How often have you walked in a shop, only to feel pressured into buying something you didn’t really want?  Perhaps you were at a restaurant, and the waiter actually sits down at your table, introduces him or herself, and asks for your order?

Or maybe you found yourself in the position I was in at a Danier Leather store late last year, with my two-month-old leather overcoat that had a piece of leather that had separated.  “Sir, you may leave your coat here, and we will send it to our head office for inspection.  They will determine if it even is a defect, and how much you would have to pay for repairs.”

In all three scenarios, there is a serious abuse of trust.  The high pressure salesperson doesn’t even try to earn trust.  The waiter presumes too much.  And the clerk from Danier Leather did a great job destroying it. Trust is so slowly built, and so easily lost.  Why, then, do we persist in following the conventional digital marketing “wisdom” of ignoring these basics?

Back in 1999, I recall working on an ecommerce site which required registration to even look at the catalog.  While this Costco-esque strategy did seem to provide an aura of exclusivity, it quickly lost its luster when I pointed out that potential customers might actually want to browse before buying.  Hidden within this browsing behavior, however, was an even more important activity:  trust-building.  Without trust, you have not yet earned the right to ask for the sale.

Today, we see digital marketing techniques (such as “squeeze-pages”) that also presume too much:  How many sites have you seen that exhort the reader to “Sign up for our promotional newsletter, and we’ll give you a free ebook.”

Unfortunately, this approach is completely backwards:  the marketer is asking for something – your contact details – without earning the right to do so.  Even worse, they are trying to bribe you (the so-called ethical bribe) to participate!  If the goal is to build trust, the “transaction” must be completely different: First give, then get.

1) Give the ebook away without requiring the “payment” of information.  This earns trust.

2) Get them to subscribe.  If they are interested (eg if they have qualified themselves as a prospect), ask them to sign up to receive more.  The higher the value, the more that the marketer can ask for: low value – email only.  Medium value – contact information and a few demographic qualifying questions.  Super high value – perhaps a credit card number.

No matter the currency paid, many digital marketers miss a critical third step.

3) Only send them what you have promised.

If you promised them a monthly newsletter, don’t send sales pitches.  If you promised event invitations, don’t send them the newsletter.  Promise-keepers build trust – and earn the right to ask.

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