The 3 Keys to Building Trust in Your Local Market
When people think of marketing, they think of the some of the most basic things. Things like the website, the traffic, social profiles, advertisements, videos, and emails. Those are all obvious, and it is absolutely recommended that you nail down all of those aspects for your marketing campaign. But at the heart of almost any successful, long-lasting marketing campaign is this: Credibility + Trust.
Trust is what makes people comfortable enough to buy from you. Credibility is what builds trust. The more credible you are, the more people will be ready to buy. The obstacles become less powerful, and the time it takes to close a new lead decreases. Every element of your marketing should be building credibility.
You may be wondering how to build credibility. It’s easy to say “build your credibility”, but if you don’t know how it’s done, then you will never form a connection with your customers. We’re going to cover how a company can build credibility and trust. Trust-focused marketing is not built overnight, but when it is established, you will see long-lasting results and benefits from it.
- Build your authority
What’s an authority? It’s a business or expert within a market that clearly knows and understands what it is doing, and has successful results to back it up. When someone first finds your business, they need a reason to stick around. Your entire web presence needs to be authoritative. Your website, your social media, your place on the search engines should all work to help you. If you have a website that looks like a relic from the late 90’s era, then you will seem less credible. If you have a very weak social media following, then you have no social proof. If you’re not ranking on the first page for relevant search terms, then you are nearly invisible.
Your status as an authority is a direct correlation to the amount of credibility that you will acquire. The more people that see your business as an authority, the more it makes sense for new customers to believe in your company.
You should be looking at your business from the perspective of a prospect that has never heard of you before. If there are any gaps in your web presence, plug them. If people don’t know why they should trust your business, give them a legitimate reason to.
- Make your company transparent
Consumers are generally distrusting of cold, faceless organizations. They don’t want the corporate touch. They like to interact and engage with companies that have a human, natural feel. The best way to achieve this is to make your company transparent, and to stick to your promises.
Nothing should ever be misrepresented. If you say that your product will accomplish xxx, they you will need to back that up with data, case studies, reviews or testimonials.
Any company can make any wild claim on the internet. The way to get people to believe in you is to actually justify your declarations with real proof.
Show what’s behind the curtain. Feature the members of your team. And, if possible, show how your products get made and what goes into creating them.
Keep any promises that you have made. If you’ve made a promise to your customers, stick to it, or you will seem disingenuous.
Transparency shows that you have nothing to hide. It shows that your products and services are the real deal, and that you and your team members can be trusted to solve whatever problem or setback that the customer is facing.
- Encourage referrals
The best customer is the one that gets referred to you. It’s the easiest sale. If a trusted friend, family member or colleague recommends your product, then credibility and trust has been established. The hard work has already been done for you.
Encourage your existing customers to give testimonials and honest reviews. If they are happy with your business, then you should also encourage them to spread the word, either offline or online. Tell them to post about their experience using your company on their social media profiles, and to recommend your service to people in their day-to-day lives.
Start the process on building trust today
Trust-based marketing is not something that you can expect to see results on day one. But once your credibility has been established, you will start to see more people flock to your business, and they will be ready to buy.
Start questioning each aspect of your marketing, and ask if it is actively building your credibility in the market. If not, take the steps recommended in this article.
