Question: What am I? I am the best low cost marketing strategy in the world, I'm cheap, but few businesses use me.

Answer: Credibility!

Or for you real estate gurus, what are the 3 most important elements of low cost marketing:

1. Credibility

2. Credibility

3. Credibility

Credibility is being believed and trusted by your customers and potential customers. You can't buy it. No amount of advertising or promotion can hand it to you on a platter. Yet you can achieve credibility by trusting in and using your own product expertise.

Gaining credibility is the best marketing strategy in the world. And it is the cheapest. It can have an enormous impact on income, and it can achieve rapid results. You will be amazed at how easy it is and the difference it will make. You can start immediately.

‘Buy this because it's good'.

Most businesses sell their products and services just by talking about their features and benefits. They do not prove any particular expertise in their industry, or even in the product. They just basically say, ‘Buy this because it's good'. The more they say it and the better the message looks, the more they congratulate themselves on a successful marketing campaign.

Traditional advertising has had its day.

There is more evidence all the time that people avoid advertisements. They are looking for information instead. Many households turn down the sound during TV commercials. Paradoxically the more people resist advertising, the more companies spend on it. In desperation, some businesses now resort to ‘shot gun' methods such as newspaper advertising and direct mail.

Forget selling; prove your expertise.

Start to position yourself as the expert on your product or service. You don't do this by claiming to be the expert, or displaying your impressive CV.

You do it instead by sharing your knowledge and giving your customers helpful, relevant information, without a sales gimmick and for free.

Jackie's Opals

Jackie Henderson is an award winning jewelery designer, often working with Australian Opals. She employs a staff of 8. Jackie was keen to expand her business through establishing her credibility rather than traditional advertising. She wrote a series of information sheets, freely available at her outlets and on her website. The sheets give customers information about the valuation of opals, how they are cut for maximum light effects, the principles of using gold or silver settings, and design ideas for opals. ‘How to spot a bad opal' is particularly popular. There are photos of her jewelery to illustrate the point, but no direct sales pitch. Jackie is however, clearly the author. The sheets are a winner with customers, and the public generally. They have cost next to nothing and prompt many questions, including emailed questions from potential overseas buyers. Jackie believes the information sheets have been so successful she is finding other avenues for her ‘credibility drive'. She says, ‘I'm trying to establish my reputation as the expert opal jeweler. It guarantees me sales.'

Does your business pass the credibility test? Do your just try to sell your product or service? Or do you gain credibility and trust from your promotions, by sharing your specialized knowledge?