Are you as trusting of people today as you were 25 years ago? I’m not. As dishonesty, shortcuts and greed have increased, trust has become more and more scarce. Yet the trust of your customers and prospects is an essential ingredient for growing your distributorship’s marketshare. How important is trust to you when you make a major purchase?
The research shows that when it comes to major purchases we unfailingly buy from people we like and trust.
Sales professionals equate face-to-face meetings as an important step in developing and establishing relationships. There is no arguing with that, but face-to-face meetings are both expensive and time-consuming. So a legitimate question is: Are there less expensive, equally productive alternatives? And the answer is yes!
Dr. Elliott Arnson, a Social Psychologist wrote about trust in his book, The Social Animal:
“All other things being equal, the more familiar an item is, the more attractive it is. People prefer faces that have been seen 10 times to equally attractive faces that were seen only five times.”
In other words, the number of times that people see or have something presented to them the more attractive and acceptable it becomes, especially if it is from people they perceive to be thought leaders.
So is there something you and I can deliver repeatedly that our customers and prospects will see as attractive and will position us as thought leaders? The answer is yes and that “something” in marketing and sales is known as Content.
Content is defined as information that our customers and prospects see as interesting, useful, and relevant to them. Information that delivers value because it increases their chance of succeeding in carrying out their responsibilities.
What follows is some great examples of useful and relevant content.
Content marketing is something of a practiced craft with a longer history than you might expect. Today’s content marketers have the benefit of being able to reflect and learn from the mistakes and successes of their predecessors. The story of content marketing spans the past 120 years, beginning with a tractor manufacturer that published a revolutionary consumer magazine. Here’s a quick history lesson on the origins and evolution of content marketing:
John Deere: The Furrow (1895)
John Deere is often touted as the earliest example of successful content marketing. The agricultural machinery manufacturer launched its consumer magazine, The Furrow, back in 1895. Today, the magazine has a circulation of about 1.5 million, so the first historical example of content marketing was certainly effective. The Furrow, which is now available in 12 languages and 40 countries around the world, is successful because it tapped into something that John Deere’s consumers truly cared about: making farming more profitable. Modern content marketers should take a page out of The Furrow and always try to understand the specific needs, motivations, and interests of their target market.
Michelin: The Michelin Guides (1900)
One of the best applications of content marketing is to drive demand for your product, which is exactly what an early example of content marketing by a certain tire company achieved. Michelin published its first guidebook for French motorists in 1900, an era when few consumers owned cars, in an attempt to ramp up the public’s demand for automobiles. Michelin distributed 35,000 free copies of its first guide, which contained information for motorists, despite the fact there were only 3,000 cars in France at the time. The Michelin Guides expanded into a series of annual guidebooks of different countries, offering information on hotels and restaurants that motorists may want to visit, all while creating brand awareness and desire for its product.
A Time Tested Strategy to Build Trust
As illustrated in that excerpt, the concept of content marketing is really not new. However, it has come a long way since the days of John Deere’s first edition of The Furrow. The evolution of new marketing ideals and concepts has caused us to reevaluate and refine our systems and processes for delivering marketing messages. Your audience is more conscious of advertising, so today’s modern marketers often require greater finesse and subtlety. Reflecting on past examples of excellent content marketing campaigns gives us an appreciation for the modern mechanics of content marketing, and helps us improve future campaigns by preventing us from repeating the mistakes of our predecessors.
A Brief History Of Content Marketing (It’s Not As New As You Think, written by Emily Bauer on May 20, 2014.
From this brief introduction I’m sure it’s clear to you that as a marketing tool, content’s powerful. It fun to read, it can be compelling and there is an audience for it among your prospects and customers.
Here is what I believe is the takeaway. You are an expert in your field! You’ve forgotten more about the workings of the products and services you provide to your customers than they know. You can teach your customers and prospects things, provide them with useful information and deliver value for them that will increase their ability to maximize the use and efficiency of the products and services they buy from you.
You will benefit two ways from providing that service. They will come to see you as an expert (thought leader too) and they will be able to use the information to leverage their careers. Over time they will also come to see you as an ally, not just a vendor who wants their business. When it comes to developing and building trust you can’t ask for more. And with our help, you can do it fraction of the cost of doing it yourself. So welcome expert! Your prospects and customers have challenges and issues that perplex them, issues and challenges you can provide viable solutions for.
In the same sense that growing your organization’s marketshare perplexes you, your customers and prospects are looking for solutions to their pressing problems. You have information that can be published as content that will help them. They are anxious for help and they will come to trust the people that provide it for them. It’s a great opportunity for you to establish trust and gain the rewards.
You possess knowledge that your customers and prospects will value. That’s the very essence of content, information that is useful, relevant and valuable. Information that will establish you as the expert in your customer’s minds. Information (solutions) that you can contribute to hundreds or thousands of your prospects and customers for about the cost of a just a few face-to-face sales meetings. That is not only effective, it’s also incredibly productive and efficient. If you want to establish yourself as a thought leader and expert in your field there is no better or less expensive way to do it than creating valuable and useful content.
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