Why Credibility Marketing Is Right for Right Now (Part 1 of 2)

When I talk with prospects, they’re typically trying to find ways to differentiate themselves and gain the attention of their audience. If I ask what kinds of things they’re currently doing, digital marketing is often at the top of the list.

Don’t get me wrong—digital marketing still works, we do a lot of it for our clients, but there’s a reason it isn’t quite as effective as it once was. The problem is that digital marketing has been so universally embraced as a way for reaching prospects that literally everyone is doing it. What’s more, these digital messages are all being delivered in the same ways, from email and social ads to text messages and Google searches. All this is creating a level of noise that audiences are getting better at ignoring.

I’ll give some personal examples of why so many of these marketing attempts are failing: If I receive an email from someone I don’t know, I might open it and read the first few lines, but once I see it’s a sales pitch, it usually gets marked as spam. Or, if I’m thinking of buying something and I do a Google search for information, I disregard the first three hits because I know those spots are paid for.

When you combine audiences’ marketing fatigue with its growing skepticism due to overhyped online claims, fake reviews, and spammers, it’s easier to understand why digital marketing, when used alone, has lost some of its power.

Credibility Marketing to the Rescue

This is also why credibility marketing is on the rise. What is it? Credibility marketing is the actions taken to build trust in your product and brand. Edelman, which creates the annual Edelman Trust Barometer, rightly defines trust as this:

“Unlike reputation, which is based on an organization’s historical behavior, trust is a predictor of whether stakeholders will find you credible in the future, will embrace new innovations you introduce, and will enthusiastically support or defend you. For these reasons, trust is a valuable asset for all institutions, and ongoing trust-building activities should be one of the most important strategic priorities for every organization.”

Going back to my earlier examples of avoiding emails from unknown senders or disregarding the top returns in searches, I do these things because of a lack of trust. Like most of us, I’m busy, I’ve grown more resistant to digital marketing, and I’m increasingly skeptical about online claims…unless they’re from a brand I know and trust.

And I’m not alone. According to SalesForce Search, over 90 percent of companies report that they will only buy from companies they trust.

Same Principles, New Name

If you’re an old-school marketer, you may recognize credibility marketing as being akin to what used to be called PR, before digital marketing became king and PR was labeled as out of fashion. However, in our current times, PR (now repackaged as credibility marketing), is experiencing a resurgence.

With so many messages being hurled at audiences, buyers want to cut through the noise by listening only to the brands they trust. This is also why many marketing programs are starting to feel the pinch—during the digital-marketing gold rush of the last two decades, they forgot about the importance of establishing credibility.

Again, this isn’t to say that credibility marketing should replace anything. Instead, it should co-exist with other marketing efforts, including digital. This can be hard to accept, though, since trust is intangible and built incrementally. Today’s marketers are used to being rewarded based on hard numbers, such as sales in the pipeline or shortened conversion cycles. While credibility marketing isn’t as measurable in the short term, it will absolutely help to move the needle for other, more measurable sales and marketing efforts.

In next month’s post, we’ll talk more about credibility marketing and outline some specific strategies companies can take to begin building trust with their audiences.