The biggest marketing problem today isn't competition. It's a trust deficit. So if you're a solo business owner, how do you stand out in an era of skepticism? What brought this on? In this podcast episode, I'm going to give you a little background and also five trust building strategies that you can implement right away. Stay tuned. Welcome to Amplify Your Authority Podcast, your go-to resource for AI-powered marketing strategies that help solo business owners grow and thrive. If you're a coach, consultant, or service provider, this show will help you competently promote your brand, attract high-quality leads, and build a business that aligns with your life and values. I'm Marissa Shadrick, a marketing strategist, certified copywriter, and AI whisperer. Each week I share actionable strategies, expert insights, and AI-driven shortcuts to help you simplify your marketing and amplify your authority. Don't forget to follow the show and leave a five-star review. And now let's listen to this week's episode. Hello, hello, and welcome to another episode of Amplify Your Authority Podcast. Before we get started, can I ask for a wee bit of a favor? If you're a listener and you enjoy the podcast, would you mind going to Apple Podcasts and giving me a five-star rating and a review? I would really appreciate it. I was looking at my uh Apple Podcast and I realized I don't have hardly any reviews. I think I've had one review per year, which is horrible. It's terrible. So I know there's got to be somebody listening out there because I see the numbers. So if you wouldn't mind, I would really appreciate it to kind of bump up this podcast, to just leave a little review. And you can always use Chat GBT to try to formulate your ideas, but I'd appreciate it so much, and I'd love to give you a shout out on the podcast as well. So today we're talking about traditional marketing. So traditional marketing methods are losing their effectiveness. I don't know if you've noticed that or not. If you've been online, you probably have. Things are different. The market has changed and it's been changing since COVID, and it's continued to change, and that was in 2020, and we're in 2025. So we're seeing this happen online, and it's making it harder for people to convert and get clients. So if this is happening to you, it's not you. It's everyone is being affected by this. So why are audiences so skeptical? Well, I think we've seen it ourselves. There's a lot of misinformation out there, there's a lot of automation overload now that we have tools and third-party tools, there's constantly pushing out marketing pitches and messages, and it's very, very aggressive. So this aggressive sales tactics has also made people feel a little skeptical as well. And the delivery of content has not met expectations. And so people are a little skeptical now, and they're a little bit more reserved when it comes to even giving their email address. And that's probably happened to you as well. But when we're solo business owners and we're trying to navigate this marketing world, how are we going to do this? And this is something I've had to look at too: how to shift my marketing to see what I can do differently because I've noticed it too. And things that used to be much easier five years ago is definitely not as easy and not as effective. We've seen that with webinars and we've seen that with other types of content that's out there. So people are pivoting, people are testing, they're trying to see what works and what doesn't. So here today, I'm going to give you some tried and true tips on how to continue to build trust because that is going to be your main asset. Because of this deficit, when you show people that you can be trustworthy, that you are honest about the content you create and the words that you speak, it's going to go a long way, much further than maybe before, when people didn't think they had to do all of that. So let's go into the five tips. So we want to be very transparent. Now I know that is an overused word. People always say transparent, transparent, transparent. What does that mean? But you want to be transparent in the way you prioritize data privacy. First of all, make sure that any of your pages that ask for an email, that it has your privacy policy, it has your terms and conditions. And nowadays people are even adding how they use AI. So that's a first and foremost. We need to do that. We have to do that. A lot of times people will buy emails and they'll blast emails to people to see what will stick. That's not a common practice among solo business owners. We create valuable content, and in exchange for that content, if they want to download, watch, listen, consume it, they will give us an email. So everyone in your email service provider has raised their hand saying, yes, I want to hear more from you. So we need to reassure people their information is private, that we will not sell their email, and that they can trust us with that. And being transparent, that's just part of it. Explaining the ins and outs behind the scenes of your business, maybe your mission statement is part of being transparent, what your goals are, maybe what your five-year goals are. Maybe that's part of being transparent. It just depends on your business and what you want to put on your website that would mean value to your audience. So they think, oh wow, I've not seen this before. And this person is being really transparent about what they're doing and where they're headed. So you want to make sure that you offer a clear opt-in and not a lot of false promises, and also an opt-out. So when you send an email, there needs to be a place for them to opt out. Oftentimes people kind of work around this where they create multiple lists and people will opt out of one list, but they're still on another list. You want to be clear. If they want to opt out, you can give them an option. Opt out of this campaign or this promotion, but stay on the main list or opt out of all lists. And so you can modify that if you want to. If you want them to self-select what they receive, you can do that too. Takes a little bit of time, but it gives them the opportunity and empowers them to be able to say, this is what I want to receive from you, and this is not what I want to receive from you. So don't do those gimmicks where they unsubscribe from one list and then you're blasting them through another list. Just make sure you give them options and it's very, very clear. You should have one main list. And if you segment, then they can be removed from that one segment if they choose. The second way that we can improve trust is to create what I call a long runway. Now, when you think of a runway for an airplane, I think of the San Francisco Airport. And when we used to live on the West Coast in Nevada and also in California, we would have to often fly out of San Francisco. Well, that runway, the airplane, you would take off, and in a few seconds you're in vertical mode because