What Online Marketing Channels Do Consumers Trust The Most?

Advertising trustHow effective is your marketing?

Since trust plays such a big role is building relationships with consumers, it's important to know what online marketing channels are trusted by consumers, as well as which ones are seen as borderline spam.

Forrester Research recently put out a survey of nearly 58,000 residents in the U.S and Canada in which they asked participants to rate how they trust several online marketing channels.  The most trusted form of online marketing, recommendations from friends and family, which garnered a 70% trust factor.  On the bottom end was text messaging, which had a lowly 9% trust factor from consumers.  The big divide is that self selected content, like researching product reviews, are seen as trustworthy, while push content, like text messaging, has a very low trust factor.  This survey ties directly into the trend towards “pull” marketing tactics as opposed to traditional “push” tactics which consumers are just tired of.

Take a look below at how each channel fared when it comes to consumer trust.

Recommendations from Friends and Family 70%

Makes sense. A recommendation from someone you know and trust will carry a lot more weight than a random advertisement.  Facebook “Likes” and Google “Plus One's” are personalizing the web and tying together your online experiences with the experiences of others you are connected with.

Professional Reviews 55%

People seem to still trust a professional review over customer generated reviews, with the exception being if they know the customer writing the review.  Getting a review from someone who appears to be a professional gives off solid trust signals.  Most professional reviews are just that, professional, as opposed to some consumer reviews which can sometimes turn into rants that wander off to nowhere.

Customer Online Reviews 46%

People want to know what their peers have to say about a product or service before shelling out their dough.  Looking for an Amazon review on a product before you by it (from Amazon or not) is automatic for many people.  Customer reviews get the most trust when they are hosted on third party review sites like Yelp, as opposed to hosting them on your own website.

Organic Search Results 43%

People still trust the search engines like Google and Bing.  If your business is ranking high in the natural search engine results, it's seen as a pretty trustworthy place in the eyes of the consumer.  A solid Search Engine Optimization (SEO) strategy coupled with a plan for getting customer reviews, is like gold in the online marketing space.

Forrester Research survey on brand trust online

Company Website 32%

People are looking at your website with a skeptical eye, knowing that everything there is created with the intent of getting them to buy something.  Adding trust factors such as reviews and professional credentials can help to build trust with that skeptical consumer.

Paid & Sponsored Search Engine Results 27%

Paid and sponsored advertising in the search results, such as Pay Per Click (PPC) marketing, has a lower trust factor when compared to organic search engine results.  I will add a caveat to that.  When it comes to searches with a high commercial intent, a recent study showed that people clicked on the paid ads 2 to 1 over the organic listings.

Email 18%

Overloaded inboxes have led to a decline in email open rates, causing most non essential emails to go straight to the trash bin.  If done right, email marketing can be one of your most powerful marketing channels.  Unfortunately, most businesses still use it as a bullhorn rather instead of a trust builder.

Company Posts on Social Media 15%

This was the most surprising item on the list.  People don't seem to trust the messages being pushed out on social media from company accounts.  People don't want to “Socialize” with brands, they want to connect with people.  I think the companies that are doing well with Social Media are bringing the people behind the Tweets to the forefront.

Information From Mobile Apps 12%

Developers will tout the fantastic ability to “push” notifications straight to a mobile app users phone as a major benefit, but as you can see, people don't like it.  It's intrusive for a company to be able to “message” you anytime they want.

Ads on Websites – Banners 10%

People are becoming “Banner Blind” when surfing the net.  Online advertising still has a place, you just need to be very creative in your approach.  The one area where banner ads still rock are in conjunction with re-marketing campaigns, which still return a high ROI.

Text Messaging 9%

Text message marketing has been largely untapped in terms of a marketing channel.  People just don't trust it.  Pushing text messages to someone's cell phone is intrusive, in the way you would cold call someone at their home.  It may have some applications for certain industries, but you have to tread lightly.  You can thank the telecom industry for giving text (SMS) messaging such a bad rap, they continue to allow spammers and con artists the ability bill directly to your cell phone bill when they trick you into replying to a random text message.

 

Key Takeaways

  • Consumers prefer “pull” marketing efforts over “Push” marketing efforts
  • Reviews, both peer and professional, add a lot of credibility to your business
  • Organic rankings (SEO) still works
  • You need to be creative with your online advertising for it to work
  • People don't like it when you send unwanted messages to their phone

So what online marketing methods are you using to reach potential customers?

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Gary

CEO at 3Bug Media
Gary Shouldis is the founder of 3Bug Media, a web marketing company that helps businesses create 360 Marketing Strategies to dominate their market. His blog is read by over 20 thousand small business owners a month and has been featured in the N.Y. Times Small Business, Business Insider and Yahoo Small Business.
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