Earning money is easier than earning trust and this becomes even tougher when it comes to gain trust for online startups. However, the latter becomes a goldmine, lasts longer and brings huge referrals as you grow. We’re going to talk about few factors that matter on a startup business website. These not only helps earn trust and credibility but also good reputation and word of mouth marketing in a short period of time.
1. Be Approachable
A business gains instant trust if it has valid contact details. You should have accessible phone number on every page of your website and a genuine contact us page with all business details your prospect may want to see. To steer clear of scrapers and spammers, you can make it an image.
2. Have a good “about us” page
Potential prospects would like to know more about you in order to make an informed decision. Create a great “about us” page where you talk about your company history, vision, mission, goals and team players. Real photographs make even bigger impact and add a personal feel.
Note: It’s important to have a great and compelling copy on entire website clearly talking about your services or products but without making long stories.
3. Be social
Social visibility can make a big difference to every business reputation and brand popularity. Good prospects generally like to search with your brand name on major search engines and social channels. If they find real people talking about you, they would trust your business faster than ever. Interact with your direct audience on popular social channels like facebook, linkedin, twitter, Google+ and industry relevant forums. You can also use video marketing to a great extent.
4. Add accreditations
It’s not possible for a startup to have a long list of testimonials but adding certifications and special recognitions can make your business believable. Backup your claims with proofs and realistic vision. Normally, endorsements from sites like linkedin can be used in a great manner.
5. Be responsive
Be responsive; not only pre sales but post sales, too. You can win your initial fewer inquiries as great referrals and endorsement with an ultra-quick response time and fast customer support. It’s a psychological fact that a quick response leaves lesser time for a customer to think twice and believe that you know your job right.
6. Contribute to community and create an authority
Before your business gains trust, your personal contribution to communities as an authority helps your business more than you can imagine. People take your offers, trust you easily, like to review you, and refer to others. Join industry relevant forums, meetup groups, conferences and active social channels to keep yourself in limelight.
There can be a huge list to make a startup successful and trusted but these can be basic but powerful steps to begin with. I’d love to hear your opinions and ideas to making a start-up more believable. Feel free to share.
Sunita Biddu is a digital business coach and power blogging mentor helping coaches and small business owners. She helps with building a strong and profitable online presence and reputation that creates a self-sustaining business. Sunita writes on this blog once a week about easy-to-use guides and articles about business, coaching, social media and blogging. You can grab some of her free resources and ebooks from the resources section.
I made few changes in my own health blog from this post.