What’s Trusted, Who’s Trusted? (Spoiler: Probably Not You)

Welcome to the era of mistrust where every banner ad feels like a scam and every email promo lands in the “delete immediately” pile. Here, trust is the currency no one’s handing out easily. And into this vacuum of doubt, dear marketer, you have a decision to make. There are three paths you can take. (No, this isn’t a ‘choose your own adventure,’ but feel free to play along.)

Path 1: You’re Ignored

Ouch, right? Let’s be honest. If you’re ignored, you’re not just in the friend zone of marketing, you’re in the invisible zone.

No one sees you, no one hears you. It’s not that they hate you; you just don’t exist to them.

You haven’t earned their attention, let alone their trust. You’re the digital equivalent of white noise. Your potential customers? Scrolling past you like you’re a bad meme.

Path 2: You’re Sneaky.

Ah, the marketer who thinks they’re clever. You’ve got a shiny message, but you’re playing hide-and-seek with the truth. Maybe you’re trying to pass off that subpar product as “life-changing,” or you’ve slapped a “limited time offer” on something that’s been discounted for the past six months.

You might catch some eyes, you might steal some clicks, but congratulations, you’re now the marketing version of a shady magician pulling fake rabbits out of hats. You’ve snuck your way into attention, but guess what? That faux trust you just scored? It’s about as stable as a house of cards in a hurricane.

Path 3: You’re Trusted.

And now we’re talking. The elusive, golden path. The one where people actually believe what you say. Trust isn’t just about being honest (though, shockingly, that helps).

It’s about making a promise and keeping it. Simple, right?

With trust comes attention

People actually listen to you because they want to. They believe your story because, hey, you’ve proven that you’re not full of it. This is where the magic happens, trust leads to conversations. Real ones. The kind where your customers are telling their friends about you, not because you paid them to, but because they trust you enough to stake their own reputation on your brand.

Let’s get something straight

“The benefit of the doubt” isn’t some magical fairy dust you can sprinkle on your brand. If people don’t trust you, they’re not going to give you the benefit of anything, except maybe the door. If they do trust you, though? That’s when they start showing up, even when you don’t have all the answers. Because now, they’re not just trusting your product, they’re trusting you.

And that, my friend, is when real change happens.

So, which path are you on? Because in this world of skepticism and side-eye, trust is the only thing that will keep you from being a passing blip on the radar.