If you’ve been hanging out in the online business space for a little while you will no doubt have heard the phrase "Know, Like and Trust" thrown around a little bit.
One of the problems I currently see (or hear), is phrases like this being picked up and unfortunately used in a really generic way, - they lose their meaning, the weight the had behind them and feel like they become sort of 'buzz words'.
So what is Know, Like and Trust? Is it actually important? And how does it impact the customer journey?
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Episode Transcript
Lets dive into a bit of a chat about Know, Like and Trust.
What is it? Is it really important? And If so, how do we get it?
If you’ve been hanging out in the online business space for a little while you will no doubt have heard the phrase know, like and trust thrown around a little bit.
One of the problems I currently see or hear, is phrases like this being picked up and unfortunately used in a really generic way, without the real meaning behind them.
I was having a chat with a client of mine a little while ago and this phrase actually came up, they had heard it used before, but it hadn’t really landed and they didn’t really understand what it meant how it was relevant for them - which really cemented for me, that there did need to be a little more conversation behind this, and there are probably more people around who have heard it used a lot but it hadn’t really landed for them.
I want to dive into this a little deeper than you might have heard before and really break down what each stage looks and feels like - Know, Like and Trust might seem like a fairly basic topic, but it should be so much deeper and I think when you truly have an understanding of each stage and how it fits into your customer journey, knowing this will help you make sales.
The way I like to break it down is simple, number 1 - people cannot buy from you if they do not know who you are. If they have never heard of you, if they’ve never seen your brand pop up, if they don’t know you exist, if they don’t even know that a product or service like yours exists.
Know is about visibility. It is the first step. People cannot buy from you, they cannot work with you, if they do not know you exist.
So how are you letting people know about you?
What are you doing that is putting your brand in front of more people who would be looking for a product or service like yours?
What is one thing that you can do today that will make you more visible to your ideal client or customer.
What is one thing that you can do today that is going to make you more visible in your industry.
Can you partner or collaborate with people to help you cement your position in the market?
How can you let more people know about you?
This is the part where we do all that we can to make ourselves or our brands more visible. It’s about reaching more of the right people. Getting in front of them and capturing their attention with content that hits their pain points, speaks to their desires, disrupts their feeds and instantly makes them feel like you get them, you know what they’re looking for, you’ve been listening and now, here you are. Right in front of them with the product or service they might just be looking for.
Once people know us, we need them to like us in order to move them along the buyer journey.
Like, is about nurturing those people that now know who you are. You’ve captured their attention, now they need to get to know you on a deeper level, we want to turn that ‘you’ve got my attention’ into ‘You get me, you understand me, I can see that you genuinely want to help me’.
We’re now familiar to this person, they’ve formed a connection with us, they believe in our integrity, this is the part where we really build that relationship.
In like, we share more about who we are and what we stand for, our beliefs and our values, but we don’t just talk about them, we show them. We show them in the content we create, in the way we speak, the way we show up, the way in which we reply to their messages and questions.
It’s done through the consistency in our messaging.
Remembering also, it can take time for people to get to know us.
Have you ever heard the statistic “someone needs to see your brand 7 times before they’ll even consider working with you or buying from you’
Did you know this marketing rule was introduced in the 1930’s and was created by the movie industry who believed a person needed to see a movie poster or advertisement on average 7 times before they would decide to see it.
Almost 100 years later, can you see why that would no longer be accurate?
We live in a time we’re we are spoilt for choice and in todays world, it’s easy to see why this statistic would no longer be true.
Which brings me to trust.
Going back to the movie poster… Times have obviously changed.
It’s safe to say consumer behaviour has changed a lot. The way in which we shop, make purchase decisions, seek out new products and services today looks absolutely nothing like what it did in the 1930’s when this rule of 7 was invented.
We live in a time where someone can quite literally stumble across our content and make the decision to purchase in a moment - or they could spend hours, days or weeks carefully waiting, watching, for the right time to make their purchase.
The way in which we market our business, the content we create has the power to persuade someone to trust us within minutes of finding us, and just as quickly, it can have the opposite effect.
Not only do people need to trust us in order to purchase from us, they will not purchase from us if they perceive the risk to be too high.
So yes. The truth is, Trust is important. Potential clients, or customers want to be sure that you’re going to deliver what you say you’re going to before they dive in and make their purchase or decide to work with you.
I also just mentioned risk, and I don’t think this gets discussed enough in the online space.
If someone perceives the risk is too high, they won’t make a purchase, they don’t trust you to deliver on what you say you’re doing to.
