6 ways you can optimize your website to earn customers’ trust
Building trust with your ideal customers is vital to having a successful business. If your customers trust you, they’ll be more likely to make an initial purchase with your business.
Building trust with your customers can also lead to more brand awareness and customer loyalty. In this article, we’re going to outline how you can show customers they’re safe to put their confidence in your company. Let’s get started.
Display multiple forms of social proof on important web pages
Social proof is very important for earning your audience’s trust. People won’t feel like they can just take just your word for it when you say your products and services are great — instead, they’ll want to hear it from others just like them.
There are a lot of different forms of social proof that you can display on your website. You could showcase strong star ratings, which let people quickly see others’ opinions on a scale of one to five. Or, you could display testimonial videos that provide a more in-depth look at the quality of your business’s offerings. Media mentions and the names of high-profile clients are also very powerful for proving you’re great at what you do.
Be sure to display social proof on your homepage, as well as on the product or service pages most relevant to the review in question. This will ensure that it’s seen by people who are looking at a specific product or service on your website.
Let’s take a look at a few examples of businesses that do a great job of showcasing social proof on their websites as inspiration.
US Search, a public records search engine, harnesses the power of social proof well on its homepage. As you can see above, US Search has an “As Seen On” section where they showcase some of their mentions in the media.
They highlight CBS, CNBC, CNN, and Entrepreneur — all are well-known business news outlets. If well-regarded media outlets are willing to speak about a product, there must be something worth talking about! So, people will see these mentions and be more likely to trust US Search as a reliable business.
If you secure positive media mentions for your business, be sure to highlight them on your homepage. People tend to trust major outlets that they have already heard or — if you showcase any mentions on your website, you’ll be more likely to earn website visitors’ confidence and purchases.
My Canada Payday, a personal loan provider in Canada, displays their social proof on their homepage, as well, but they take a slightly different approach. As you can see above, My Canada Payday notes that they have more than 700 reviews averaging at five stars! This shows website visitors that My Canada Payday has impressed and helped their customers time and time again, leading to a great overall rating — this will help to build trust with prospective customers. After all, if so many people have had a great experience of dealing with the company, why wouldn’t future customers?
Consider collecting simple star ratings from your customers and showcasing them on your website. This will help your website visitors quickly and easily see the quality of your work according to your past customers. Reviews like this can go a long way in building trust with prospective customers, helping raise your conversion rate!
Finally, Doors Plus, a retailer and installer of doors, also displays customer reviews on its website, though in a slightly different way. They have written reviews featuring the pictures and names of their past customers. This adds credibility to the reviews, as viewers can see they are provided by a real person.
Plus, in addition to their written testimonials, they have conducted video interviews with past clients. As you can see in the image above, Doors Plus has interviewed one of its past customers regarding their front door transformation. The company does a great job of introducing the client and their home. They also show the before and after of the renovations, demonstrating just how much of a difference these quality doors can make! Viewers can see that the company’s customers are real people who genuinely appreciated the services they were provided, and can also see the results for themselves, which is very effective.
Consider using video testimonials on your own website to build trust with your prospective customers. This can be particularly useful if you have a service-based business, as video interviews can offer a lot more detail than a short sentence or star review would.
Use content to help and educate your audience
If your customers see that you really care about helping them, they’ll be much more likely to trust you and buy from your business. Content can be great for this! If you can educate your customers about your field, they’ll see that you’re a credible expert and know what you’re doing.
Here are a few different types of content that you can create to educate your audience:
- Detailed guides that outline how your products or services work
- Tutorials that outline processes people want to learn
- Ultimate guides that outline everything a reader needs to know about a subject
- Buying guides or comparison pieces that help people make informed purchases.
Let’s take a look at an example of content to provide you with inspiration.
TurboTax, an online tax preparation software company, has a lot of great content on its blog. Here, they answer a lot of common customer questions, including “why is my tax refund not what I expected?”.
In the article, they discuss when the IRS makes changes to a refund, why, and how to be prepared for these situations in the future. By writing and publishing content like this, TurboTax makes it clear to their website visitors that they care about helping them — not just taking their money. This will then go a long way towards earning their ideal customers’ trust, which is likely to lead to more sales for the business.
Consider answering common customer questions on your blog. If you do this, people will see that your business cares about solving problems that they have, making them more likely to want to be loyal customers.
