As we bring our know like trust series to a conclusion, we end on trust. Once we have introduced someone to our company and we’ve gotten them to like us, now we need to close the deal by building trust. Today, we’ll talk through some of the things that we can do to increase trust with prospective customers. The first thing is sharing our experience. One of the key things that can help close new business is to share with them the experience that you have, specifically if it’s in the field that they’re looking for. For example, you might say, “We have 10 years of experience in marketing,” or even better, say your customer is a roofing company saying, “We’ve been working in residential roofing marketing for over 15 years.” That’s a hard offer for someone to turn down. A second component of showing experience is showing customer testimonials. The richer these can be with real names, pictures, and details, the better they will be at building trust with potential customers. Second question, does your customer have a good experience when they come to look at your experience? When they interact with your brand, your website, your social media, is it clear who you are?
Are all the detailed points of your brand and your website contributing to that trust over time? Or is it ruining that trust by not being clear and not being effective? The third thing is, are you able to showcase any trust signals for your brand? The Better Business Bureau used to be the clear sign of a trustworthy business, but I think they’ve lost some of the shine off their endorsement over time. Things like reviews from Google, local chamber memberships, or membership in a governing body for your industry can show legitimacy and help to seal the deal. Another thing that’s important is a clear path forward. Do clients know who to go to to start business with you or how to go about getting into business with you? Is it a call? Is it an email? Is it set pricing? Making the process clear can help build trust with the customer. And the last thing I want to say is if you can find a way to share your expertise with your potential clients, whether that be through white papers or videos or events or podcasts, it can help build trust through expertise. The more you have to share, the deeper that trust will be.
Now, what are some things that hurt our efforts to build trust? One, stock photos. Almost everyone can spot a stock photo when it is used anymore. And stock photos can trigger quality concerns for potential customers. You may have inconsistent branding, visual or otherwise. And so what I mean by that is if your visual branding, meaning your logo, has multiple versions that aren’t the same logo kit over different places, it might be a mark of concern for potential customers as they seek to build mental recognition of who your company is. Additionally, if your messaging communications vary wildly in tone from one place to another, it can be off-putting and show a lack of professionalism, which can be a concern for potential customers. Number three, if your website obscures who owns or leads the company, it can cause potential customers to wonder why that information is being hidden. If your company has great leadership, you should flaunt it. And then finally, you may have reviews, but the more generic a review is from a customer, the more fake it will seem. And you don’t want fake or seemingly fake quotes out there or testimonials out there.
It would be better to have no review than a fake testimonial or a testimonial so devoid of specific information that it could seem fake. Keep track of your best reviews, ones that show passion for the service you provided and include details about what made that service great. So are you ready to utilize the know-like-trust funnel in your business? Hopefully, this podcast mini-series has given you a leg up to getting started. If you’re implementing the funnel within your business or you’re looking for a little help getting started, we’d love to hear from you. You can shoot me an email at kevin@adelsbergermarketing.com.
