Trust is the most valuable resource for any business looking to gain new leads through their website. In the 21st century, people are turning to the internet to find answers and they expect their suppliers to have decent online credibility before moving forward with an inquiry or purchase.
Whether you are an eCommerce startup or a real estate agent, new prospects expect to see what you can bring communicated in a manner they’re used to seeing.
When a prospect is looking to buy a new product or service especially with a company they have zero relationships with, how well the website conveys trust goes a long way to whether the prospect will move forward with you or not.
Here are three ways businesses and startups can build up trust even if they’re just starting out:
Use Laser Focused Messaging on Your Website
There’s this saying that if you are speaking to everyone, you’re speaking to nobody. This is the case for many small businesses and early stage companies where their website’s messaging speaks to a broad audience and thus not appealing to anyone.
If you understand that your customers can be put into different segments, congratulations, you are already better off than many business owners who still think that they “sell to everybody”. But how do you segment your message to different user groups on your website?
you don’t have to look far for that…
Next time you pass by a newspaper stand, take a look at how the newspapers have different sections (Finance, Sports etc…), they know the different audiences they’re reaching out to and they have different sections catering to each group.
Tailored landing pages for different audiences can increase conversion and online credibility.
Websites can do the same by creating different landing pages for different user segments to better relate and generate leads within each user segment (See example above). These can be as simple as a single page that communicates your product/service’s features and benefits in the language and jargon of each user group. On top of that, you may even score some long tail SEO traffic with each segment group.
If you are not familiar with segmenting user groups, see our article on niching.
While it may seem like a huge task, it can be carried out in bit sizes focusing on the audience group you frequently work with working your way to the least profitable audience groups. Working with copywriters can get the task done faster and also take your dedicated pages further into a lead generator.
By making your website more relatable, you can be sure you can increase your conversion rate.
Include Social Proof
Unless you’re a well known brand like Tesla and Apple, chances are the average person hasn’t heard of your brand and has minimal trust towards your brand during first contact. You may have won them over to your site through SEO, referral or handing out flyers and they are now on your website evaluating your product or service. What can you do to build up more credibility and move them towards reaching out for a quote or a purchase?
Show them what others are saying about you!
While you can talk about your products and services all day long using videos and detailed websites, having others talking about you adds more trust. This can be done though the following social proof methods:
- Video testimonials
- Text testimonials
- Ask past clients to have their logos displayed on your website
- Show case studies of work you’ve done for past clients
- Display any awards received
You’ve worked hard to earn may of the above, so why not showcase them?
People are more likely to convert if they know that others have worked with you before; especially if they’re companies similar to them. This goes well in hand with the first point on having different landing pages where you can highlight relevant past clients for each segment group.
What about for businesses that are new and unproven?
Being the new kid on the block means you need to build up your credibility through 3rd parties. Many new startups and prelaunch businesses will make an effort to be mentioned on the news and have an “As mentioned on” section on their homepage where they display all the major media channels that have mentioned them to build online credibility.
Getting mentions on blogs or directories like the Vancouver Startup Directory can be other low hanging methods to grow your presence.
For more information on launching a startup, see our launch section.
Use a professional email (Avoid Gmail/Hotmail/Shaw etc…)
Your website may have passed the first appearance test and the prospect wants to speak with you, one of the easiest ways to lose the trust and online credibility you’ve built up is to have an unprofessional looking email address especially ones that are from “freemail” email account providers like Gmail, Yahoo, Hotmail, Aol or the email you get with your internet provider.
Whether this is as a result of lack of technical know-how or you’re trying to avoid the costs of a dedicated email inbox service, using a freemail address can impact your credibility and business ability especially if you are using your email in an outward role like sales, cold emailing or forming partnerships.
Using free email service providers can cost you your online credibility
With the rising number of email spams from ‘freemail’ addresses, many companies have gotten used to ignoring or suspect inquiries and cold emails from freemail domains. Not only do you run the risk of being filtered out by automatic filters, how you are perceived drops significantly when using a freemail address. If you are trying to make a sale, others may perceive you as a ‘garage operation’ and be given a lowball offer for your services.
Common email solutions include:
- Getting an email inbox service for your domain (usually Google Suite with your domain)
- Setting up an email inbox with your website hosting service (Free for most hosting services).
- (Advanced level) – Set up with website hosting service and link to your gmail account using Accounts and import settings. if done properly, all email will be sent to your primary work email and you can send out emails as that email account.
If you are concerned about the hassle of logging in and out of accounts, you can avoid that by using different browsers or set up different users (for chrome).
Building online credibility takes time to build and it is important that your website and business is doing everything to establish that trust for first time visitors to your website. While there are many additional ways to build up online credibility that will be covered in future articles (eg. social media, reviews on Google etc…), the above are some low hanging fruits one can go about and get results in the short term.
Which of the above methods do you see yourself working on?
About the Author:
Edward Yuen is a Digital Marketing Professional having worked with different organizations and brands including Toastmasters and TEDx conferences. Edward is passionate about helping thought leaders and brands build the trust and authority they deserve in their niche through social media, website, blog and video. You can find out more about Edward at https://www.linkedin.com/in/edward-yuen-09b68937/
