Traffic Conversion Secrets Lesson 14 - Authenticity Engages Trust

In the past, marketers tried to glamorize their products or
services in a way that was clearly inauthentic. The type of
hype seems to have really jaded a lot of consumers who are
pretty savvy these days. They are more likely to turn a
deaf ear to outrageous claims or over-the-top commercial
images than to pay attention. They do not engender trust.
The newer way to generate trust is not to try an pull the
wool over anyone's eyes, but rather to be authentic with
our product and who you are.

In the age of social networking, more and more people are
beginning to learn the value to their social reputation. A
reputation that is misrepresented is one that is not
trustworthy. If a person is not trustworthy, they do not
have enough credibility to sell anyone in such a
transparent environment. What will happen is that others in
the social network will appear to warn people about the
lack of authenticity and their social reputation will
plummet along with their sales. 

Now, you can be authentic without necessarily being a
squeaky, clean, moralist. Authenticity basically means that
you have enough integrity to express things exactly as they
are. If you are a person who sells diet advice but can't be
bothered to control your own diet, that lack of integrity
is going to come back to bite you in a social networking
situation. However, if you are authentic and say that you
could never stay on any diet and didn't see the reason for
them, and then you found this diet and it helped you lose
50 pounds, then you are being authentic. Thus, it becomes
more and more important to believe in the products and
services you are selling, to be able to report on them
authentically and engender trust.   The Technique

Consistency is the buy word here. If you are consistent in
your words and actions, then you become more authentic and
can be trusted more. We've all had the experience of seeing
someone say one thing and do another. What impression does
that leave? You immediately realize that the person is a
hypocrite or a con, at worst, or doesn't know what they're
talking about, at best. So, to avoid giving off that
impression, always make sure that your actions match your
words. This goes for the way you describe you, your
product, and to how well you keep your promises to the
people buying from your site. 

One way to establish authenticity is to either bank on your
own reputation or someone else's well-known reputation. You
build a reputation through social networking that carefully
represents the image you want for your company or product.
Or, if you don't want to go through all that trouble, you
find ways to associate with people who have already done
that, have a high degree of credibility, and then get them
to endorse your product or services.

Be clear about whether all your copy, all your products,
and your public image are in line with the way you want
people to perceive you. If you genuinely believe in what
you are selling, that will come through and people will
catch your enthusiasm simply from the power of your own
self-trust. However, the same is true if you are careful
with the copy or the image you are portraying. If you sell
diet products and you are 50 pounds overweight, people will
notice it, even if not consciously. You don't want to put
your image on that website if you are seriously overweight
because it shows you aren't being authentic about helping
people lose weight.

So, much of this strategy is about being aware. Be aware
what image you are projecting. Be aware what topics or
writing is subconsciously influencing your potential buyer.
Be sure that anything you associate with, whether it be a
celebrity or an affiliate be in line with that image you
want for you and your products. Secondly, always, deliver
more than what you promise and your authenticity and
integrity score will shoot through the roof.

The Secret

If you are engaging in online marketing and you are trying
to sell products or services without even knowing a
potential prospect, the need for authenticity increases. It
has taken quite a bit of time for people to begin to trust
e-commerce, and many of the reasons for that is because of
the potential for being conned online. Visitors will be
trying to gage your authenticity from every piece of email,
copy, blog, or image they view. They want to know that you
are trustworthy enough to deliver what you say you deliver.
After all, no one wants to send money and either get
nothing, or a very bad product in return. Since, they can't
even touch the product they are requesting, it becomes more
important they trust the vendor enough to deliver what they
promise. 

