Quality Speaks for Itself: Leveraging ISO Certification to Boost Your Marketing Strategy
An ISO Certification isn’t just a great way to improve your business – it’s also a great way to market your business. So let’s crack on and have a look at the best ways to take the message to the people.
Introduction
ISO certification is like a stamp of approval, a badge of honour that distinguishes businesses from their competitors. It’s a testament to an organisation’s unwavering commitment to quality, consistency, and customer satisfaction. It is hard-earned independent recognition of your efforts to reduce your environmental impact. It can give your customers confidence that you handle their information securely. Independent recognition is marketing gold.
Every company which is certified should be letting as many people as possible know. Tell people however you can. Whether it’s shouting it from the rooftops, or adding the certifying body’s logo to your email footer, everything helps. This article details a number of obvious and not so obvious ways to get the message out.
Benefits of using ISO Certification in your Marketing
What is more convincing: hearing something positive about a company form an independent third-party, or hearing something positive about a company from the company itself?
Your certification is a major positive recognition from an independent third-party. It would be absurd to ignore the golden opportunity this presents for marketing. Of course you can rant and rave in great detail about why your company is amazing, but a simple stamp of approval from an recognised external auditing body speaks to customers in a more persuasive way. We’ve said it before, and we’ll say it again: independent recognition is marketing gold.
This kind of recognition gives your organisation a kind of gravitas. It says that you are a professional organisation with stress-tested systems in place. The kind of organisation you can trust and rely on. By letting people know that you are certified, whatever other points you express in your marketing hit harder to the customer, as they already have a reason to trust your organisation.
Ways to use ISO Certification in your Marketing
Every certification body will give you a certificate in recognition of passing your external audit, as well as some type of certification mark or logo which you can use. Below are a number of ways that you can use this to spread the word:What does your organisation stand to gain? The benefits range from gaining access to new commercial opportunities, to vastly improving and streamlining your risk management and compliance, to serving as a useful marketing and PR selling point.
Display your Certification
Of course you should put your actual certificate up on the wall. Perhaps in the boardroom, or the reception. But to be honest this is amateur hour stuff – to level up, you need to take it to the streets! Thinking a little outside the box, why not get the certification logo painted on your company’s vans or utes along with your own logo? How about sewing a patch of it on your staff’s uniforms?
Using the Certification Mark on your Printed and Digital Material
Another winning strategy is to put the certification mark on your printed materials wherever possible, including:
- Letterheads
- Business cards
- Company stationary
- Brochures and other marketing material
Perhaps these days your online marketing presence is more important than anything. So don’t forget to include the certification stamp on your website, perhaps in a footer so that it appears on every page.
Another great way to ensure that many people see your certification is to include the logo as part of your email signature/footer. Most certifying bodies try to have a colourful and eye-catching certification mark, so adding this at the bottom of every email should ensure that lots of people will see it.
Press Releases and Blogging
When you have just been certified, or perhaps when you pass your tri-annual re-certification audit, it’s a great chance to put a blog about this in the news section on your company’s website, or prepare a press release and send it to industry publications and local newspapers.
Social Media
It’s 2023 – so of course always remember to hit the socials! Marketing on social media is no longer a niche, it is mainstream. Sharing the news that you have been certified is perfect for an Instagram or Linkedin post – people have short attention spans on social media, so a simple message showing that you have been certified is perfect for this format. Almost nothing else can have the effect of building trust in your company in literally seconds (which may be all the time/attention that you’re going to get on social media!).
The framing of your post is important – whilst it’s ok to drop a bit of humble-brag, nobody likes a precocious show-off, so a good approach is to focus on why this is good news for customers of your organisation. Focus on what the certification really represents – that you have good systems in place which means clients can feel safe dealing with you.
Refer to your ISO Certifications in Tender Documentation
If your organisation has to prepare tender documentation from time to time, you can make a pro-forma statement detailing the ISO certifications which your organisation holds. To take it even further for an important tender, you may elaborate on how the management systems which you have in place will enable you to meet the client’s needs for that particular project. Many tenders require ISO certification as a pre-requisite, but even ones that don’t should be impressed that you are certified.
Some Challenges you may Face
Before you go logo-crazy, remember that there are specific rules regarding the use of the certification marks. Follow the instructions from your certification body to the letter – no alterations allowed!
When you get certified, there will be a scope of the certification. It may cover certain businesses, certain business activities, or certain branches or locations. When using the certification body’s logo, or stating in any marketing material that you are certified, it must be only for marketing for the branches, or business activities that are within the scope of the certification.
For example if your company has 5 separate locations, but only 1 of the locations is covered in the scope of the certification, then you should not use your certification in marketing in a way that would make people think that all 5 locations are covered by the certification.
Conclusion
ISO Certification is a powerful marketing tool because of what it represents. By making customers aware of your certification, and where possible detailing how it is in their interests to deal with a certified company you can make a compelling case to get their business.