This is part 3 in my series about website basics for small business owners. We’ve talked about how to treat website visitors as heroes (because heroes have problems they need to solve) and then the importance of letting the hero know they’ve come to the right place (“I do this, so you can do that…”). We’ll be sticking with our new painter example and developing it further. This was our original “good” hero image from the previous article.
Just because you say you can do something doesn’t mean you can. Just because you see it on a website, doesn’t make it true (I know you’re shocked…) and there’s probably an avalanche of falsehoods against a flurry of truths. Be careful out there people. Look again at the above image and ask yourself, why should our hero trust you? Because you said you’re professional? Ooooh, nobody has ever lied on the internet before.
There are 4 key ways of establishing trust when a hero visits your site.
1. Social
There’s safety in numbers. If there’s 100 reviews (with a high average of course) and a bunch of really positive testimonials, use them. For an established and reputable business this should be easy, but what should our new painter do? Well, presumably they’ve painted friends and family homes (if not, offer to do some jobs on the cheap). Ask everyone for a testimonial and review. If you’re a member of an association or guild, make sure you use their logo to reassure people. Everyone started somewhere, the point is, get started…
Let’s imagine our painter has a few testimonials from friends and has a few reviews on Google. Something like this might make all the difference in terms of developing trust.
2. Transparency
Who are you? Let people know with a simple ‘About’ page. Use real photos not stock photos and have clear contact information. Keep pricing transparent. Don’t leave the hero guessing how much it will cost to get you to help them, make it as clear as possible. For products this is easy, but for services there’s no harm in saying “starting from”. Our painter might use “starting from” because no two jobs will be identical.
3. Visual and Technical.
Broken links = broken trust. Slow to load = testing my patience. Site looks like it was cobbled together by 5 year olds after an intense ice-cream frenzy = no thanks.
Keep your site fast, clean, easy to navigate and make sure those links work. Let the site reflect the level of professionalism they can expect from you.
4. Guarantees
Reassure your hero. If you sell a product you can always offer a money back guarantee, if you sell a service, you can offer a service level agreement (SLA). For services, make sure you have a Terms of Service page. If you’re asking for personal information (phone number, email address), make sure you have a Privacy Policy page.
Summary
Don’t yell “Trust Me”, make it happen implicitly with good design, trust markers, guarantees and transparency.