As the old saying goes, you have only one chance to make a first impression. Building trust cannot be achieved by one single action. Trust is achieved by continually doing lots of little things right. Here is a list of 50 of those little things to get you started. Please feel free to add some more in the comments below.
Here are 50 simple actions you can take to get started.
Trust is built by doing lots of small things which paint a picture in the mind of your customers of you as an honest and credible expert.
Your website design is the first impression your customers get; make sure it is professional, relevant and clearly says what you do.
Navigation must be intuitive. If visitors can’t find what they are looking for easily, they will question your competence in providing what they want.
Make the website personal by giving it its own voice and personality. Remember people buy people.
Follow the HEART rule of creating online content. (Reminder: HEART stands for Honest, Exclusive, Accurate, Relevant and Timely.)
Use language that is appropriate to the audience. It will build empathy.
Regularly add new content to your site. It shows that the business is alive and kicking.
Check all links. Doubts will quickly form in your visitors’ minds if links don’t work or, worse still, take them to error pages.
Good grammar and spelling matter. Errors give the impression of sloppiness and carelessness.
Never make outrageous and unbelievable claims, like “Read this blog and you’ll be a millionaire by the end of the week”. People are used to scams, get-rich-quick schemes and rip-offs.
Publish REAL testimonials and third-party endorsements. Try to always use real names and link to websites where possible. Some sites show images of letters sent by happy customers.
Publish case studies about customers you have helped, who use your product, have read your book, etc.
Don’t put down, curse or insult competitors. It’s unprofessional. It is better to offer an objective comparison of competitive services or products.
Focus on building your long-term reputation, not on making quick sales.
Write articles for humans, not search engines.
Make your ‘About Us’ page personal and comprehensive. It plays an important part in making visitors feel comfortable that real people are behind the site.
Publish your photo or the photos of the key people involved with the site on the About Us page. Again, this reinforces the fact that there are real people behind the screenshots.
Clearly identify who is behind the site. Nothing creates more suspicion than a site that tries to hide the identity of its publishers.
On the ‘Contact Us’ page, provide an email form, phone number, fax and address of the company. In Europe, it is a legal requirement for sites taking money, but even sites driven by advertising will benefit from openness.
Provide a telephone number that people can call to talk to a person.
Provide email addresses linked to the website domain (e.g. mark@talkcontent.com), not addresses from free webmail services such as Hotmail and Gmail.
Never lie to make money. A lot of people write glowing reports about a product or service just to earn affiliate commissions. It is very short-sighted to lie to visitors to sell them rubbish. They’ll never come back or, worse still, they’ll actively write negative things about your site on forums and blogs.
Think carefully before adding irrelevant reciprocal links to your site. If your site is about organic food and you have links to poker sites people are going to question your integrity.
Think carefully about the adverts you display on your site. Ensure that they are relevant to your subject and audience.
Be explicit when you are being paid to endorse a product or service. An advertorial is fine as long as it is transparent. Paid-to-post is corrupting the web and is already will experience a user backlash. I never read websites that accept payment for posting.
Write and publish your privacy policy. Be clear about what you will and will not do with any personal data you collect. State that you adhere to all data protection laws. Make it easy to read and don’t use legal gobbledygook.
Write and publish a security policy. State what measures you take to ensure that all transactions are secure.
Ensure that you have a security and privacy policy which is linked from the footer on every page. Make the link more prominent on all the order pages.
Clearly publish your guarantee. I would recommend making it a 100% money-back guarantee if possible to lower the risk for your customers.
Clearly state your refund and returns policy.
Piggyback off reputable brands. If you use PayPal, put the PayPal logo on your site. If you have a merchant services account with a major bank like Citibank or HSBC, put its logo on your site.
Use Google search on your site for two reasons. First, it is a great search solution which will help your visitors find what they are looking for. Second, having the Google name on your site instills trust.
If there are well-known industry associations for your subject, join up and put their logos on your site.
Have a forum on your site and respond quickly to questions. Have the attitude that you are happy to help others without receiving immediate reward. As the old saying goes, ‘Givers always gain.’
Allow people to comment on articles. Interactivity and an exchange of views build community and a sense of belonging.
If people provide constructive criticism or comments in the forum, don’t delete them, but respond with your point of view.
Have a Flickr account with a photo gallery connected to the site e.g. photos of relevant places and events you have been to
Put images of the credit cards you accept on every page of the order process.
Use the words ‘secure website’ whenever you try to get any information from visitors, including newsletter sign-ups, forum input and payment.
On every page, state, “We take your privacy and security very seriously.” Link the statement to the security and privacy policy.
Always remember, reputations take years to build and seconds to destroy.
If you are selling a subscription, offer a low-cost, entry-level option. This could be a one-day taster, a free trial or 100% money back guarantee.
Use a high level of encryption when processing credit cards. Make sure you make your clients aware of all the steps you are taking to keep their data safe.
Only ask for the information from customers that you really need. For example, for an email newsletter sign-up, the only information you REALLY need is an email address, so that is all you should ask for
If you have pricing on your website, make it transparent. I recently went to buy a book which was advertised for $10. When I checked out, they added tax, post and packaging, and the final bill was $19.50. I didn’t buy it as I felt they had deliberately tried to mislead me.
Keep your SSL certificate up to date. Let people know you are using SSL encryption and who the provider is.
Go to industry events
Get photos of you talking with other recognised experts in yout niche
Get celebrity endorsement
Don't create pages with 'under construction' as the only content
If a customer gives you information or money always have a follow on page and an email which explains the next step. For example if someone signs up for your email newsletter send them an email telling them how often it will be sent, what it will contain and how to unsubscribe
You can never do too much to build trust. Most of it comes down to common sense and good business practice. To ensure that you are continually improving your trustworthiness, every time you go to a website, ask yourself whether you trust it or not. Then ask yourself why you have formed the opinion you have. Continually try to learn what makes a site trustworthy or untrustworthy and implement the relevant changes to your site.
TalkContent is a site for those that are passionate about creating content. Whether you're a blogger, a website owner or a large online magazine publisher, this is the site for you.
