3 Easy Steps: Boost Your Know, Like, Trust Factor

Episode 16 of the Imperfect Party is with Laura Rees, pictured here drinking a cup of coffee on an orange couch. Shes covering "Three ways to boost your Know, Like, Trust factor"

The Know, Like, Trust factor

Have you heard of the know, like and trust factor? It’s a popular term in branding and sales and business in general. It’s all about how people need to know who you are, like you enough to stick around, and then you gotta build up that trust so that they eventually buy from you!

Today I’m talking to Laura Rees, a brand strategist who works with small businesses to help them think about their brand as a sales tool instead of just a logo. She works with smart, fun entrepreneurs and business owners, and helps them build brands that sell so they can stop spending so much time hunting for customers and instead create a system that brings customers to them.

Let’s break down the know, like, and trust factor so we can get to the root of each section and really get a plan together for you to move forward with this stuff!

let’s break it down…

Boost the Know Factor

The first step is to get very, very clear about who you serve and how you serve them. Then you have to figure out a way to communicate that in a way that gets people interested.

Laura recommends always telling stories that relate back to your business. Can you share a story of your own transformation? Can you share a story of a clients or customers’ transformation? If you’re somebody that has a product, how can you tell a story about how you use that product or how a customer uses that product?

Storytelling is a really easy way for you to create a lot of content because you have a lifetime of stories that you can draw from. Of course, we all have a ton of stories, but how can we relate those back to our business?

Laura recommends making sure that you have a set of messages that you are telling. Four or five messages that you know you’re always going to talk about. Then start brainstorming stories you have that can relate to those talking points.

So we just need to loop back around to a few paragraphs ago when I mentioned that the first step is to get really clear about who you serve and how you serve them. Come up with your company values and then relate everything back to those, and you’re golden.

Your Like Factor

So once you have people interested with that know factor, that’s where you bring in like, Now on the surface, people can think of like meaning, “I like you, we’re friends. Let’s hang out!” But it’s not just about that. When we’re talking about business and marketing and branding, this goes a little bit deeper than that. It’s about you, as a brand, forming a deeper connection with your potential customers.

You can form that deeper connection by sharing your company values, your mission, and by expressing your brand character. For example, one of Laura’s clients has a restaurant group and they have a mission is all about “sheer joy and delicious food and being the most loved restaurant in the neighborhood.”

They use that mission as a guide to increase their like factor. They empower their employees to give out free meals or to give free cookies. You know, if they notice that it’s somebody’s birthday or whatever, they could give them a free meal or a free cookie.

They also can do that in small ways across their Instagram. They show a lot of people smiling inside of their restaurants. So just showing happiness. It’s not as complicated as it might sound. You’re just basically making your actions and your visuals match up with your values and mission.

It allows you to just tell all your stories through that lens in a really specific way. So those are some kind of the ways that we can get customers to relate to us and just start having an emotional investment. We want them to feel something deeper than, “Oh, that’s a person that sells a product or a service.” We need to make that emotional connection with customers.

Boost your Trust Factor

The crucial part to this formula is trust because no one is going to buy from anyone that they don’t trust. Right. You don’t say, “That guy looks super shady, but I still bought his stuff.”

When you’re getting people to know you and sharing stories of your business that fit your values and mission it’s gonna give off an amazing energy that your audience can really pick up on. It puts you in a space where you feel really good about what you’re talking about. And it makes them feel really excited as well, because they can pick up that energy from you.

In that case, you’re kind of selling without knowing that you’re selling. And that’s the place that I always recommend people try to come from.

When you’re giving your audience something that they really need your trust factor is going to take off. Providing a service that’s going to help them achieve their goals, or solve their problems, is going to show them that you have something that’s worth paying for. It doesn’t feel like selling. It’s just more fun.

What if people don’t like you?

When you think about that deeper level of like, and you’re sharing a distinct point of view on something that’s going to turn some people away. But, the flip side of that is that it’s going to attract a lot of the right people to you.

I talk a lot about attracting people and repelling people with your marketing, but Laura said, “When you have raving fans, you’re going to have raving lunatics.” Which I think is a hilarious way to put it!

Laura also stresses that we shouldn’t worry if you put out a real or a post and no one seems to get it or understand it, you don’t have any engagement.

She reminds us that our stories and posts are gone so fast and no one is going to remember it. And if worse comes to worse, you can delete it. So just go for it!

Know, Like, and Trust Factor Consistency…

To build know like, and trust you have to be consistent. If you just put up one story, and maybe it’s even the greatest story ever… If I don’t follow that up with something else, they’re going to move on to something else.

There are a million reasons we use to not be consistent. Life, kids, jobs, anything and everything can get in the way. But also sometimes, as we said above, your ego can get in the way. If you post something and get crickets you can get in your own head, and start feeling like it doesn’t matter and no one is even listening.

I talked to Kate Herford about this too, and she mentioned that you never know who’s listening and not actually “engaging.” Keep going for that person!

Instead of focusing on what your engagement is, set a goal for actions that you can control. For example, I’m going to post three times this week.

Make sure it’s something you can keep up with, and something you can control. Then let the likes and the comments fade to the background.

But when you just focus on the things that you can control, then you can feel more accomplished because those are goals you can actually meet. You know I’m all about process over product. If you get crickets on Monday, you still have to commit to doing your Wednesday post, no matter what.

However, it’s a good idea to check on the posts that are getting less engagement and see if there’s a common theme popping up that your audience isn’t interested in. Tweak your messaging and your content, don’t completely stop because of one or two crickets.

Your next step:

Now you gotta grab Laura’s awesome worksheet that’s gonna help you brainstorm those stories that you can share with your audience to up your know, like, and trust factor!

Don’t forget to take some realistic goals for yourself around how much you can show up for your audience on social media. Then you have to make sure you’re gonna show up regardless of the engagement your posts get. But, don’t be afraid to use any ups or downs in engagement to guide your future content.

More from Laura Rees…

We also talk about the time I was all hopped up on Nyquil and wrote a check for $150 to a complete stranger. He was obviously a total pro at know, like, and trust. Or maybe I’m a complete sucker…you be the judge. And you’ll hear lots of great examples of how to demonstrate each of the three parts of the KLT factor. So push play on the episode above to get the full scoop. And don’t forget to check out more from Laura Rees!