Know, Like, Trust: The Relationship Funnel At the Core of Marketing
A lot of people make marketing out to be this super complex thing, and it certainly can be, but it doesn’t have to be.
There's a way to understand it that allows it to feel more accessible to most of us. And that is through the concept of Know, Like and Trust.
In this post, let’s dig into what this is, why it matters for you and your business, and how to use it to inform your marketing strategy as a way to build a real relationship with your target audience.
If you don’t know Know, Like, Trust, you’re not alone
A while back, I was having a 1:1 call with a woman in my group coaching program, and I mentioned the phrase “know, like, trust”.
She quickly stopped me, and said she didn’t know what that was.
So I explained it to her, obviously, and we continued with our coaching call.
Then about a week later, I was teaching a workshop to about 16 people, and I again mentioned the phrase “know, like, trust”
And I was suddenly met with a room full of blank stares.
That’s when I realized “Oh gosh, I haven’t done my due diligence and made sure this concept is understood”. And once I explained it, suddenly the rest of the training made a lot more sense to people.
For whatever reason, far too few people running businesses, women especially, are familiar with the concept of know, like, trust.
Perhaps because so many people teaching marketing online these days teach these super complex funnels and signature methods, without teaching the foundational business principles behind it all. *cough* bro marketers! *cough*
But whatever the reason, I want to clarify this foundational concept for you so that you can use it to create a simple marketing strategy that feels good for you, and is based on building real relationships with your people, rather than tricking them into spending money with your business.
Why Know, Like, Trust Matters For Your Business
Here’s the thing. People always love to spend money with people/businesses that they know, like, and trust.
Stop and think for a second about your absolute favorite businesses that you love to spend your money at again and again. You know the ones. Places you refer your friends to all the time, use their products or services over and over again, and make an effort to stay in the loop on sales or news or updates.
Chances are, you know, like, and trust those businesses.
It even works on a personal level too. It’s why we’re more likely to trust a business if a friend recommends them to us. Because we know, like, and trust our friend, we feel like, well if they trust this business, this is probably a good fit for me.
Know, like, and trust is a really crucial thing to understand.
It’s a lot easier to sell to people when they feel that sense of trust about you.
One way that I like to think about building that know, like, and trust is as a sort of funnel.
Know: Top of the Relationship Funnel
The top of the funnel, the Know part of Know, Like, Trust, is literally just getting people to know that you exist.
You want them to know who you are, what you do, and how you can help them.
Getting people to know you and into the top of this funnel is all about visibility, ie. anything you do to get in front of your ideal clients or customers.
For example:
Your website
Guesting on other people’s podcasts
Publishing blog posts for SEO
Having a Facebook group
Posting on Instagram
In-person networking
This part is important because, well, people can’t buy from someone they don’t know exists.
Like: Middle of the Relationship Funnel
This is the part where people start to decide if they want to stick around.
So people hear about you and start to slide into your funnel.
Then they are going to be asking themselves, do they like you, are you really the right fit, and are you going to be the kind of person that they feel good about giving their money to.
If they’re your ideal client or customer, they’re in your orbit, and they’re curious about what you have to offer, they’ll stick around.
If it’s not a good match, they’ll bounce out of your funnel.
And that’s totally okay.
Because unless what you do is incredibly unique, chances are you have some competition.
(Again, this is totally okay.)
We have so many options for things now, and the cool thing is that it means we can find people and businesses that we really like, that fit our specific needs, and that we want to do business with.
Implementing this in your business could be a mix of all sorts of different things, but in all of it, no matter what, you are nurturing a relationship with them so that they can decide if it’s a good fit for them.
Trust: Bottom of the Relationship Funnel
Now, at that very bottom, the people who are starting to really dig on you are going to be thinking, “Oh, I'm gonna go deeper and I want to really check this person out and I might actually be ready to give them some of my money.”
They convert from someone who’s just lurking and checking you out to actually paying you for your offer.
Now of course, just like how they can’t buy from someone they don’t know exists, they can’t buy an offer that they don’t know exists.
There are various ways you can make the offer to somebody, depending on what you do.
If you sell products, maybe this is your weekly sale or a seasonal special or a new item you just released and are actively marketing.
If you sell a course, it could be a link to your landing page in the last email of a free email course.
If you’re a coach, it could be a discovery call.
This will look different based on your business model
I will say that depending on what you do, this could be very quick, or it could take longer, and it also depends on the person as well.
I will say that depending on who your audience is, what you do, the price point, the commitment level, everything like that, it might skew how long it takes for somebody to get through your funnel. And also, you might need a different amount of people that you need to get in front of in order to support your business.
For example:
Let's say you make really cool enamel pins that you sell on Etsy, and they're all between $10 and $20, and one of the pins you sell is a Stranger Things pin.
Now somebody could just see that post on Instagram under a Stranger Things hashtag that they follow. Boom, that’s the Know stage of the funnel.
And they love Stranger Things, so they see it and are immediately like “Whaaat? Yes please!” Bam, that’s the Like stage.
So they click the link in your profile to your Etsy shop and see that you have a pretty good shop rating and great reviews. And there’s your Trust.
It’s only $12, so it's easier for them to make the Yes.
Now if you offer a $5,000 1:1 coaching package, that will probably take somebody a little bit longer to warm up to you to go through the Know, Like, Trust funnel.
At that price point, and for something that’s much more of a time and energy commitment on their part, they need to know that you are really truly the person for them.
Because chances are if somebody is looking to make a large coaching investment, they might be shopping around. They are going to be a little more discerning with that money. And they're going to want to make sure that they aren't being foolish and wasting it on somebody that maybe they actually don't trust as much as they thought.
A Side Note About Authenticity
I hope this goes without saying, but obviously don't do this in a weird way.
You want to be authentic and honest, because you don't want to trick the wrong people into becoming clients because 1) it’s unethical, and 2) it will be a nightmare for you later.
You want to showcase who you really are and what you're all about so that you can attract the right people to become your clients or customers.
And then once those people have made their way further down this relationship funnel, then absolutely pitch to them, whatever it is you’re selling, and in whatever way makes the most sense for you and your business.
So that’s the concept of Know, Like, and Trust, and how it fits into your marketing. It’s a really nice, simple way of looking at and thinking about your marketing and selling.
Because people love to spend money with the people and businesses they know, like, and trust.
By thinking of it in this funnel-y way, you can use it as a framework for how you set up all of your marketing, no matter what kind of business you run.
