The Trust Factor
Michelle Gamble
| 
Tuesday, 7 July 2009
| 
I often have people comment on how effective we appear to be at Marketing, with
people often seeing or hearing of us in the Small to Medium business space.
Whilst I'm really proud that's the perception we've created (it needs to be really given that we're a marketing company) - the recent year has really had me on my toes, trying to adapt to how prospective clients look for and buy services like mine.
What has become glaringly apparent to me is that building trust with current and potential clients is absolutely critical right now!
What worked 18 months ago, when it came to Marketing our business is significantly different to what works now.
Back then, the pace was fast and furious in the business world. Our phone was rinigng off the hook with new enquiries. Most of which came via our paid Google Adwords campaign. Now it's a totally different story.
Paid Google advertising for us now delivers a very small number of leads comparitively. The lightbulb moment for me was realising that whilst business owners were still interested in Marketing services they were more cautious about engaging or even enquiring about a supplier they hadn't encountered before.
So I rolled up my sleeves and got busy! What I needed to do was educate the market more about what we do and what we have to offer. At 35 word Google Ad just wasn't cutting it in today's climate.
This meant:
Speaking at Events, Seminars and Workshops
Contributing articles to publications
Creating relationships with the media and being helpful and responsive with any media enquiries
Relentless networking
Committing signifiant time and energy to Social Media (Linked-in, Facebook, Twitter) to learn, expand my network and tribe of followers interested in Marketing for small business.
Improving my Search Engine Optimisation
The result is that traffic to my web site and new business enquiries have actually increased rather than decreased. We still need to work really hard though to make the most of those enquiries and create further trust through our dialogue, product offering and delivery of services going forward but it really helps to still have a healthy level of enquiries coming in.
If you're baffled by why the phone isn't ringing or why your web site traffic has dropped off, maybe it's worthwhile thinking about how you can develop more trust from propsects in what you have to offer and how they can benefit? Do you need to totally overhaul the way you market you business?
Perhaps you could share how you're developing more trust and the difference it's making in your own business.
Whilst I'm really proud that's the perception we've created (it needs to be really given that we're a marketing company) - the recent year has really had me on my toes, trying to adapt to how prospective clients look for and buy services like mine.
What has become glaringly apparent to me is that building trust with current and potential clients is absolutely critical right now!
What worked 18 months ago, when it came to Marketing our business is significantly different to what works now.
Back then, the pace was fast and furious in the business world. Our phone was rinigng off the hook with new enquiries. Most of which came via our paid Google Adwords campaign. Now it's a totally different story.
Paid Google advertising for us now delivers a very small number of leads comparitively. The lightbulb moment for me was realising that whilst business owners were still interested in Marketing services they were more cautious about engaging or even enquiring about a supplier they hadn't encountered before.
So I rolled up my sleeves and got busy! What I needed to do was educate the market more about what we do and what we have to offer. At 35 word Google Ad just wasn't cutting it in today's climate.
This meant:
Speaking at Events, Seminars and Workshops
Contributing articles to publications
Creating relationships with the media and being helpful and responsive with any media enquiries
Relentless networking
Committing signifiant time and energy to Social Media (Linked-in, Facebook, Twitter) to learn, expand my network and tribe of followers interested in Marketing for small business.
Improving my Search Engine Optimisation
The result is that traffic to my web site and new business enquiries have actually increased rather than decreased. We still need to work really hard though to make the most of those enquiries and create further trust through our dialogue, product offering and delivery of services going forward but it really helps to still have a healthy level of enquiries coming in.
If you're baffled by why the phone isn't ringing or why your web site traffic has dropped off, maybe it's worthwhile thinking about how you can develop more trust from propsects in what you have to offer and how they can benefit? Do you need to totally overhaul the way you market you business?
Perhaps you could share how you're developing more trust and the difference it's making in your own business.