there wasn't a long runway. And it always made me a little nervous because I knew it was down below the nice big blue ocean. So you would take off and it would go practically vertical because there wasn't much of a runway. Now, same thing coming back. As soon as it landed, it had to put on those brakes because that runway was very short. So when we're looking at it for marketing, a long runway means simply that you're going to have a lot of touch points to build trust. You want to communicate often with someone, especially if they opt in and they're part of your email ecosystem. You want to create touch points and you want to give them a chance to get to know you and trust you. That's what I mean by a long runway. If you're doing something online on social media, you're not going to DM them like some people do on LinkedIn and immediately pitch the offer. You want to create some relationship. Maybe if you even get on a call, it's just simply to find out about their business, or you can have some type of free coaching call that you're offering that if they're interested, they can sign up for that. It's not a sales call. You can serve people. And so that's what I mean by a long runway. What can you do to create multiple touch points? Not just one or two, and then bam, you know, try to sell them something. But how many touch points will it take? Where are they in the customer journey? Again, if they're not aware of the problem, it's going to take a lot of touch points. If they are and they're pretty close to buying, it still requires some touch points because they don't know you, right? They may need the solution that you have, but they don't know you. And so this is where we share a lot of testimonials and case studies to build that trust. Of course, once they're in your email service provider, you can email them. But if they're not, you can create video messages. There's ways you can use your phone on certain social media platforms. You can leave a voice message, you can put out content like podcasts and newsletters. It's very value-driven. There's different ways to stay visible and create those multiple touch points. You can also offer a high-value resource that when they access it, they think, wow, this is amazing. Now, maybe it's a little training, a mini training. You could look in your archives and see, did you have a webinar that you did at some point that had a lot of great teaching? Could you take a slice of that and create maybe a little video around that topic? Most webinars have uh three misconceptions or three best practices. Maybe pull one of them and create maybe a seven-minute, 10-minute video that has some content to it, maybe a template with it, just something very simple that they can consume that when they watch it and they download the resource that goes with it, they go, wow, this was really valuable for a free resource. And it actually taught them something that they needed. And so you can look at some of your archives and see webinars aren't converting as well either as great as they are. I'm not saying that this is the case all the time, but it's much harder than it used to be. Webinars are still effective. I love webinars or masterclasses, whatever you want to call it. It's still the same thing. It's a webinar. And um, you can create trainings, workshops, and those are effective too. And I think it's a great way to get to know your audience, but just know it's just a little harder. You want that nice long runway and to be able to bring people into that live training if it's going to be live. And the best result would be if they come from your email list. So that's why we want to always be able to offer some kind of free resource to bring them there if we do want to have a webinar. But you can create some little mini training that has a lot of value, it's just it packs a punch with value. It's very quick to consume, almost like a video that you would see on YouTube, and you can put that in any part of your marketing funnel. So that's the long runway. So so far we've talked about being transparent, making sure that you're very clear about privacy. The second is you create a long runway. The third is content marketing where you show more than tell. Where you show more than tell. Now, with content marketing, storytelling is huge, right? Because that's what case studies are in testimonials. They're stories. But you can tell your own story of transformation too. So with content marketing, you want to incorporate stories as much as possible. Remember the chicken soup for the soul books. I remember I got published in one of those, and the whole concept was we want the stories to make them feel like they just had a nice cup of chicken soup, that warm feeling inside, right? You can decide, you know, what type of content you want to provide, whether it's video, written, audio, but make it so that it's helpful and they learn something, at least one, two, three takeaways from that content. Another way that's helpful to show and not tell is to provide images, like any graphs or charts or maybe a blueprint. That's really helpful. I just had a call not that long ago with a group, and I said, you know, give them a visual like you see in a mall when you go and see the mall map and you stand in front of that map and it shows a little circle. You are here. Maybe show them you are here. And to get the transformation that you're looking for, you need these steps first. So maybe just start with this first step and then give them value with that first step. So there's different ways that you can do it. And sometimes these graphs or charts or blueprints are so valuable that people will take a screenshot of it so they can save it. So think of ways that you can create marketing content that shows and doesn't just tell with stories, images, graphs, and that sort of thing. The fourth way to build trust would be to deliver great customer service before they're a customer. That's just practicing good human skills and being courteous and following through. When you say you're gonna do something, follow through, right? If you meet someone at a conference, follow through if you make a promise or if you say you're going to send them something. Treat that prospect like a VIP customer. So deliver great customer service before they're a customer. So be helpful with DMs, emails, community interactions, and that goes a long, long way. It builds your reputation, and I'll tell you, it's going to stand out because a lot of people don't do that. And offer guidance without expecting any immediate transaction or return. One of the sayings that I have is take random out of random acts of kindness because we need more of that. You don't need to be random with acts of kindness, you can do it all the time. So be sure to take random out of random acts of kindness when you're interacting with people. So another way of giving great customer service before their customer is to provide frequently asked questions on your