Here’s the deal.
Most business owners are (relatively) trustworthy.
I’m sure if I met you in person, I’d find out you’re a really nice person.
Problem is – not all of your prospects get a chance to meet you in person.
So they may only ever judge you based on your website.
Or your social media accounts.
Which – depending on how crap your website or Facebook business page is – could be a bad thing.
We end up in a situation where great businesses miss out on making more sales, because there’s a mismatch between their online trustworthiness and their actual trustworthiness.
See below:
Obviously, if there’s no trust – then there’s no enquiry or sale.
So how can we fix this?
There’s a number of things you can do.
Here’s 12 of my favourites:
- Testimonials – This is the obvious one. Can you have video or written testimonials showcased on your website showing happy customers of your product / service? If you haven’t got any yet, go get some. Video is ideal, following by photo of person + text and then text only. Here’s a sample from The Entourage.
- Use actual photos of yourself – Nothing says generic quite like a stock photo. Use photos of yourself through your website. Let us put a face to the name. Some people have hangups about this, but if you aren’t going to do this it means people will find it harder to bond with you and your business. Here’s an example from Neil Patel.
- Video from the owner – This doesn’t need to be anything fancy. It just needs to be a 30-60 second video welcoming them to your website and letting them know what they can get out of it. It goes a long way in letting your visitors know you’re a nice person just like them. Here’s an awesome, friendly example from Lifestyle Clotheslines:
- Mention your community – The legends from Bluewire Media nail several social proof elements on their website. This one shows us that they have a large community of people who keep updated with their latest content. There’s a good chance if over 15,000 love what they do, then you might too.
- Clear contact details – This is a realllllllly basic one, but can go a long way in showing your a legit business. If you have a physical location, mention that. If you have a contact email address, mention that. This will depend on your preferred communication channels though. Below image is from Lube Mobile.
- Featured in the media – I recommend doing this even if it is just the local paper. That still matters to local customers. If you haven’t been featured in the media and would like to – I’d suggest checking out SourceBottle.net or HARO (Help A Reporter Out). Start with being featured in one publication, then piggyback off that to lock in your second, third etc. The below screengrab is from Ramit Sethi.
- Big Brands – If you’ve worked with big brands before, say so and benefit from leveraging their credibility. Below is from my About page.
- Security Seals – This is more common for e-commerce stores who process credit card transactions through the website.
- Experience / Results – If you have achieved awesome results for a number of people, or have been in business 5, 10 or 15+ years, tell us that. If you are newer to business, you can say X people served in the last 30 days perhaps. If the numbers are really low you may want to add stuff like this in 6 months time when you have got runs on the board. Below is from The Entourage homepage.
- Industry Associations – What industry associations are you a part of? Many associations charge a lot and don’t deliver much value in return (haha) so you may as well get some social proof from them by adding their logo to your site. Below image is from Lube Mobile.
- Qualifications (Certifications, Relevant Degrees etc.) – Have you achieved partner status with a credible brand, or completed certain qualifications. I would suggest only mentioning relevant / recent ones. Most people won’t care that you have a Certificate II in Hospitality from 10 years ago.
- Awards – Have you won any awards or been recognised for your work? Get the maximum value from the award(s) and tell everyone about it.
You don’t need to use all of the above, but it’s good to know all the different ways you can convey you’re trustworthy.
How many of these 12 have you got on your website?
Let me know in the comments.
Or not.
