How does a company go about building trust in its advertisements?

 The most important aspect of any advertising campaign is whether or not it builds trust. Consumers are naturally skeptical about any form of advertising as it is paid for and thus biased. Hence, even if you go on about your product’s features and how great of a deal consumers are getting, these claims are often counteracted by the fact that consumers know the commercial is biased and thus have no trust in the information presented. This is especially true for small businesses that have no well-known brand name to back them up.
 Here are a few sources consumers believe in and should be integrated into every ad campaign.
Testimonials
These are especially helpful if the person you are trying to reach knows the person offering the testimonial. While this many not be possible in mass media advertising, for more personalized ad campaigns, get customers to make a list of people thy know who may be interested in the product and run an e-mail or direct mail campaign saying “Your friend [Insert Name Here] thought you might be interested in our product.” This can be kick started by offering customers any sort of incentive to want to refer their friends and family.
Independent Organizations
Consumers know YOU think your company is amazing, but who else does? Providing outside credibility from independent organizations, whether it be a glowing review in a major newspaper for a movie commercial or statistics from an industry study conducted by an independent research organization, is a great way to build trust.
Endorsements
People trust people they know. One way to apply this to advertising is through the testimonials tactic explained above. Unfortunately, this model doesn’t scale for mass media advertising. Instead, for mass media advertising your company needs to be recommended from someone that everyone knows through an endorsement. The first words to come to mind when thinking of “an endorsement” are celebrities and million dollar contracts.
While this may be the most well-known form of endorsement advertising, it is well out of the reach of many small business owners. Instead, small business owners need to forget about getting an endorser with universal appeal, and instead focus on getting one who appeals only to their audience. For a local restaurant, this could be a local celebrity or rising star only well known in the area. For a marketing agency, it could be a well known professional in the industry.
These endorsements may not catch the attention of mainstream media, but if targeted correctly will be of interest to the people you are trying to reach.