The Importance of Trust and Credibility on the Internet

There's a lot to be learned from the simple phrase 'getting lost in the crowd'. Without trust and credibility both individuals and businesses alike never gain the attention of the 'masses'.

internet marketing is much like offline marketing due to the volumes of advertisers out there vying for your attention every single day. If we just look at some of the more popular and recognizable mediums that consistently barrage us each day such as:

• Newspaper ads
• Direct mailings, postcards, and other literature received in the mail
• Telemarketing (ugh!)
• Flyers
• Billboards
• Radio advertising
• TV commercials
• Circulars attached to post boxes or hung on doors
• Magazine ads
• Email of the 'unsolicited nature' commonly known as spam

It is no wonder our society as a whole has become 'numb' and unresponsive to these countless assaults on both our senses and our pocketbooks!

In our online business how do we get around the 'barriers' folks have put up to defend themselves from these continued promotional assaults.

Folks become more comfortable and receptive as they gain familiarity and trust. Internet marketing, due to its technological nature is a very impersonal medium. As a result there is a particularly special need to establish this type of relationship. So how do you overcome these 'barriers'?

By accomplishing 2 things:

1. Establish credibility with them which hopefully will:
2. Increase their trust in you.

By doing this we are no longer contending with their 'defense barriers' thereby allowing us to more effectively promote our goods and/or services to them.

First we need to establish credibility. An effective way to do this is to publish articles that contain interesting and useful contact. These articles should not be 'sales pages' but rather informative material regarding topics of interest to these readers. Make sure, however, the subject is somehow related to your product(s). For instance if you are selling 'outdoor furniture' you could write something related to avoiding sunburn , the most effective sunglasses one can wear to protect the eyes, mosquito repellent, and so on. It stands to reason that people who may be interested in 'outdoor furniture' would also find these topics interesting since in order to enjoy outdoor furniture they would be contending with these issues.

As you gather a following who find your information useful, they'll also gain a certain degree of familiarity with you. Over time you'll gain the confidence of these readers. As they find this material useful, they'll then come to regard you both as an expert to whom they can look to for advice and also a friend due to your reliability and helpful information without any sales pitches. At this point they will be more receptive, perhaps even looking forward to, any advice or suggestions you may make!

As you continue to publish additional articles and your readers' base grows, so does your relationship with these readers which builds more trust and credibility for your internet marketing business leading to more sales from this base in the future.