competitors, Apple and Google, have created privacy policies which sharply contrast with Facebook’s policies. Those policies have also elevated them in stakeholders’ eyes, framed them as privacy protectors, and are expected to cut severely into Facebook’s revenues.

Many companies are prepared for crises which reduce trust in the eyes of target markets. These crises can come from disgruntled employees and customers, hackers, corruption, or even just simple market adjustments. They can impact customers, investors, regulators, and any number of other key stakeholders.

But how many organizations are ready for their competition’s trust crises? These are opportunities to gain market share with consumers who may be more open to your message than they were days or weeks ago.

Turn competitors’ crises into your opportunities

Apple and Google are tech giants on their own merits. But each is also a competitor to Meta, Facebook’s parent company. Google is a direct advertising competitor, while Apple’s iMessage app competes against WhatsApp.

But neither company could just jump in to attack Facebook during its crisis; that would have been transparently self-serving. Direct attacks could also hurt their own revenue, since each company is intertwined with each other and Facebook on various platforms.

Instead, they have proactively, and very publicly, developed new privacy policies. The biggest of these changes are new controls on the iOS and Chrome platforms that severely limit 3rd-party tracking. Meta CEO Mark Zuckerburg has admitted will cost his company billions. While these policies aren’t specifically anti-Facebook, they do take advantage of the target audience’s connection to Facebook’s failings. Furthermore, they frame Apple and Google as pro-consumer and pro-privacy.

Apple didn’t stop with creating its privacy controls; that would be like cutting down a tree in the woods with nobody else around. They also launched ads, intentionally secured positive media coverage, and received influencer support.

A good example of their messaging is in this recent privacy ad. The setting is a young woman watching her online habits be auctioned off, until she chooses Apple’s privacy settings. The message is clear: Apple is the online user’s privacy friend.

Be ready for the competition’s mistakes

Building trust protection is an important part of an overall communications strategy. You can’t wait for disaster to strike before trying to fill the trust reservoir; nor can trust be effectively rebuilt if no plan is in place to refill the reservoir.

But paying too much attention to the competition can also be a distraction from growth. Apple and Google aren’t building their strategy around Facebook’s mistakes. What they have done is incorporate Facebook’s vulnerability into their existing plans.

Competitors’ crises can also become your industry’s — and your company’s — problem

A final reason to take advantage of a competitor’s trust crisis is simple self-interest. Consumers, regulators, influencers and the media who have issues with Facebook also tend to have wider privacy concerns. This means that Apple and Google don’t just need to protect their own interests — they need to protect Big Tech’s overall reputation.

Likewise, the recent Ernst & Young test cheating scandal cost the company $100 million and lots of bad press. However, it didn’t just reflect badly on the company; it could negatively impact its competitors, especially since KPMG had a similar scandal in 2019.

And when payroll company Kronos was hacked last year, the media ran articles about how the incident might change how businesses consider and use outsourced payroll companies. ADP and other Kronos competitors now have to work extra hard to show they can be trusted to secure information and keep payroll running on time.

When others are in crisis, you’re in opportunity

An ethical cliché is, “Don’t kick a man when he’s down.”

But business isn’t about cheap shots. It’s about offering your better product, service or customer experience to more customers/clients, investors/stakeholders and staff/vendors. Apple and Google are simply differentiating themselves from a major competitor.

And in doing so, they are widening the reputation and trust gap to consumers, influencers, and anyone else who cares about digital privacy.

A version of this piece was originally published by Dustin Siggins at PR Daily.

Facebook selling your private information has helped millions of businesses reach potential customers with amazing accuracy. But improved online privacy policies announced by two of Facebook’s competitors will reduce the tracking which makes this data available. This may cut Facebook’s sales by billions of dollars and will likely slash the pinpoint targeting to which businesses have become accustomed. One change is coming through the most recent set of updates to Apple iPhones. Others are coming through Google’s web browser and Android phone platforms.

Less consumer data has serious implications for small businesses. Reaching a target market will be much harder, more expensive, and more time-consuming. Facebook used this argument to accuse Apple of using privacy to hurt small businesses.

