Where does trust come from? It's a mystery.
Can we trust something that we've never done before?
How much do we trust promises to be kept?
Why does our heart rate increase before we decide to go forward on something significant?
Why do we get nervous before we agree to change anything we use/do?

Old-school advertising used to paint a picture of something we wanted, that, until we got that thing, we were unhappy. 
That's the tension of "I want it" combined with the knowledge of "I don't have it yet."

Sitting with tension is difficult.
Knowing what sitting with tension is like is an insight into how humans think just before they say yes or no.

In modern marketing, it's much broader. We create tension through:

  • The architecture of our service, 
  • The way our people engage with customers, 
  • Our pricing,
  • Product details, 
  • etc.

While it's true that trust can enable action, it is also perfectly true that action ultimately causes trust.
So, the question is: How do we encourage action by bringing tension to the table in a way that is welcome, ethical, and effective?

We put our offering in front of the people we seek to change to make the standard obsolete.
We seek to change their state.
We seek to change the story that gets told.
These changes will only happen if they change something.
And having to change feels like tension

Tension is what we feel that causes change to occur.
Because tension can only be relieved by changing something, i.e., by taking action.

We need to be very cautious here because there's a selfish way and a generous way of using tension.

Some people use tension selfishly by hustling their way, lying, hard-selling, growth-hacking, interrupting everyone they can reach. Then they leave everyone behind when it doesn't work. And maybe they're making some profit doing so, but it will ultimately trap them when they run out of trust.
The person who interrupts us with a selfish pitch, and we take the time to decline politely… so they resend us a more aggressive pitch, perhaps with amplified hints as to all the bad things that will happen if we ignore them. This isn't generous tension. This is a selfish person who negatively uses tension. This is perhaps a drowning marketer or one who sees themself as drowning.

The measure of a generous marketing intervention is this:

  • Did we create tension with our people, for them, on their behalf? Or for ourselves?
  • Was it created where it's needed, where it's welcome?
  • Was it productive?
  • Did it add more trust than was there before?
  • Did it make us more likely to have a voice in the future?
  • Will the customer be more likely to look for us again, listen to us again, talk about us?

The modern marketing cycle of tension-action-trust goes this way:

  1. As modern marketers, we have the ability (and the obligation) to bring tension to those who engage with our product.
  2. That tension encourages them to take action, even when they are afraid of the change or unsure that it'll work. 
  3. Then we have a chance to keep our promises. And when we do, we build trust.

Now, what do you have to add to what you do that can cause tension?

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About the author

Passionate about Modern Marketing, Behavioral Economics, cultural shifts, and purposeful communication.
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My story with marketing is one of transformation, switching from the race for interruption to building remarkability, empathy, and humility towards the people who care, earning their trust, and giving them a motive to voluntarily spread the idea to other people like them (The Network Effect). Hence, building a brand that rises above the noise and grows sustainably.
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You, too, can stop feeling overwhelmed with hacks and shortcuts. Here's a chance to join this revolutionary movement. Change the game from desperately hustling to catch up with the competition to a remarkable brand that standouts in tomorrow's world, delivers value that customers choose to pay extra for, and boosts profits sustainably beyond the short-term bursts.