In this public, “everyone sees everything” world we now live in, there is no room for the fake, the foolish, or the faint of heart when it comes to marketing.  If your company posts a produced commercial on YouTube and tries to pass it off as user-generated content, you will be busted.  If you pay others to write positive comments on your blog, the word will get out.  And, believe me, the hellfire that follows from the online world when they figure out your shenanigans… well, let’s just say you’ll wish you had never even built a web site in the first place.

Authentic marketing is about more than just telling the truth.  It is a corporate value system, a philosophy and a set of guidelines and actions.  It defines your interactions with partners, prospects, customers and the general marketplace.  To deliver on authenticity, you remain true to your company’s passion and unique value proposition.  Then, in every way possible, offer proof points and verifiable data and experiences that support your assertions.  Today, authenticity is the key component to your marketing and communications plan.

Companies that live their passion offer a subtle but extremely persuasive form of authenticity.  Creating a passion, and living it is the first step to becoming authentic, and enabling your audience to believe in your company and products.  As companies engage audiences by becoming more porous, enabling outsiders to interact, inform, and co-create with them, authenticity becomes palpable.  A sense of trust is transferred to the marketplace naturally.  To be effective, open and interactive processes must be embedded in the DNA of all employees.  A philosophy of engaging outsiders will allow issues to be heard, and innovative responses to be found much more quickly.