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Building a successful business can take time. After all, there are various aspects you need to execute well: finding the right market, creating a great product, and ensuring that your customer service is on point. That’s not to mention your sales, marketing, and financial management. Those are the great ways you can win customer trust even though your business is just starting up.
However, one of the first things you must figure out is how to build trust as a new business. When starting from scratch, you don’t have a long-standing reputation to rely on. And you’re fighting an uphill battle because 55% of customers now trust businesses even less than in the past.
Give yourself an edge over the competition by winning trust with these strategies:
Transparency and Honesty
Brand transparency is very important to win over your customers and employees. You have to earn your customers’ trust, but it won’t come to you out of thin air. And the reality is there are no shortcuts. You can hype up your products until the end of time with jazzy marketing campaigns, but the proof is always in the pudding.
Be upfront with customers when it comes to what your company is about. Tell them exactly what products and services you can provide (and what you can’t). This honesty is disarming and refreshing.
Now, obviously, it’s not your job to disparage your own business. However, there are natural disadvantages or features that your product lacks. When you’re upfront about them, bringing them up before others have a chance to, you turn what would be a negative into a positive. You will build trust through pure honesty.
By being transparent and honest, you will not only gain trust but also boost your sales
Reviews and Testimonials
Did you know that the average customer is going to read ten reviews before making an online purchase? It makes sense, when you think about it. People want to be confident in their decisions, because today anyone can set up an online sales page or run advertisements.
If you don’t even have one, two, or three reviews yet, where do you stand compared to your competition? Starting out, reviews and testimonials might be hard to come by. But with a smart approach, you can generate several early on.
Start by offering free products or services to customers to generate social proof. While it takes some investment, it will pay off in greater profits that boost your growth.
Asking for reviews can be as simple as including a short message in your purchase confirmation email. Additionally, you can follow up with an email a short while after the purchase and ask the customer about their experience.
This will not only get you some reviews and testimonials, but also present you as a brand that doesn’t forget about their customers once they hand over their money.
Remain Consistent
When you think of gourmet dining, McDonald’s certainly isn’t the first restaurant that comes to mind. But what they lack in quality, they make up for in consistency. You can be fairly certain that what you order will taste the same as last time.
Being consistent in your business, your offerings, and conduct builds trust and brand loyalty. You are essentially giving your customers a mental shortcut. They don’t have to think long and hard. Instead, they can solve their problems by coming to you again and again — resulting in repeat business that scales your company.
Offer Value in Advance
A great concept that expert marketers use is offering value in advance. Internalize it, and make it a part of your brand’s DNA.
If you are willing to help your market without asking for anything in return, their trust for you will shoot through the roof.
For example, if you sell a yoga course, put out video content that shows some basic poses and instructions. Perhaps you post this on social media, or reserve it for your email subscribers.
You can always place your more profitable and advanced offers behind paywalls, but once you build up enough trust, your customers will feel comfortable paying more for your core offer.
Put a Face to the Name
When we see another human face, our brains light up like crazy. Neurons start firing, and our mind starts paying more attention. Likewise, customers reward those companies that put a face to the name.
Take, for instance, the UK cosmetics company Lush, which puts stickers on the packaging of their products with pictures of the people who made them. Companies who adopt this strategy are far more trustworthy than anonymous corporations.
Customers are much savvier today than before and they have many more options. With so much potential for shady business, scams, and fraud, you want to demonstrate that you are out there in the open, doing business the ethical way.
Know Your Target Audience
Marketing is all about knowing who your ideal customer is. It’s the starting point for any great business. If you don’t know who you’re speaking to, your marketing will be vague.
And if something appeals to everyone, it appeals to no one. But when you demonstrate that you know your customers on a deeper level, they trust that you’ve done your homework and can offer a meaningful contribution...
The process starts by creating an in-depth customer avatar. This involves defining who they are in terms of age, location, lifestyle, challenges, and more. For instance, if you sell management consulting services and your primary customers are operations managers, your avatar may look like this:
“Sarah”
- Title: Chief Operations Officer (COO)
- Interested in business, finances, and productivity
- Has an MBA degree
- Works for a medium-sized business
- Is primarily concerned with boosting employee output and cutting costs
This way, you can imagine a single person to address in all your sales, marketing, and content campaigns. Your ideal customer will feel like your business was created exclusively to help them solve their specific problems. Out of that, trust is born.
However, what if you don’t have enough information to create such a profile yet? There are various avenues available today that entrepreneurs of the past would only dream of.
One excellent resource is Google’s Keyword Planner. It allows you to see how many searches there are for various keywords and phrases relevant to your market. With these terms as a starting point, you can ensure that your organic and paid traffic campaigns mirror that language to attract the right customers.
Create Relevant Content
When you have a clear customer profile defined, you are empowered to create more engaging and relevant content. When it appeals to real needs, your content will always generate more clicks and conversions.
Consider changing up the kind of content you create. Blog posts, videos, and images all have their place in your online content arsenal. You can distribute them across your websites, social media platforms, and email lists for further reach.
When you constantly provide engaging content that solves your market’s problems, you will be more trustworthy as the authority in your space.
Follow Up
Many businesses go for “one-off” transactions. However, what is truly powerful is recurring business. The real profit is made from a lifetime brand enthusiast, not just a one-time customer.
Follow up with your customers early and often. Check in with a phone call, an automated email message, or an in-person visit. It doesn’t have to be groundbreaking, but it should communicate that you are available for any future questions, concerns, or purchases.
Winning Customer's Trust
It’s great if your prospect likes you and knows you. However, they will only truly do business with you if they trust you as well. It is vital to build trust with customers as a new business in reliable ways.
You are competing with companies that have the benefit of an existing reputation and a well-known product. If you are going to make a name for yourself, you need to implement the steps above.
While you won’t build trust entirely overnight, with these steps you will do it faster and therefore generate higher levels of revenue and profit sooner.
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- 5 Ways to Grow Your Customer Relationships Through Social Media
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