In today’s digital media age, most companies are using tools like social media, email marketing, and their websites to market/sell their products and services, build trust and rapport amongst customers and prospects alike, and communicate issues on a broad scope. One might believe social media is the most powerful tool when it comes to following through with these items, but that’s not necessarily the case.
Websites Are The Key For Brand Affinity
A recent article from TechJournal states that, “Websites are second only to word-of-mouth in bolstering or eroding brand affinity, but social media appear to have only a minimal effect”.
Wow, we already knew that word-of-mouth is the most effective and reliable marketing medium for building trust and a liking to your company, but knowing now that websites follow second in that list tells us A LOT. Here are some items you should focus on in order to give your website visitors the impression they already know you and therefore, want to do business with you.
Speak To Your Target Customers Directly
Far too often I visit a website through the search engines, looking for a particular product or service, and when I start reading their marketing copy on the page, I realize that it is way too technical for me. I consider myself to be a pretty technical guy, so when I feel stupid reading the information, I tend to think, “how would someone without my same level of technical expertise receive this information?”
It’s really cool being able to highlight your product features on your website, but you need to make sure you speak to your target customers directly. If you’re trying to market to a non-tech savvy audience, you shouldn’t be using technical jargon. You need to use verbiage that your target customer can understand and relate to. That’s the first aspect of building trust and pushing your visitors along to leads and customers.
A good idea would be to have a few of your target customers read over your website marketing copy and give you honest, candid feedback on whether or not the information makes sense to them, if they had never heard of your company and products/services before. If they get a glazed-over look on their faces and can’t tell you much about how you can help after reading, it’s time for some serious revisions.
Use Customer Testimonials
Nothing says, “I love your company” more than a nice testimonial. They speak directly to your visitor (prospective customer) in a word-of-mouth fashion. If you were to visit a company website looking to buy a product or service and didn’t see any testimonials, would you still buy from them? I know my answer would be a clear and simple, “no”. I need to see what others have to say about your company, products, services, support, etc. I won’t just blindly throw you money without first completing my due diligence and making sure you won’t hang me out to drive.
We already know that testimonials are a great way to optimize your on-page content, but you should also get them up anywhere on your website they will be seen by the most eyes and therefore, have the most impact. Common testimonial locations on your website are your homepage, blog template, and dedicated testimonials pages to show-off your customer relationships. If you’re a WordPress user, you can use a simple plug-in to display testimonials in a slideshow on your website.
Show Work Examples
No matter what kind of company you are, B2B, B2C, product or service oriented, you need to feature some examples of your work on your website to build trust. Sometimes this comes in the form of a “portfolio” page, if you’re an artist, designer, or landscaper. On these example pages, you should highlight your work with high-quality imagery, showing the obvious details of what makes you better than your competitors.
You need to also add some text with these images to describe the work that was done, how the customer benefited, and why anyone can get this same level of service by contacting and working with you. Not only is this great for building rapport, but it also has some search engine optimization (SEO) value as many of your most valuable keywords are your key differentiating factors that you’ll use in the text. It’s highly unlikely that you’ll be contacted if you’re a designer and don’t have a portfolio featured on your website. If you do amazing work, show it off!
Case Studies
This is where the rubber meets the road for most visitors. They want to see exactly how your company/products/services have helped your customers in the past. The best way of doing that is with some stellar case studies. These should detail every aspect of the project and highlight the key components that your company offers that prove the value in your products/services, more so than your competitors.
You’ll want to makes these case studies easily visible on your website, so just like testimonials, create them as pages and link to them from your homepage and site navigation. Show clear and obvious numbers. Your visitors shouldn’t have to view charts and graphs, just tell them what metrics you helped your customer improve and how. Keep it simple too. You don’t want to go on and on about it. Get to the point and then have a clear “ask” at the end.
About Us Page
This final one is pretty easy and straight-forward. If you want to put faces to the names of the folks in your company, you might want to consider adding an About Us page. People like knowing who they’re talking to. They also like seeing that they have things in common with you. Give them a chance to read your bio. Tell them about your role with the business, what you specialize in, where you went to school, what your passions, interests, and hobbies are. These are great ways to build trust without even meeting someone.
I know that by reading a company’s About Us page, I’m bound to find that I have something in common with someone on the team, and that gives me a warm-and-fuzzy feeling knowing that they are ordinary people just like me!
So What Now?
In conclusion, you need to speak directly to your visitors using language they understand, use glowing customer testimonials, show high-quality work examples, highlight stellar case studies, and emit charisma on your personalized About Us page. These aspects are crucial to have, as websites are the best way to build trust, rapport, and brand affinity amongst your visitors behind the word-of-mouth golden ticket. Next time you think about whether you should work on your company website or your social media marketing, the choice should be as clear as day. Your website is your baby and needs the most attention!
After you add all of these items to your website, don’t forget that you still need to draw new visitors to your website so you can warm up to them and convert them into leads and customers. The easiest and most cost-effective way of doing this is with BoostSuite. We help you with your low-hanging SEO fruit by telling you exactly what you need to do to properly optimize your website content. Websites that increase their optimization grades from F-B letter grades to A letter grades receive on average 375% more website traffic. Signup for your free account today!
