ONLINE MARKETING IS WHO YOU ARE, NOT WHAT YOU SELL

by Rhoda Israelov

Of all the goals served by marketing for business, the most important is the humanizing effect. Visitors to your website and your social media pages should come away with the impression that they will be dealing with real, likable people, not just with a company. Whether a business owner is doing his or her own writing or collaborating with professional content writers, the end result has to express how the people behind the brand are devoted to serving others.

Marketing is about giving. The best website content and the best blogs give readers insight into a company’s core beliefs about how they want to give to their community. Even more important than a "What we do” website page is one devoted to “What we believe." Content marketing can inspire prospects to feel three types of trust in a business owner:

1. Trust in their know-how. This is where businesses show, and illustrate their knowledge to potential customers to gain their trust.

2. Trust in their ethical product. This is where businesses show that their product is on the up-and-up, that their motive for creating it is altruistic.

3. Trust in their feeling of responsibility toward their community. This is where businesses showcase the ways in which they give back. Whether through fundraisers, monetary donations or volunteering for projects, businesses should highlight where they are making an impact outside of the business.

Of course, marketing can help business owners and practitioners achieve quite a number of other goals, including building goodwill, staying in touch with existing customers and clients, defining terminology, announcing changes in products and services, controlling damage from negative PR or complaints, and recruiting employees. All of these goals lead to increased trust in the business, which means customers return and new customers show up.

When it comes right down to it, core beliefs, not core products or services, are what "sell" your product. Barbra Streisand touched on this idea when she sang, “People who need people are the luckiest people in the world.” Online readers need people. Your customers and prospects need to trust the person you are within your community. Marketing helps you achieve this goal.

In marketing your business or practice, who you are and what your business stands for is more important than what you sell!

Rhoda Israelov