The Trust Factor. Garrett M.D. Pierson

people, an office and two laptops, in a few short years they created a multi-million dollar health care company with hundreds of employees, therapists and nurses.

      Once the company was up and running smoothly, Garrett was asked to go in and turn around a large assisted living community that had been neglected and abused by several years of bad management. This new assignment took him away from his family and left him with many nights with nothing to do. It was during these nights that Garrett started learning all he could about Online Marketing, Search Engine Optimization and Social Media. It didn’t take long before he had become a online marketing expert, attracting the attention of several prominent marketers like Alex Mandossian, Russell Brunson, and Joel Comm, just to name a few. Since then, Garrett has been invited to speak at several different events throughout the country teaching many of the strategies that will be taught in this book.

      With his new found passion to help teach website owners about SEO and social media marketing, it wasn’t long before Garrett left the health care industry and moved back home to Utah. We became acquainted shortly after that and ever since then Garrett and I have worked together, creating and developing innovative online services to help website owners become more successful.

      One way we achieve this is through our ‘Outstanding Ventures’ email list – a special email newsletter that goes out to tens of thousands of like-minded website owners throughout the world; discussing the latest marketing techniques and trust-building strategies.

      Do you have ‘The Trust Factor’?

      Ultimately, running a successful online business boils down to three main things:

      •having a valuable product or service

      •generating traffic (prospects), and

      •consistently building long-lasting relationships with your customers.

      If you get these three things right, everything else will naturally fall into place and you will have a very good chance of being successful online.

      It all comes back to what I inherently knew when I was a kid with the Quick Blades lawn mowing idea. That formula for success that I knew back then is the exact same formula that our company is using to make millions online, and it will be the exact same formula that we use 5, 10, even 20 years from now.

      To help you get off to a running start, Garrett and I have put together the 7 core trust strategies that will help you convert your online visitors into lifetime customers. These 7 strategies cover everything from how your customers perceive your website design, to how they contact you, to how safe they feel buying from you, to the social proof you integrate into your website.

      Each of these 7 strategies build on each other throughout the book, creating a powerful synergistic effect that help entice and motivate your customers to buy from you and to keep coming back.

      Who needs this book? You do, if you are:

      •A website owner who sells (or plans to sell) a product or service online

      •An entrepreneur that is wanting to start a business in today’s market

      •A brick and mortar store that wants to take their business online

      •An affiliate marketer that promotes others products or services

      •A webmaster or designer that services clients

      •A business coach or teacher that helps companies grow

      No matter where you currently happen to be, you will have the opportunity to take what we teach and apply it to your business instantly. In fact, nothing that we are going to teach you is revolutionary (as much as we would like it to be). Successful online companies are already using many of these strategies. This book compiles them in a strategic manner that will help you implement them quickly and effectively.

      The purpose of this book is to arm you with tools that will help you become the “go to” company or service in your market. By following our advice, you will outperform your competition in every trust aspect of your business. Think of this book as the ammunition you need to survive in this jungle we call the internet. It doesn’t matter if you are just starting out or have been running a business for 40 years. These strategies will protect and serve you well in all cases.

      The Game has changed!

      It’s pretty obvious that doing business has changed dramatically over the last five, even ten years. This change is not a bad thing, in fact it’s a great opportunity for all of us to put on our thinking caps and reinvent how business is done. Online consumers are more educated and demanding than ever. It is time to give them exactly what they want and desire. What is that precisely, you might be asking? Well, that is what you will learn in the pages that follow.

      Here are some suggestions we have while reading this book:

      1.Don’t skip any chapters - even if you think you are already applying a certain strategy. Make sure you read the entire chapter to ensure that you haven’t missed something important.

      2.Keep in mind that not everything will apply to you. You may find something that we are teaching may not fit your niche or business. This is totally fine. Try and see the big picture. For example, you might think, “I can’t use this idea, but how many of my customers, employees, or vendors could use it?” Keeping this frame of mind will improve relationships with those involved in making you successful.

      3.Share this book with others. If you have business partners, give them the opportunity to read this book so that you can all be on the same page when making changes to your business. In addition, make sure you share what you learn with friends and colleagues that have a business as well.

      4.Apply what you learn. The only way that you will truly succeed in anything is if you consistently apply these principles. We are going to be sharing with you some important strategies that can literally change your life and the direction of your business - but only if you apply them. We suggest that you read a chapter, apply what you have learned, then go to the next chapter. This will help you be more productive and efficient.

      Very few people actually understand the complexities of running a business with this relatively new medium called the Internet. However, by the time you finish this book, you will truly grasp the importance of TRUST and you’ll know more than 99% of today’s online business owners.

      Our entire goal of this book is to help and teach you. If for whatever reason you are not quite understanding or following our points and examples, feel free to contact us anytime. You can reach us by email at [email protected]. And to be super transparent, here is our phone number: 801-334-7078. Just ask for Scott or Garrett!

      So without further delay, let’s jump right into Trust Factor #1.

      Chapter 2

      Perception is Reality

      Ice cream. Everybody loves it.

      In fact, it’s so popular that every day vendors across the world drive all around cities and towns, selling it out of their trucks and vans.

      So, let me ask you a question. Let’s pretend for a moment that the two ice cream vans below sold the exact same type of ice cream. If both of these vans drove through your neighborhood, which one are you more likely to buy ice cream from?

      

      If your experience has been anything like mine, you’ve probably seen your fair share of dilapidated ice cream vans like the van on the left, driving uncomfortably slow down your street. My kids are constantly begging me to buy ice cream from them but I usually refuse to do so because