We can’t just ‘hope’ that lots of traffic will result in conversions, can we?
Often traffic is just people clicking, glancing into our ‘shop window’ at what we have to offer, almost ‘tourists’ to our website or social media platforms.
Sometimes, working in a digital world, it’s easy to lose sight of the fact we are humans communicating with humans. Putting people first, aligning with the needs and interests of your target market, and developing relationships through engagement and good quality valuable content is critical to building trust.
How to build customer trust
We can ‘talk the talk’ about great products or services, but building customer trust means ‘walking the walk’; delivering the exceptional products, services and experiences we’ve promised, consistently, and making any interactions with our brand value-add and solution-focused yet conversational and caring – it’s about how people feel about your brand. When you have people’s attention and can demonstrate authority, you are very likely to have trust, and trust is what enables people to buy from you because they feel safe knowing you are the expert.
Building brand trust isn’t really any different to building trust in any other relationship in life, is it? Because trust has the same components no matter what the relationship. Do you remember that teacher who made you feel they had your best interests and future well-being at heart, the one who made the subject interesting and encouraged you to be your best. For me, it was my GCSE history teacher, I even went on to do the subject at A Level because he was SO good – passionate, fun yet firm, and engaging (I got an A!).
If you build your brand on a foundation of trust, the traffic and conversions will come, and clients will stay with you (this is critical to a sustainable business) as trust also builds customer loyalty. Visitors to your website will no longer be ‘tourists’ but spend more time engaging in your content and even sharing it with their networks. When people trust your brand (business), they are more likely to share your content, which is hugely powerful. It’s the ‘next level’ in referrals / 3rd party recommendations and expands your reach exponentially.
Actionable elements
Building trust relies on a few key actionable elements:
- Be authentic, consistent, and transparent.
- Communicate effectively and respectfully.
- Be proactive – don’t wait for your clients to come to you.
- Show empathy and understanding.
- Be reliable – show your clients that they can count on you.
- Demonstrate value and impact.
- Seek feedback and learning opportunities.
Building customer trust is not a ‘one-off’ activity, it takes time, commitment and potentially a ‘step into the unknown’ but it’s a sound investment so that you’re not relying on ‘hope’ your traffic to convert…
Here’s ‘hoping’ you enjoyed this short article, drop us a note if you have more to add as this really only touches on the subject of ‘building trust, not just traffic’.
