The term ‘information on demand’ refers to the current state that we find ourselves in. A state where any information we could possibly need is at our finger tips. How does this impact on the nature of marketing? And internet marketing in particular?
Information on Demand
Information on demand simply describes information that is readily available when we need it. And right now, that applies to most of the information we could possibly need. Not sure how to operate your boiler? Just Google the make and model. Not sure what the weather will be tomorrow? Just Google it!
Thanks to search, we can now find information we need instantly and this is further aided by mobile technology, ubiquitous internet connectivity and many more innovations. Whichever way you look at it, we now have more information than we could ever use and that’s a great thing for the most part.
It’s also a great thing for marketing, because it gives us a way to get our message across and to position ourselves as authorities. This gives you the opportunity to become an expert in your field and thereby to build trust and authority. And if you can do that, then you can ensure that yours will be the brand that your customers choose when they want a service or a product.
In other words, if you have always been the person to help them earn money online, fix their boilers, lose weight, who do you think they’ll want to pay for their consultation/plumbing/personal training services?
Building Trust and Authority by Providing Information
A website owned by a business has numerous functions. If you sell from your website then you might use it in order to make conversions and profit. If you're collecting e-mail addresses then you might use it as a means to generate leads. It will probably help you to increase your brand's visibility and it will certainly help give prospective customers a place to learn more about you.
But one of the most crucial roles of a website of all, is to build trust and authority. By creating and managing your website in a certain way, you can aim to build an image for your business that tells your visitors you know what you're talking about and you can be trusted. Once you do this, yours will then be the first name that pops into their head when they need a particular product or service.
The question then, is how you go about developing this kind of trust and authority. Read on and we'll look at how you can do that…
Authority
In order to build authority, the first thing you should do is to give lots of information away for free. In other words, you should be sharing your wisdom on a regular basis through your blog or in free eBooks and video courses so that you provide real value. As you do this, your visitors will keep coming back and they will generally learn what you stand for and how much expertise you have. If you can impress them enough, you'll find that opportunities start to arise as more and more people start to consider you an expert in the field. And when you offer some information that isn't free, they will assume it is of the very highest quality. Every business should give away free tasters of some sort and that goes
Going in-depth is also important. If you are going to write an article on a topic, then try to ensure that you either provide an angle that's completely fresh and unique, or just go into the subject in unprecedented depth with links to external resources, boxes with side subjects and plenty of images, infographics and other extras. If you do this well, you may be able to get featured as one of Google's 'In-Depth Articles', which is great for your SEO and for your perceived authority in the eyes of the visitors.
Trust
You've built the authority, now you need to build the trust. The authority is what ensures people know you know what you're doing, but the trust is the crucial element that will reassure them that you will do the right thing with that knowledge. One of the very best ways to build trust is to be as transparent as possible. This means honest reflection on the industry, honest admittance of your mistakes and interesting insights into your processes and ethos.
Things like photos of your team together in the office can do a lot to inspire confidence and to make your visitors feel like they 'know' you. Once you get them to feel this way and they also respect your knowledge and skill, you will have a customer just waiting for their opportunity to pay you. Information is only one part of the puzzle then, but it is a big one!
