The know like trust funnel refers to a marketing funnel where you build trust with your potential customers. Most people don’t just buy the first time they come to a website or join an email list. In fact there’s often a number of touch points before a customer will buy from a website or email marketing list.
This shouldn’t be surprising because there’s so many websites (and marketers) out there that customers are spoiled for choice. Why should they buy from you, a faceless affiliate/marketer?
Many marketers/affiliates make the mistake of just trying to get more traffic and subscribers. They then fire countless emails to their list to get people to buy from them. Unfortunately this tactic is shortsighted, especially given the number of marketers out there. Emails are quickly seen as spam unless you are delivering value in your marketing messages.
Value driven messages will set you apart from other marketers and help you to build trust with your subscribers. When they get to know, like and trust you, they are much more likely to buy a product you recommend, because you’ve proved you are trust-worthy and are genuinely trying to help them, not just sell to them!
Know Like Trust Funnel
I made this mistake too as an newbie affiliate. I figured that I just had to send people to my offer, and keep reminding them of it for them to buy. But unless you are genuinely trying to help people, subscribers will see through it, click away and unsubscribe. I’ve been on many email lists too, and the ones which say only “Click here and buy this amazing product” are very short lived.
Unless those kinds of emails are proceeded by a lot of value driven content, I won’t even open them, and nor will your subscribers! To build trust can take some time, so you need to be patient. When I shifted from trying to “get” to giving more value to customers, my sales went up. Not because I was promoting anything different, but because I was changing my focus from getting to giving.
There’s a law of reciprocity in sales which is attested to in Robert Cialdini’s book Influence. If you’re a marketer it’s well worth a read.
Once you start giving to your email subscribers instead of trying to get them to buy, the law kicks in. They will get to know, like and trust you if you have their best interests at heart and genuinely demonstrate this by helping them, with or without their custom!
Freebies, Help and Value
Some of the things you can offer to your email subscribers:
- Free webinars
- PDF downloads
- Guides, ebooks and recommendations
- and of course finally affiliate products
But if you lead with your sale, some subscribers will smell a rat! “This guy just wants my money”. “Every email he asks for the sale”! That’s not delivering value and sooner or later they will get the measure of you and stop opening your messages. But if you’ve spend several weeks delivering highly useful information, guess who’s going to open your email when you send it?
You stand out among the others when you start delivering value in your email marketing campaigns. Plus, it’s genuinely more satisfying feeling like you’re helping people rather than just spamming them!
The know, like trust principle is fundamental in marketing and sales. People buy (into) people, they don’t just buy products. If you can be someone of value, people will be much more likely to buy something recommended by you, especially if you’ve already helped them out massively through your emails.
Know, Like Trust Factor – Mike Massie
I joined an email list of a guy called Mike Massie, you probably haven’t heard of him unless you own a martial arts school. Well, some years ago I had a struggling Kung Fu School and looked online for help when I found Mike. I didn’t want to buy anything, I just wanted some free advice. Here’s Mike’s freebie which I found online:
So I signed up to Mike’s email list and he proceeded to email me a tonne of helpful advice. After several months of using Mike’s (free) advice, I bought his book! I would probably never have bought his book unless he had built that trust with me through giving me a tonne of value. I got to know, like and trust him! He had been so helpful, and given so much that I almost considered it rude not to buy from him! The law of reciprocity had truly kicked in! Mike’s was the perfect example of the know like trust funnel!
Know Like Trust
As an affiliate marketer or business owner it’s easy to think of just getting people on our list and then sending them to a product/service. But if we can also help our subscribers with information, advice and give them something which is of value to them, we are much more likely to build trust with them.
Once you have done this through your email marketing strategy, it means your subscribers are more likely to become your fans who seek out your information and look for your emails. When this happens, they are much more likely to trust your recommendations when it comes to the products you’re promoting.
But if you only send them to products, without also giving value, you’re going to appear less trustworthy! Your intent is clear, you are trying only to “get”, to sell! This can put people off when there’s a tonne of other similar marketers just like you. To shine out, begin by treating your subscribers as you would a friend or family member. Give them help and advice with the intention of helping first. When you build trust and get subscribers to know, like and trust you, they will be more likely to buy from you, knowing your intention is good!