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professional sources to your marketing and service claims, consumers feel more reassured.
Ultimately, the trick to establishing trust isn’t your online rating — it’s risk. Hearing your best friend’s recommendation and reading Yelp reviews are just a couple ways to evaluate risk. If your business offers little to no risk to the consumer, it’s more attractive. Just like in new friendships, people get anxious about forming new business relationships or buying new products. When people shop at your business, what risks are they taking if they buy? If they do buy, what risks are they taking if they continue? Consider how you can decrease that risk. By reducing consumer risk perception as much as possible, your business will instinctively establish trust between you and your consumer. They won’t switch to another company if they feel fulfilled. To reduce risk and evolve your business to be a step ahead of the competition, reevaluate all potential concerns that consumers might have when using your product or service. Try not to shy away from mild or serious concerns. Contact current customers or host focus groups to talk about people’s initial impressions of your business. In all steps of this process, be thoughtful and strategic with the aspects that you can tackle. Now, your company might be minimizing consumer risk, but you still need to market it. There are many tactics, and each one changes depending on your business. Offering guarantees — like the policy, “Satisfaction guaranteed or your money back!”—may be reliable cushions for risk, and you can strengthen your guarantees by including objective data. When you attribute academic, government, or
Endorsements from local or industry celebrities can also be huge boosts to your business. Look into obtaining official product or service status from a credible trade association, charity, or other business. Any local professional can add a stamp of expertise to your product or service. In the same vein, showcase all of your best testimonials! The most credible references are nonpaid testimonials, but compensating consumers for their time is also an option if necessary. When it comes down to it, marketing and establishing trust between you and the consumer is just like any friendship. Start by considering their needs. Then, give them the ultimate comfort of knowing their risk is in good hands.
GLAZED GOODNESS The Sweet History of National Doughnut Day
Get ready to treat yourself because June 5 is National Doughnut Day! Contrary to popular belief, National Doughnut Day wasn’t created as an excuse for Americans to eat more doughnuts. The celebration was actually started by the Salvation Army in 1938 to honor “Doughnut Lassies,” the women who served doughnuts to soldiers on the front lines duringWorld War I. The Salvation Army still celebrates National Doughnut Day by delivering doughnuts to veterans across the country. The earliest version of the doughnut is believed to have come to North America with Dutch settlers in the 17th century. The Dutch brought with them balls of fried, sweetened dough called olykoeks , which translates to “oily cakes.”Though they were tasty, we don’t think many people would be eager to pick up a dozen oily cakes for the office. According to Smithsonian Magazine, the word“doughnut”was coined in the 19th century by a woman named Elizabeth Gregory. Her son, Handon Gregory, was a New England ship captain. She began making deep-fried dough treats with nutmeg, cinnamon, and lemon rind for her son and his crew. She would put hazelnuts or walnuts in the center of the pastry where the dough might not cook through, so she called her creation“doughnuts.”
though the exact reason is unclear. Some say it was to use fewer ingredients, while others suggest he created the hole by accident after skewering the pastry on the spokes of the ship’s wheel when he needed to steer with both hands during a storm. Whatever the reason, that hole is still part of a classic doughnut to this day. There are lots of ways to celebrate National Doughnut Day. Recognize the history of the holiday by donating to the Salvation Army or by sending a box of doughnuts to a veteran in your life. You can also order from your favorite local doughnut shop or fry up some homemade doughnuts with your family. There’s a pretty great recipe at SallysBakingAddiction.com/ how-to-make-homemade-glazed-doughnuts.
Handon Gregory also gets some credit for making doughnuts recognizable: He was the one who first put the hole in the doughnuts,
2 • swbwlawfirm.com
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