19 Methods for building trust and credibility for online buying
Trust is needed in face to face purchases.
Even more trust is required online in order to make someone to buy.
Trust is the #1 requirement on the Internet to buy.
You need credibility.
The question is how to build trust for your online offering?
How to get credibility?
Although your offering is online from your website, your trust and credibility can also be build off-line in real life.
1. Business website
- Having a decent looking website.
- having a website that reflects business.
- Having a website that is easy to navigate.
- Having a website that informs.
- Having a fast loading website.
2. Referrals
- Having referrals from several companies.
- Having referrals from your previous achievements.
3. Testimonials
- Having testimonials on your website from several customers
4. Getting recommended within your own circle of friends:
- Your friends recommending you
- Online friends recommending you
5. Getting recommended by trusted parties like:
- Well-known bloggers
- Industry blogs
- People on forums that have a track record for recommendations
6. Building online trust by presence
- Presence by website
- Presence by blogging
- Presence by micro-blogging
7. Building trust by findability in search
- A high number of links in search results on your company name or product name.
- Appearing high and frequently in different keyword search results.
8. Achieving trust by authority
- White papers.
- University Research paper cooperation.
- Publish an industry report with interesting data.
- Blog on the subject.
9. Piggy-backing
- Knowledgeable comments on other blogs.
- To the point letters to the editor of printed magazines.
10. Reviews in specialized magazines
- Getting reviewed in a industry magazine
- Being one of the vendors in a solution review in an industry magazine
11. Building trust in public:
- Speaking at conferences: you are recognized by a trusted party
12. Selling your knowledge for a price:
- Publishing a book in print: if people pay for your knowledge, it must be valuable
13. Getting recognition by another trusted party:
- Writing for a magazine: the editor is the trusted party that trusts you.
- Speaking on a radio show: the radio host is the trusted party who trusts you.
- Appearing on TV shows: the host is the trusted party who trusts you.
(If possible have the video clip embedded in your website – using Youtube)
14. Winning an industry award
- The industry organization grants you trust by the award.
15. Certifications
- Having the solution certified.
- Having the company certified to a certain standard.
16. Being a celebrity
- If you have already managed to be a celebrity in your industry, people will trust you more.
- If you have already managed to be a celebrity in general, people will trust you more.
17. Advertising
- Appearing frequently on many pages related to your industry solution: the more the better branding.
18. Pictures of management team
- Have the management team pictures (if you don’t look ugly) on your website or blog.
19. Offering a free trial
- If none of the above is possible, the last resort is offering the real thing for free.
Tell us if you have more suggestions for online trust and credibility.
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Trust is the hard thing to build in a human..especially when the person experienced broken his trust already..Thanks for the tips and post because it can help us in many ways..
In these times where scams abound on and off the internet, it is very nice to see steps (in point form) that can be taken to build credibility.
These points should be read and re-read by anyone serious about building trust and credibility in their online efforts.
[...] having just one piece of content will not make you trustworthy or a trusted party. You mainly build trust by consistency, frequency, reliability and responsiveness. Having a case study or client example [...]
[...] having just one piece of content will not make you trustworthy or a trusted party. You mainly build trust by consistency, frequency, reliability and responsiveness. Having a case study or client example [...]
Good overall site enjoyed reading will def bookmark.
It sounds like you’re creating problems yourself by trying to solve this issue instead of looking at why their is a problem in the first place
@ kelwyn suite – i agree that there are a lot scams out there. And it is really a challenge for some to gain trust.
- Overall this is a good post especially the free trial thing since the word is free. Plus the fact that the customer can try it and gain more trust on doing so.
SEO marketing is always the best thing to do if you want to market products on the internet*;-
seo marketing takes some time compared to viral marketing but seo marketing drives continous potential customers over a long pe:;’