When you go retail shopping, you can look into someone's
eyes and get a good feel for whether someone is trying to
con you or not. The cues for that behavior may be subtle,
but people have a sixth sense about these things. They want
that firm handshake, that eye-to-eye contact, that honesty,
and that ability to resolve their issues for them. In
addition, they like to be able to view a product before
they actually buy it. They might want to touch it or try it
out first too. Well, when all of that is denied, they have
to rely on someone else's word for whether they are
engaging in a good transaction or whether they are just
throwing money away. In order to relieve that anxiety, you
implement the strategy to increase your level of
authenticity to promote a sense of mutual trust. But how
are you going to do that online when they can't even see
your face, much less touch the product?   Implementation

The key is in the subtle cues that are given off by all
your interactions with a potential buyer. Make sure that
every one of your interactions reflects exactly the image
you want for your company, your products, or your services.
Things to look for in your copy or interactions that could
set off doubts in your buyers mind are things like
over-exaggerating your product's benefits or speaking out
of context from the image you want to portray. The best way
to avoid some of these subtle patterns of speech that can
trigger doubts about your authenticity is to pay attention
or to avoid marketing anything you don't believe in 100%.

Let's face it, if you are selling acne products and you've
either never tried it (because you never experienced a bad
outbreak) or you tried it and it failed to work for you,
when you go to sell that product, the lack of enthusiasm
and belief will shine through the choice of words, the
images you use, and any other interaction. It's a part of
you and despite the fact that you may try to convince
yourself that this is really a product that is worth
marketing, because acne products sell well on the Internet,
you will find that if you don't believe in it, your words
and interactions will take on a subtle tone of
over-exaggeration or bland endorsements. Worse, when
someone contacts you directly to ask you what your
experience was with the product, you may even have to
outright lie to save face. 

This isn't to suggest that you shouldn't sell that
particular acne product, the problem is the way you
implement the strategy. If you are endorsing it personally,
you are going to want to have some good experiences with
the product to remain authentic while selling it. If you
are simply choosing acne products as your main market, then
you can include it with other acne products that you know
do work and simply rate is lower than the others or leave
it unrated. That way you maintain a degree of authenticity
while being able to promote more products. And, you may
find a way to engage your visitors by asking them to rate
the products themselves for others. Then, you not only get
authenticity from unpaid for reviews, but you didn't have
to put up your own reputation in the process.

Forms of this strategy are the celebrity sponsor who tells
everyone that they've used your products and like them.
Just be sure it is a celebrity that reflects your values
and the product's proper image. If your celebrity just got
convicted of dog fighting racketeering charges, you would
not want them endorsing your pet products.

Social networking also takes this strategy to new heights.
If you have a discussion group or forum, and you have a new
product, you can offer the product out to the first 10
people who ask for it, in exchange for a review of it on
site. Since many discussion groups, social networking
sites, and forums have a large audience, you end up picking
up a great deal of authenticity by using random people who
will give their honest opinion on your products. Just be
sure they are good products and good reviews.

The timing for this is right in the middle of your sales
presentation. Once your sales prospect is engaged and they
are a loyal visitor to your site or a subscriber to your
blog, endeavor to be consistent and trustworthy in all your
interactions. This will help to keep people coming back
again and again. Another time to use this is when you are
putting out brand new products. There, you have to attract
new sales and banking on your reputation is one way to help
spur the belief that this new product is just as good, if
not better than your other products. Engage others to
review your product too and this will help to spur sales.
Capitalize on the authentic image you've already created
with your past customers. That's the time to market people
who already trust you by making sure they are updated on
all the new products that you are selling. This can lead to
many repeat sales. 

Finally, the best way to establish authenticity is to
deliver what you promise, when you promise it. Some people
try to do this even better by always delivering more than
they promise and earlier than expected. That gives them a
little leeway should the post office screw up the timing or
something else happens. So, if you want to be perceived as
being truly authentic strive to take control of all aspects
of your business from delivery to customer support. Failure
in any of these areas will reduce your authenticity because
it reflects badly on the consistency of the promises you
make and what is finally delivered.

If you want to see if your authenticity is being questions,
simply send out customer satisfaction surveys on a regular
basis or after an online transaction. These are pretty easy
to implement on your site and can help you find areas that
are not meeting the high standards of consistency that you
want to maintain. You can have these collated monthly for
review and/or endeavor to contact people who put in
negative feedback immediately, without delay. This helps to
reduce the impact of any failure in your consistency and
can even increase your authenticity if you manage to
resolve a problem that has plagued a customer who didn't
know what to do or who to contact to resolve the issue. It
also shows you care about your customers. 


To Your Success,
YOUR NAME

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