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January 22, 2010

Making trust based assets work for you


Trust based assets serve to reduce the time between acknowledgement and action. Some have extremely high conversion rates but they are relatively short lived. Others have lower conversion rates but bounce around forever.

There are three basic levels of trust based assets. And as a consultant you need to have all three!

The Diamond standard, or highest level, are those most likely to convert into revenues, and often into repeat revenues.

Here you could include referrals from peers, friends and family. People whose word will be implicitly trusted and who would not risk their own relationships by referring somebody sub-standard.

Also in this area are long term subscribers to newsletters and blogs. But not just any subscribers. The ones that read the posts, work through the newsletters, and become part of the activity surrounding them.

All of these are likely to convert into commercial revenues at some stage. This is the fundamental element of trust based marketing. Many relationships built on trust gives you a lever large enough to accomplish great things.

The Gold Standard is next, and is where many of us live and work right now. These have less likelihood of converting straight away and are more about building your brand. These are referrals from a trusted source.

This could be through a radio program, TV interview, an article you published or an inteview ith a well read trade publication. This approach is to be the news and not the ads, the main event instead of the diversion.

But it also includes things like LinkedIn recommendations. If these are well collected they will represent the views of people who others might be likely to trust.

For example, your next client may not know the VP of HR for GM. But the fact that you are referred by them adds significantly to your trust account.

The Silver Standard are things that represent your brand, you thinking and your approaches. Silver standard TBA's are generally not subscription based and not part of a long term relationship.

Things like your marketing materials, your blog for random visitors and even your books, booklets and audio programs.

All are things that will introduce you to your potential clients, and all of them need o be stunning.

You can't do all of these at once. But you can do a very good job by working on two or three of them. The beauty of trust Based Assets is that they live on beyond your initial work with them.

I still get emails from members of a newsletter I used to publish in Latin America over a decade ago...


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