Marketing is marketing whether it is internet marketing or traditional off line marketing. However, add online trading to the mix and you may find one huge hurdle that needs crossing – TRUST. Actually, you can break that down to smaller hurdles like reliability, honesty and many other trust related categories.

According to the Wall Street Journal, facts are becoming the number one hurdle to developing trust. According to WSJ:

They have become highly suspicious of many TV ads: in a shoppers survey we did, 78% of them said that ads no longer have enough information they need.

I beg to differ on part of this statement. Consumers have been wary of TV, radio and print ads for decades. There has been one big difference between off line and on line buying – FACTS. When buying off line, you can see, feel, touch, smell or even taste the product before buying. You can ask questions from a store representative and of course, talk to friends.

The later you can still do. You can even talk to store (business) reps online, or over the phone. What you cannot do is the sensory tests.

As an online trader this is your biggest hurdle. Consumers don’t expect to do the sensory tests online – what they do want are two things. The facts, that is the honest facts, about a product; and peer reviews. The online social community is such that a couple of positive (or negative) reviews can make or break a product.

In a nutshell, your internet marketing needs to be centered around these two areas. Providing fact sheets and as much information as possible, and fostering good will amongst your buyers and, where possible, within some of the online communities.

Get those two areas right, along with quality products and service, and your online business will bloom. Get any of them wrong, and no matter how much internet marketing you do, the online community could shoot you down. It all comes back to trust.

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This entry was posted on Tuesday, March 3rd, 2009 at 3:07 am and is filed under Internet Marketing, Reputation Management, Social Marketing. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.