It’s an old adage of business, people buy from people they like. It’s not the only variable, of course, but it sure does help.
And that’s great for sales or other roles where you are out interacting and building a relationship, but how do you get people to like you who have never met you?
How do we do that in our marketing? Where you don’t have a lot of face-to-face interactions?
That is a little bit harder.
But we have a few ways to interact with people, right? For instance your website, social media, your blog.
There are lots of ways to build rapport and show people what an awesome, likable pleasure you are to work with.
So what do people look for in people they like? Well, I like people who are authentic, trustworthy and helpful.
Let’s explore how that happens in marketing, when people can’t interact with my sparkling personality in person.
Authentic: If you have read even one of my blog articles or visited my website, you kind of know what you are getting. I try to act like a person in my communication (weird, I know) and to interject humor into the situation. When you meet me in person you know what you get?
Yep, the same thing.
Now, not everybody likes that? But what is the point of wasting time presenting myself as one thing when the second they meet me they are going to realize that I am not “how they thought I would be.” That is a lost sale every time. A fancy way to say this is it is brand dissonance.
Trustworthy: A lot falls under trustworthy, but I think it can be summed us as saying what you are going to do and then doing it. People like people that they can rely on.
If you say your content download is valuable, make it valuable. If you say you only email people when it is important don’t spam them every other day.
With one caveat.
I am huge fan of under-promising and over-delivering. It is a simple and easy way to delight people. If someone tells me they will have a project complete on Monday and I receive it 24 hours sooner, I am one happy camper.
If you tell me you can do something and then you complete it early, or cheaper, I am never going to argue with that.
Helpful: I genuinely want to help people build their business. It is important to me. I think that people can sense whether you are into something for a check or you really want to help them.
And I want to work with people who help me. That’s why if I see something on social media that “Hey I am looking for a good printer”, I tell them about my friend Ken. How great he is even with my off-the-wall request. Like I need 50 14-foot magnetized banners.
I don’t care if I ever become the posters partner (well, maybe I care a little), but still I helped. I like being helpful and people like helpful people.
If you are interested in working with someone who has the above traits give us a call. We know someone like that.