The past few decades have brought an ever-increasing number of marketing messages our way. Between television, magazines, newspapers, billboards, intentional product placement and celebrity endorsements, the level of advertising has become overwhelming for the average consumer. And as a result, today’s consumers have become desensitized to marketing in general.

This article will explore today’s new realities for advertisers, either online or offline. There’s a new approach in marketing today and it requires a lot more than ever before. Does that mean marketing is becoming prohibitively expensive? Absolutely not. In fact, done properly, modern marketing can establish customer loyalty far beyond what was possible in decades past.

Today’s consumers don’t trust you. In fact, they don’t trust anyone. They’ve been over-marketed since birth and are now encountering over 3000 marketing messages each day, on average. In order to gain their trust, the marketer must do a lot more than simply TELL them the truth. They have to SHOW them the truth.

Indeed, 3000 marketing messages each day is an estimate and it undoubtedly varies from one person to another. But this barrage of messages has left consumers skeptical of unsubstantiated claims. They’ve heard every clever slogan and every incredible product claim. And with today’s email world, they’ve seen every scam in the world. A message alone won’t capture their trust.

Buyers today want proof. They want to see it for themselves. In fact, they want to experience it for themselves too. Buyers today want to sample the goods before making the purchase decision, just like those sampling tables at Costco. They want to benefit from real value before they’re even requested to pull out their wallets.

These intertwined realities have resulted in today’s value-first marketing moniker. This new approach requires sellers of all kinds to sample their products for the world to try, all before requesting a penny in exchange. As a seller, you have to demonstrate your value. You have to demonstrate the benefits of your product. You have to prove your worth before you can expect any revenue coming in.

Nowhere is this more true than the internet. Almost every successful website offers valuable resources to its customers; valuable resources often free of charge. Whether it’s a consumer report, tools to calculate one thing or another, gobs of relevant information or a free sample of the product itself, internet marketers know they have to earn the trust of their customers before selling to them.

The upside of this new approach is that the consumers who give you a try, the consumers who sample your value, can establish a level of trust for you and your products far more powerful than that possible in the 80s or even 90s. And why? Because they experienced your value themselves. They saw it for themselves. And they made their own decision.

Modern marketing is empowering to consumers. It gives them an opportunity to experience the world directly and select those products and services they know will benefit them. The opportunities for customer loyalty are far greater today than ever before and it’s because consumers have the opportunity and the freedom to sample their solutions before they buy them.

Tactical Execution with Patrick Schwerdtfeger is a strategic company focused on growth marketing and program implementation across business markets.