What Consumers Trust

 In Blog

Unless you sell kayaks or ice cream, summer can be a great time for business owners to evaluate their marketing and communications efforts and identify a strategy for jumpstarting sales and traffic.

As you do this – looking over your website, print advertising, blogging efforts, enewsletter and print collateral to decide where to put your resources – keep in mind what consumers trust in terms of advertising.

Last spring, Nielsen surveyed the trust that consumers have in different forms of advertising, and the results might surprise you.

More than half of them, 53 percent, said they trust individual businesses’ websites. And the majority of respondents said they think opinion is trustworthy; for instance, 70 percent noted that they value consumer reviews, and 92 percent said what they trust is a referral from someone they know.

To me, this suggests that your website, enewsletter and print collateral are good places to tell stories and offer consumer reviews and testimonials.

Also, 53 percent said they trust what they read in the paper in terms of editorial content – stories, in other words. That could be a good reason to put resources into media relations, so you have a better chance of being in that editorial content.

The Nielsen survey also showed that only 47 percent of consumers trust print advertising.

If this is a good time for you to look at how you could better reach your audience, here are some facets of your communications plan that you should be looking at:

  • Your website. Is it up-to-date? Should you add new testimonials? Spruce up your bios? Include new services or products?
  • Your media plan: Should you send out a press release on that open house you’re having in the fall? Do you have new staff members to announce?
  • Your enewsletter: Do you have one? Did you remember to send it out this month?
  • Your print collateral: How are your brochures and flyers looking? Do they need a face lift?
  • Your overall strategy? Are you talking about the same things on your website as in your enewsletter and press releases? Do your communications support one another?

Take the time to examine how you’re getting your message out; it’s a great investment in your bottom line. If summer sales and activity keep you busy, put your evaluation on your calendar for November.

For help with your evaluation, or to boost your marketing and communications plans, call Janice at (413) 374-6239 or email janice@beetlepress.com.

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