Have you ever asked yourself why do prospect trust one digital brand and not the other? Have you ever wondered why folks seem to ‘feel’ your brand is trustworthy but couldn’t quite explain? Short answer? Well, it’s not that simple. In digital branding, we use combination of behavior and cognitive psychology, market research, creativity, User Experience, User Interface design and a few good strategies to help expedite the ‘trust building process’. Why should you care? Because by definition, the faster you can build digital trust, the faster your target prospect (whether recruit, prospect or partner) can truly evaluate what your substance!
1. Leverage Your Client’s Reputation
Post the logos or names of your top clients in a prominent portion of your web site or digital storefront. Buyers are more likely to accelerate their purchase decision if they see that larger companies than theirs, or of the same size, have purchased your products or services.
2. Use Recognizable Terminology
Don’t invent new lines of business or product categories that are not widely accepted or pre-tested for your target audience. Uncommon terminology could cause buyers to overlook services being offered and skip to the next available choice with recognizable terms.
3. Logic First, Display Second
Creating a strong resonance through prominent branding is critical, but B2B buyers use logic to filter out advertising noise. Maintain a 60/40 balance between making bold statements on your homepage and arresting design visuals (60%) to gain trust. Craft the navigation and user experience to be both intuitive and easy to follow with clear content that directs the user where they want to go.
4. Be Real. Avoid Skepticism
Place your corporate HQ address on the front of the site. Every so often, users seek to validate your legitimacy and when they only see an email form or an email and a telephone number, they may assume something is fishy.
5. Beef up industry expertise
Prominently display recognized industry association membership icons & logos to instantly convey your corporate citizenship in your community of expertise.
6. Leadership Profiles
The leadership page isn’t optional. It is one of the most frequently visited pages with B2B clients. Leadership profiles are a great opportunity to show off your managers, instantly relate credibility and build human trust. Profile shots should be consistent and professional to create a seamless, positive impression.
7. Good SEO Equals More Recognition
Create high-reputation backlinks to your web site. This SEO best practice will establish credibility within Google search algorithms so that your business is on the first search results page. Establishing backlinks to other credible sites such as large businesses, news sites, and trade publications vicariously lends credibility to your own site.
About the Author: Mr. Gal Borenstein is a recognized expert and strategist in digital branding, marketing, social media, advertising, online reputation management and public relations matters. He is the founder and CEO of the Borenstein Group, a top digital marketing communications firm in the Washington DC metropolitan area that serves clients locally and globally. He is the author of new business leadership book, ACTIVATE! How to Power Up Your Brand to Dominate Your Market, Crush Your Competition & Win in the Digital Age, available in premiere bookstores and on Amazon, Barnes & Nobles and Apple’s iBooks. Gal has published his first business leadership book What Really Counts for CEOs in 2009. Since then, Borenstein has been featured as a guest commentator on CNN and Fox Business News on strategic marketing and branding issues, as well as, been one of the top digital content contributors to influential business leadership social media networks such as LinkedIn, PR Week’s The Hub, Advertising Age’s BtoB magazine, HR.Com, Smart CEO Magazine, DuctTapeMarketing.com and others.
He can be reached by email at gal@borensteingroup.com or @galborenstein on Twitter.
