Trust is a tricky thing to build in the world of online marketing. Much like the direction of our beloved Blockbusters, confident body language and friendly face-to-face conversation are heading towards redundancy in the digital age, and have now been replaced with progressive sales formulas and cutting-edge communications models. Today, building trust and inspiring customers relies on a careful, calculative ability to weave the right words and craft a conversation that leaves your audience feeling comfortable, relaxed and better-off with your business.
At the crux of this campaign is your copy: the language you use to relate, engage and inspire your reader to move further through the customer journey. From online ads to customer service chats, your voice determines how your audience perceives your brand and envisions your product within their lifestyles.
You can establish the expertise it takes to earn their trust, and nurture the relationship it takes to maintain it, but your customer will only go as far in the journey as your words can guide them. Your copy is how you translate your information into palatable pieces of content that take them from first impressions to loyal customers.
So, what is green brain marketing?
Green brain marketing focuses on resonating with real emotions and genuine human experience. This content appeals to your customer’s feelings, values and desires to incite a sense of comfort, confidence and peace of mind. The ensuing trust is what accelerates decision making and motivates them to move further through the customer journey.
Conversely, mentions of product, service features, instructions and price are red brain skewed and will cause your audience to overthink and investigate. Trigger phrases that summon logical thinking will diminish their interest and lead them down the perpetual path of ‘what if’, at which point you’ve cut your engagement opportunities in half.
How you mould and transform your language to address your audience’s deepest needs determines whether your customer maintains and expands their interest, or takes their business elsewhere (or nowhere at all). So, when inspiring your audience relies purely on how you present your brand online, how do you build and nurture their trust?
Lead with a loyal relationship
There’s no place for a commitment-phobe in the business-consumer relationship. Your rapport needs to exist even before your client knocks on your digital doors. What is happening in their life before they find your website? What’s the problem that’s brought them to sign up to your newsletter? Or read your most recent article?
Understanding their pain points and calling them out quickly and honestly is the first step to establishing your connection. By calling attention to the problems they face, you deepen their interest in what you’re offering and invite them to engage with your brand.
Remember: the most effective message will allow your customer not to understand you, but to feel understood by you. So in these initial stages, your tone needs to be one of support and understanding. Your language needs to be warm and inviting enough to guide them far enough in the door that they can close it behind them comfortably and confidently, knowing their problems are in helpful hands. Here, your copy, traced heavily (but subtly) with green brain language, lays the groundwork for further opportunities and engagement. With this step, the seed of trust is planted.
Help, educate, inspire – don’t sell.
When you receive a prescription from your long-time GP, do you question their recommendation? Refuse their solution and shop around? Or do you trust that they know you, and in turn, they know what you need?
Once your customer has embraced the mentality that you’re here to help – not to sell – the trust has started to grow. To nurture it, teach them something they don’t know; offer them a new, exciting piece of information to establish the credibility required to make your voice unignorable.
Whether through an EDM, a social ad or a blog post, let them in on the latest. Spark their intrigue but try not to overwhelm your client with inaccessible jargon or irrelevant research; keep it clear, concise and related directly to the needs you’ve gathered from their online activity.
To inspire your customer, ask insightful, needs-based questions that prompt an emotional connection. Tap into their feelings and desires with confident, knowledgeable copy that combines your expertise with your genuine interest in helping them find a solution. Communication that masters the balance between ‘expert’ and ‘helpful guide’ is what builds the trust required to drive results.
Solve their problem: Call in the USPs!
You’ve reframed the journey, adjusted your approach from selling to helping and sprinkled soft, emotional triggers throughout your copy. Now it’s time to present your solution. Don’t forget: conversational language and friendly phrases will help keep your client locked into the emotional cortex, encouraging them to feel comfortable and giving permission for buyer’s acceptance:
Let’s make it happen.
Shall we give it a go?
Let’s find a time to walk you through it.
At this stage, it’s important to broadcast what’s unique about your brand: Why is your service better than your competitors? What do you offer that assures satisfaction with this solution?
With their pain points in mind, your copy should outline how your product or service will improve your client’s life. More often than not in online marketing, convenience is the holy grail of sales. Most of us are time-poor and crave a solution that caters to these needs. But building trust and making your client feel comfortable and understood means digging deep and drawing on their most personal problems, which means there’s no quick fix or generic approach that’ll be as effective.
Trust, especially in the digital space, is a value that requires constant nurturing. From your website to your social media channels, the tone that drives your content should tend to this relationship and address the growing needs of your audience. Inevitably, logistical matters like price and features will be raised. But, by planting greenery and scattering emotionally wired language across the customer journey, the decision-making process will come smoothly as a natural next step.
Need some help guiding your audience through their green brains? We’re here to help you find the right words. Get in touch here, or sign up to our newsletter for more tips and tidbits to help you thrive within your market.