To have success in today's world of online business or "Internet Marketing", you need tools to help you compete and/or get above your competition. To rank higher in the SERPs, tools are the only way to get there, as you need to track, test and manage your results. Yes, you can do it yourself, but why waste all of that time? Why invent the wheel again, just use the proven, working tools that are already out there! They will help you get more traffic, more ranking and help you make more money online. Also, attending an Internet Marketing conference will help you learn how to use the tools.

The Marketing of Credibility

Whether you are writing promotions, creating your marketing mission statement, or, creating a business plan, the key to success is the buying publics level of marketing credibility in your claims of benefits to them.

This is one of those “make you or break you” kind of things, for the long run. As stated before, in “Marketing for the Long Run”, not only do you need to eliminate all possible perceptions of deceit or unreliability, you need to establish two things.

1) You must establish proof or documentation of your claims. If you are selling on price only (God forbid), you need to compare your prices with the market average, or, somebody real big and very noticeable, particularly if they are known for good prices. If you are selling on selection, you need to say something stronger than “many brands to choose from”, everybody says that. You need to say “biggest selection in town” or “More hats than Harry”, or better yet, “nobody has more options to help you make the perfect choice”. This last one gives you an example of the description of the benefit to the customer derived from the feature of good selections.

2) You need to establish credibility as early as possible, it heightens the attention and response potential of customers. The earlier that you document your claims, the more believable will be everything else you say!

Credibility can be established by using testimonials, studies or tests by recognized sources. Testimonials can be tricky, you need to read “Proper Testimonials” to be sure to get them right. Studies need to either be documentable (findable) or else done by a 3rd party or acknowledged credible source. Tests fall into the same category; it isn’t enough to say “studies prove that……, you need to say “A 1998 study by the Boston Univ. School of Medicine says…….”.

It’s the marketing of credibility that gets leads and sales; “Marketing of Dependability” that gets you the ever important and lucrative referral business. Establish credibility early and establish it strong!

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