Download MP3

Dear Friend, 

This week we’re going to talk about 7 ways to build trust with your communications.

It’s interesting because everything that you do is going to depend on how trustworthy your communication seems, especially when you’re talking with people who may not know you yet, they may not like you or they may not trust you.

So it’s very important that we do everything we can to build trust with our communications.

Here are 7 tips for building trust with your communications.

1. Begin with the end in mind
Whenever you communicate, start with a clear vision for what you want to have happen.
Often, we can get caught up in the medium of what we’re doing without giving any thought to what we actually want the reader to DO. At the heart of every communication should be the end result, the action we want our reader to take. The meaning of any communication is the response you get.

So, if you’re writing a testimonial letter to send to the neighbors around the house you just sold, don’t lose sight of the fact that what you really want to have happen is those neighbors call you to come and sell their house.

If you’re writing an evidence-of-success postcard, your purpose is to encourage your readers to refer their friends to you by stimulating their reticular activator to remember that Bob at work is looking for a condo (just like the one you wrote about in your postcard) and refer you to Bob.

2. Speak to one person
Once you know the purpose of your communication, picture in your mind the one person who would represent your ideal reader.

If you’re mailing a testimonial letter around a sold listing, get a mental picture of one of those neighbors.

Picture them going to the mailbox, sorting through the mail (over the garbage can) and opening your letter. A letter from a neighbor they may or may not know.
Keep in mind that one in ten of those neighbors is more than likely (statistically) going to sell their house in the next 12 months. With this person in mind, write your letter ONLY to them.

Don’t worry about the 90 other neighbors who aren’t going to move this year. Write to your prospects, not the entire audience.

3. Write like you talk
Now that you’ve got a purpose and a prospect, don’t think about WRITING to them. Think more about TALKING to them.

Imagine when they open the envelope, or glance at your postcard that you could magically appear in their kitchen, and have a conversation with them. What would you say if you had the opportunity to sit down with them and explain what you are writing about?
Good letters, ads and postcards are more like a dialogue than a monologue, and imagining a
conversation makes writing easier.

4. Think “Baby Steps”
One of the biggest mistakes I see on the “ad clinic”, is advertising and direct mail that tries to do too much.

The only purpose of your ad should be to get a response from your prospects. Just to COMPEL them to respond to an offer that moves them one baby step closer to you.

An offer that helps you identify the prospects from the suspects in your mailing or the circulation of whatever publication you’re advertising in. An offer for a FREE Recorded Message offering
information of value to your prospect will attract far more responses than an offer of $500 off your closing costs.

The offer of $500 off closing costs moves people all the way through the decision making process, and the information gathering stage to the other side of a transaction with you. Think only about the easiest offer, and the softest step you can ask your prospect to take, and gently lead them through the rest of the process.

5. Send letters that look personal
Always remember that people sort their mail over the garbage can. They divide their mail into two categories – the “A” pile, and the “B” pile. In the B pile (garbage can bound) is obvious junk mail, bulk mail and that pile of circulars you always get with every mail delivery. In the A pile is all the mail that is important – bills, birthday cards and all the mail that appears personal in nature. Always strive to get your mail in the A pile.

How? Hand addressing or direct laser imprint (no labels), real stamps, no company logos, no teaser copy etc. You want it to be received and accepted as a letter from one person to one person.

6. Write ads that look like news
Just like people sort their mail over the garbage can, they read their publication with an advertising filter. They are aware of what is advertising and what is CONTENT. When you write your ads, always make them look like news. Like editorial content. When you make your communication look like news, it gets past that advertising filter, and is read as credible information.

It’s been documented in study after study that ads that look like news get 500% more readership and response than ads that look like ads. Why fight it? Go to the newsstand and get a copy of USA Today, find an article that’s the same size as the ad you’re running, and make your ad look EXACTLY like that article. (hint: if you take your ad to the editorial department instead of the advertising department, they’ll make it look like news for you.)

7. Tell the truth
We all have our built in credibility detectors. We all have the ability to tell when something just doesn’t sound right. Gerry Spence, the author of “How To Argue and Win Every Time” calls it “the thin clank of the counterfeit.” When I talk to people about their ads and they start telling me about the “angle” they’re taking, I always ask them what the real story is. They tell me, and we build around the TRUTH. The truth is always more credible than any angle you can imagine.

{top}