Building trust in your products and services is vital to the growth of your business. Many people who have an honest product or service to offer are discouraged from marketing (which would greatly help them sell more) because they have a negative perception of marketing.
They associate it with something negative, or disappointing, which is based on false information and fills them with doubts. Put those ideas aside because marketing is as false or honest as you want to make it. Instead, I suggest you start thinking about developing a true foundation of trust with your current and potential customers.
When I ask people where they get their customers from, 80% say they come from word of mouth. And almost 100% say they are not successful with cold calling.
Because? Simply because people like to do business with other people with whom they feel comfortable and trust. So let’s talk about marketing actions that help build trust rather than erode it.
9 Actions To Build Trust In Your Products And Services
Table of Contents
1.Know Your Customers
Join organizations (chambers of commerce, professional associations, business clubs, etc.) and show up at their meetings, show your face. Attend specialized conferences, exhibitions, talk to people and when you say you are going to call, please do it. Make that follow-up call before the contact goes cold.
2.Develop A Content-Rich Website
Share your knowledge on your website or blog and focus on helping your potential clients by answering their most pressing questions. Be generous and transparent with what you share.
3.Stay In Touch Through A Regular And Frequent Newsletter
It does not matter that the content of your newsletter is the same as that of the blog. The key is to share good material based on your experience. After all, the idea is to position yourself as the right person in that matter.
The other key point is to publish that newsletter periodically, not when you have time. In addition to periodicity, a key point is frequency (see the note on the proximity effect below).
The frequency depends on the markets, that is, it is closely related to what you offer. For a financial advisor, for example, a weekly contact will be enough, unless his field of action is the stock market, where actions are usually subject to constant change.
A newsletter is the cheapest way to be present in the minds of your current and potential customers.
4.Take Advantage Of Social Networks
Today we should not depend solely on a newsletter. Social networks are a propitious field to develop relationships and build mutual trust. Facebook, LinkedIn, Google +, and Twitter are the best-known options for new media but they are not the only ones.
Do research to discover which networks your target audience frequents (in search of information associated with the products and/or services you provide) and start there, then gradually incorporate other networks that are still relevant to your business. The next point will further clarify this issue by talking about proximity points.
5.Post Content On Other Websites Or Blogs
The first 4 points above are based on the proximity theory. This theory was developed by psychologists Leon Festinger, Stanley Schachter, and Kurt Back at MIT and is known as the Westgate studies.
In that study, the strongest friendships developed between students who were neighbors on the same floor, or between students who lived on different floors, if one of those students lived near the stairs.
In simple terms, the Westgate studies found that the frequency of contact between students was a strong indicator of the formation of a future friendship and was called the “proximity effect.” It should be noted that this proximity has two dimensions: one physical and one psychological, both valid for the purposes of this note.
And based on that explanation, we are going to see how to create trust and influence through the creation of content. The aforementioned theory tells us that the more often people see your content, the better they get to know you.
This makes sense. Every time someone is exposed to your content, they are interacting with you, with your thoughts and your beliefs. It produces the feeling of knowing you because it is similar to how we get to know people in the offline world.
Repeated exposure to your content takes those people from just knowing you to actually like you. Again, this reflects the context of friends with which we are traditionally familiar. This virtual interaction reinforces the proximity effect unless the person is being a jerk, in which case it overrides the effect.
For this reason, locating the websites, blogs or social networks where your target audience meets is of vital importance as it allows you to create multiple “proximity points” with them.
Your goal should be to find other reputable websites that your audience frequents and offer them your content to publish, thus broadening the points of contact with them. This is a strategic action so it is worth sharing good content and it is not unreasonable to prepare special material and not just duplicates of other notes.
In addition to increasing the frequency with which your content is exposed to the target audience, by publishing on other prestigious websites or blogs, a “halo” effect is created around you precisely because these prestigious publishers transfer part of their prestige to you when publishing you. on their platforms.
6.Use Honest Business Practices
Without a doubt, it is easy to promise gold and more, make promises that you cannot keep, and fill your mouth with talking about excellence and quality. But you need to understand that if you can’t keep your promises, it will only kill your business in the long run. Promise only what you can deliver and work to constantly improve your services.
7.Provide An Experience Of What You Offer
It is about much more than providing information through websites, blogs, or newsletters. It’s finding ways to engage with prospects, answer their questions, and show them how you can help them achieve their goals.
You can do this through talks, teleclasses, webinars, Google+ hangouts, and other events or other interactive formats.
8.Learn To Provide A Service
My experience with the service is that people don’t necessarily want “the gold and the moor.” What they want are answers, and help when they need it, they want accessibility. Find creative ways to extend this and make it fun and easy for your customers.
9.Lean On Technology
No doubt there are endless ways to do this, but you can start by archiving articles, audio, and videos for customer use in one section of your website. By directing customers to that section of existing online resources, both parties save time, and you can do what you do best: develop better products and services.
Conclusions
All these points aim to develop relationships that create and strengthen the trust of your current and potential customers.
Acting in this way does not really seem like you are doing marketing, but more like you are educating, informing, and offering a valuable resource. Wouldn’t you yourself prefer to do business with people who behave that way?
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