Anybody can play on the Web today. No programming skills required. Then there are the technical folks, who have the ability to create phishing sites and emails and bot attacks to kill even the hardiest enterprise server. Yet the Web population continues to grow and new applications keep popping up. Trust is a big issue. How does the consumer know your site is what you say it is? Well known brands like eBay or IBM are well established and trust is inherent now. For others, this is a challenge. How do you gain trust?
A well-known brand has established trust through both online and offline marketing and through unpaid media coverage. Brands such as Apple, IBM, Coca-Cola, Pepsi and British Airways existed prior to the Web and so the brand experience and trust is carried over to the Web. For Web-based businesses, part of the reason for your marketing in traditional mediums and seeking media coverage is gaining trust that you are who you say you are. An increasingly important issue on the Web and more so for almost purely Web-based businesses. The small business looking to expand it’s market into new States, Provinces or countries faces the “credibility” challenge. Many organizations attempt to do this through providing “testimonials” and placing the names of clients on their site. This works to a degree, but more factors are at play, and many a marketer has “stretched” a customer letter into a glowing testimonial. Hence you never see the testifying persons name and contact information, just “Ruth from Ohio.” OK, thanks “Ruth.”
The importance of trust identifiers on your site if you are looking to generate leads, sell products, drive donations or obtain subscriptions is very important, and is a prime factor in the 2.5 seconds you have to catch someones attention and keep it on your site.
There are a number of services that offer “seals of approval” or “trust seals” for you to use on your website. Some are fairly easy to obtain, others not so much. Pricing varies as well. One of the top seals you can have on your website is a well known and trusted brand from the pre-Web era; Good Housekeeping. It is also a very hard and very expensive seal to have, but arguably one of the best. Made more so because it is hard to get and expensive. Good Housekeeping knows the value of it’s brand as a “Trust Mark.”
When you are looking to enhance your brand and build trust online, then include as part of your site design and planning some form of trust mark. Search Google under “online trust seals” and a number will pop up. Well-known and not too expensive services include TrustGuard and Verisign. Join the Better Business Bureau in your area and get a BBB Online seal as well. You don’t need many, just a few will do, but they help to establish credibility. And are on part of driving sales. There is also a company called Trusted Testimonials who says they will verify your testimonials. While we think this is innovative, they don’t have much brand recognition yet, there is little information on who they are and who is behind them and we see some pointed flaws in the system - so we don’t truly recommend Trusted Testimonials yet.
Trust marks, eCommerce seals and viable testimonials all help establish your credibility and are an important part of your strategy for your website, not just for potential customers, but for potential employees, investors and potential partners. Trust seals can also help with your SEO work.