How Trust Marketing Can Work for You
So, what exactly is trust marketing and how can you tell if it will work for you? Here’s what you need to know...
The marketing world has seen a major shift in recent years, and the reason for this is simple; consumers aren’t responding to advertising like they used to. Traditional tactics that call for immediate action no longer get the best results. Luckily, an approach called ‘Trust Marketing’ has come along to help us understand and respond to what customers really want
What exactly is ‘trust’ marketing?
As the name suggests, ‘trust marketing’ is the process of encouraging customers to come to you by establishing feelings of professionalism, quality and – you guessed it – trust. It doesn’t tell a customer what to think, feel or do. It doesn’t subject them to a direct sales pitch and orders to ‘buy today!’ or ‘click here to order now!’. Instead, Trust Marketing usually focuses on brand values and messages to put itself on the radar of target audiences.
This type of marketing has its own specific goals, which include:
- Attracting customers who are actively seeking your type of service
- Convert more leads into loyal customers
- Establish your brand as reputable and trustworthy
- Solve problems the consumer has without giving them a sales pitch
How does trust marketing differ from other methods?
It’s no secret that consumers have long been fed up with having products and services ‘pushed’ upon them via TV, radio, the internet and even in-store. These tactics have been so widely overused that many customers have become averse to them. With the internet at their fingertips, people are more informed than ever and feel frustrated by having a brand directly ‘sell’ them a product. They are empowered by the idea that they can make their own decision, which is why Push Marketing has fallen to the wayside while Trust marketing thrives.
Trust marketing provides the opportunity to develop a relationship with consumers. It connects with them in a way that is memorable so that they eventually come to your product or service on their own terms. As a customer, feeling as though you made an informed choice to buy something is far more empowering than feeling as though you blindly followed an advertisement to the checkout. While trust marketing does not offer immediate ROI in the way that traditional ‘push’ tactics do, it does help to establish a loyal, long-term relationship with a customer.
How to know if this approach is right for you
As trust marketing is a long-term approach, it inevitably requires far more time and resources from your business. It’s not a one-time solution that will drive thousands of customers to buy your product or book your service. Instead, you will need to dedicate a big portion of your marketing budget along with a substantial amount of time to creating, implementing and monitoring the progress of your campaign.
Ironically, for many businesses, it’s hard to trust the ‘trust marketing’ approach to begin with. Although direct sales pitches and advertisements aren’t as effective as they used to be, there is still a widely known formula marketers can follow to get immediate ROI. However, trust marketing is more creative by nature. It asks the business to have patience with the process and wait for the long-term results. This, combined with the increased cost of running such a campaign, can be nerve-wracking for many businesses. This is why it’s more suited to bigger brands who have a substantial marketing budget to work with, as they can afford to wait for the results to come in.
How you can build trust with your audience
As we’ve mentioned, trust marketing is based on establishing a positive, trusting relationship with your audience. In your campaign, you should aim to communicate feelings and qualities such as:
- Passion for what you do
- Honesty and transparency within your work
- Empathy towards the unique problems your audience are facing
- Understanding of what the customer really wants
It’s also important to remember that the goal with this tactic is not to overuse one form of marketing material. Spamming the inboxes of your mailing list or bombarding social pages with ads will not establish trust. You should be aiming to gently influence your audience using various different approaches – TV ads, emails, social posts – rather than constantly pushing them towards a particular action. Ultimately, patience is key when it comes to Trust Marketing and if you do it right, you could establish an audience of highly committed and loyal customers.