Build Trust In Your Website And Grow Your Business
One of the main challenges that small businesses face is building trust. While large brands have their advertising plastered everywhere – both online and off – small companies don’t have the same level of exposure and often can’t generate that same level of familiarity.
As a small firm, you might think that your options are limited. But when it comes to your website, you have an opportunity to create something that truly captures your audience’s attention and gives you credibility. Check out these five ways to use your website to build trust.
Don’t Spam Your Customers With Pop-Ups Or Ads
As people travel the internet, hopping from site to site, they build a picture of the kind of sites that they can trust, and those which they can’t. It’s not something that is consciously at the front of their mind while they surf the web, but a learned response to particular website cues.
Imagine, for instance, you go to a website, and you’re barraged with pop-up after pop-up. Instead of seeing the site in a positive light, it’s much more likely that you’ll view it as something that is just out to capture your email address or even steal your credit card information.
If you want to build trust from the outset, it’s vital to avoid anything that could impose on your customers. Pop-ups are, probably, a bad idea, as is intrusive advertising from your sponsors (if you have them). You can tweak pop-ups so that they’re less invasive and more conducive to generating conversions in a way that doesn’t offend your visitor’s sensibilities.
Proofread Your Content
Content marketing is becoming an increasingly important component of digital marketing for small firms. Companies that successfully target niche keywords and user intent with tailored content can generate significant organic traffic, boosting absolute conversion numbers. Put simply; it’s a great strategy.
But your content is only as effective as the quality of the writing. Users are more than willing to engage with content on websites they’ve not visited before. But if that content has glaring spelling, grammar, or factual errors, then that will reflect poorly on your company as a whole. If you can’t create quality content, then perhaps your business doesn’t offer quality products and services – or so the thinking goes.
Use Security Certificates And Logos
A lot of companies rely on being able to get customers to part with their cash through their website. But people are rightly sceptical of websites they haven’t been to before. Do they trust it enough to type in their credit card details?
Building trust is one thing. However, creating a website that develops confidence sufficiently to get people to punch in their financial details is quite another. Often the power of your brand and presentation of your website isn’t sufficient – you need to rely on outside trusted sources. But whom?
The first thing that you should do is ensure that all your payment pages are encrypted, meaning that any data that customers send is scrambled as it travels from their computers to your servers. You can check whether your pages are secure by finding out if they have an in-date, valid SSL certificate. Look at the top left of the URL in your browser. If you see a closed padlock symbol, then it means that customer information is protected and that they’re much more likely to input their payment details. An open padlock is a bad sign and something that customers will avoid.
The next step is to include other trusted labels on your site to communicate to customers that you take website security very seriously. Data suggest that companies that have the Norton or McAfee logos on their websites see an instant boost in trust and conversion rates. You can, therefore, piggyback on the reputation of security brands to boost your small business’s trustworthiness.
Show Off Your Follower Numbers
They say that success breeds success, and nowhere is that more so in the world of digital marketing. Customers want to see that your small business which they haven’t heard of yet is well-known, trusted, and appreciated by their peers.
In the past, convincing a customer of your popularity was difficult. Usually, they had to rely on your marketing material or word-of-mouth from other people in the community. But social media metrics provide an instant, trusted shortcut you can use to demonstrate your appeal.
Show off your social media numbers to people who visit your website. Show them that other people in the community are interested in what you offer and that you’re an established company with a track record of success. Include links to your social media profiles and make a point of the fact new customers have an opportunity to join your legion of followers today.
Include A Detailed About Page
The purpose of the About page isn’t to provide a history of your organization: it’s to build trust with your customers. About pages are an opportunity for you to talk about two things that will help to build trust: who you are and your mission behind setting up your business.
If you run a second-hand tire business, coming up with a convincing mission statement that works in the customer’s interest might seem like a challenge. But when you think about it, it’s quite easy. You could say something like;
“At Greg’s Tyres, we thought it was wrong that people were paying excessive premiums for second-hand tires from other garages. Our mission is to reduce the cost of motoring by slashing the price of tires while maintaining excellent safety.”
About pages show people that there are real people behind a website and that it’s not just a randomly generated front for a scam or a scheme. Visitors want to be able to feel as if they can get in contact with the people behind a website if they choose to do so.
Building a trustworthy website can be a challenge. But by implementing the above advice, you’ll be surprised by how much progress you can make.
