Tuesday, December 23, 2014

9 Proven Website Branding Techniques To Build Trust

Establishing a strong online presence for your business is a process that will definitely require meticulous planning and execution. You have to go every possible extra mile if you want to win the trust of today’s customers because they are very discerning. The feeling users will get on your website should give them confidence in your brand’s ability to offer a satisfying solution. It is therefore in your best interest to create the best website branding and keep perfecting it over time. You don’t want any of your potential customers to doubt your ability to deliver, so make sure your website has every little element that can boost visitors’ confidence or provide any piece of evidence that can build trust.

Now that you have a good idea of what you will need to achieve, let’s look at the 9 techniques you can make use of to improve your website.

Build a strong corporate identity

Customers will take your brand seriously if the website they find online has a professional look. It is therefore absolutely important to build the right corporate identity including a professional logo and a color scheme applied consistently throughout the website. This should also be extended to other opportunities of engaging with your audience, so even when sending out emails remember to include the logo and other elements of your corporate identity. Such efforts will definitely go a long way in creating the desired image for your brand. Whenever web users search for your business name online, they should easily find and recognize your logo. Including your professional photo in your website is also a nice idea as it gives it a face that potential customers can easily recognize and associate with your brand.

Provide useful content

You must genuinely engage your online audience with useful content that helps them understand the value you promise to provide. If you thought “salesy” content is all you need to generate sales, forget it. Today’s discerning customers have probably already done their research before visiting your website. They already know what they are looking for, so you ought to have done your homework right to provide facts and convince them how valuable your offering is. You will need to provide tips on how their problems can be solved. Use text, images and videos where necessary in order to create the most engaging content for your website. That might make them keep coming back until they trust and buy your product. Such high quality content should also be published on your blog. Make your audience believe that you are truly a thought leader in your given field.

Create a great ‘About Us” page

Any professional business website should have an “About Us” page answering the most critical questions about its identity, core values, mission, vision and similar things. The most serious visitors are likely to be interested in that section of your website as it lets them quickly know about your business and what it stands. Be creative and provide information that you know will matter to your potential customers as they consider buying from you. A good idea is to include professional photos of your team if any and providing the areas of their expertise.

Display project portfolio

Think about the impact of providing real evidence to your potential customers about what you can do? Professional videos, photos and descriptions that can highlight your work in past projects will significantly boost your conversion rates. The professional work portfolio will certainly convince your website visitors to trust in your brand and convert them to buyers.  

Display client logos

If you have worked for any serious clients before, make sure to show off their logos on your website. Potential customers would definitely be impressed to see you have already contributed to the success of other brands. They would also want to use your product or service expecting to achieve success as well.

Showcase testimonials

Providing the words your past or existing clients have used to positively describe your product or service can be one of the most powerful sources of trust for your brand. Potential customers are more likely to trust such words as they will consider them not biased unlike your own words.

Badges or stickers

If you truly believe in the value that your brand represents and wouldn’t hesitate to stand by it, then why not display any badges or stickers that will precisely make that point? If you provide a money back guarantee, don’t just say it but show it prominently using a sticker. Such a sticker should of course be displayed next to the “buy now” button as it will likely boost your potential buyers’ confidence. Similarly, if your business is Better Business Bureau (BBB) Accredited, showing that on your website will definitely increase the trust potential customers are likely to have in your brand.

Build Social media pages

Potential customers are likely to believe that your brand is big enough if it commands sizeable social media following. A discerning customer does a thorough research and will want to find out if you have social media pages and if so how many followers you have there. Your business profiles on Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn are particularly very important for branding and engagement with targeted audience. Social media integration into your website also significantly improves audience reach. People may trust the information shared by their friends, family members or colleagues in their social networks. If that’s about your brand, eventually it may translate into sales.

Provide trusted payment options

Payments are perhaps the most sensitive areas of online transactions. Customers do not want to be victims of online fraud and therefore want to use payment options they can easily recognize. Display recognized images for each payment option allowed on your website. That will make things far much easier for the customers. You do not want a customer to leave when they have already added their chosen items in the shopping cart. Adding every bit of payment convenience possible will go a long way in optimizing your conversion rates.

Conclusion


Website branding is not a one-time activity, but rather a continuous process that begins from the time your business idea is conceived. It is about every aspect that has to do with the look and feel of your brand. This has even become more important for the online presence of businesses in order to stand out from the competition. Winning the trust of your potential customers online demands a lot of efforts, so the 9 proven techniques discussed here should only help you get started.