The English word trust comes from the German word Trost, which means "comfort."
It's no secret marketers face a comfort deficit of Biblical proportions, as betrayal feels like the new normal.
Without warranties from their friends—and even with them—customers aren't comfortable doing business with us any more.
How, as a marketer, do you narrow the trust deficit? How do you build a comfort zone where customer engagement and conversation can begin?
Not by erecting a facade, a put-on Seth Godin calls trustiness.
Four years ago, Godin said, "Building trust is expensive. You can call it an expense or an investment, or merely cut corners and work on trustiness instead."
Marketers who labor at building trustiness go for the cheap fix. Trust, on the other hand, takes time and money.
"Trust is built when no one is looking, when you think you have the option of cutting corners and when you find a loophole," Godin says. "Trustiness is what happens when you use trust as a PR tool."
While a minority, the Real McCoys are patently obvious, Godin says. They are "the people and institutions that will do what they say and say what they mean."
Godin points to the "perverse irony" in masquerading as trustworthy: "The more you work on your trustiness, the harder you fall once people discover that they were tricked."
What are you working on?
What are you working on?
