Never before have consumers been so inundated with messaging. This has led to message fatigue and selectively filtering messages. How can you possibly get heard in this environment? What could you do to make your brand stand out? In today’s hyper-connected culture, authenticity in marketing isn’t just a buzzword—it’s the critical differentiator and your best USP.

The Brutal Reality of Modern Marketing

Today’s consumers are sophisticated, digitally empowered, and ruthlessly discerning. They don’t just buy products—they invest in brands that demonstrate genuine value, integrity, and alignment with their personal values. In general, consumers no longer expect to actually receive the delicious burgers in fast food commercials. They anticipate getting something in the ballpark of what is being described, but what if they opened their paper take-out bag to find a product authentic to what was advertised? Not only would they be surprised and delighted, they would likely take a picture and share it on social media, they might text it to their friends, and they would definitely become loyal customers.

The Voice of Your Customer: Understanding Your Brand Personality

Your messaging is just as important as your images. All brands have a personality – determine yours by listening to the voices of your customers. Review sites, comments on social media, and surveys can inform you of how your brand is perceived. If you don’t like what you hear, this is a good time to address shortcomings. Be sure to genuinely express concern for negative feedback and let prospects know you are working to correct the issues. Don’t be afraid to share struggles, it makes your organization real and relatable.

Once you understand your brand personality or what you want it to be, and you have heard the voice of the customer, build resourceful content. Approach your ad messaging, blog content, podcast, and social media posts as if you are giving advice to a dear friend, not like you are trying to sell a service. Being a trusted advisor means providing authentic resources where prospective residents can take the information from your brand and choose another community if that is a better fit. By taking this approach, you build trust with your audience and the prospects who are the best fit will feel comfortable with your brand.

Strategic Authenticity: An Image is Worth a Thousand Words

Authenticity is a holistic organizational strategy, not just a marketing tactic. At its core, authentic marketing requires a crystal-clear brand purpose and mission that permeates every aspect of the organization. It’s much easier to be transparent in your messaging if the community is unwavering in living out your core values.

If this sounds overwhelming, start with your images. Photos of actual residents in the community taking part in real activities is as authentic as it can be. Someone coming in for a tour should be able to recognize the dining room from the Dining page on the website. They should see faces they have seen in ads. If you are using all stock images on your website, your site probably looks like everyone else’s in the industry. That makes it very hard to be authentic and even harder to stand out as unique.

Authenticity and Diversity

If your community isn’t very diverse, is it inauthentic to use images of racially diverse older adults? This is an important question to answer for your brand. Studies have shown time after time that consumers respond to ads that reflect their values and their identity. For Cappella, diversity and belonging are deeply held values, even though some of our communities are very ethnically homogenous. For us the answer is showing diversity and sending the message that all are welcome is aspirational. We want prospective residents from all races, genders, and ethnicities to feel like our communities could be home.

Start with Achievable Goals

Authentic marketing is a process. Bandwidth and budget can dictate where you start and how much can be accomplished initially. Instead of doing everything at once, start by listening to the voice of your customer. Then pick one area to focus on, it may be that your brand’s reputation needs some repair work done, or your website isn’t user friendly. Choose the areas with the greatest impact first. Then create a plan with a goal that has a timeframe. If your goal doesn’t have a time assigned to it, what you have is a wish. Once you reach your initial goal, take the next step. Authentic marketing is an ongoing discipline, but a solid way to help your brand stand out in a message-saturated world.

About the Author

Robin Visser serves as Director of Marketing and Digital Strategies at Christian Living Communities. Robin has a wealth of digital marketing experience both in senior living and global industries, along with a background in broadcast and video production. Her strengths are in digital strategies and innovative ideas.