How do you create trust and meaningful marketing content that doesn't read like a sales pitch? In an age of digital noise and an abundance of information, how do you reach your target audience and become a trusted brand? This eBook will show you how.
Seven Content Strategies to Build
Trust with Today's Savvy Consumers
By Joe PulizziFounder & Chief Content OfficerSponsored By:Seven Content Strategies to Build Trust with Today's Savvy Consumers Joe Pulizzi Sponsored By: 2
At the heart of all sales transactions is trust. The greater the trust, the more likely the sale. Without trust, there is no sale. In today's busi-ness world, where more and more relationships are being developed and maintained over the Internet-versus in the past when the primary Aemphasis was on face-to-face contact-the need for establishing trust and building confidence with buyers may be stronger and more powerful than ever. One of the resulting challenges for marketers is to find ways to quickly establish rapport, and then build upon it. How can you best do that? By listening to your customers and prospects and giving them information they need-information that will build their trust in your company as a solutions provider, and lead to the ultimate goal-sales.
For as long as people have done business, customer loyalty to a product, service, or seller has been rooted in trust: trust that one is being sold a necessity; trust in quality; trust in honesty. From goods ("Trust the Gor-ton's Fisherman") to services ("You're in Good Hands with Allstate") to media (CNN: "The Most Trusted News Source"), companies have long recognized the power of trust in creating a successful business.
But if building trust is so essential to any marketing strategy, why are so many marketers at a loss when it comes to finding substantive ways to engender real trust in their customers? Why do they rely so heavily on traditional marketing methods that talk a lot about trust but do little to nurture it?
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The 2008 Edelman Trust Barometer found that only 20% of the people surveyed trust corporate or product advertising. Instead, for a vast majority of respondents, "a person like me" was considered "the most credible source of information about a company." In other words, commitment to and trust in a brand is less about slick promotional campaigns and more about trusted relationships.
Why? Because people are looking for information they can believe. They've learned-from exposure to politi-cians, celebrities, and so-called experts-to be on guard against the empty and disingenuous, and, as a result, consumers are naturally skeptical when anything smacks of self-serving promotion.
Consumers are naturally skeptical when anything
smacks of self-serving promotion.Seven Content Strategies to Build Trust with Today's Savvy Consumers Joe Pulizzi Sponsored By: 4
It goes without saying that a business has to get the word out-it's the rare company that can sit back and wait for the customers to come. But how do you create meaningful marketing content that rises above the self-promotional to connect directly with a target audience? In an age of con-stant noise and information, how can anyone expect to cut through and reach consumers in a meaningful way to be-come a trusted brand? With more information. Yes, more information.
It may seem counterintuitive to fight clutter by adding to what's already out there, but information is the most valu-able tool in any marketing arsenal. And in order to deliver effective information, you have to listen first. In fact, listen-ing is the basis of trust in all relationships, be they business or personal. Listening enables you to determine what infor-mation will be most valuable and relevant to your custom-ers. That information, then, becomes the key to building trusted relationships.
In order to deliver effective information, you have to listen first.Seven Content Strategies to Build Trust with Today's Savvy Consumers Joe Pulizzi Sponsored By: 5
The proliferation of media has made for a more diffuse infor-Why Information mation landscape, and while that's bad news for those who once had a lock on information (all those "trusted" news sources), it's great news for everyone else. Consumers now Over Promotion? h... [download for more]
