We all know how important trust is in our relationships, but in my business as a communication professional, I am amazed at the number of people who don’t realise how important trust is to business and marketing. Perhaps they don’t realise that business and marketing are also relationships. Or they kinda realise, but they don’t know how to create that trust.
If you are a small business owner, chances are the bulk of your marketing is done online. But here’s the clincher: offline in the traditional buyer-seller market, trust is only an influencer, while online, it’s actually the decider. So people online will only choose your product or service if they trust you. Huge.
How do you make people trust you? After all, they are savvy: they know that ads lie and that a good looking web page that makes you sound like the best thing since double-coated Tim Tams is just an e-lancer away. So first, accept that trust takes time, and is a process, not a one-of event.
The next thing to do is adopt a double-pronged strategy. One huge, sharp prong is high ethical standards: great product, great service, and concern for the client above all. End of.
The other prong is what actually kick-starts the process: honest, valuable communication, on a regular basis. You know this is my thing! Get yourself out there: make yourself known through your writing, whether it’s blogs, an email campaign, books, or brilliant whitepapers.
Why writing? Because the spoken word is transient. Unless you have journos hanging on your every word, once you say something, it’s all but gone. But the permanence of writing (and yes, even online writing is permanent) tells the audience, “This is me, and what I stand for, working for you.”
People will then learn about you, which will make them act. Once they act by choosing what you have to offer, they will trust you. Once they trust you, they and others will learn more about you, which will make them take more action and… you know the rest.
So get writing, and start the trust process!
And if you’d like more information on trust-based marketing, please contact me for a chat (Tim Tams optional).