Marketing’s Big Secret: Trust

When it comes to your marketing, it can feel like gambling in Vegas with the odds stacked against you. Big marketing firms hold all the secrets to effective marketing so you have to rely on them, and even then, you’re not guaranteed a win.

We hate that image. But marketing has sort of earned that reputation. So we are stripping away the covers that hide the “Big Secret” of what makes marketing work. Before we can tell you what it is, let’s clear up a couple of the biggest misconceptions about it.

It’s not about spending money

A lot of small business owners we have talked with about marketing and growing their business seem to think that having enough money to throw at marketing makes the difference. They see companies like Coca Cola, Nike, and Apple spending hundreds of thousands (possibly millions) on advertising and they think that the biggest difference is the budget. While budget is a difference between mega companies and everyday business owners, it’s not the key difference. Even those companies have had ineffective marketing.

The big difference is something else. Throwing money at ineffective marketing is like polishing a turd. No matter how shiny you make it, it’s still a turd.

It’s not about checking a box

It’s also not about checking all the right boxes. You can’t create a checklist of things to have and expect success just because you got everything on the list. I know that we talk about how most small businesses don’t have a website, but just having a website is not enough. It may be part of the solution, but it’s not the solution itself.

Another box we see people checking off is social media. But having social media set up makes you the same as your competition. Social media is like a billboard for your business. But putting your name on a billboard just so people can see you and your company isn’t going to convince them you are trustworthy. And that is the real issue.

It’s about building trust and relationships

“People don’t buy from companies they don’t trust.”

We say that all the time, to every client we have. You can spend tens of thousands of dollars, have a website and social media platforms set up, have high quality images and professional looking content, but if the content doesn’t build trust and grow your relationship with your clients, you are wasting your money.

There are multiple methods to build initial trust. For example, comedy and humor are great ways to break the ice and make your audience comfortable. There’s a reason we form friends with people who can make us laugh. Shared laughter enables us to connect with others. And it’s no different in marketing. Sometimes humor can help you connect with your audience.

We’re not saying that humor is the key. Humor and any other marketing content you create can only work when it follows one thing.

Being relatable.

If you can relate to your audience, you can connect and build a relationship based on trust. And then people will buy from you.

Conclusion: Using the “Big Secret”

But how do you put this into action? How do you start developing marketing that builds trust?

It starts by thinking more like your clients and less like yourself. And that can be tricky. When we are really close to something, it gets hard to see from any perspective other than our own. Which is when it’s a good time to talk to someone who can help. It is possible to get that other perspective for yourself with a little outside help. So as always, let us know if you need any help gaining that different perspective.