Businesses which want to thrive in the new digital advertising ecosystem should engage in surround-sound marketing. This is a strategy which incorporates paid media (ads), earned media (press), and owned media (content on platforms you own, such as a company website) to reach your prospective customers and all of the people who influence their decisions, such as family, friends, colleagues, and subordinates.

Create a rich marketing experience for your target markets

Imagine you’re going on vacation in the family car. Everyone is listening to a song on the radio. One way to listen is through a single speaker from the front of the car. A second way is to listen through two speakers which are on the left and right sides of the front of the car. And the third way is with speakers on the front left, front right, back left, and back right of the car — creating a rich listening experience no matter where you’re sitting.

Companies which use a single “speaker” to reach their target markets may secure some sales from a particular segment. But the approach is limited because few prospects are reached, and even those prospects are reached in only one way, in only one direction. Online, perhaps they saw your ad and made a one-time purchase. But that’s it; the customer’s brand loyalty is zero. And this approach is about to become even less effective because of Google’s and Apple’s privacy changes.

Companies which use two widely-spaced, front-centered speakers will create a richer experience for target markets. Potential customers will see your marketing and branding collateral multiple times in different ways. However, it’s limited because your strategy is still one-directional – front-to-back, meaning you mostly reach the driver and the passenger. If they are the purchasers, that’s good. But just like an online marketing strategy which uses Facebook but ignores Google ads and getting in the press, the kids in the back of the car — the purchasers’ influencers – won’t hear your message as clearly. They won’t have the same rich experience as the people in the front of the car.

We employ a surround-sound approach for our digital marketing clients. This puts “speakers” throughout the car so that purchasers and influencers have the same rich experience no matter where they sit. Prospective customers’ spouses, kids, and colleagues are talking you up. Prospects and influencers see your ads in Google searches, on social media, and on their favorite websites. And your name comes up in relevant press through influencer endorsements, interviews, articles, and op-eds.

Five advantages to surround-sound marketing

Surround-sound marketing is a time-tested, proven strategy which existed long before the Internet. Home service companies with great radio advertising, memorable names, quality service, and many vehicles on the road use this strategy. So do law, accounting, or financial advisory firms which are featured in the press, are on relevant boards of directors, have personal relationships with community leaders, and host livestreamed events.

There are many advantages to this strategy. Here are five:

1. Reach many market segments at once. You can then choose which one(s) to prioritize, and to which to tailor critical tactics like pricing, customer service, and capital purchases.
2. Create sales without being “salesy.” The Apple iPhone, the Google search engine, and the Facebook profile page have strong brands. They don’t have to “sell” you on using them — you’re probably already hooked because everyone seems to be talking about them and using them. Sales are a lot easier when prospective customers call you instead of the other way around.
3. Improved brand loyalty to increase gross sales and net revenue. Providing the richest marketing experience means customers may return more frequently for purchases instead of going to your competitors. They may also buy more with each purchase.
4. Reach new target markets who want your existing products and services. Surround-sound marketing uses all available tools to create a data-rich environment to guide future decision-making. With this data – digital or otherwise – you can use your own milestones and metrics of success to see new expansion opportunities.
5. Create new target markets. Apple was a computer company in the 20^th century. It added listening devices and services like iPods and iTunes 20 years ago. In 2020, it made 50% of its $274 billion by selling iPhones to a target market which didn’t exist two decades ago.

Earn more customer loyalty to drive more sales

Thanks to consumer privacy concerns, pinpoint online advertising may be on the way out. This means businesses have to work harder to reach prospective customers and to convince those prospects to make purchases. The question is how to do it – and we recommend surround-sound marketing to earn more customer loyalty and to drive more sales.

I took my father there after graduating from the university. After waiting over 20 minutes in a short line, we walked to the nearby Subway and quickly ordered two average sandwiches. Biederman’s has a great location, craft beer, and plenty of tables for homework and friends, but we wanted sandwiches to go.

