To earn your website plenty of sales, you need to earn your customers’ trust. This can require a certain set of special skills.

In this article, we’re going to outline some of the main skills you’ll need to build trust with customers and succeed with your small business. Let’s get started!

You need to be able to collect reviews and display them properly

One of the ways businesses can earn their customers’ trust is by showcasing positive reviews from past clients. So, knowing how to ask customers for feedback and then properly displaying it on your website is vital!

If you sell products, it can be fruitful to reach out to customers after they make a purchase to ask them to leave a review. As an incentive, consider offering them a small discount — this will encourage more people to leave a review. If you’re a service-based business, reach out to your past clients to see if they would be willing to do an interview with you — you can use this as a long-form testimonial.

Keep in mind that different types of businesses will require different types of reviews. Product-based businesses will be better off using short and sweet reviews, often with a star rating, to make it easy for website visitors to compare their options. If you run a service-based business, you can benefit from long-form reviews that provide more context.

Let’s look at a few examples of businesses that incorporate reviews into their website well to provide you with inspiration.

Florin Roebig, a trial attorney law firm in Florida, has incorporated long-form reviews into their homepage.

Think about how important these types of reviews are for a service-based business, like one in the legal field. The law is notorious for being complex and confusing, but this particular review states that Florin Roebig is transparent, knowledgeable, and honest. It’s going to be excellent at building trust with potential clients. On your own website, be sure to select reviews that put your readers’ minds at ease to help build trust.

Looka, on the other hand, is an AI-powered online brand designer. On their website, they have a simple set of star reviews stating that, from more than 7,000 reviews, they have an excellent 5-star rating! This strategy can help entice website visitors into giving Looka a shot. On your own website, consider having clients rate your services in order to build trust with website visitors and ultimately draw in more customers.

Keep in mind that, from time to time, you’re also bound to get criticism and negative reviews. Don’t worry — it happens to everyone! Take a look at this article from SkillsYouNeed on dealing with criticism for further reading.

You need to be able to offer top-notch customer service

In order to earn your customers’ trust, you need to provide top-notch customer service. People who have questions or concerns will want to get in touch with you. And, if they don’t have a good experience, they won’t want to spend money with you.

Keep in mind that different people like to communicate in different ways. This means you’ll want to provide a range of contact options so your visitors can find what’s best for them. Older people, for instance, tend to prefer phone calls and email communication, while younger people tend to prefer social media direct messaging and live chat. That being said, be sure you can manage them all effectively. It’s better to have a few excellent channels of communication rather than lots that are poorly managed.

Let’s look at a few examples of businesses that do a great job with their customer service for inspiration.

Fortis HD, a heavy equipment parts manufacturer, makes it very clear how prospective customers can get in touch on their contact page. They have a contact form, a phone number, and an email address, giving their customers multiple ways to get in touch.

Furthermore, they list the hours of operation for their phone line, which helps them manage customer expectations. On your website, be sure to keep all of your contact information in a specific location — it can often be helpful to have live chat bubbles or phone numbers in other places on your site, but include your contact options on their own page so they’re easy to find, as well.

iFlooded Restoration, a company that provides fire damage restoration services, makes it easy for website visitors to get in touch with them, as well.

They offer 24/7 customer service, which makes a lot of sense for the services they provide. In addition to providing immediate emergency help, they also let customers get in touch 24/7 for quotes and estimates. On your website, consider if it’s practical to offer any 24/7 customer service channels. If you don’t provide emergency services, you can still do this with an FAQ page or a navigational chatbot that can give customers the solutions they’re looking for.

For more customer service tips, take a look at SkillsYouNeed’s guide.

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You need to be able to create content that shows you understand your audience

To earn your customers’ trust, you need to show that you understand their questions, concerns, and pain points. One of the most effective ways you can do this is through content creation.

When trying to determine what your customers’ pain points are, start by touching base with your customer service team. If there are questions or inquiries they get on a regular basis, consider making content to address them. Not only will this save your customer service team time, but it will show that you understand your customers, building trust with them.

Next, it’s time to conduct a bit of question keyword research. Come up with a list of topics relevant to your business, then head to a tool like Answer the Public. They’ll provide you with a list of questions that people are searching for on any given topic. Basing content off of these questions is a great way to show that you understand your customers. Additionally, it’s great for boosting your search engine optimization (SEO), or how visible you are on the search engine results pages.

To give you some inspiration, let’s look at a few examples of businesses that address customer pain points in their content well.

Tipalti, a financial software company, shows they understand their target audience with their buying guide on the top 10 accounts payable software programs. They outline the features, pros, and cons of a variety of different software programs.

This is an excellent way for Tipalti to showcase the benefits of their own product without being overly promotional, which helps to build trust. It also allows them to demonstrate that they know there are a lot of options out there and they just want their website visitors to make the best decision to suit their own needs.

On your website, consider creating content that will help your customers to make an informed purchasing decision. This will show they can trust you.

Ipsy, a monthly cosmetics subscription service, does something a bit different. They have an article discussing a new trend in makeup, double-winged eyeliner.

Ipsy knows that their customers are makeup enthusiasts who are going to want to stay on top of the latest trends and products. By writing an article that tells the reader how to master the look, Ispy builds trust with their target audience. On your website, don’t be afraid to write similar content that shows you’re in the know on trends in your industry, and explain how your ideal customers can execute them (preferably with your products).

You need to know how to create engaging social media content

If you can consistently put out social media content that is engaging for your audience, they’ll feel more connected to your business, making it easier to win their trust. Plus, if you have a consistent content output on social media, you’ll ensure that your brand stays at the forefront of your customers’ minds, which will increase their chances of shopping with you in the future.

When trying to improve your online social media presence, there are a lot of different strategies you can use. You could show images or videos of people using your products, share user-generated content, or show off the behind-the-scenes of your business or product development process.

Let’s look at a few examples of businesses that share engaging content on their social media profiles for inspiration

Target has a lot of engaging content on their Instagram page. In this particular image, they show a couple of kids playing with superhero toys while wearing their superhero pajamas. This is a cute image that gets the customer to start thinking about buying these types of products for their own kids.

This image shows that Target cares about their customers and wants to help make them happy! On your social media pages, consider how you can use imagery and video to help the viewer imagine themselves using your products or services.

Nintendo, a video game company, does something a bit different on their social media pages. In this particular video, they show snippets of one of their soon-to-be-released games, The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword. 

Because the game isn’t out yet, this is a great way to keep it at the forefront of their customers’ minds. On your social media page, think about promoting any hype-worthy products or services before they’re released.

You need to be able to create a site that offers a positive UX

Providing a good user experience, or UX, is vital to winning your customers’ trust. So, small business owners need to be able to design and start a high-quality website. Or, at the very least, you need to know what you want your website to look like so you can outsource the design process.

Here are some things to consider when trying to create a positive UX:

• Ensure you have a fast loading speed (Try to keep it under 2 seconds with the help of Google PageSpeed Insights)
• Compress your images and files to reduce their size
• Use legible fonts and readable colors
• Make sure your website is accessible on mobile and desktop
• Use a simple, intuitive navigation menu to help your users find what they need on your site

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Summary

Earning your customers’ trust is a vital marketing skill that you need to build loyalty and ultimately increase your bottom line. In this article, we outlined several different skills you need to build customer trust, including by producing engaging social media content, collecting reviews, and more.

Consider our tips and examples when assessing your own skills. There’s work to be done!

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