Trust Triangle – How Your Email Marketing Earns Consumer Trust
Maintaining customer trust is essential. That’s it. That’s the article.
Think about how your business benefits from being trusted.
Trust leads to repeat business, positive word of mouth, brand loyalty, increased revenue, a positive brand reputation, and cost savings. Trust is good, and trust is free. I mean, have you calculated the cost of customer acquisition lately? Anything free is good!
“How much does a new customer cost the average company? 5:1 seems to be the industry average, depending on which study you read. For your size and industry, you may be spending a little or a lot to acquire customers… ” Andrews Wharton
Our Businesses Rely on Trust
When customers trust you, they are more likely to return, recommend your business, and spend more money on your products or services.
The most potent form is a triangle; it’s the same as the Trust Triangle. It’s no surprise that the most important part of our business, Trust, consists of three elements: positive relationships, expertise, and consistency.
The Trust Triangle isn’t just part of our personal and business relationships either. They are integral to our branding. We trust brands that we believe deliver consistent quality, who are experts in their fields, and who deliver that consistently.
We may feel this way about such brands as Apple, Dior, Mercedes, and even our local pizzeria. That’s why we want their products. That is why we return. That’s why we remain loyal to a brand.
What is Trust?
your company's ability to build Positive Relationships with your clients.
the Expertise you bring to your field, and your commitment to remaining informed and knowledgeable.
your company being Consistent, delivering on what you promise, and staying compliant with industry standards.
Let’s repeat and remember that introductory sentence: when customers trust you, they are more likely to return, recommend your business, and spend more money on your products or services.
Ultimately, trust creates conversions.
What Does Trust Have to Do with My Email Marketing?
Email marketing is big business. It’s probably a big part of your business, too. Why? It’s personal. We received permission to email our customers. They want us in their inbox.
Trust requires us to respect that relationship with our subscribers. That’s why we include an opt-out button and a link to our privacy policy in our email campaigns.
There are many reasons why a privacy policy is important for your business, but in the end, it all comes back to trust. A privacy policy demonstrates to your customers that your business takes their personal information seriously and is committed to protecting it. This can build trust and increase their willingness to do business with you.
A privacy policy is important for your business for many other reasons too:
It helps protect your business's legal compliance.
Privacy laws such as the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) and the California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA) require businesses to disclose how they collect, use and protect personal data. A privacy policy helps your business meet these legal requirements.
A privacy policy increases transparency.
A privacy policy provides a clear and transparent explanation of how your business collects, uses, and protects personal data. This can help your customers better understand how their information is used and make more informed decisions about sharing their personal information with your business.
It can help to prevent data breaches.
A privacy policy can include information about your business's measures to protect personal data from unauthorized access, use, or disclosure. This can help prevent data breaches and protect your business from legal and financial repercussions.
Finally, a privacy policy can help in resolving disputes.
A privacy policy can also help resolve disputes by providing clear guidelines on how customers can contact your business with concerns or complaints about their personal information.
“Businesses must realize that trust is fragile and must be continuously nurtured. And that means (we) must clearly articulate what it is (our business) stands for and then take decisive actions around those beliefs. Not just when it’s easy or convenient, but even when it’s difficult.” Harvard Business School
Besides Trust, Your Email Privacy Policy Should Contain Words
The internet is full of words. Some are more important than others. The words contained in your privacy policy should be checked twice – and with your legal and data protection department. You can ask Karen, too, but your legal team should have the final say.
Just like your data protection and cookie notices, you shouldn’t copy the privacy policy of other businesses. Those belong to other businesses. If they contain errors and you copy them, they become your errors. Be inspired by their website design – not their legal notices.
A good privacy policy – your privacy policy - should contain the following elements:
Your privacy policy should be easily accessible and prominently displayed on your website and linked within your emails.
It should explain what personal data is being collected, how it is being collected, the legal basis for collecting it, and how people can remove it.
Your policy should explain how the collected personal data will be used, the purposes for which it will be used, and how people can opt out.
It should explain with whom the collected personal data will be shared, for what purpose, and how people can opt out.
Your privacy policy should explain exactly how long the personal data will be retained and the criteria used to determine retention periods. It should also allow people to have their data removed and prove this was done.
It should explain the security measures that are in place to protect personal data from unauthorized access, use, or disclosure and the contact information of your data protection officer.
