Earning Trust in a Suspicious Market
When the first entrepreneurs began their online businesses, they all were relying on the same advantage. The advantage was that a small company and a big company look the same online. You can put up a website and have just as much success as a large competitor. The Internet was the great equalizer. Ah, those were the good old days.
The rules have changed. Internet shoppers can usually tell the difference between a small operation and a major Internet business. The "big boys" are easy to spot. They have built up reputations with their customers. People trust Amazon.com, Buy.com, and so on. These companies were born as Internet companies, but they have successfully earned the trust of millions.
Smaller Internet companies still have outstanding opportunities to succeed online. The amount of money spent online is still exploding year after year. Even though there are fantastic opportunities ahead, the trends are moving towards the established sellers. Smaller companies have to work much harder to earn the trust of their customers.
Here is why:
- Identity theft
- Spammers
- Online Fraud and Scams
- Phishing Sites
- Selection
- Price
- DOA Websites
The central theme to most of those reasons is "trust". Customers need to know they are doing business with a credible company. Okay, now that we know the who, what, and why ... what can we do about that?
Earning the trust of a stranger requires a strategy based on your own products, services, and industry. There are a few general ideas that can help you get started with building trust:
- Testimonials
- Big Guarantees
- Photos and Videos of staff and/or customers
- Free offers
- Trial offers
- Bonus gifts and limited time offers
- An 800 number
Once your customer places an order and everything goes smoothly, that customer will trust you. Then you can sell them something else, hopefully something more expensive. As you continue to build trust, you will be able to sell them more stuff. You will also start to get referrals from your customers and a referred customer is almost as good as a repeat customer.
The key is to do everything possible to earn enough trust to create that first sale. Your first sale might not make you much money, if any, but it is important because it helps you build trust and that is how you earn your next sale.
Your success depends on your subsequent sales. So many companies will fight hard for that first sale but fail at creating repeat customers.
Do you:
- Have a follow-up marketing plan?
- Have more products, services, or options to sell?
- Have a newsletter?
Remember, it was nearly impossible to generate that first sale. Your success depends on generating subsequent sales to the customers who have learned to trust you.
