Building trust with your clients and customers is a key aspect of encouraging them to buy from you once, and continue to buy from you in the future.
Without their trust, at best, they choose not to buy, but at worst, a negative impression of your business can spread to other potential customers, creating a ripple effect of damage that can have far reaching consequences. There are many examples of building trust with your customers which we will delve into further in an upcoming post, but as a primary selling tool, the website deserves a post of its own. What your website says about you and your business is of critical importance when it comes to a customer choosing where to spend their hard-earned money.
To explain where I'm coming from, let me recount an experience I had recently, while searching for a new accountant for the studio (our previous one left us high and dry come tax return time, which is a *whole* other story). As a layman when it comes to finance and accounting, my first step was to of course search Google as most people probably would. With this in mind, it's important to be aware that your website is probably going to be the first impression that potential clients and customers get of your business, so it's essential that it is showing off your brand or business to it's fullest potential.
Back to my google search, I clicked on one of the first results which brought me to a local accounting firm, and let's just say that the first impression was not good. As a designer, I know that I'm heavily swayed by what a company's website looks like, and this one looked like it hadn't been updated since the founding days of the internet. Cue some lurid green, yellow and blue gradients, a complete disregard for any kind of structure, pixellated stock images (including one used to *tile* a background) and some of the worst branding I've ever seen. I've seen a lot of bad design in my time but honestly, this one elicited an audible gasp.
As a company looking to hire another company for a professional (and frankly, very important) service, the design alone was enough to immediately make we want to exit the website. It came across as incredibly amateurish, unprofessional, and, when I got over the initial assault on my eyes, severely lacking in information. Jumbled in amongst the tiny and haphazardly positioned stock images, was a mere 10-point list of the services that the company offered, with no supporting detail about what each of these services were or how they would be of use to me. There was no detail about the process of working with them, their approach, who they actually were and the people who worked for them, or literally any other information besides this list. In total this single-page website had all but 3 small paragraphs of text, with one designated solely as a call-to-action to prompt people to book.
In short, the website and by association the company as a whole, was a complete turn off. Not only did I not want to work with them, I wanted to run from that website as fast as my mouse would carry me. There wasn't even the slightest chance I would have ever chosen to work with them, or trust them with my business and finances. But it was a valuable reminder of why I do what I do, and why strategically crafting a website that positions your brand in its best light is essential for your long-term success. For those who might be considering redesigning your own website, or even outsourcing to a designer / developer, we've put together a few key areas to consider to ensure you get the most out of your website and position yourself for future growth. In short, do not do what these accountants did... ever. Please.
Visuals
The story above pretty much says all that needs to be said on the topic of visuals. However, we would strongly encourage you to think about your specific industry, the type of clients / customers that you're hoping to attract and what *they're* looking for, when determining what your website will look like. It can be easy to get sucked into following a look that you personally like, without considering how this appears to your target audience. If you're offering an expensive and / or 'serious' service, such as accounting, your brand needs to feel professional, knowledgeable and like it can be trusted with people's hard earned income. That's not to say it needs to look boring (we love brands that disrupt) but there are certain visual cues that help to instil trust, and rainbow gradients with comic sans plastered everywhere (IYKYK) probably aren't the right ones! It's also a good idea to steer clear of obviously trend-led design aesthetics, as they date very quickly and will make more work for you in the long run. While your brand and website may look very pretty in the short term, trend-led visuals aren't always relevant or suited to your specific business, and will need to be changed in a years time (or less) when it's no longer trendy. Commercial break - If you need help with your brand strategy and identity as a whole to get a feel for who your audience is and what they're looking for, we would love to discuss it with you!).
Content & Messaging
Whether you are an ecommerce brand or a service provider, your content and messaging is key. From selling a lifestyle that your customers cannot wait to be a part of, to solving all their business problems, visitors to your site are looking for a solution to their desires and / or issues. It's not enough to just state what you do without further explanation, or to simply plop your products on the site and hope for the best. Most customers visiting your site, at least initially, are completely cold - they haven't experienced you or your business before, and need warming up to persuade them to book or purchase from you. Gently guiding them through the process, or inspiring them by understanding what they're looking for and selling them a solution is all part of building trust with them and making them feel confident in their decision to purchase. Similarly on-brand photography and / or showing the person / people behind the business helps to provide a sense of real-ness that they can connect to.
Technical Elements
Does the site look equally as good / function the same on mobile? Do you have an SSL installed? Does the site load reasonably quickly? It's sometimes these often forgotten elements that can make or break a website experience. Customers aren't going to hand over their card details to a site that doesn't look secure or reputable, and if they're browsing on mobile (which 50% of ecommerce shoppers apparently are) and the layout doesn't work properly, it doesn't fill them with confidence. Bad responsiveness and technical issues make the site feel badly built and by association not trustworthy. Making sure that these details receive as much as love and attention as the products / services, visuals and content ensures a seamless browsing / shopping experience and helps to warm customers up to the idea of purchasing or booking.
Navigation
Another part of building trust with your customers is making sure that the information they're looking for is easy to find. It might be as simple as delivery fees, or more detailed information about a service they're looking to book. If the information is confusing and difficult to find, it feels like it's being kept from you for some reason. Ensuring that your navigation and page structure is laid out to ensure it's super easy for people to find what they're looking for, cuts out another bottleneck that can cause someone to steer away from the site. Put a link to your shipping and return policies on your product pages and in your footer, or perhaps there's more detailed information about pricing and what's included in your service - Having a section that outlines these extras and terms on the sales pages promotes a feeling of transparency, honesty and that your business is one they would like to work with.
Social Proof
For both product-based businesses and service businesses, testimonials and reviews are king. Potential customers want to know about others' experiences working with or buying from you. Not featuring these on your website at best makes it feel as though your product or service isn't popular, and at worse that you're hiding something. Allow customers to add images / video so that others can get a real sense of what the product looks like, or hear direct from strangers about their experience. Seeing what others have experienced adds another layer of credibility to your offer and helps to cement in customers minds that your product or service is something that they need. Even better, ask for feedback! An openness to accept feedback, both good and bad, shows customers that you take their opinion seriously and creates a sense of authenticity. It also gives them greater confidence that if something isn't quite right first time, that you'll make an effort to rectify the situation, thereby making it less of a risk for them to commit.