10 ways to break the Trust Bubble

'Trust' is a big word in both marketing and selling especially if you are a services business. Without trust, they would not buy from you. Not even possibly referring or recommending you. The term I want to use here is the trust bubble. You need to burst this layer of bubble so that your potential customers will have the trust and confidence to buy from you. So what can you do/have to burst this trust bubble and allow them to take this leap of faith? Here are 10 ways to achieve it:

1. Personalise marketing
People do business with people so it is important that your personality and passion come across in your marketing as well as your professionalism. Example, include a picture of yourself/employees on your marketing materials.

2. Good marketing/business language
Avoid bad languages such as "We provide the best technology solutions for progressive companies" or this brain hurting mission statement!
MegaMicroSystems is a key industry player with global tangible assets, strategic allied partnerships, and a information-driven technology base. We utilize user-centric methodologies, grow visionary systems, and orchestrate strategic functionalities in order to generate successful customer and end-user experiences. The ultimate goal for our targeted client base is to allow them to implement world-class synergies, generate end-to-end communities, and launch successful implemented platforms.

3. Build a website with personality
Do not build a bad design or overdesigned website. Yes, a clean and professional looking website is great but a website with your company's personality and culture is even better. Dare to be funny, different and do let people know who your employees are which will help to add the human touch.

4. Allow your customer to get in touch with you
Offer toll-free 1800 number, on all of your marketing materials and your website. In the service and virtual world, people want to know who is behind. A phone call will help to create this trust. The fastest email response time is always slower than a phone call. Also, a phone call can often clear up questions that would take multiple emails.

5. Different payment options
Buying over the internet is still an uncomfortable exercise for a lot of consumers out there. Therefore it is important that you have different payment options other than just credit card, eg. Order by fax or phone.

6. Select a market to target
It is definitely easier to build trust and credibility if you are focusing on a target market. My company's main target market is the travel industry which we have travel clients such as Flight Centre, Wotif, Octopus Travel etc. Because of our clients and focus, we are able to market and build trust so much easier in this target industry.

7. Give something free
When you give away something for free to consumers, it is easier to break the trust bubble as there is the opportunity to build the relationship. Provide free information, report, articles, speeches, newsletters, press releases, free workshop & demonstration to build trust.

8. Always follow up
Remember that it takes at least 5 favorable impressions with a potential customer before he/she will trusts you. The people you see and talk to on a regular basis are usually the ones you trust the most. Communication is the most important ingredient for developing trust. Call and follow up regularly and get feedback on what they need and are concerned about.

9. Testimonials
No matter how great your credentials are or how much experience you have had; customers pay more attention to what others have to say about you. Therefore, always remember to have testimonials ready.

10. Case Studies
Create case studies on work you have done before. Use case studies to tell what you did for your clients and the difference it made to their business.

adverlicious

Here's an online advertising archive that you should definitely have a look - adverlicious . This hobby site was started by James Gardner where he collects, archive, categorise, and tag good, bad, and ugly online advertising. The site has got almost a thousand ads so far... plenty of inspiration for marketers and advertising people.

How our eyes move and see?

How do you implement a more effective website or marketing material? Or where should you be placing your advertisement on a page? The answers are here at a research done by Eyetrack III on how our eyes move/see when looking at a page.

Here are some important findings:

• The eyes most often fixated first in the upper left of the page, then hovered in that area before going left to right. Only after perusing the top portion of the page for some time did their eyes explore further down the page.
  

• Dominant headlines most often draw the eye first upon entering the page -- especially when they are in the upper left, and most often (but not always) when in the upper right.

• Smaller type encourages focused viewing behavior (that is, reading the words), while larger type promotes lighter scanning.
• For headlines -- especially longer ones -- it would appear that the first couple of words need to be real attention-grabbers
• Navigation placed at the top of a homepage performed best
• Shorter paragraphs performed better in Eyetrack III research than longer ones.
• Ads in the top and left portions of a homepage received the most eye fixations.
• The bigger the image, the more time people took to look at it.