While some small businesses might have regretted losing our business, Biederman’s knew that its niche markets are people doing homework and hanging out with friends. Two guys wanting a quick bite can go to Subway.

You don’t need everyone

According to a Summer 2020 poll of 34,000 consumers, Facebook and Walmart are among America’s least-trusted corporations. Clorox, Hershey, and Amazon have the most trust, with grocery stores, home-movie technology companies, and delivery companies not far behind. But from Clorox to Walmart, the companies have one thing in common: at least 51 percent of Americans trust them.

Walmart may not be “trusted,” but it is the world’s 19^th-largest company. Its stock is up by 25 percent since December and it hired 400,000 temporary workers between March and June. Likewise, Facebook stock is up by about 35 percent from a year ago, 2.7 billion people use the platform, and the company employs more than 52,000 people.

Facebook and Walmart are succeeding despite the critics. Like Biederman’s, they seek specific types of customers who see their brand value – and they’re happy to let everyone else go somewhere else.

Who are your customers?

There are over 330 million Americans. All of them eat food, drink water, and wear clothes. Most have computers or cell phones. But Walmart lets Trader Joe’s and Whole Foods have the wealthy grocery shoppers. Facebook lets LinkedIn have the white-collar worker market. And Biederman’s let Subway take a couple of customers.

Small business owners should emulate these companies by focusing tightly on core target markets and asking the right questions:

1. What does your target market care most about? Are buyers price-conscious, service-focused, or results-oriented?
2. What is your core brand differentiator? Walmart has practically everything for cheap while Facebook has built itself as the must-have for people to connect, businesses to sell, and political campaigns to get votes. Biederman’s appeal is hyper-local hangouts.
3. How are you attracting buyers? Facebook has 2.7 billion users that organizations want to reach. Walmart’s ads and stores with the best prices are omnipresent. Biederman’s is on Plymouth’s Main Street, just yards from the university campus.

Grow faster with niche focus

Your brand won’t appeal to everyone. Focusing on core markets breeds a number of excellent outcomes for small businesses:

1. Your marketing and branding campaigns will reach your target markets better. Instead of diffusing your message to reach too many disparate people, you will reach the buyers who are most likely to respond favorably to your message.
2. Your staff will be better-trained. Biederman’s isn’t trying for speed – its focus is quality, and that’s what it delivers. Your staff should be great at a few things to keep clients coming back rather than driving customers away by being mediocre or bad at many things.
3. Accomplishing Point 2 means that your staff will stay longer. People who are both skilled at their work and feel accomplished through taking care of clients are happier employees. Happy employees stay longer, which reduces the amount of money and other resources spent on finding, hiring, and training new staff.
4. You will have higher profits. Repeat customers require less effort to service, buy more stuff, and provide great word-of-mouth marketing.
5. Accomplish Numbers 1-4 above means your company will grow faster.

Core principle: Go after 51% (or less)

Diffusion is the death knell of many small businesses. Unlike Walmart, they try to impress all income demographics – and reach none. They try to reach everyone online instead of following Facebook’s example of letting LinkedIn have the white-collar social media market. And unlike Biederman’s, they try to reach people wanting a table for four and people just driving through town instead of picking one or the other.

Walmart and Facebook make billions each year by acknowledging that not everyone is going to want what they’re selling. Biederman’s has been around for nearly five decades by following the same principles — it lets people in a rush go to Subway. Small business owners should follow this core principle of success by going after only the right people, not all the people.

According to an Axios survey of over 34,000 Americans, corporations that helped customers adjust to the “new normal” have earned greater consumer brand trust. Eighty one percent of respondents say that large companies “are even more vital now to America’s future than before the pandemic” because of their resources, infrastructure, and other factors.

For small business owners, the key takeaway from this survey is that Americans want companies that they can trust to deliver quality products or service – especially in a time of crisis. For PR practitioners, the key takeaway is that if your client can’t deliver their product or service to the customer’s satisfaction, the best branding can’t put a lipstick on that pig.

