Prove It: Exactly How Modern Marketers Earn Trust

by Melanie Deziel, Phil Jones

Overview

You know your company is amazing. You say your company is amazing. But why should your customers believe you? In a crowded consumer courtroom full of shady advertisers all claiming to be the best, the fastest, the most caring, your brand is literally on trial—and that means you better deliver the proof.
In Prove It, StoryFuel founder Melanie Deziel and master of influence Phil M. Jones show you how to leverage every content marketing tool in the box to blast through doubt and win the case with your customers. Using real-world examples from trusted brands across dozens of industries, they’ll walk you step-by-step through the process of identifying and categorizing your business promises—even the ones you don’t realize you’re making—gathering the right evidence, and backing up each style of claim. You’ll learn how to apply strategies like corroboration, demonstration, and education to a marketing context to show—not tell!—the convenience of your offerings, your comparability with the competition, your connection to your community, your competence in your industry, and your commitment to your values. And you’ll discover the right format and platform to deliver each type of evidence to make sure your “jury of consumers” connects with your case.
It’s time to stand out from all the brands that shout “trust us, we’re great!” at a skeptical audience. Your customers are waiting for you to prove it. So pick up this book and find out how.

Product Details

BN ID:	2940165873454
Publisher:	Melanie Deziel
Publication date:	10/11/2022
Sold by:	Smashwords
Format:	eBook
File size:	4 MB

About the Author

Melanie Deziel is the founder of StoryFuel, a consulting service that equips marketers, creators and business owners with the skills and strategies to tell better brand stories. A lifelong storyteller, trained journalist, and international speaker, she is recognized as a leading expert on native advertising and a prominent influencer in the world of content marketing. As the first editor of branded content at the New York Times’ T Brand Studio, Deziel won the 2014 and 2015 Best Native Advertising Execution OMMA Awards, including the acclaimed “Women Inmates” piece for Netflix’s Orange Is the New Black. She was a founding member of HuffPost Partner Studio, and served as the director of creative strategy at Time Inc., building branded content strategy across 35+ US media properties, including Time, Fortune, People, Sports Illustrated, Entertainment Weekly, and more. Deziel has appeared at Content Marketing World, Native Ad Days, SXSW, Social Media Marketing World, Inbound and more, all as part of her mission to share the power of compelling and credible content.

Phil has accomplished more than most in his fast-moving life. His vast experience in a variety of sectors has resulted in him being recognized as an authority of sales psychology and negotiation, for increasing corporate turnover and profitability, and business development.

Phil started in business at just 14 years of age and clearly demonstrated the qualities of a budding entrepreneur. Following developing a number of successful business ventures through his teens, Phil decided to embrace the corporate world and joined the Management training program of one of the UK's leading department store groups.

Within months of joining and at the age of just 18, Phil was rewarded with the role of Sales Manager and was soon running teams of people, responsible for sizeable turnovers and gaining some very impressive results.

Phil was fast tracked through the Debenhams ranks and was involved in a number of store openings, and turnaround projects continually building his reputation by delivering exceptional results.

Phils’ next role was to join Britains’ biggest furniture retailer as their youngest ever Store Manager. Here he developed his skills further by being involved in improving and developing the sales skills of everybody he worked with delivering exceptional results.

From here he has held roles as head of retail with Birmingham City Football club and developed a number of commercial relationships for Leicester City Football Club before building a property business responsible for sales of over £240million per year.

With a track record of developing opportunities for organizations at all levels, Phil is acknowledged for his strategic intellect and has been instrumental in turning around underperforming businesses by developing new opportunities.

What makes Phil special is that through all his experiences he continues to learn. He has written journals since his first business began and collected countless lessons along the way. This meant that in 2008 when Phil decided his true passion was to shake up the business education market by offering something unique he was set to make a massive difference.

The business launched by developing a simple one day workshop titled Reaching New Heights. In its first year Phil took over 2500 people through these lessons and continued to build his reputation. This lead to an influx of speaking opportunities, consulting offers and private mentoring.

In April 2011 Phil took the decision to share his material and business systems with a group of like minded professionals keen to help their local business communities too. Reaching New Heights was launched as a business and we now have a team of trainers,coaches and mentors delivering Phil's message across the globe.

Phil continues to be at the forefront of the business and works closely with the team and a number of private clients. He is a regular guest speaker and continues to build his reputation through his writing and recording of his experiences.

In 2012 Phil released both Toolbox and Magic Words and both of these books have reached high acclaim from all who have read them. Phil's Accelerator program provides his expertise in Audio CD meaning that he can share his expertise across a huge area and in a format accessible by all.

Put simply; Phil Jones has developed processes and procedures which help people win more customers, who are encouraged to invest more frequently and return more often. Phil is not a theorist, but is a business educator who speaks from his own experience. His mission is the change the view of salesmanship and help the world see that “sales” is not a dirty word.

