Why Building Trust Is a “Must Have” Marketing Goal

Direct mail and email are for selling things, right? But what about building trust? While many marketers may not think about it, trust should be one of your top marketing goals. To understand why let’s look at the example of Morningstar.

Morningstar is a financial services company that serves both seasoned and new investors. If you do an online search for “investment,” you’ll get a veritable “who’s who” of financial services firms. How does Morningstar stand out? By using unique content. Morningstar knows that investing is scary to many people.  When you’re new to investing, a list of products, services, and fees isn’t beneficial. It can deepen fear about making a mistake. So the company decided to build its reputation based on trust instead.

Through various channels, Morningstar invests in content such as charts and graphs, articles about saving and investing, “how-to” blog posts, and videos from industry experts. Instead of merely telling potential investors what a mutual fund is, for example, it advises them on the best ones to research. Everything about what the company does is designed to build confidence and give investors a peek behind the curtain. This builds trust, and in a world as foreign and intimidating as investing is to many people, trust is everything.

How does trust factor into your product or service categories? Whether through direct mail, email, or on your website, what type of content would develop trust with your customers? What are their fears and concerns? What kind of content would answer their questions and set their fears to rest?

Trust helps to build the type of relationships that are less price-sensitive, more resilient from the lure of competitors, and weather uncertain times. Using drip-marketing campaigns via direct mail and email to feed your customers content that educates and guides is a huge part of building that trust.

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Note: Background on Morningstar drawn from “‘Content Is Our Business’: What Morningstar’s Homepage Can Teach Financial Marketers” (Contently.com)