Why trust is key to your marketing strategy – and how to build it

It’s marketing 101 that people buy from people – word of mouth is still a brand’s most powerful sales tool.

But now that crucial ‘word’ can come from social media influencers and customer review sites, Marketing Directors and marketing agencies are finding that the adage needs updating to: people buy from people they trust.

So how do brands earn consumer trust?

…And how do they turn ‘people buy from people they trust’ into ‘people buy from brands they trust’?

Earning trust is all about building credibility. It’s about listening to your customers, hearing about their fears, and building assurances that your brand or product will not let them down. More than that, it’s about making customers feel comfortable; making customers instinctively like your brand.

Dr Peter Noel Murray, a leading psychologist in the study of consumer behaviour, states that “when evaluating brands, consumers primarily use emotions (personal feelings and experiences), rather than information (brand attributes, features, and facts).” He also cites that “the consumer’s emotional response to an ad has a far greater influence on their reported intent to buy a product than does the ad’s content—by a factor of 3-to-1 for television commercials and 2-to-1 for print ads.” 

The clincher for marketers is that “In response to emotion, humans are compelled to do something”. In short, when consumers feel a connection with your brand or product, they are compelled to research it, find it and ideally, buy it.

How do Marketing Directors evoke emotion and build consumer trust through their marketing strategy?

Trust is key to your marketing strategy! You can start by answering these questions:

What does the customer feel before they use our product?

How are they feeling when they buy it?

How do we want them to feel after using it? 

What does my customer care about?

What change are they hoping for?

Unearthing the truthful answers to all of these (not what we would like them to be) is time-consuming and often difficult for consumers to put into words. So in reality, how do busy marketers get all this crucial information? 

Many Marketing Directors partner with marketing agencies who are experts at understanding customers’ emotions and their needs for buying. Marketing agencies have in-house experts with the time and experience to discover insights about how your specific target customer feels. These truths are used to build rich brand personalities that delight consumers and quickly put their fears to rest. With brand attributes building credibility, Marketing Directors have the makings of emotionally connected brands that develop consumer trust. 

Read more about how Think OTB can develop your marketing strategy and make sense of your customers’ emotions here.