How to Build Consumer Trust On Your Website

81% of consumers believe that trusting a brand is extremely important in their buying journey. Unfortunately, only 33% of those same survey respondents indicated they actually trust the brands they buy from. Not only does this indicate that consumers are challenged to find brands they trust, it indicates that they’re consciously aware of brand behaviors that make a brand trustworthy. 

This means that start-up companies find themselves stuck not knowing how to make their website, often the first impression you have on a client, into something their clients and customers can actually trust and find reliable. 

It may be easy to simply overlook the importance of brand trust, since many consumers still buy from brands they don’t trust. What one may overlook with this mindset, however, is that you’re not likely to build returning customers that way, nor are you emphasizing a worthy point of differentiation with your audience. If you invest in building trust, you’re investing in returning and happy customers and clientele. 

We’ve compiled a list of some of our favorite methods to make your website one that your clients and customers can fully trust and support. 

Make Yourself Verified 

One of the biggest fears consumers have is that the websites they access are not real businesses. Seems basic, but it’s fundamental for good reason. Since they’re in a virtual environment and are not physically touching or interacting with your products, customers may be uneasy giving their information to a site that isn’t verified as trustworthy. There are a few things that you can do to mitigate this issue at limited expense and hassle to your business. 

Google My Business

Though it may seem a bit superfluous, getting yourself verified on Google My Business is one crucial step to getting your customers to trust your business. By doing so, your location, website, reviews and contact information will appear when customers look for you up. By having this information accessible to your customers, it shows that you have nothing to hide. 

Googling a business and finding that it doesn’t have this basic information could be seen as a red flag, even if the company just never thought of verifying themselves. 

You and your business can take getting verified one step further by getting verified as a business on social media platforms and on other websites associated with your business. The more social proof you have, the better.

Security Certificates 

Another way to verify yourself to your customers is through security certificates and trust seals. Over 30% of all reported fraud cases reported to the National Retail Federation happened in online shopping environments, potentially on websites seemingly just like your own. 

By obtaining trust seals, you’re able to show that your website is a legitimate place to spend money. Most importantly, SSL certificates allow you to show that a viewer’s browser is on a secure connection to your web server and they’re at a decreased risk for cybersecurity attacks. That little green lock means a lot to your customers, after all, and it makes them more likely to trust you and your business.  

Privacy Policies

Security certificates alone don’t guarantee that your consumers trust you. You have to prove to your customers that your website doesn’t condone or allow anyone to just steal their information. 

One way you can do this is by including a clear and simple privacy policy regarding customers’ information on your website. In one case, adding a line about privacy information on the checkout page increased sales by over 15%. 

Give Your Customers Proof

Even though you may be an online-only business, providing proof of some physical presence is extremely important to showing your customers you’re a real company. 

You can provide contact information, either through a form or some direct emails, to indicate to your website’s visitors that there are real people on the other side of the monitor and that the website doesn’t exist completely in a vacuum. 

You can also include about-us pages using real photos of your employees to show your customers you are a real company with real people and a real company culture. Including links to product reviews is another way you can show your customers that others have purchased your products and services and have had an actual interaction with your brand. Don’t shy away from negative reviews either - ownership and recovery of a poor experience with your brand is an impactful way to prove to your prospective clients that you stand behind your products and services.

Design Matters

Regardless of the information you have that you want to provide to your clients and customers, if you don’t present it professionally, you aren’t likely to build that trust. Having all of the information that your client wants easily accessible proves to them that you are who you say you are and that you’ve taken the time to care about their browsing experience. 

That’s where we come in. Carrboro Creative is a results-driven creative agency that offers website care plans, custom website design, brand development, graphic design, SEO, and more. Contact us today for a free quote, and let us show you how we can help you with your brand marketing and reputation building for your brand, business, and website.