Sales guru Zig Ziglar once said that there are only 4 reasons why people won’t buy from you. No need, no money, not in a hurry, no trust.
I think it is safe to say that if your potential customers do not trust you and your business, they will be reluctant to buy from you. All of your marketing materials play into that. Your logo, business cards, website, storefront, and more. Heck, even your personal appearance once they meet you face to face influences whether they will trust you or not. So much plays into the decision they will make about whether or not to do business with you.
But we are here to talk about websites and specifically 10 ways to build trust through your website and get more conversions
- The #1 way to build trust is to show your personality. So often people are afraid of showing who they are as an organization. People want to know that they will have a connection with you. It is part of the reason we have a quirky website. That is who we are. If you are an extremely conservative organization that wants to work with an IBM-like marketing agency then we are probably not the type of agency for you.
- Would definitely have to be building credibility through the words of others. If you are in business then you have to collect testimonials from your clients or customers. Posting these on the website will help earn trust as you will have shown yourself as someone worthy of doing business with.
- Is the professionalism and knowledge you share on your blog. Presenting yourself as an expert in any given field and letting others know what you are focused on by writing blog posts is an easy way to build trust. They can see by the body of work in your blog that you are knowledgable. Make sure to update it regularly so that people know you are active. Also, the more you update on a specific topic the better you will do in Search Engine Ranking.
- You need to be accessible. List a physical address, phone number and email or a contact form. And if someone contacts you… reply to them. I can’t tell you how many times we hear from clients that they contacted other agencies and never got a response.
- Professional organizations and accreditations show trust through affiliation. If you are a member of local Chambers of Commerce or Professional Organizations then make sure to feature those on your website.
- Imagery. If at all possible DO NOT USE STOCK PHOTOS OF PEOPLE. Nothing kills an impression faster than your typically stock photo of a group of people with a perfect smile and equal representation. Unless of course you are a dentists office that just happens to employ an equal number of men and women from a somewhat equal racial profile and everyone has a perfect white smile. Stock Photos should be heavily vetted. The question you have to ask yourself is whether it represents your business or not.
- It is important that the design of your site looks professional. Many of us don’t think of design on a daily basis, but companies like Apple, Method and Nike have shown that a focus on design does matter. Make sure to pay attention to typography, colors that match and are pleasing, consistency in navigation, imagery and more. Doing so will assure visitors to your site that you pay attention to the details, and we all want to do business with people that are going to pay attention to our details.
- Ease of use. Your site has to be easy to use. Making the navigation and content accessible on mobile devices, tablets and desktops means that people will be able to find the information they are looking for quickly. If you have tons of content make sure there is a search field that works. And, again, make sure they can contact you if they are not finding what they are looking for.
- In the world of websites we call the organization of content, Information Architecture. Part of your process when putting together a trustable website is making sure you are covering your bases with your content. What questions will visitors on your site have? Will they want to know about the company? Will they be asking about your services? Or how to contact you? Making sure that you are organized and provide the necessary information will show them that you have put some thought into your website.
- Security. Recently Google added a parameter to their algorithm. They are giving a bit of a boost to sites that have validated who they are by using what is called an SSL certificate. An SSL certificate is something you are probably familiar with seeing on commerce sites. It used to be a little padlock icon that you looked for to make sure you were dealing with a seller that was legit. Well, that now carries over to other types of sites as well. If you are looking to build trust an SSL Certificate is a pretty easy way of showing people you have been verified and are who you say you are.
Building trust is one of the easiest ways to encourage people to do business with you. Here at Blue Fish, when we are working with clients we are extremely focused on two things, building trust and increasing conversion. We make sure that every website we build has been heavily reviewed for those two things. We design the sites to show an organizations personality. We also make sure to have a discussion as part of our kick-off meetings regarding conversion. We often find that business owners or organizations are unsure of how they want to convert people on a website. It is a different way of thinking, but we feel like your website should be the silent salesperson that is constantly working for you in the background. Pair this up with some marketing automation and you'll see some real results! If you are interested in learning more then send me an email and we'll see if there is a fit.