contact page because sometimes people don't want to schedule a call if they have one little question. So think of the obvious maybe objections that people might have or questions around whatever it is that you have on your uh free coaching call or your contact page. What is on their mind and try to answer that? For example, some people might think, well, how much do you charge? What would you say in a frequently asked question? Or how long it takes to deliver this service? You know, those those type of questions that you can quickly answer in a frequently asked question. And again, you want to be clear and you want to provide it as a service to them before their customer. So think of the frequently asked questions you would create on a product page. You would think of all kinds of things to make sure that they buy. You want to do the same thing for these people that aren't clients yet, answer some of those simple questions for them. The fifth tip for developing trust in this trust deficit era that we're in is don't embellish honesty sells more than hype. So be realistic about the products and services, what they can do and what they cannot do, who it's for, who it's not for. I think that's really important. Because really, as I think back and I look at my own audience, a lot of them are in the beginning stages, but they don't need to invest in high ticket offers at this point. They can learn because there's no lack of knowledge. I mean, to be totally honest, there's no lack of knowledge. You can Google stuff, you could go on YouTube, there's books that you can buy, there's things that you can study, right? Without you know, paying a lot of money for a high ticket. There's so much to be done in the beginning, the fundamentals, again, understanding you and what kind of business you want, right? And understanding the bandwidth that you have and the season of life, and then understanding your audience and understanding your business, what kind of business you want, having a business profile, and again, what type of products you want to sell. All of those things take time. And so when people are in the beginning stages, I don't think they should really think about investing in high-ticket. Now, that's my opinion, but um they can, but it doesn't necessarily bring the results if they're not ready. I'm talking about the 10,000 and above. I'm not talking about, you know, a thousand dollar program or two thousand dollar program. I'm talking about the big box, ten thousand, twenty thousand, thirty thousand. That's what I'm talking about. Just wanna I just want to cover that because I think there's been a lot of disappointment, and I think that's why there's such a trust deficit. And I've fallen into that too, and I've paid for things that I wish now I wouldn't have, but lesson learned, right? I still learned, but I I learned other things other than what I thought I was gonna learn. But you have to just be careful with your resources. So be that person that is very realistic with the products and services that you sell, what it can do, what it can't do, if it's a right fit for that person. If they need a call with you, tell them, hey, we can get on a call to see if it's a right fit for you. Or if it's out of your scope, let them know, you know, this is out of my scope of work, but let me find you a referral that I can refer you to, and I will make some calls and I'll let you know, and then follow through on that. Use real testimonials, uh, no fake or vague or raving fan quotes, use real testimonials from clients, avoid high pressure tactics that create short-term wins, but long-term distrust. So we want to make sure that we avoid high pressure. I know most of my listeners are not high pressure, most of my listeners are very faith-based oriented people, so am I. Um, I'm probably to speaking to the choir, but I felt it was important for you to be aware of the trust deficit so that as you're creating your marketing content, you keep that in mind and you make sure that you go a little over and above to create that trust with people. So consider in every step what can I do to add trust with this person? Because I'm a total stranger to them. What could I say? What could I offer? What could I do to eliminate that skepticism they may have? We have to do a little more these days than we had to in the past, but that's okay because we want to make sure that we're bringing in the right people. We want to make sure that they are excited and ready to work with you, right? We don't want them coming in and then be disappointed. We want to serve them well. So here are the five: be transparent and share the privacy policy, the terms and conditions, and maybe if you use a lot of AI, how you use AI, and let them know that you don't sell their email address. Number two, create a long runway with lots of touch points. People don't just go from, you know, from meeting you to buying, typically. They will, especially if it's coaches or consultants or service providers, other businesses maybe so, but not when it comes to coaches, consultants, and service providers. So you want to create that long runway, more touch points, build more trust. So sometimes it takes five, six, seven, eight times, and then they'll say yes. So just don't give up and don't think it's anything about you. It's just we're living in this trust deficit. And so we want to make sure that we give people ample time to be able to get to know us. Number three is use content marketing to show, not tell. Make sure you show them with testimonials, case studies, images, graphs, uh, blueprints, show them. Number four, deliver great customer service before they're a customer. And number five, don't embellish, be honest. Um, it's not enough to say, oh, these results aren't typical. You know, just be honest across the board of what you offer, what it can do and what it cannot do, who it's for, who it's not for, and be very upfront and offer a call if they're not sure if it's a good fit. But most, like I said, most of the people listening to this podcast are pretty honest and upfront. I feel like I'm preaching to the choir, but it is what it is these days. And I just the main thing I want you to know, it's not you. I don't want you to begin with the self-doubt or imposter syndrome or any of that. I want you to realize that it is what it is right now. Same thing that we went through when COVID hit, when the recession hit, and we have this now. There's always something. So we need to let that that fire inside of us, what caused us to want to start our business, to be able to burn bright, keep fanning that flame because that's what's gonna get us to the other side. That's what's gonna help us pivot and adjust and refine by remembering why we started this business, keep that fire burning, keep fanning that flame, keep serving people, and you're gonna do just great. You're gonna stand out because you are building relationships and trust. So until next time, take care. Bye bye.