Fear marketing, FOMO, success stories, sob stories, business humour, urgency, anticipation, mystery.
It seems that we’re taught to tap into every emotional mindset in marketing, apart from TRUST marketing. Why Trust Marketing is important for Successful Businesses?
Even in this day and age, it’s rare to see professionals flying the flag of trust, unless you’re THE trust ambassador of the short-term rental industry “Chris Maughan” (do look him up when you get the chance). Chris Maughan on Linkedin.
So, in today’s write-up, we’re going to discuss why trust should be at the helm of your marketing, especially if you operate in the SA industry.
Since investing in our trust marketing and learning from the likes of Chris Maughan, we have seen Luke Capital Group really reap the rewards – and it’s about time that we share some of this gold dust with you, too.
Trust us, that’ll be worth your while. 😉
Table of Contents
Why Trust Marketing Matters
Every decision a person makes is underpinned by trust (or lack of).
Think about it, we each make choices every day – and even the tiniest ones, such as which coffee shop brand to buy our morning Joe from, is determined by our feelings of trust.
We only pursue, welcome, and accept things when we trust them. If we don’t, our brain sends us little warning signals, which will immediately make us put our backs up and transition into defence mode.
It’s basic human psychology.
We have been biologically wired to “protect” ourselves from danger, since the age of homo-erectus. This instinctual urge seeps into every person’s buying and brand engagement behaviour – meaning that if a guest doesn’t trust your brand to deliver in some capacity, then they will 100% not book with you.
Even if you were to slash your rates down to the bare minimum, a guest would never place themselves in a situation where they feel they’ll be “worse off”. This is especially true in the world of travel and serviced accommodation, where people are leaving the familiarity of home behind.
When Trust Seeps into Your Marketing
Given how important trust is to our everyday decision-making, it’s no surprise that the best marketers in the world prioritise capturing the trust of their audience – more than anything else.
Once you earn somebody’s trust, the “selling” part no longer feels forced (as long as you have acquired that trust in the correct way, and for the right reasons). If we put this into the context of short-term rentals, then remember our industry is largely unregulated, and things like holiday rental fraud are surprisingly rife.
In any scenario, the bigger the risk factor for a brand consumer, the more the brand should strive to earn their trust. When a guest pays for a short-term rental, the risk factor for them is greater compared to the purchase of a cappuccino at their local coffee shop (which won’t cost them as much money, and is unlikely to have any long-term consequences even if the coffee is bad).
But when you are asking a guest to part with hundreds, sometimes thousands of pounds, in an unfamiliar city/ country, and for them to sleep over in a place that they only really know through photographs and listings – then they are subconsciously looking for reasons to trust you.
And this is exactly why we invest in a thorough trust marketing strategy at Luke Capital Group and even invite our franchisees (at Luke Stays) to benefit from it and practise it, too.
> This includes things like talking about our I-PRAC Accreditation (which enables us to guarantee guests with 100% protection against holiday rental fraud).
> Promoting the StayCover feature of Luke Stays that is automatically included with every direct booking with Luke Stays.
> Providing social proof of our success, spotlighting our team members, and collaborating with other trusted brands in the property industry.
An Ongoing Process
Like any form of marketing, acquiring trust is not a simple, one-step “tick box exercise”. Luke Capital Group continues to make an ongoing effort to provide our guests and partners with the relevant trust signals – and we owe an enormous part of our growth to it.
Remember, no matter how corporate your brand may be, when it comes to the short-term rental industry, we are ultimately in the business of people – and people make decisions based on trust, more than anything else.
For more information about the I-PRAC visit their website: i-prac.com
Find out more details about our StayCover feature (exclusive for Luke Stays guests) on Luke Stays website.
