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How to Build Trust on Website – 3 Ways to the Clients Hearts

Laura Harvsey 11 October, 2019

Brands work on their offline marketing and customer relationship for years. However, with the growth of online digitalization, brands want to know how to build trust on website and social networks.

how to build trust on website main image

Ensuring potential customers visit your website is half the battle. There are dozens of ways to increase your website traffic. Consequently, if you have a steady flow of traffic that means that you’ve conquered at least one strategy. Once you have vanquished that beast, it’s time to turn your head to the other monster lurking in the corner.

If a new website visitor finds their way to your website through organic traffic, social media, or some other channel and is looking for a service, product, or valuable information you offer, they still need to decide if they trust you enough to make a purchase or to digest the information you are presenting.

Trust is earned and not given freely. As a website owner, you have to work to gain the trust of a website visitor. It will prompt them to perform the actions you want them to perform. Be it an article reading or buying an expensive product. After all, they might not know anything about you besides the products you sell. In most cases, there are other websites offering what you are offering.

How to Build Trust on Website – Secrets Revealed

Luckily, there are a handful of simple ways to instill trust in a potential customer to differentiate your website from a competitor. These strategies reinforce trust by creating a more official environment while making your website more human and personal.

1. Social Proof

Social proof is relatively straightforward. It a social phenomenon wherein people copy the actions of others. The reason people do this is that as humans we’re easily influenced by other humans. If someone else used something to their advantage, other people that also want the same end result will take note.

There are many ways to use social proof as a trust-building tool. Moreover, there are probably a hundred ways to use social proof. Let`s come up with the four easiest ways to leverage it on your website.

  • Reviews
  • Word-of-mouth
  • Expert endorsement
  • User-generated content

How to Build Trust on Website with Client Reviews

This is the best way to leverage social proof and is extremely easy if you already have a solid customer base. All you have to do is use review software and ask existing customers if they would review your product or service.

review software image

If you don’t have a personal relationship with customers, you can always ask friends and family or offer incentives for reviews.

If a website visitor sees dozens of glowing reviews, any doubts about what you are offering will be quelled.

Word-of-Mouth Is Your Trust Win

Word-of-mouth is natural but it can be manufactured quickly and easily on a web page. If you have a Twitter or Facebook account and have had customer interactions praising your company you can showcase those on your homepage.

cx tools and customer reviews

This instantly shows website visitors that real people that enjoy what you are offering. It creates a similar impact as someone they actually know is already referring to your product or service.

There are many ways to manufacture word-of-mouth and the more creative the better. The key here is to simulate someone telling a friend about a service or product.

How to Build Trust on Website via Expert Endorsement

The great thing about experts is that they don’t even have to be recognizable. All they need is an official-sounding title. In general, an expert endorsement is extremely powerful because it shows that someone who knows what they are talking about likes your offering. Having testimonials on your webpage from someone with an official-sounding title is powerful for building trust.

influencer marketing

To improve your testimonial, include a picture of the expert to kick the relatability-factor up a notch.

User-Generated Content

A community surrounding a brand is something that instantly instills trust. There are many ways to show that a brand has an interactive community on a website but the best way is a two-step process. First, create a contest on social media to receive an influx of user-generated content and then post the best content on your home page.

User-generated content takes social proof to the next level. It not only shows that people like your product or service but it shows that there are people who are passionate about it as well.

2. Branding and Logos

Using badges and logos is something that can make your website appear more official. For example, if your company is a local service and you are recognized by something like Angie’s List, you should display that badge prominently. This shows that you are recognized by a reputable company in an official manner. More than that, branding is extremely important from the standpoint of visual memory.

Logo design for MotoCMS corporate color image

Another smart move for companies that have payment gateways is to display the logos of the credit cards and payment processing services that are accepted on your website.

3. Show Yourself and Your Team

Having a founder page or a team page is one of the best ways to make your brand and website appeal to the visitors on your website.

how to build tryst on website - team image

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It’s easy to get lost in technology when thinking about your website but the numbers on your search console that you review are real humans looking for value from your website.

Appeal to these visitors in a human way. Therefore, you will build trust is as straightforward as showing you and your team members’ faces with some information about yourselves. Building a team page is as easy as taking a few pictures and writing a few informative lines about everyone. These bios can be as funny or as serious as you want them to be and can even be fun to make.

How to Build Trust on Website – Final Thoughts

Ensuring website visitors trust you and your company is enough to go forward with purchasing your product or service. More than that, it goes a step beyond having a nice looking website. Real effort and thought need to go into how a potential customer views your website and company.

We hope that now you know how to build trust on website. When in doubt, put yourself in a potential customer’s shoes. Go through your website and see if there is anything simple to take your trust factor up a notch. If you look critically, there is always a way to improve in the trust category.

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Tags: client support customer customer experience customer support social media presence user experience web design tips web development
Author: Laura Harvsey