All marketing is about building and managing relationships on some level. And trust, of course, is the foundation of a good relationship.

People want to buy goods and services from companies and people they trust, so cultivating trust is an important function of any marketing plan. The trust factor is even more important when it comes to buying products and services that have a direct effect on consumers. While you want to trust the company that made your tools, it’s essential to trust that your financial service provider will protect and grow your hard-earned money.

Marketing financial services is not selling a commodity—it’s selling trust.

In addition, financial industry marketing efforts must educate customers about complex financial products and regulatory compliance issues.

How do you sell trust and explain complicated legal and regulatory information?

It all begins with awareness. Potential clients have to know about you. And that requires frequency. Marketing with frequency also provides a comfort level for your existing clients.

How you’re seen is equally important. You need to differentiate your business or service. And that point of differentiation has to be real. It must be believable and reflect the experience your clients have when they work with you. Excellent customer service is something we all want, but you can’t say you have excellent customer service if the facts don’t support the statement.

How can you determine if in fact your business or service is recognized as delivering good customer service? It all comes down to research—perhaps the most valuable tool for your marketing effort.  There are two research methodologies used.

Quantitative research uses structured questions to survey a large number of people. The sample size is very important for quantitative research and is determined by statisticians who use formulas to determine how large a sample size must be to get findings with an acceptable degree of accuracy. Generally, researchers want sample sizes that yield findings with at least a 95 percent confidence interval (which means that if you repeat the survey 100 times, 95 times of out 100, you get the same response) and plus/minus 5 percent points margin error.

Qualitative research—collecting, analyzing and interpreting data by observing the things people do and say—delves into the meaning, concepts, characteristics, symbols and descriptions of things. This type of research is much more subjective than quantitative research and uses very different methods of collecting information, such as individual, in-depth interviews and focus groups. It’s more exploratory and open-ended. So rather than measuring things, researchers are trying to identify people’s perceptions and opinions. Qualitative research is often less expensive than quantitative research and is a good way to acquire information about your audience’s responses to and views about specific communications or marketing efforts.