Certification Marketing Requirements

On Your Website

1. Locate an appropriate section on your website to link to the .pdf of your official Certificate of Approval. Depending on where your website displays quality-related information, this link may be under the About Us section, or Quality, for example. Some companies opt to put a link directly on their home page. It should not be posted on your product or service pages.

2. You can create a “Quality Certification” text link to the .pdf of your certification. Or you can use the CertFast Certificate Badge .jpg to link to the .pdf.

On Your Company Blog

1. Write a brief Article or Blog entry promoting your certification, and link to the .pdf of your Certificate of Approval.

Here is some sample text to use:

As of (date), (company name) has been certified to the (standard name) standard. We are delighted to serve our customers even better through the well-defined and documented processes this certification requires. While we’ve always been committed to quality in our products and services, this certification ensures a more productive environment through faster identification and resolution of quality issues, among many other benefits.

We partnered with CertFast, Inc., www.certfast.com, an accredited quality management system certification body, to achieve our certification.

2. Publish the Blog Entry

Email Campaign

Publish a special email campaign announcing your certification to customers and prospects. Outline why you went through with the certification process and how it benefits customers. You can include any improvements or learnings from the process. You can also link to your certificate.

General Requirements for Publicizing / Marketing Certification

Certified clients shall adhere to the following requirements related to the communication and marketing of its certification status:
a) Client shall conform to the requirements of CertFast when making reference to its certification status in communication media such as the internet, brochures or advertising, or other documents;
b) Client shall not make or permit any misleading statements regarding its certification;
c) Client shall not use or permit the use of a certification document or any part thereof misleadingly;
d) Upon withdrawal of its certification, Client shall discontinue its use of all advertising matter that contains a reference to certification, as directed by CertFast;
e) The Client shall amend all advertising matters when the scope of certification has been reduced;
f) Client shall not allow reference to its management system certification to be used in such a way as to imply that CertFast certifies a product (including service) or process;
g) Client shall not imply that the certification applies to activities and sites that are outside the scope of certification;
h) The Client shall not use its certification in such a manner that would bring CertFast and/or the certification system into disrepute and lose public trust.

Figure 1

5. If surveillance audits discover items of nonconformity in the Management System that are not corrected as agreed to by the registered client, registration of the client’s system and the client’s use of the CertFast Mark may be temporarily suspended until such time that the identified nonconformities are corrected or permanently revoked.

6. Should the client want to use the CertFast Mark in any fashion not consistent with items 1 to 5, they must request and receive permission, in writing, from CertFast.

Certification Badge(s):

CertFast designed new Certification Badges for registered clients at the end of 2023. A separate Certification Badge has been created for each international standard that CertFast is accredited to grant certification. An example can be seen in Figure 2.

1. The registered client may only use the Certification Badge(s) that show the standard(s) to which the client is certified.

Figure 2

2. The registered client may NOT use the Certification Badge(s) in any way that may convey that their products are certified to the standard. Remember: it is your Quality Management System that is certified – not your products!

• Don’t display the Certification Badge(s) on products, product labels, or product packaging, or in any way that may be interpreted as denoting product conformity.

• Don’t give the impression in any context that your certification(s) is/are product certification(s) of product guarantees.

3. The Certification Badge(s) may not be used on laboratory tests, calibration or inspection reports.

4. When using the Certification Badge(s) on your website, be sure to link the picture to the electronic/pdf version of your certification so that your visitors can view your certificate.

5. The Certification Badge(s) may be on written material such as correspondence, advertisements, and promotional documents only about the applicable Management System. For example, use it on business cards, tradeshow booth displays, banners, signs, and brochures (as long as it does not give the impression of product certification.

6. If certification is terminated, the client must immediately remove the Certification Badge from all online and print material.

More Requirements on Logo Use

The following requirements come from ISO (International Organization for Standardization), our accreditation body, IAS, and the CertFast Management Team:

1. Never use ISO’s logo as it is a registered trademark. Do not adapt or modify it for your use in any way.

2. Use the full designation of your certification. For example, if your organization is certified to ISO 9001:2015, don’t use just “ISO 9001”.

3. Do not say that your organization is “accredited” to the standard. Accreditation refers to the formal recognition by an accreditation body (like IAS) that a certification body (like CertFast) is competent to carry out third party audits and grant certification.

4. You are not permitted to use our accreditation body’s (IAS) logo, marks, symbols, etc., and CertFast is not permitted to grant permission for use of the IAS logo, marks, symbols, etc.

5. Do not use the CertFast, Inc. company logo by itself.