Congratulations, you’ve done it! Your company is now certified to an ISO Management System Standard. Maybe of one of them, or maybe more. You’ve put a lot of time and effort into this so celebrate it, and market it. You can snap into full-on bragging mode and you should.

My top tips for marketing the fact that your organisation is now certified are:

1. Use the Certificate

I don’t just mean place it on the wall in reception. Post it on your website, hang it on trade show booths, include it in company publications, proposals, quotes, estimates and responses to tender requests. You get the drift.

2. Use the Logo

Place the logo on your website’s home page, every page, on a digital banner and on all downloadable materials. Place it on your printed materials such as your company letterhead, business cards, brochures, proposals, quotes, and so on.

Just one word of caution however. Your certification body has rules on how the logo can be used and they usually provide you with these rules when you achieve certification. Their rules are based on the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) rules. For example you cannot imply that your products are certified (although there are standards that many products can be certified to). It is your management system that has been certified. You cannot display ISO 9001, ISO 45001, or ISO 14001 certification marks of conformity on products, product labels, or product packaging, or in any way that may be interpreted as denoting product conformity. Here is information on the difference between management system certification versus product certification – Demystifying Certification.

3. Make a Statement

State the fact that you are certified and the Standard/s you are certified to in the documents you use to sell your products and services such as quotes, proposals and tender documents. Include the benefits of this for your customers. Make sure you are using the correct terms though or you’ll look silly. Your company is certified, not accredited (that is something else) and you are certified to ISO 9001 not ISO 9000, and ISO 14001 not ISO 14000, and so on.

4. Update your Email Signatures

It’s really easy to update email signatures for everyone in your company so that every time they send an email it publicises the fact that you are certified.

5. Do a Press Release

If it’s suitable for your organisation, then write a press release. Use a service like Get The Word Out to distribute your news straight into the email boxes of journalists and newsrooms around Australia.

6. Trade Magazines

Trade magazines for your industry will often treat the submission of such an announcement as a press release, and run it for free in their “Latest Industry News” section, for example. If you consider the cost of running an ad in such a magazine, getting free coverage in their news section is a pretty good deal. Just be sure to write your announcement in press release fashion, and not like blatant ad copy.

7. Publish It

If you publish a newsletter or blog, then celebrate your certification with your readers and make it front page news. Take the opportunity to explain what certification means, how it has benefited your business and, most importantly, how it will benefit your customers. Show them the certification logo/s that you use and they’ll start to recognise it. Explain what the logo means to you and they’ll start to value it.

8. Use Social Media

At the time of writing, the facts are:

LinkedIn – 12.7 million users in Australia. Tenth most visited social media site.

Facebook – 19.6 million users in Australia. Third most visited social media site.

Twitter –  5.8 million users in Australia.

The figures speak for themselves. Share your news with millions of people by posting it on social media.