Build credibility and trust first.
A lot of energy is spent worrying about marketing strategies, tactics, budgets and analytics. And then there’s the money. Let’s not even get into the money…
But here’s the thing: before concerning yourself with how you’re going to sell, you need to worry you are going to earn trust.
Marketers have a trust problem. According to the 2009 Edleman Trust Barometer 77% of Americans generally trust corporations less than they did last year. Only 31% say the trust insurance companies to do what is right.
OK, that’s not a real shock. But it’s not much better for banks (36%), health care (42%) or retail (49%).
Without trust, your message isn’t being heard. You’re being ignored.
Without trust, you cannot build a meaningful connection. The kind that lets you build long-term, mutually-beneficial relationships.
Without trust, you can’t sell as much or as profitably (to put it bluntly).
Tangibly speaking, before most of us purchase (and certainly before we become raving fans), there’s a logic we typically follow:
Problem -> Awareness -> Credibility -> Trust -> Purchase
We may go through these steps in an instant, but we nearly always go through them. Let’s quickly reverse engineer this:
1) Rarely will you purchase something if you don’t trust it will deliver the value you seek.
2) A company cannot earn your trust until has enough credibility for you to listen.
3) It’s impossible to earn credibility unless you are aware the company exists.
4) You don’t seriously consider a solution to a problem until you feel there’s a problem in the first place.
Too often marketing efforts focus on the problem (”you’re not earning a high enough interest rate”), awareness (”we’re a local, safe, secure bank with 10 branches”), and purchase (”open a checking account today”) but ignore credibility and trust.
The result is transactions are commoditized, price sensitivty increases, and the relationship becomes less valuable for both you and your customers.
A final note: building credibility and trust are tricky. They’re best shown, not told. They should be built into the product, people, principles and processes of your company. Yeah, it’s tough. That’s why most companies (and advertising agencies/marketing firms/whatever you wanna call them) don’t do it.