Boosting the credibility of your business is a huge area so many don’t think about because it’s hard to measure and is mostly intangible, but it’s so important.
A human interacting with your business online will subconsciously judge you and your business in a split second which could mean the difference between a new enquiry, booking, sale, or nothing at all.
It could be something as simple as your website not working properly on mobile, or your contact page not having a clickable phone number or an easy to use booking form.
If your visitors are annoyed or frustrated with that first impression, your credibility goes out the window and they’re gone.
It can also be more nuanced in how your logo and brand is designed, how you communicate your brand, and how it translates to your website and online presence.
Here are 7 areas that are so important to get right in order to boost your credibility online which will ultimately lead to more sales for your business and a better overall experience for everyone involved.
1. Do excellent work
Of course this goes without saying, but a business that puts out a low or inconsistent standard of work won’t last very long.
People are often more likely to leave negative reviews online than positive ones, unless they’re so blown away by how good you are they want to scream it from the rooftops!
Doing excellent work and the referrals it brings is way more powerful than any other form of marketing.
2. Always be helpful
All of us are in a position to help people with our own unique knowledge and skills.
Going above and beyond to help people (regardless of what you expect in return) is the best way to show you know what you’re talking about.
The law of reciprocity will repay you in other ways you can’t even imagine
Book Recommendation: The Go Giver
3. Know your audience
It’s easy to think that everyone with a pulse is your audience, but that couldn’t be further from the truth.
Take the time to think about who you serve best (and who you enjoy working with most) and really focus on helping only those people.
Find out what their problems are and figure out how you can solve them better than anyone else.
Just because you know how to do something that someone asks you to do, you’re not obligated to do it for them.
If you don’t think you’re a good fit, be honest, and of course do everything you can to help them, but knowing your ideal audience and who you can help best will save everyone a lot of trouble.
If you try to please everybody, you please nobody.
4. Communicate clearly
Be honest and transparent in all interactions with your audience and customers.
Avoid using industry jargon or technical terms your audience don’t understand or don’t care about.
Reframe what you want to tell them in a way that ensures them you understand them, and you can be trusted to help solve their problems.
Your ‘About Us’ page should communicate how what you do can help your audience, show your personality, and briefly tell your story or journey, not a boring list of services or skills.
People are busy and don’t have time (or don’t care) as much about reading about you as they want to know how you will solve their problems.
5. Have consistent branding
Your logo and branding is often one of the first things people see (and unconsciously judge within seconds) when they interact with your brand.
Your branding needs to be properly designed to reflect your business, not just a quick and dirty logo and a random selection of colours and fonts.
It should be consistent across all of your business marketing materials, from your website and social media, to your business cards, stationery, and signage.
Your brand is not only what you look like, it’s who you are.
Your communication style and the way you interact with your customers is also a huge part of your brand. If you’re a fun easy going person, don’t try and be all stiff and serious. Be yourself!
6. Have a great website
Your website should be fast, secure, easy to navigate, mobile friendly, and custom branded to clearly communicate how you help your audience.
Make sure your website has a button or call to action that makes it crystal clear what the ONE thing your visitors need to do when they get to your website.
Remove any unnecessary or distracting features that might confuse or annoy your visitors.
Test everything on your website to make sure it all works, especially contact or billing forms. Not many things will ruin your credibility faster than complete silence when a customer contacts you.
A word on custom website functionality
Custom functionality always comes at the cost of higher setup cost, more ongoing maintenance, and the possibility of things going wrong.
Be careful when adding features to your website that might not be needed. Ask yourself, is this actually going to make a difference to my business?
It’s often possible nowadays to add functionality to a website in a way that if you stick within the limitations of what is already available, you will save a lot of time in set up and testing and also with ongoing maintenance.
7. Launch the right way
If your website isn’t launched properly you’ll be more likely to have issues that make your website difficult for people to use which can be a massive turn off for potential customers.
Before you officially launch your website, here are a few key things you should check first.
- All the links work and click through to the right places
- There are no silly typos or dummy text
- Your images are named correctly for SEO and are the right size, not too big, not too small
- Your website is being indexed properly in search engines
- Your website loads relatively fast (It’s not the end of the world if you don’t score 100 in a page speed test, but this can guide you towards things on your website that can be further optimised)
- You have a plan for ongoing maintenance, backups, security monitoring and protection
What’s next?
There are many other areas I haven’t covered here that will also play a part in how your business is presented online and how you’re perceived by your potential customers such as:
- Reviews and testimonials
- Solid and consistent processes
- Automating marketing and sales
- Attention to detail
I recommend stepping back and having a look at all the areas in your business I’ve talked about above to see where you’re at and what can be improved.
Get in touch so we can chat about your business and work out the best way to move forward.