How to Build Your Know, Like & Trust Factor

Marketing is moving online at a rapid pace and there has never been a better time to bypass the traditional mediums of advertising and media to reach your target market directly. One of the best ways to build your “Know, Like & Trust” factor online is through remarkable content. Consumers are heading to the Web in droves to research whatever interests them at the moment. Ultimately, they want valuable content that will improve their lives.

Google provides three-quarters of a billion search results a day – the perfect platform for useful content. The Web allows smart marketers to deliver compelling content that people actually want to consume.

In order to attract more clients, establish credibility and build trust, you must create remarkable content and publish it online for three important reasons. First, remarkable content builds your personal brand and positions you as an authority in your industry. Second, it is easily and quickly spread on social media sites, such as Twitter, Facebook, YouTube and Digg. And third, it attracts links from other web sites pointing to your web site. In other words, you want your content to prompt other content producers on the Web to “remark” about you (and your products and services) and link back to your site. These links send you qualified visitors, and they signal to Google that your website is worthy of ranking.

Keep it simple and create content that you can produce rapidly and that people can effectively spread online. Here are a few examples:

·         Blog posts – Personal and professional musings about your industry and your area of expertise.

·         Articles – 500-700 word articles that can be published on article submission sites such as ezinearticles.com and ideamarketers.com.

·         White papers – Five to seven page papers that educate your marketplace on an industry trend or challenge.

·         Videos – Short (under two minutes is best) videos about a topic within your area of expertise.

·         Webinars – Live online PowerPoint presentations.

·         Podcasts – Ten to twenty minute audio programs or interviews with industry experts similar to radio shows.

·         Webcasts – Live video shows viewed online.

·         Special Giveaway – Provide 10-100 pages of special content on a hot topic in your industry. This can be set up as a pdf download right on your website. Tom Peters and David Meerman Scott are well-known marketers who give away generous amounts of valuable content for free.

The interesting thing about remarkable content online is that the more you give, the more you get. The more valuable and noteworthy the content, the more links to your site and the better it will rank in the search engines. You want to move away from the mindset of hiding all of that remarkable information behind closed doors and instead, use it to attract more clients by building the “Know, Like & Trust” factor. And you don’t have to reinvent the wheel – you can repurpose the same content for your blog, newsletter, article submission, speaking engagements, webinars and workshops.

In our rapidly changing business environment, the entrepreneurs who are going to thrive are the ones who engage their clients and build long-term relationships. Offering remarkable content is an opportunity for your target audience to get to know you better and develop trust in you and your brand. It also happens to be one of the most cost-effective ways to market yourself in the online marketplace.

© Liz Dennery Sanders 2009