Persuasion Economics 9: Building Trust

Trust is built on an emotional level. If I cannot understand it, then I cannot trust it. Therefore, to build trust with your customers, you must make your website, product or service as easy to understand as possible.

This is my ninth week in my Digital Psychology training by CXL and I’m learning about how to build trust in split seconds with your target customer.

As usual, I would be sharing my take home from these learnings as well as tips from my experience as a Copywriter and Mindset Coach.

Each piece of content would contain my thoughts and/or learning from CXL’s teaching and a personal “How Can I Brand This” section, where I would share tips on how you can use the information for your brand success.

Enjoy…

Pyramid of Trust

• Ongoing Relationship
• Willingness to commit to an ongoing relationship (i.e recurring charges)
• Trust with sensitive financial information
• Trust with credit card information, etc.
• Trust with personal information
• Trust with an email address
• Interests and preferences over other options
• Is he/she better than others?
• Baseline relevance and trust that needs to be met
• Credible/dependable?
• No trust established yet

Your goal is to move your target audience up the ladder bit by bit.

The top 3 levels are the highest level of trust.

High trust comes from experience.

How Can I Brand This?

• Gradually build the trust level of your potential customers from the ground up.
• Ask for the little details first.
• Build a relationship first with your customers before asking for commitment.

BJ FOGG’s Credibility Factors

1. Appropriate Design

Have a much more aesthetically pleasing website depending on the product or services.

2. Easy Verification

Linking to other verifiable media content. Don’t have an impressive media list without a link back to the source it came from.

3. Show that you are real

The more proof you are able to give people, the more you are able to convince them that you are not a fraud.

4. Prove Expertise

Prove that you know what you are talking about. Show certifications, show testimonials.

5. Real (Trustworthy)

Be human. Be real. Tell your story. What inspires you, what you are passionate about, favourite vacation spot, favourite quote, hobbies, fun facts about you, proudest moments.

6. Easy to Contact

The easier it is to contact you, the more credible you seem. Enable live chats, put up links to easily reach you.

7. Easy to Use

The biggest most websites trust factors is easy to use.

8. Update Often

The fresher the information on the website, the more credible it seems. Add new posts often.

9. Limit Promotion/Ads

10. Avoid all errors

Go over your website to ensure that there are absolutely no errors. Also avoid technical errors such as (page 404, page not fount, dummy texts, etc.)

How Can I Brand This?

• Have an aesthetically pleasing website.
• Show that you are real, verify claims with link backs to the original sources.
• Prove that you know your stuff, show certifications, testimonials, etc.
• Make yourself easy to contact as well as easy to use.
• Review and update the information on your website.
• Avoid all errors. Always check for grammatical or technical errors before launching.

Reviews

• Reviews are a form of social proof
• 68% trust reviews more when there are good and bad reviews
• 95% suspect censorship or fake reviews when no bad scores
• 85% higher conversion rate for customers seeking negative reviews

Your reviews should be honest, plentiful and detailed to increased trust.

How Can I Brand This?

• Use reviews and viable testimonials on your website.
• Don’t hide the bad reviews. If you have bad reviews, don’t delete it, let people see that you are addressing the issue.
• Be human, people can easily detect a lie. Don’t overblow a review to suit yourself.

Domain Trust

People are more likely to trust domain names that are more familiar, branded, simple, short, .com, region and language also matters.

The domain is a proxy for authority.

Videos/Photos/Animations/Phrases

Another way of building trust on your website is by incorporating videos, animations, more photos.

Ten words: You can trust us to do the job for you.

Sometimes, simply telling people that you can be trusted increases the trust for you.

Ultimatum Game

Socialization plays a role in building trust. Social conversation helps to increase sales and negotiation success.

Socialize first, on emails, social media, talking for a few months, etc. The shortest time is 10 minutes.

Improving Your Photographs

• Your left side is usually more attractive in taking photos. But for men, the right side is more dominant and powerful.
• Larger pupils make you attractive
• Try minimizing the size of the light
• A thicker limber ring makes you more attractive
• Smile — Happiness increases dominance. Slight smile with a slight eyebrow raise.
• A smaller smile indicates intelligence and trustworthiness. A bigger smile indicates dominance and friendliness.
• The most attractive gaze is the direct gaze
• Visible alcohol in photo drops IQ

Trust Symbols

Trust symbols such as a secured website, verified symbol/logo, etc., make people feel more comfortable using your website.

How Can I Brand This?

• Use branded names that are easy to remember
• Infuse videos, images and animations on your website.
• Build relationship first before an ask
• Smile often in your photographs
• If you are not advertising for a wine brand or posing as a fun person, remove all traces of alcohol from the scene of your pictures as this decreases your IQ.
• Use trusted seals and logos on your website.
• Ensure your website is secured.

That’s it on this week’s learning on Persuasion Economics. These are my personal take home from the learning sessions at CXL on Digital Psychology and Persuasion. I hope you got value or learnt something new. If you did, please leave a comment and let me know what stood out for you.

A huge thank you to CXL for the learning opportunity. You can check out their website if you want to learn how to take your Digital Marketing game to the next level. There are several digital courses which can help you become badass at marketing.