Ensure your website provides a great user experience
Your website is the virtual storefront of your business — this means that it needs to give prospective customers the best possible impression of your company if you want to earn their trust.
Fortunately, there are a lot of different ways you can ensure your website looks professional and is easy to use. Here are a few different suggestions:
- Have a clean, straightforward design that isn’t too cluttered
- Use high-quality images that aren’t stretched or blurry
- Create quality content that doesn’t have any spelling mistakes or grammatical errors
- Design an easy-to-use navigation system that helps people quickly find the products or services they are looking for
- Make sure your website is responsive to all types of devices
- Made sure that your website is accessible to people with disabilities and able to be viewed on a screen reader
If you can provide a positive UX, you’re more likely to help people find the products, services, or information they’re looking for. This will help you build trust with website visitors and make more sales.
Make it as easy as possible for people to get in touch with you
If someone has a question or concern about your business but can’t determine how to get in touch with your customer service team to address it, they’ll be much less likely to trust you and be unlikely to make a purchase. This means that, if you want to earn your audience’s trust, you need to make it very easy for people to contact you from your website.
There are a lot of different contact methods you can offer, like phone, email, and live messaging services. Just be sure to only choose a few, or you’ll risk spreading your team out too thin. If you’re concerned about this, you could also outsource your customer service in order to ensure that you’re equipped to handle all incoming inquiries.
Not sure what platforms to commit to? Consider sending out a survey to your customers and ask them what platforms they’re likely to use and how you can make your customer service experience better. This can really help you to improve your customer service processes!
Make sure your important policies are easy to access and read
If customers can’t find information about different policies your company has, they might not view your website as transparent and struggle to trust you. This means that you need to ensure that all of your policies are easy to find and easy to understand. You could even outline them in a graphic or video to make them more engaging. This will make people more likely to view them!
Be sure that your privacy policies, delivery and returns policies, and payments policies are all posted somewhere on your website that’s easy to find. Consider attaching these policies to your menu navigation or footer in order to ensure that people can find them, regardless of what page they’re currently on.
You also need to make your policies simple and engaging for the best results. Break them up with numbered lists, bullet points, headers, and titles to help ensure that they are scannable and easy to comprehend. You could even create a table of contents to help people find the specific policies they’re looking for with ease!
Take steps to humanize your business
Customers feel far more comfortable dealing with a person than a faceless business entity. In order to earn their trust, you should make an effort to put a face to your business using your website.
Here are a few different ways you can put faces to your business:
- Have an about page with photos of your staff
- Introduce yourself and how you started your business on your homepage or “About” page
- Spotlight your employees in your blog content
- Publish behind-the-scenes content that shows what it’s like to work at your business.
Let’s take a look at an example of a business that humanizes their business as inspiration.
Smart Engines, a document recognition software and ID scanner app company, does a great job of humanizing their business on their website’s about page. They wrote biographies of the people on their leadership team and introduced some of the company, outlining their history and qualifications. Information like this shows website visitors that there are actual experts behind the company, which helps build trust with the reader.
Consider doing something similar on your website. Take the time to write biographies about your leadership team, outlining their background and qualifications. This will make people more likely to see your business as human, thus making them more likely to trust you.
Summary
Building trust with customers is very important to growing your business, improving your brand awareness, and ultimately increasing your sales. In this article, we discussed building trust with great customer service, behind-the-scenes content, and top-notch imagery.
With our tips in mind, start thinking about how you can improve your website to build trust with your prospective customers! It won’t be long before you start to see the results.
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Author bio & headshot:
Aaron Haynes is an entrepreneur who often shares his insights into the world of digital marketing. With more than a decade of experience in business development, he helps businesses and agencies develop a data-driven approach to search engine control. You can find more from him on Twitter and LinkedIn.
Bogdan Sandu, a seasoned designer with 15 years of diverse experience, has been designing websites since 2008.
Renowned for his expertise in logo design and visual branding, Bogdan has developed a multitude of logos for various clients.
His skills extend to creating posters, vector illustrations, business cards, and brochures. Additionally, Bogdan's UI kits were featured on marketplaces like Visual Hierarchy and UI8.
Renowned for his expertise in logo design and visual branding, Bogdan has developed a multitude of logos for various clients.
His skills extend to creating posters, vector illustrations, business cards, and brochures. Additionally, Bogdan's UI kits were featured on marketplaces like Visual Hierarchy and UI8.
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