When was
last time you ever did business with someone you didn't trust? When did you last do business with someone that you suspected of being dishonest? Never.This is because trust and credibility are crucial in any business transaction. In fact, engendering these qualities in your visitor is perhaps most important aspect of running a commercial website. Without building trust or credibility, you' ll never be able to sell your product or service(s). This is because your potential customer has no idea who they're dealing with, what your reputation is, and if they're going to get what they expect. If they can't trust you, why would they pick you instead of someone who they can trust?
So, to help you create a trusting environment on your website, I' ve compiled a list of ten things you can do:
1 - Don't Make Outrageous Claims.
This one is common sense, but you would be surprised at how many people break this rule. Have you ever visited a site that's *obviously* been built for a little "mom & pop" shop that claims they're "The #1 Blah Blah Blah in America," "The Best on Planet," or something similar? And what impression does that leave with you? Probably that these people don't know what they're doing or are not to be trusted. So please people, be reasonable with what you say, because people won't believe you otherwise.
2 - Check for and correct any grammar or spelling errors.
I've said this so many times before, but it's SO important that content of your site is essentially flawless. Nothing says, "We're not to be trusted!" better than some spelling and grammar errors. To correct this problem, it's best to get several people to read through your site and point out any errors they see. Also, ALWAYS run any content you've made through a spell checker immediately before posting it.
3 - Give a risk-free guarantee on your product or services (and make it "no questions asked").
Think about beauty of this tactic. It does two things for you right away. First of all, it removes any risk for customer, so they are usually far more likely to buy. Secondly, it builds trust because customer assumes that if you're offering a "no questions asked" guarantee, you're willing to trust them. And if you're willing to trust them, they're usually willing to trust you!
4 - Publish a free newsletter.
It's been proven that it usually takes more than one exposure to a product or service before someone will buy it. By running a free newsletter, you can gain those needed exposures. In process of exposing those potential clients to your product or service repeatedly, you can also build trust with your newsletter if your content is good. If you've got something valuable and helpful to say, people will see you as an expert in your field and therefore trust you. And then you get their business.
5 - Use testimonials!
I can't stress how important putting testimonials on your website is. If people can see proof that you've made previous customers happy, they almost always trust you. However, in order for this to be effective, you've got to do several things: first, NEVER make up testimonials. Second, make sure testimonials are specific about how you helped customer or client instead of something general like, "You guys are great!" Something like that is not specific enough, and you might as well leave it out. Third, make sure people providing testimonials are easy to contact either via an e-mail address or with a website address.
