Read the following excerpt from my book ‘The NZ Small Business Superhero’s Marketing Handbook’ and find out how to build your website’s trust and credibility…
Trust and credibility are two related but distinct concepts.
Trust is about whether you will be true to your word, and credibility relates to whether you are any good at what you do. You may be trustworthy, but incompetent (ie trust – yes, credibility – no); or you may be technically very competent but unreliable (ie trust – no,
credibility – yes). Because of their importance to the persuasion process, trust and credibility must ooze from every pore of your website, but the About Us and Contact Us pages provide specific opportunities to score trust and credibility points.
Although the name of the page is “About Us”, the key to its success is actually to make it “about the customer” and why you are a good option for them to do business with. When visitors click on About Us, they want to know not only about you, but more importantly what you can do for them. A good way to approach the About Us page is to tell the story behind the company’s mission. Storytelling can be a powerful marketing tool, and most companies have a story that is worth telling.
Questions your story can cover include:
- Why do you do what you do?
- Who are the people behind the company?
- What kind of people will I be working with/buying from?
- What does your company stand for?
- What does your company stand against?
Your About Us page should also include details (and logos if possible) of any industry or business groups you are a member of, as well as any awards you have won. A simple video of the business owner speaking to the camera about their passion for serving their clients is another effective way of achieving this.
An easy-to-find Contact Us page which lists multiple ways of contacting the company including location maps, phone numbers of key personnel, and a contact form that is closely monitored and responded to are important trust builders. Always provide a physical address as a PO Box and mobile number does not inspire the same sort of trust as a bricks and mortar location. A Google map embedded into the page is also a good idea.
Every website should display genuine testimonials from satisfied customers. These should be dispersed around the site in side panels, as well as on their own page. The testimonials should be specific and should identify the person providing the testimonial. Testimonials are especially effective when they start with a negative, or potentially negative situation, and then illustrate how the company managed to turn the situation around and solve the customer’s problem.
Because the internet can be a very impersonal medium, a powerful guarantee can be a very effective way to overcome the scepticism that web users naturally arrive at your site with. Many visitors who arrive at your site have never heard of you before, so
there is an element of potential risk involved for them. An effective and powerful guarantee can help reverse the risk from them to
you and help persuade the prospect that you are a credible company to do business with.
Consider the following example from innovativepackaging.co.nz:
"The Innovative Guarantee…
We stand behind everything we supply – both from a product quality and a product recommendation point of view. This means
we will replace or refund any product:
- That doesn’t perform to expectations; or is
- Incorrectly recommended by us for a particular use.
We can make these assurances because we only deal in quality products and because we have spent our working lives building up this expertise."
The New Zealand Small Business Superhero’s Internet Marketing Handbook Business owners are often reluctant to offer a powerful guarantee for fear of being exploited by an unscrupulous customer, but experience shows that this happens so rarely it is not a serious risk. A powerful guarantee however, can result in a significantly higher conversion rate, and that will more than make up for any occasions when the guarantee is called up.
To read more, you can purchase my book ‘The NZ Small Business Superhero’s Internet Marketing Handbook’ by clicking here.