From working with small business owners that are looking to increase sales to leverage their livelihood to globally recognized companies that want to drive more activity from their staff – Phil’s unique skillset allows him to serve a vast mix of people with entirely different goals.

Phil’s passion to “Teach The World To Sell”, now sees him travelling the globe speaking to a breadth of audiences, from small business owners to workforces and mass organizations, spreading his message and sharing his highly credited teachings. To date he’s spoken in 56 different countries across five continents and with his growing popularity, he’s expected to add many more to his roster.

"Phil was invited to be our keynote speaker to an audience of successful entrepreneurs setting up a day focused on sales and marketing. Phil is a phenomenally effective speaker, blending great stories with compelling and simple messages leading to some obvious takeaways. Phil's investment up front to understand the audience and their challenges and to tailor the message maximized audience engagement and content relevance. I wouldn't hesitate to recommend Phil."
--Gordon Stoddart - Founding Director of Innergy and The Recruitment Network

Table of Contents

Introduction Phil M Jones 1

Part I Where's the Proof?

1 The Case for Evidence 5

2 How Trust Works 15

3 The Five Claim Types 19

4 Building a Body of Evidence 29

Part II How to Prove It

5 Proving Convenience 45

6 Proving Comparability 61

7 Proving Commitment 75

8 Proving Connection 91

9 Proving Competence 107

Conclusion: Are You Ready to Prove It? 119

Acknowledgments 123

Notes 125

Editorial Reviews

Marketers spend so much time marketing when they should be earning trust. Prove It shows you exactly how to do that. No fluff. No wasted space.” —Ramon Ray, founder, SmartHustle.com

“Praise be to every deity ever named, we finally have a book that recognizes what content marketing is actually for: trust. Everything else flows from that. Which means everything else flows from this book.” —Jay Acunzo, author, Break the Wheel; former marketer, Google, HubSpot, and ESPN

“Melanie Deziel is someone I’ve watched and respected for years, and this book is just further evidence of her complete mastery over the content marketing space. I’d consider this a must-read for anyone looking to earn the trust of their audience.” —Kaleigh Moore, freelance writer and consultant

“Prove It is something amazing: a brief but comprehensive instruction manual for truth in marketing. If you hate bull- shit, you’d better read this…and put it into practice.” —Josh Bernoff, bestselling author, Writing Without Bullshit

“Modern marketing has been elevated to a new level . . . know, like, trust, and proof. The title of this book says it all— and the content of this book teaches it all. A classic.” —Mike Michalowicz, author, Get Different and Profit First

“If you want higher quality leads that are easier to convert, your marketing and messaging must be excellent. In Prove It, Melanie Deziel and Phil M Jones provide an easy-to-follow framework that increases the quality of your leads by positioning your company as the most transparent and trustworthy option.” —Chris Smith, author, The Conversion Code

“If you want to rise above the noise, give your customers something they don’t hear often—proof ! More referrals, more testimonials, and more customer loyalty are waiting for you. A quick read with a big impact.” —Todd Herman, author, The Alter Ego Effect; creator, 90 Day Year

“This book provides a mighty one-two punch with Melanie Deziel introducing important concepts for today’s business environment and Phil M Jones offering actionable strategies we can implement right away! Prove It is an essential read to understand today’s well-informed—and rightfully skeptical—consumers and stakeholders.” —Jeffrey Shaw, author, The Self-Employed Life

“Finally, a book without the content fluff. The specifics in Prove It will help anyone with any means become a leading expert in their field.” —Joe Pulizzi, founder, The Tilt and CEX

““It wasn’t too long ago that prospects automatically trusted you unless given a reason not to. But today, they visit your website or walk into any potential transaction with their guard firmly up. Prove It shares a simple solution to many of today’s marketing and sales challenges. It may just be the most practical and timeless marketing book ever written.” —Oli Luke, co-founder, Orange & Gray and The Business of Hearing

“Prove It could have been called Do This Now to Instantly Improve Your Sales. The frameworks outlined in this book transcend the social media fads of the day and provide marketers with the essential skills to create sales campaigns that work. The best part Prove It? It’s easy to implement. After reading this book, you can immediately apply the lessons you’ve learned to drive better results for your business. This is the marketing book you don’t want your competition to read.” —Jimmy Mackin, CEO, Curaytor

“Finally, a book that demonstrates that successful marketing is all about earning trust!” —David Horsager, CEO, Trust Edge Leadership Institute

“Businesses that differentiate on trust and truth create competitive advantage. This book is, quite literally, the proof of how brands become a trusted source of interesting things, and what separates those brands from the pack.” —Robert Rose, founder, The Content Advisory

From the Publisher