Your policy should explain the steps that are taken to ensure the accuracy of personal data.
The policy should explain the rights of data subjects, such as the right to access, correct, delete, or limit the use of their data.
It should explain the business's steps in the event of a data breach and how customers will be notified.
Finally, your privacy policy should provide contact information for customers to reach out with questions or concerns about the business's privacy practices.
This is not a definitive list. You should check with the agencies responsible for your business to ensure you are not missing anything important. These may include but not be limited to:
Privacy regulations about your particular type of business
Regulations about online shopping
Privacy regulations pertaining to the location of the business -- state or national
Regulations about online chat, email, and other communication
Privacy and data protection regulations for your website visitors
Regulations about the particular functionality of plugins and any other technical aspect of the communication with your customers (for example, Mailchimp, Google Analytics, the email provider, direct mailer, and your CRM)
At the end of the day, a privacy policy supports your brand reputation -- having a well-defined privacy policy can enhance the reputation of your business and show your customers that you’re a responsible and trustworthy organization. That’s how you build consumer trust in your email marketing.
And it gives you a competitive advantage. By providing a clear and transparent privacy policy, your business can differentiate itself from your competitors and show that you‘re transparent.
“When your company comes across as authentic and trustworthy, it helps you build strong, lasting relationships with customers and clients.” Forbes.com
Focus Email Marketing: What Else Your Business Can Do to Earn Trust
Consumer trust is more than an excellent privacy policy. Trust begins with how your company does business. Trust means respecting your customers and performing business in a legitimate and reputable way.
Trust means being sustainable and accessible, too -- optimizing your processes and being mindful of how your business practices affect your employees, customers, the marketplace, and your community.
Understand the Power of Legitimacy
High-performing email campaigns require sanitized, quality email lists. How can you trust the results if your list isn't up to the task? Our customers are asking themselves the same question: Do I trust the links in this email? How good is that subject line? Should I even open it?
If recipients perceive an email to be legitimate, they are more likely to open and engage with it, which can lead to increased conversions and sales. Legitimacy creates trust and credibility.
Use a recognizable sender name and address.
Include an unsubscribe link.
Obtain consent before sending emails.
Display your company name and address and a phone number recipients can contact.
Use a double opt-in process.
Be transparent about your data practices.
Stay Reputable
Spam. Nobody likes it. Neither in your mailbox nor on your plate. We can all recognize spam emails. How? Spam email’s subject lines are questionable, and the sender domain is often laughable.
Your email reputation is not cut in stone. It is like any other score. To ensure your emails retain their good name, the most important thing you can do is to use a dedicated email marketing service.
Avoid using misleading subject lines.
Send relevant content.
Respect Permission
We have to let people unsubscribe -- that’s the law. You probably already include an unsubscribe button in your emails. Maybe it’s in the footer or in the body somewhere. Make it noticeable and useful.
People have given us permission to email them in their homes. Let’s respect that. Don’t send emails unless you have a verifiable reason and email address to send them to. In addition to the standard unsubscribe function at the bottom of every mail, you can proactively prune your lists by asking for an unsubscribe.
Honor opt-out requests
Avoid purchasing or renting email lists
Provide a way to update preferences
Optimize Your Email Processes
Keeping your processes clean and running smoothly means your business remains sustainable. That’s more than being eco-friendly. A sustainable business will be around longer, and a sustainable process can save everyone time.
You wouldn’t publish your website without testing it, and neither should you rely on a few emails to test your email marketing. Test regularly. Measure your results. Balance the KPIs with your strategy. And optimize before the end of the quarter.
In the end, you don’t need 100 opens or 100 clicks. You need 100 sales or 100 leads. Fine-tune and optimize until you no longer need to send out emails. Optimize until your customers are sending you emails!
Segmenting your email lists
A/B testing elements of the email
Optimizing emails for mobile devices
Finding the optimal time to send
Regularly cleaning email lists.
We offer an easy, trustworthy, full-service solution so all of your email campaigns.
Trust is Your Hardest Challenge – Let’s Help Make it Easier
With demanding audience and data-driven project requirements, Andrews Wharton is the proven direct-response solutions provider with a long-standing reputation for solving the toughest marketing challenges.
Success. Delivered.
