So many people get influenced by other peoples actions. It’s just part of human nature to follow through on what other people are doing. Well to a point - some of us get influenced much more easier in other areas then what some one else does in the same area there again this is just part of human nature. As we live, grow, and learn we develop better sense for certain areas in life the same goes for marketing.

A big majority of marketers will look into a marketing channel and automatically think it’s profitable becuase another company is promoting through that online channel. Which granted the channel might be profitable, but who’s to say your going to get your ROI through that channel. They could have their services tailored just right to connect with the consumer through that online medium/ channel.

As marketers we miss out on so many opportunities becuase we get so socially influenced by other peoples marketing channels. There is so many creatives to test on the web from social media, content network, banner advertising, e-mail marketing, pay per click, and etc. We need to test every single one of these channels for our products and services, but believe it or not a lot of marketers don’t. They become influenced by what other people are doing, so they automatically think that’s where it’s happening at which granted it might be, but we need to test new areas. We can build out in these new areas - creating capital that other marketers are missing out on.

A current company we are working with currently is using SEO and PPC to promote their brand online. Well we wanted to use some new mediums. We had one in mind which we didn’t think would convert very well because of the rumors and from what we have heard from other peoples past experiences. We decided to give it a try - about 2-3 months into using this new marketing channel we was getting killer returns at 3-5 times less investment then what we was putting into PPC ads (search).

I was quite astonished and to be quite honest with you I wasn’t too sure if this channel was going to convert or not. This was because I got socially influenced by what others had to say about this channel plus I didn’t see any one else really using this marketing channel. This marketing channel might not convert for some products / services, but for others it convets amazingly well.

Conclusion
What does this come to tell us? As marketers we need to constantly test new channels to capitalize on. If the channel breaks even ROI wise then you probably have a profitable medium to use. You just need to change some things around to get a higher return through that online medium.

With me being CEO of a search engine optimization / marketing company I get clients all the time that want increased visibility vertically through all search engines of course. Well then I will take a look at their site and out of all honesty sometimes I have to politely tell them that their site or the way it’s set up has no credibility what so ever (Now I’m not saying every one). I will try to give them recommedations and sometimes they just don’t understand.

I am going to discuss a few of them key points through this blog entry on what you can do to build your credibility with consumers / business. See the thing is you can have all the search traffic in the world, but do you have credibility? I mean ask your self that what separates your brand from any one else’s brand? Are you credible?

For example ask these questions below to your self.

• How is my brand different?
• What do I have to show for creditability?
• Is my site built right such as showing certificates, clients, testimonials, and or anything else that will emphasize credibility into the visitor’s mind?
• What can I use for sales point to turn my prospect into a life time client / buyer?

These are things you should be asking your self which of course we all have room to improve our brands, so don’t feel discourage. If you don’t have any credibility built up around your brand, it will pretty much be useless. I mean think about it does your site look generic, very unorganized, or just elements on your site are just cluttered everywhere?

If so then you should really start focusing in all these areas; I”ll admit I have made some silly mistakes myself. For example a few weeks ago I rewrote our whole entire website content like at 2 AM in the morning. I then uploaded the content and I was thinking I checked the content and guess what I didn’t check it.

What happen when I didn’t proof read everything in depth? I had grammar errors everywhere I had to literally kick my self in the a** for it. I mean maybe a few typos on our blog here and there would not be so bad, but on our landing page that we’re sending PPC traffic to and our index.html page now that’s bad (specially our landing page).

You should always check things like this because it can take your credibility away from you (big time). If your someone that is not a writer or maybe you can write good, but it’s just not your thing and you get burned out fast by writing then just hire a content writer. Hire someone that can do it for you therefore you know it will be A-1.

See what I’m getting to now? Everything you build around your brand will have a major effect on it; believe it or not. Some of the smallest things will have the hugest effect on your brand image.

Also another important thing is to never compete on price (focus on credibility, not price) I know people that get so wrapped up into competing on price or trying to sell things for dirt cheap just because they want business, but guess what they don’t have a business. Why do I say that for? I mean think about it if your competing on price and not brand differentiation or customer satisfaction then your missing the key points.

You should never compete on price this will hurt you big time when trying to build a business. You can not build a business by competing on price. Which granted you can show a little bit of slack here and there, but some people just go way too far out of their way by competing on price and not trying to focus on credibility such as brand differentiation, quality of service, customer satisfaction, results, and etc (credibility).

For example say your charging 50 dollars an hour for some type of consulting service, but you know people that are charging 500-1000 dollars an hour for consulting and their doing 10 times much volume as you. Guess why they are doing 10 times much more volume at 10 times higher price?

They’re can be various things that come into play on why they are able to get more, but probably one of the main reason that they are able to get more is because of credibility. A brand that shines, sparks, and is attractive will always out beat any body in the space. You ever notice how certain companies continue to grow and their pricing their products 10 times higher then any one else, but they just keep dominating the market? Well there you go, the reason behind this is because they have created a brand that people love.

Generic Vs Brand? Don’t ever focus on building a generic brand, don’t ever think generic. Always think on what you can do to build a brand that is profitable for a life time, good brands have loyalty, bad brands have people that are worried about price. If you build a good brand, something of value, then people are going to buy of you because of the name (they trust the name), not the price.

Another thing is when generally someone is pricing something too cheap or trying to compete on price it’s probably because it has nothing of value even though it might seem convincing at times you’ll always find out in the long run it was a waste of time. Such as you didn’t get what you wanted and it created more stress for you.

Conclusion:I kind of jumped into two different things while writing this post; such as, what can credibility do for you and how to build credibility (similar topics). The main idea in building credibility is to produce an image around your brand that will show that you are credible; therefore your products / services will sell like hot cakes.

Before we close this post up let me spot a credibility element out to you that will help increase your sales online through landing pages. For example have you ever seen a landing page that has testimonial(s), certificates, recommedations, and etc? Well if so there you go this right their will produce an image that your brand is credible and trust worthy–Focus on credibility such as service, client retention, quality, and not price.