Internet Marketing Strategy: Return On “Trust”?

Okay, I know, I know - Return on Investment is ROI, and Return on Trust is ROT. It’s an unfortunate name, but it’s beside the point. I really want to focus a lot on the issues that are facing some internet marketing players right now.

I’ve heard tonight from the people who attended my workshop, that there are a few local speakers who have absolutely no idea that they are being mentally marked down by people in the outside world for:
1. Selling to their list only
2. Promoting make money fast programs only
3. Not replying to emails
4. Not giving people a sense of connection (well at least some of the time)
5. Ignoring people

I know there are arguments for and against these points, but I do know that everyone who is an entrepreneur needs to focus on their clients. I’ve had my share of very good clients and those who are not. Whatever the case, we really want to have people who are action seekers and action takers.

Anyway, coming back to trust - how DO you build trust?

I think it comes back to the simplest formula of delivering what you say you will deliver, and act consistently. Let’s not talk about over delivering. I know people who are unable to deliver, but make the promises because they think they can deliver. Personally, every marketer who promises something should offer a certain reasonable time frame for delivering what they promise. I know for a fact that there is a sense of euphoria when people receive what they were promised by you. Many of them are extremely thankful for this.

How about making sure that you have a conversation with them? In my opinion, Twitter and other microblogging tools including live video streams do help a lot in connecting with other people, even though you aren’t physically there. You may want to help yourself gain a few reputation points by simply being present once in a while for everyone to see and meet you.

You could even turn a nasty situation into a positive one. Recently, my friend Mark Ress had a disagreement on Twitter with another person whose name eludes me. It seemed it was turning south in the discussion. Yet, Mark had the guts to set up a call and speak to this person one-on-one, and even get people on the call to have an open discussion. This form of communication takes expertise and patience to pull off, and I believe Mark did it, kudos to him! At the end of the day, it’s not always easy to see a nasty event turn into something positive all the time. All I do know is that when something is upsetting someone, it’s important to reach out to that person as quickly as you can, as best as you can.

Take trust to the next level. Be ‘reachable’.

I’ve been compiling a series of credibility building actions and will want to share them with you in later posts.