But why would there be risk? Why mightn’t your potential clients or customers trust you and why might they perceive the risk to be so high, they decide not to purchase?
It could be through inconsistencies in your messaging, a negative review, bad or poor product photography, limited details on the offer or product, not enough social proof - meaning they can’t see anyone else talking about it, they can’t find any reviews, your socials son’t instil a lot of confidence. It could be due to a lack of information, limited examples of your work, unclear pricing, a poorly represented brand or the way in which you handle feedback, questions and customer enquiries.
It could be assumptions made from previous experiences, used cars salesmen, real estate agents, people leading network marketing teams, the people that grab you at the shopping center to get you to sign up to monthly donations to charities - all so often get a bad wrap, we’ve all heard the stories and so we put these people in the same box and assume the same things about them all based on their professions, the business they’re in - but they’re not all the same.
An example that I have that looks like this is a cheap clothing purchase. Have you ever made a clothing purchase and it was something that was really cheap, you look at the website, your trawl through their socials and you make a decision to give it a go - only to have it turn up and fit absolutely nothing like it did the person on the site, or it was see through, or you wear it, you washed it exactly as per the instructions only to have it shink to a size so small or a shape so wrong you could never wear it again - and now they won’t return it because it was obviously you that did something wrong… This has definitely happened to me and I’ll be honest, it does make me doubt the quality of clothing at some store or brands that I am not familiar with.
The lowest price doesn’t always win. Perhaps your prices are so low that people doubt the quality. They've put you in the same box they have with their previous experience, I know I am guilty of this.
So how can you earn people's trust and minimize the risk in their minds?
Lets walk though 6 ways you can build trust with your community that is going to help move them through the buyer journey.
Number 1 - always act with integrity. This means always being honest and having strong moral principles. It means behaving ethically and always looking to do the right thing, not only by yourself, but doing what’s good and right by others and by the planet. Behind closed doors and when you’re public facing.
One of the best ways to earn peoples trust is to allow them to see this, not just by telling them but by showing them. Through your messaging, your content, your marketing - everything.
When people are honest with us, when they can admit their mistakes, when they share why they made a pivot, when they genuinely share in a way that also benefits others, they easily earn the trust of others.
Number 2 - is through humanisation. Humanisation of your brand. We rate brands through emotion and emotions drive so many of our purchase decisions. People want to connect with your brand on a deeper level, who are you? Why do you do what you do? What’s your story? How is it relevant to me? When people can see that there is a human behind the brand and when they feel like they can connect with that human emotion, they are more likely, naturally, to trust you.
Number 3 - be transparent and openly share information. There is only so much you can share for free, what this means is no one is ever going to get the full transformation that you offer, just by consuming your free content. Being open with the information you share allows people to build a better picture of how you operate, what you might be like to work with - it gives them the opportunity to better understand what it is you know, so they can make their own decisions around if they want to work with you.
Number 4 - Create content that reminds your people that you get them. Have you been where they are right now? Let them know. Show them you get it. You care. You understand their pain points and desires, you understand the outcomes they want to achieve.
Maybe you can even relate to them on a deeper personal level, this one also feeds back into humanisation and acting with integrity.
Number 5 - Share customer reviews, testimonials, user generated content and social proof. Anything that shows the positive experience other people have had with your brand is always a good thing.
Research has told us that around 88% of people trust online reviews as much as recommendations from their family and friends, and around 90% of people surveyed that they feel more encouraged to buy a product after reading a positive review - positive feedback, even from strangers on the internet means so much to a potential customer or client.
And finally, number 6 - This one is specifically for my product based friends. Use high quality, detailed product images paired with high quality product descriptions, ensure your checkout experience is seamless and secure and display all shipping, delivery and returns information openly, freely and honestly.
The more questions someone has around a product, delivery, shipping costs, returns information the less confident they’ll feel when it comes to making a purchase.
Because I like to make these episodes a little more bite sized for you I am going to finish here, there are so so somany things that you can be doing at each stage to help build know, like and trust and I am happy to share everything I know with you.
If you have any questions please get in touch with me over on Instagram, you can find me at Kristy Pask - I will of course include the link in the show notes.
If you are a creative small business owner and you want to make the second half of 2023 your best yet, please get in touch to find out how you can work with me. My mission is to bring together everything I know and have learned about business and marketing to support incredible small business owners like yourself, as you build and internationally recognised, loved and sought after brand.
You can book a 15 minute discovery call with me by heading to my website, and I’ll also pop the link in the show notes.
Thank you so much for joining me here today, I’ll catch you in the next episode.
