One of the biggest obstacles that arise with any marketing campaign is the issue of trust and credibility. How exactly do we get consumers to trust the message is conveyed in the campaign.
The issue of trust and credibility is especially poignant in industries. The healthcare and skincare industry being two of them. After all, when it comes to personal care, consumers are a lot of cautious in their purchase.
In today’s age of adblockers and independent consumers who are ad resistant and tech-savvy, traditional methods of advertising are no longer as feasible. Instead, trust forms the foundation of marketing. Therefore, this article will touch on how influencer marketing can build the necessary trust between a brand and its consumers.
How to gain customer trust: #1. Be authentic
Firstly, the trick to an effective influencer marketing (or marketing) is to be authentic. Marketing gimmicks that might have worked in the past are no longer feasible today. Instead, authenticity is what will attract today’s consumer. After all, consumers can easily fact check any statements made with a quick search on the internet.
Whether your marketing goal is to promote your brand, a product or service, authenticity should take a front seat. It is important to be genuine when it comes to advertising. This does not mean that marketing is only limited to fact listing, where you talk about the features of your offerings. Authenticity can take on many forms, be it through honest reviews and transparent marketing practices.
How does influencer marketing help:
Influencers are voices on the internet and are useful in building the authenticity of the marketing campaign. Some marketers might prefer directly using the advertising function of the various social media platforms.
While direct advertising is useful to a certain extent, sponsored posts in collaboration with influencers are much higher in authenticity. After all, the influencer’s post comes along with their approval or the product or the service. Additionally, the current guidelines help create an environment of trust and transparency. The guidelines that require sponsored post to be explicitly stated with the #sp allows consumers to be aware that the post is a sponsored one.
How to gain customer trust #2.The use of stories
Secondly, storytelling is essential for authentic branding. Through storytelling, many things can be conveyed in an interesting yet informative manner. Be it your brand’s origin, purpose and ideals, storytelling can help in your branding. A deeper understanding of your brand would allow your consumers to relate to your brand, promoting a deeper form of connection.
Furthermore, storytelling is also a narrative tool which brands can use to engage their consumers. As opposed to imparting information in a mundane way, incorporating information into stories can be a great way to engage your consumers
How does influencer marketing help:
The art of storytelling is not easily mastered. However, a great way to go about doing so is to engage influencers in your brand’s story. How do we do so?
Well, you can either get influencers to be the “storytellers” or incorporate each influencer’s story into your brand’s marketing campaign. A common method of influencer marketing is to get influencers to share about the benefits of your product or service. To incorporate the story aspect to your campaign, you can get an influencer to share their personal experience with your brand online.
Storytelling can be in the form of little anecdotes. For instance, for skincare brands, it is rather common for influencers to share their skincare personal struggles when promoting a product online. You might think that such facts are useless since these facts do not directly relate to your brand’s offerings. However, these seemingly otiose facts are very important in the anatomy of an effective influencer marketing campaign.
Storytelling allows influencers to paint a personal picture of your brand. It is a great way to engage your audience with interesting content. It also allows the influencers to weave their personal experience into what your brand has to offer. In the long run, this strengthens the association between the influencer and your brand. This association in turn helps to promote trust between your brand and the influencer’s followers.
How to gain customer trust #3. The use of human touch
With the rise of big data and complicated algorithm that can predict consumer’s behaviour on the internet, it is easy for marketers to simply rely on technology.
While it is true that we should not shy away from the use of technology, what will distinguish a campaign would be the human touch to it. Take the example of customer service. If you have an issue with a particular product, will you prefer to contact the brand’s online bot or a service operator? Well, it is safe to assume that most of us would choose the latter.
While some services can be replaced with technology, the emotional connection that is present when there is the human touch aspect cannot be replaced. This is especially so in the realm of marketing.
The human touch can help create a face or persona that your consumers can associate your brand to. It also makes it easier to create a relatable marketing campaign, as the innate need for human connection is always effective.
How does influencer marketing help:
The element of human touch can be easily achieved through the use of influencers. After all, having a familiar face your consumers can associate your brand with is a rather effective strategy. To take things a step further, you can even consider longer-term collaborations, or get influencers to be ambassadors for your brand. Doing so would strengthen your brand’s recognition among social media users.
How to gain customer trust #4. The use of reviews and testimonials
Lastly, the use of reviews and testimonials are a great way to establish credibility. After all, we should all be familiar with reading reviews before a purchase decision is made. You might think that reviews are only important for big ticket items. However, think about how the number of people that look for hawker food reviews online. This will establish how powerful a tool reviews and testimonials are.
To facilitate the process, encourage your customers to leave reviews on your social media pages. This will promote trust and credibility, at the same time strengthening your brand’s image.
How does influencer marketing help:
An effective influencer marketing 2021 can take the form of an honest review process. Testimonials and reviews coming from influencers are highly credible. After all, these influencers have spent the time and effort in establishing trust online. A tip would be to keep their reviews as authentic as possible. This means that an influencers opinion on the type of content created should be taken into account.
