Have you done the work to build trust online with your dream clients?
As you work to grow your service business online, you’ve probably done a bit of digging into how to best market yourself.
What comes up over and over again?
Experts telling you that you need to build up your online presence through the “Know, Like, and Trust” factor.
Building trust online is very different from how you build trust with your local community. After all, you’re trying to not only get people to believe you can help solve their problems, you’re just trying to get them to believe that you’re actually real.
While many pieces of the Know, Like, and Trust factor can take time to build, I’m here to tell you that there are some shortcuts to help you build up that Trust factor quickly, even if you’re just starting out. Let’s break them down.
1. Buy a Domain and Have a Domain Email for Yourself
One of the quickest ways you can build trust in your brand? Not giving out an email that’s @gmail.com
Seriously.
A domain itself can cost as little as $10/year at places like GoDaddy or Namecheap (though I’d always recommend adding privacy protection, which is about $10/year more).
That small investment goes a long way in showing your ideal client that you mean actual, literal business. You’ve invested $20 in yourself! For at least a year! So you plan on sticking around. Whether or not they know the cost of what you’ve spent on your domain is irrelevant; just having your own .com makes a huge difference.
Don’t Forget the Domain Email
The trickier part where I’ve seen a lot of small business owners get stuck is having an email account that matches their new .com.
The easiest solution is using Google Workspace (or GSuite) as a place for your email to live. Starting at only $6/month and working on a month to month basis, you can have a new email for your .com email quickly, plus get all the benefits of having a Google-managed email. Their setup even walks you through and can change your domain settings for you, so it’s easy, too!
The reason a .com email means so much to your target client? It shows that you’re not going to disappear tomorrow. If you’re investing in your business as much as a few dollars each month, they’ll know that you’ll be around if they have any issues.
Seriously, of anything on this list, this is the quickest and least-costly item that adds a huge amount of trust to your business.
2. Share Testimonials
There is no better way to show that you actually help your customers by letting them say it themselves!
You can request those testimonials be shared on platforms like Facebook, Google Maps, or sent directly to you, but however you can make sure you ask for them.
Amy Porterfield has a great podcast episode about the how-tos of collecting testimonials. While it does require you reaching out and actually asking for feedback, those testimonials and reviews are so powerful!
Use them throughout your website, social media posts, email marketing, and more to let your main characters (your customers!) tell your brand story and how you help.
Nothing builds trust like having social proof to back up what you say.
3. Have a Website
I know, you’ve probably seen a lot of people lately talking about how you can build a six-figure business without a website, but really, can you?
Think about the people you work with on a regular basis. Even local contractors. Do you feel better knowing the person you’re investing money into has invested into their own business with a website? Probably! It shows that they’re sticking around for the long-haul and that they’re not going to just take your money and run.
If a decision comes down to picking two different lawn guys, I’m going to go with the guy who has a website (bad or not!) vs the one without because I know I can count on him to come back every week throughout the summer.
The other part of this? Your website is 100% the foundation, the hub of your marketing! Every single piece of marketing that you put out there has to lead back somewhere. If you’re sending customers to a wide range of landing pages you’ve built through Click Funnels and other services, you’re losing out on that consistent, seamless experience. And you’re losing out on the ability for them to find more about you later.
Having a simple, single page website can even go a long way to showcasing who you are and that you’re a real, viable business.
Yes, it’s the biggest investment on this list, but it’ll also jump that Trust factor up like 150%. (My stats are totally legit, just FYI).
Bonus Tip: Show Your Face
This one requires a little work upfront (and for many of us, stepping out of our comfort zones) but is so beneficial to showcasing the human in your business.
Show your face!
If you’re the leader of your business, then people on your marketing channels should be getting to know who you are. Do that by getting pictures taken of you, working, out and about, with clients, at a coffee shop, whatever makes the most sense for your business and customers.
I talked about this a little more in depth in my blog about authenticity, but here’s the thing – authenticity builds trust because people know it’s real. Pictures build trust online because they’re putting a face to the name and feel better like they know you.
Building Trust Online
As humans, we’re so used to the internet that you would think selling online would be easy. But as humans, we want to work with and love the humans we’re working with.
So make it easy for your ideal customer to connect with you by building trust with them!
Trust in the online space is all about showing up consistently, proving that you’re a real business (not a scam), and demonstrating that you can do what you say you do.
Spend just a few minutes every day to build that trust with your audience and you’ll be shocked at how much easier sales and growing your business becomes.
