5 Ways to Grow Influence, Credibility and Trust in Marketing

When doing research for a presentation on the credibility of marketing I came across these stats from a study by Fournaise Group:

• 73% of CEOs say “Marketers lack business credibility and the ability to generate sufficient growth"
• 80% of CEOs "simply don’t trust marketers at all"
• 91% DO trust CIOs and CFOs

Ouch!

Despite these challenges the reality is that well researched, planned and executed marketing delivers incredible value for businesses and their customers. Research from Forbes shows Marketing strategy and investments can contribute over 50% of enterprise value.

So how can marketing lift itself out of the distrust amongst consumers and the C-Suite? Here are a few of the ideas I shared in my presentation:

1. Accelerate the Internal and External Credibility of Marketing

• Internally: Find out the primary business problems faced by your management team and connect your marketing to help solve those problems.
• Internally: Promote your marketing wins, engage stakeholders and measure based on business impact vs. KPIs.
• Externally: Become the “Best Answer” for your customers with personalized, compelling content experiences that include authentic, influential voices.

2. Double Down on Activating Customers

• “It’s time to double down on customers, as their voices, opinions and beliefs say much more about a brand than traditional advertising or marketing can.” (Peter Mühlmann, AdWeek)
• 78% of people who read online reviews find them reliable. (ReportLinker)
• Increasing customer retention by 5% can lead to a 25% to 95% increase in company profits. (Harvard Business Review)

3. Work with Influencers to Become Influential

• Identify: Connect with qualified, relevant influencers and find ways to collaborate on customer-focused content.
• Qualify: Validate influencers and their audiences on a regular basis to ensure quality experiences.
• Engage: Employ always-on listening and social engagement to “keep the love alive” with a VIP influencer community of collaborators & advocates.

4. Create a Content Collaboration Ecosystem

If you help others, including customers, employees, and your brand’s community become more influential through content collaboration, the brand and marketing will grow influence as well.

5. Optimize Measurement to Customer ROI

• Attract: Is your marketing reaching the right audience on the channels they’re influenced by?
• Engage: Is your marketing creating meaningful and satisfying experiences where they want them? Are you creating raving fans?
• Convert: Is your marketing inspiring action across the customer journey: awareness, consideration, purchase, advocacy. Does it deliver on revenue?

There’s a lot to be said about how effective a thing is by how well it is done. Poorly researched, planned, executed and measured marketing doesn’t add a lot of value to the customer experience or the business bottom line. On the other hand, strategic, authentic, data informed and empathetic, dynamic and accountable marketing serves both customers as well as the performance of the business.

I think everyone in the marketing world has an opportunity to take a step back from the information overload and pressures of output on a daily basis to be more thoughtful about the marketing they’re doing. Of course we have to think about the immediate impact of content, ads and campaigns but also about the overall value and impact of marketing on our customers, business and industry. Marketing done well with a clear why, measurement and purpose creates the kind of value that both customers and business leaders will trust, ensuring credibility and investment far into the future.

This post is an excerpt from an article that originally published on TopRank Blog: Trust in Marketing is at Risk. These CMOs and Marketing Influencers Share How to Fix