Why Trust Is Key To Effective Marketing
At the heart of any business or personal relationship is trust. We trust Amazon to get our goods delivered on time. We trust Apple to produce high-quality hardware that produces leading-edge experiences. We trust our co-workers not to steal our lunch.
From brand loyalty, to handshakes with colleagues, to large-scale business partnerships, trust is a powerful force in business. But it’s also hard to quantify. Why do we trust one person or one brand, but not another? What factors sustain trust, and what can that trust do for your business?
Risk and Confidence
Trust is a bit of a paradox: its power involves a relinquishing of control. Whether or not we’re conscious of it, trusting in someone else always involves giving up some degree of control.
For this reason, trust is risky: if the promise of the trustee is broken, potential harm or distress is caused to the trustor. It makes the person who's doing the trusting vulnerable.
By the same token, trust breeds confidence: confidence literally means "with trust." We have confidence in the people, the companies, and the brands we trust.
Trust goes deep. When we trust someone, that sense of assurance feels good. Sure, relinquish control of something, like money or a delegated task, can be cause anxiety. But when we’re confident in the trustworthiness of the other party, we are relieved of something that otherwise weighs on us. We feel lighter.
Trust is Backed by Science
There’s science behind those feelings. Trust may be linked to oxytocin, a brain chemical which reduces fear of placing confidence in a stranger. The same chemical increases empathy. For a social species, that’s pretty important.
The importance of trust in business is also backed by hard data. One study by the Harvard Business Review measured the level of trust in a sample of U.S. organizations.
Respondents from companies in the top quartile were 50% more productive, 76% more engaged at work, and had 106% more energy than respondents from companies in the bottom quartile.
In addition, those in high-trust companies had greater job satisfaction, felt closer to colleagues, and were more aligned with their companies purpose.
Trust Drives Our Economy
To trust in someone is a bet that they will deliver on promises. The more we trust and the more our trust is repaid, the stronger the bond grows. That’s true between colleagues, and remains true when we look at relations between companies and clients.
At the heart of our financial systems is trust. Credit is a form of trust, a promise to pay back the loan at a future time. Remember there is significantly more credit in the global economy than hard money. The financial system is literally built on credit: it is built on trust.
The cultivation of trust is not only essential for business growth but represents a significant opportunity for organizations that do it well. That's the view of Visa’s CMO, Frank Cooper.
Frank Cooper, CMO of Visa, places great value in the importance of cultivating trust.
For Cooper, the need to cultivate trust in companies beyond simply their products and services should be viewed as a "huge opportunity" rather than a corporate burden.
"What I have seen across multiple industries is that if you can extend the trust beyond the product itself, there is value in that," he maintains. "People are standing up and are willing to pay a premium for companies that deliver something beyond the basic product."
Trust is Human
For all these reasons, trust is intrinsically human. And it is perhaps the most important of drivers when it comes to our personal and financial decisions.
Marketers must understand the overwhelming upsides of developing trust over the long-term. The brands, the companies, and the people we most trust are the very individuals and organizations that we turn to when we have a need.
Author Simon Sinek insists on the importance of human interaction in developing trust. "You cannot form trust through the internet. Nothing replaces human contact," Sinek argues.
Of course, you can begin to develop trust over the internet. But you seal the deal, you cement the relationship, through direct human contact.
Cultivating Trust
For marketers awash within a sea of data and automated tools, here are five pointers intended to bring the human back into our businesses and to keep us firmly anchored in our commitment to building trust.
“Of course, you can begin to develop trust over the internet. But you seal the deal, you cement the relationship, through direct human contact.”
1. Your audience is composed of people - Treat them that way, one person at a time as often as you can. Put yourself in their shoes, think how you can help them. Reach out to them on a human level. Make contact.
2. Get to know people - The more people you know, and the more you share with them, the stronger the bonds of trust will grow. No person can feasibly know everyone, but the more direct relationships we cement across the globe, the healthier and stronger a world it will be.
3. Treat your customers well - Your customers have already invested some level of trust in you. Remember you are their servant. Let them know that. Make them feel valued as people.
4. Treat your prospective customers with respect - Do not harangue or pressure prospects into business. Treat people with respect. Trust that they will make the decision that best serves them.
5. Always serve - Focus on being helpful in the content you recommend for your clients, both current and prospective, and the solutions you propose to their business challenges. Enshrine this principle in the core value set of your organization.