You must have a trustworthy business; otherwise, you will drive away current and potential customers. Credibility encourages people to trust your business and your products or services. Credibility increases customer loyalty and sales.
But if you don’t know how to show off your credibility or are lacking credibility, you might be in trouble. People may not trust you enough to buy from you. Luckily, there are ways to increase your business’s credibility.
Ask these questions to build your business’s credibility
To increase your business’s credibility and sales, you should be able to answer yes to the following questions:
Do you have a strategy?
To become more credible, you need to decide what credibility means to your business, and once you decide what credibility means, document it. Then, write a strategic plan to build credibility. Include specific details. What are your goals? What are you going to do to meet those goals?
Set specific, measurable goals. That way, you can easily determine if you’re meeting your goals and increasing your credibility. For example, you might set a goal to have 15% of customers leave a review.
Are you present online?
Your business must be visible online. Without visibility, people cannot find your business to start trusting it. An online presence also establishes business legitimacy.
Your business must be searchable online. People should be able to type your business name or related terms into a search engine and quickly find information about your business.
Start by creating a business website. An effective website should provide basic information about your business, such as business hours, contact information, your location, how to purchase, and photos of your goods or work.
You can also start a blog on your business website. Posting regular articles keeps your business website fresh and allow you to show off your expertise. You can share your knowledge about your industry, or write tips related to your products or services. Your articles should show that you are knowledgeable and can be trusted.
When possible, get customer reviews. Encourage your customers to leave reviews after their purchases. They can leave reviews on the many review sites in existence, or you can also ask customers to give reviews that you can post on your website. The reviews serve as proof that your products or services work and that other people trust your business.
Be sure to set up at least one social media account. Social media accounts often show up high in search results. Social media requires regular updates, which helps show people that there are real people behind your business. The updates also give you an opportunity to be honest with your customers.
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Are you honest?
This might sound simple, but you need to be honest with your customers to get them to trust you. Dishonesty can kill credibility.
When you talk to customers, be truthful and straightforward. Don’t embellish or skirt around the truth. People will notice if you are hiding something and begin to distrust you. As a result, people will stay away from your business. To keep people around, stick to the truth.
Do you have a solid brand identity?
Your business’s brand identity helps put your credibility together. Your brand needs to be cohesive. If it’s not, people will have a difficult time recognizing and trusting your business.
Many things can make up your brand identity, including a mission statement, logo, products and services, business story, and company voice. All these things must work together to tell a clear, reliable story about your business. If one piece of your brand identity is different from the others, people might have a difficult time trusting communications from your business that uses the misfit piece. But, when everything is in line, customers can see that your business is reliable and put together.
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