Grocery stores, pharmacies, & tele-communications

Take grocery stores. These were some of the most at-risk environments when the pandemic hit America’s shores, but four of the top 10 most trusted corporations are supermarkets – surely because they were one of the few places where locked-down Americans could go, but also because stores were early adopters of social distancing and sanitation, adjusted hours to keep at-risk people safe, and increased uses of no-contact pickups and app orders. Costco, which ranked #7 on the list and was up 11 points in the trust-o-meter, had its Chief Financial Officer praise staff early in the pandemic on an investor call – something which millions of soon-to-be-unemployed Americans undoubtedly appreciated.

CVS, Walgreens, and other pharmacies have also earned improved trust levels. They loaned space for public testing in March and played key roles in guaranteeing Americans safe access to prescription drugs and other necessities

Zoom’s trust didn’t increase, but its stock sure did – up by more than 100 percent in the last year and four times higher than eight months ago. Millions of adults owe their employment to Zoom’s ability to scale its services, and tens of millions of children owe their education to Zoom and other videoconferencing companies. Netflix’s contributions to mental health during lockdowns gave it a 7-point trust increase and the 17^th spot on the list, with a stock price two-thirds higher than a year ago and more than 25 percent higher than in February of this year.

Stick to core principles

In ranking 100 companies representing wide swaths of the U.S. private sector, consumers have unconsciously reaffirmed core principles of small business entrepreneurship: offer a great product or service and be able to deliver. If you promise next-day delivery and can make it happen during a pandemic, you’re like UPS and FedEx – which ranked #10 and #20, respectively. If you guarantee quality fast-food and great customer service, you’ll be happy to know that Chick-fil-A was up 11 points and ranked at #11 on the list. And if you’re a brewery that switched to making hand sanitizer, Clorox taking the #1 trust spot may be inspiring.

Some corporations break the mold. Walmart and Facebook have seen modest stock gains even though they rank low on the trust-o-meter. They are outliers which rely heavily on volume to make up for lack of trust. Small business owners and their PR vendors should focus on customers’ core desires to reach saturation within their target market, creating the strongest foundation for long-term branding success. 

A version of this op-ed was originally published at PR News Online.

Now you must ask: Are you investing enough money in your brand? While a lot of things are free, at some point growth will be limited unless you invest time, money, or both.

Investing scarce dollars into uncertain returns scan be scary. However, it’s also necessary. Here are three ways to ensure that you’re truly putting your money where your brand is.

Use your tools correctly

Networking can be one of the most powerful weapons in a small business owner’s arsenal. But if your target market is firms grossing $100 million per year, the free local networking event is probably a waste.

Reaching your target market may require spendings thousands of dollars traveling to a conference, staying at a hotel, and sponsoring the conference.

The same is true with radio advertising. It may be the right tactic to reach your target market, but perhaps you should spend the extra money to be in the rush-hour slots instead of the 3 a.m. slot.

And, finally, posting on Facebook and LinkedIn is free. Maximizing these tools is not. One is a low-level tactic; the other requires strategic investments.

Your time is money

Bad networking can cost a CEO well over $100,000 annually in lost time and opportunity. The same is true with other marketing concerns — for example, should a busy CEO craft his or her marketing collateral, or should someone else handle that responsibility?

Remember: your time is money. And just as most of us hire mechanics for our cars and plumbers for home leaks, it may be worth the investment to hire outside experts or new staff so that you can focus on your best value to your organization. Whatever you decide to do, remember that your time is valuable.

Establish goals and compare results

Some investments won’t work out. However, you can’t know if an investment has been worth it unless you establish goals and look at results.

For example, did investing $5,000 in rush-hour ads bring in the revenue you wanted? If not, is this because the ad was done poorly…or is rush-hour advertising simply not worth the money?

If $5,000 did work, what went well? Is more money worth investing?

Human beings are susceptible to hoping, wishing, and wondering. It’s why gamblers go for one more roll of the dice. Firm goals and results assessment must be where an investment is either cut off, modified, or allowed to continue.

Let us help you spend right

Proven Media Solutions specializes in helping clients tell their story to target markets. Contact us today to see how you can put your money where your brand is and see better results faster.