Small Business Guides

Double Down On Transparency And Credibility For Your Blog

Never has it been a better time to be an online business. According to Business.com 87% of shoppers today use ecommerce reviews to decide whether to buy, and 77% of those shoppers buy online.

While it is easy to get online and have customers buying your products and/or services from all over the world a new issue has arisen.

Credibility.

Because you lose the face to face interaction with most customers you need to find other ways to reassure a potential customer that you are legit and looking to help them with their buying decision.

In this article we will share several ways you can build credibility and make your online website more transparent.

Share both wins and losses

People become suspicious if you only share the best things about your online business. It looks disingenuous if you purposefully hide things.

An example is a blog post that shares what you learned from a marketing campaign. This shows behind the scenes and is helpful to those who are trying to learn. It also shows potential customers that you are marketing to them and paying money for their attention.

Publish all testimonials

Don’t hide testimonials. If someone leaves negative feedback about your blog/website/business etc. embrace it. Be sure to respond to them and acknowledge the feedback. But hiding it does more damage than good.

Especially if you are in a business like real estate websites where a buying/selling decision is a really big deal for a family. Make sure to address any issues others had and show you are transparent, honest, and willing to help.

Share non-business information

Your customers want to connect with you. If you are part of organizations or groups that help the community or other businesses then share that with potential customers.

If you business is looking to make a greater impact from what you sell...share that as well. People love to do business with companies that have a mission bigger than themselves.

If this doesn’t apply to you, don’t sweat it. But think about how to connect with your customer on more than a transactional level. The key is finding what they care about or are going to do with your product or service and tell them you are committed to helping them make that impact.

Be local

For some businesses online they want to appear bigger than they really are. They are afraid if they publish where their headquarters are from a small city that people will write them off. But this couldn’t be further from the truth.

Telling potential customers you are local to an area, care about the area, and are a small business looking to make an impact speaks volumes and makes people want to do business with you.

Publish local groups you are apart of or other businesses you like to support. Customers are always looking to connect to something and businesses are a great way to do that.

Optimize your about us page

Your about us page is one of the most valuable pages on your website. Customers want to see who is behind a website and what they stand for. Here are a few good ideas for what to put on the page.

  1. Picture of the owner & team members
  2. Where you are located
  3. Your mission statement
  4. Your core values
  5. What charities or organizations you contribute to
  6. What your yearly goal is
  7. How customers can become more involved with your business
  8. Your social media links
  9. An easy way to reach your customer support team

Wrapping It Up

There are more ways to build credibility on your website. But hopefully this article gets you thinking about it in a way that encourages you to embrace transparency and not shy away from the uncomfortableness of negative reviews, or sharing who is behind the website.

As online shopping and research consumes more of the economy, it'll be more important than ever to have a strong brand presence online and that can only come from being honest and credible with customers.