Trust: Earning the Right to Ask

Today, we see digital marketing techniques (such as “squeeze-pages”) that also presume too much:  How many sites have you seen that exhort the reader to “Sign up for our promotional newsletter, and we’ll give you a free ebook.”

Unfortunately, this approach is completely backwards:  the marketer is asking for something – your contact details – without earning the right to do so.  Even worse, they are trying to bribe you (the so-called ethical bribe) to participate!  If the goal is to build trust, the “transaction” must be completely different: First give, then get.