How to Make Digital Credentials Your Most Impactful Marketing Tool

Marketing can have an enormous, positive impact on both revenue and brand recognition. Which is why organizations spend so much time, energy, and resources trying to reach their target audience.

And yet, from billboard ads and radio slots to the roughly 300 billion emails sent each day, it’s hard to boost your brand amidst all the noise.

Fortunately, there are innovative ways to cut through the crowded market and build brand awareness: and one of those opportunities is through digital credentials.

Digital credentials have emerged as an impactful marketing tool across a variety of industries including corporate training, associations, professional development and certifications, and higher education. If your organization issues digital credentials, there are several things you can do to make the most of their marketing power.

Here, we’ll cover four areas where incorporating digital badges can help your brand stand out.

1. Social

With over 3.4 billion active users, there’s no denying social media is a modern marketing powerhouse. If your brand doesn’t already have a social strategy in place, you’re potentially losing out on the opportunity to engage with millions of customers.

Incorporating digital credentials into your social media strategy can drive brand awareness, increase engagement with the individuals who earn your badges, and strengthen the reputation of your company online.

To incorporate digital credentials, try using keywords and hashtags to search for individuals sharing your digital credentials online and interact with them — give them a “Like”, a re-tweet, or congratulate them on their achievement. You’ll build stronger connections and create new engagement opportunities with your badge earners.

For instance, anyone who’s earned a HubSpot certification could post it on their LinkedIn, like the example below:

Connecting with these users over social media in a meaningful way provides an opportunity for every single one of them to become an evangelist for your brand.

Another way to leverage digital credentials in this way is for employees to share their certifications socially. Think of this as employees promoting company news or recent awards. By sharing achievements on their social channels, your employees are promoting your brand among users you may not have had the chance to get in front of otherwise.

2. Email

We’ve already established there is an inordinate number of emails exchanged each day, which means the average person receives multiple emails every hour. Even so, email marketing is still one of the most important and effective ways for your business to connect with customers and build meaningful relationships.

Since your team is sending emails to people outside your organization, putting digital credentials in employee email signatures drives brand awareness and validation from the moment an email is opened. When your employees’ certifications are on display, they work alongside your company logo to reinforce your brand every time an email is sent, forwarded, or replied to.

Likewise, encourage your external badge earners to add digital credentials to their professional email signatures, too. Credentials help them establish credibility from the moment they hit “Send”, allows email recipients to instantly verify the digital badge, and helps them learn more about your products and organization in the process.

3. Online

As a marketer, driving quality traffic to your company’s site is a core focus. It’s the reason there’s such importance placed on including backlinks to a website in emails, social media posts, and content.

The beauty of digital credentials is they’re meant to be seen and shared. Developing a dedicated landing page for your digital credentials where potential earners can see the badge associated with the skill is a great way to get visibility for your credentials and is a great place for new earners to start the trial or purchase process. The more people visiting the page, the more recognition you’ll have for your initiative.

4. Events

Events are a critical marketing initiative because they offer the opportunity to build relationships with key customers and prospects. In an increasingly digital world, many marketers believe face-to-face interactions at events are crucial to generating pipeline. In fact, 68% of B2B marketers agree that live events help generate the most leads.

Since events place a significant focus on generating brand awareness in a sea of industry solutions, you have to ensure your brand stays top-of-mind for attendees.

Whether it’s a job fair or conference, including digital badges at your booth is a great way to encourage conversation and spark questions about your organization’s products and programs, as well as your commitment to employee development.

The visual representation of competencies allows key audiences to see your expertise before they even engage with your team.

Today, having a great product or service is only half the battle. Making sure people know about your organization and how to engage with it is a huge challenge, but also a huge part of brand success. Creating brand awareness won’t happen overnight. Using these ideas can help carve out your place in the market and help your brand stand out in no time.

Originally published Aug 11, 2020 7:00:00 AM, updated August 11 2020