When it comes to customers and potential leads, trust is the hardest thing to build and the easiest thing to break. On top of that, building trust can be especially complicated when you never actually meet your clientele face-to-face. Instead of using your winning charm to make sales in person, you have to rely on targeted online and email marketing campaigns in order to get in front of the right audience and prove that your product or service is right for them.
Are you stumped about building trust with customers you’ll never meet? Here are five simple ways to prove that you have integrity and yours is a brand to be trusted:
Be transparent
Nothing is more frustrating than investing in a product only to find out that it requires hidden fees or surcharges every time there’s a software upgrade or a new feature available. When customers make purchases on your website, be upfront about any extra fees right away. When you create marketing copy, make sure you clearly communicate what you do, how your pricing structure works, and any cancellation or return policies that clients should be aware of.
Transparency is also important in the sales process. While it’s tempting to promote upcoming features and future improvements to your product or service, those upgrades often take longer than expected. New customers may grow frustrated waiting for promised improvements to become a reality.
Fix problems
Nobody is perfect, and from time to time you’ll have customers complain about your products or services—even if you know you’ve held up your end of the bargain. When something goes wrong, make sure to fix it or make it right—right away. When customers can’t get a hold of a service department or they have to wait for a refund, they tend to head to your social media page to air their grievances in public. The same goes for helping prospects get more information about your business: Make sure you promptly respond to inquiries through your contact form, return phone calls, and respond to email messages.
Provide proof
Do you ever look through a website and wonder why a business doesn’t have any testimonials or case studies to back up their work? Don’t be afraid to brag about yourself a little bit! Make sure your website and marketing copy adequately explain how well your product works and what business cases it solves.
When possible, back up your claims with numbers that prove just how much you help your current clients. If you have a client who is willing to vouch for you, add their testimonial to your website or create a case study to show how you helped transform their business.
Personalize marketing efforts
It’s not good for your business to launch a marketing campaign that misses the mark. It wastes time, effort, and likely customers. Many companies invest in a Customer Relationship Management (CRM) tool in order to maintain customer data and keep email lists up-to-date. A quality CRM platform can help you build campaigns, send personalized communications, trigger emails or phone calls based on contact behavior, and track the success of your campaign so you can change things up when necessary.
Always deliver more than you promise
The best way to surprise customers is to deliver more than you—and your marketing copy—say you will. Depending on your business, that could mean extra services, more time spent answering questions, or more convenience. This is one of the most important ways you can build and maintain trust with your clientele. If you sell a product, consider going the extra mile by investing in eco-friendly packaging materials or adding a small coupon to every shipment. If you are in the service industry, make sure your team is readily available to answer questions and troubleshoot problems. Little efforts go a long way!
As you work to gain new customers and maintain your current clientele, keep in mind that it takes an ongoing effort to build and maintain trust. By putting automated marketing systems in place you can stay in front of prospects and customers by sending the right messages to the right people at the right time.
Megan Pacella is a writer for TechnologyAdvice.com. She is a Nashville-based freelance writer specializing in healthcare, wellness, and lifestyle content. In addition to writing for national outlets such as USA Today, she works with a variety of healthcare companies to create patient engagement and education programs.
