eral public.

A business can have an identity without trust, but the group that generally comes from is non-customers or former customers. This is not how you want the majority of your target audience to view your business. It's OK for your non-customers to have heard about your business, and for it to have an identity. If it's former customers, they're either no longer in the market for your

Who will your potential customers call when they want what you sell? Are you the only one they can call, or do you have competition? Do they go to your website, or someone else's? What can you do to encourage these potential customers to choose you instead of your competition?

All of those are important questions. And, unless yours is the only business in the world doing what you do, you've got competition. I'd be willing to bet that at least some of your competitors are reaching out, trying to convince your customers to do business with them. Whether your customers do or not will be the result of many factors, but there's a lot you can do to keep them coming to you.

First - what are identity, branding, and trust? And why did I put them together?

Identity is what separates your business from its competitors. It's your uniqueness; what allows you to continue in business even though you may be faced with numerous competitors. Identity is how your customer recognizes your business, and tells them who you are.

Branding is how the customer knows the focus of your business. It's how they understand the benefit of bringing you their business, instead of to your competitor. It's the correlation -- for customers and non-customers alike -- between the product or service you offer and the benefit your business provides.

I believe you already know the meaning of trust.

So why are these together? It's because identity, branding, and trust weave together in the public's eye, and generally differentiate your customers and potential customers from the general public.

A business can have an identity without trust, but the group that generally comes from is non-customers or former customers. This is not how you want the majority of your target audience to view your business. It's OK for your non-customers to have heard about your business, and for it to have an identity. If it's former customers, they're either no longer in the market for your

got competition. I'd be willing to bet that at least some of your competitors are reaching out, trying to convince your customers to do business with them. Whether your customers do or not will be the result of many factors, but there's a lot you can do to keep them coming to you.

First - what are identity, branding, and trust? And why did I put them together?

Identity is what separates your business from its competitors. It's your uniqueness; what allows you to continue in business even though you may be faced with numerous competitors. Identity is how your customer recognizes your business, and tells them who you are.

Branding is how the customer knows the focus of your business. It's how they understand the benefit of bringing you their business, instead of to your competitor. It's the correlation -- for customers and non-customers alike -- between the product or service you offer and the benefit your business provides.

I believe you already know the meaning of trust.

So why are these together? It's because identity, branding, and trust weave together in the public's eye, and generally differentiate your customers and potential customers from the general public.

A business can have an identity without trust, but the group that generally comes from is non-customers or former customers. This is not how you want the majority of your target audience to view your business. It's OK for your non-customers to have heard about your business, and for it to have an identity. If it's former customers, they're either no longer in the market for your

s your business from its competitors. It's your uniqueness; what allows you to continue in business even though you may be faced with numerous competitors. Identity is how your customer recognizes your business, and tells them who you are.

Branding is how the customer knows the focus of your business. It's how they understand the benefit of bringing you their business, instead of to your competitor. It's the correlation -- for customers and non-customers alike -- between the product or service you offer and the benefit your business provides.

I believe you already know the meaning of trust.

So why are these together? It's because identity, branding, and trust weave together in the public's eye, and generally differentiate your customers and potential customers from the general public.

A business can have an identity without trust, but the group that generally comes from is non-customers or former customers. This is not how you want the majority of your target audience to view your business. It's OK for your non-customers to have heard about your business, and for it to have an identity. If it's former customers, they're either no longer in the market for your

petitor. It's the correlation -- for customers and non-customers alike -- between the product or service you offer and the benefit your business provides.

I believe you already know the meaning of trust.

So why are these together? It's because identity, branding, and trust weave together in the public's eye, and generally differentiate your customers and potential customers from the general public.

A business can have an identity without trust, but the group that generally comes from is non-customers or former customers. This is not how you want the majority of your target audience to view your business. It's OK for your non-customers to have heard about your business, and for it to have an identity. If it's former customers, they're either no longer in the market for your

eral public.

A business can have an identity without trust, but the group that generally comes from is non-customers or former customers. This is not how you want the majority of your target audience to view your business. It's OK for your non-customers to have heard about your business, and for it to have an identity. If it's former customers, they're either no longer in the market for your services, or you've disappointed them in the past.

Branding happens when people can see some benefit to doing business with you, rather than a competitor. This goes beyond identity, and is closer to your target market. Once customers understand your branding, they're more likely to understand the benefits of doing business with you and not go elsewhere. You don't want your customers going elsewhere if you want your business to thrive.

Fortunately, you can build your brand with trust.

How do you engender trust? And what does that have to do with marketing?

Trust really is the goal of marketing. Sure, you may be able to fool some people with hype, but that isn't a sustainable business plan. You need to do what you say you're going to do by providing the products or service you agreed to. Anything less violates the trust your customer places with you when they do business with you. Once you violate their trust, their business disappears and takes at least some referral business with it.

Plus, regaining their trust makes your efforts at acquiring new customers look like a simple enterprise. You'll find it takes far less effort to win a new customer than to restore trust. And, it's easier and much better business to keep your promises in the first place. So, your marketing must accurately reflect the performance your customer can expect. Anything less will hurt your business.

Keep in mind that, in most cases, an honest error made during the course of business won't shake the loyalty of your customers - provided you correct the error and a