It's a well known fact that if your audience trust your brand they are more likely to buy your product or use your service. Over recent years reputation marketing has become a popular term for many businesses and if you aren't utilising this technique you could be losing out!
So, what are the best ways to make your target audience trust your brand?
Reviews:
Having reviews from previous customers on the internet it one of the top ways to boost trust in your brand, as 93% of consumers in 2020 said that online reviews influenced their purchase decisions and customers on average spend 31% more on a business with excellent reviews. So not only does reviews bring you more customers, it influences them to buy more.
On average consumers determine whether or not they can trust a business after reading 10 reviews, so how do you increase your number of reviews?
There a few tricks to help boost your online reviews, these include:
- Ensure you go above and beyond for each customer, if they leave with a memorable experience they're more likely to go to the effort of leaving an online review.
- Invite your customers to like your Facebook Page, then invite them to leave a review and recommendation on your page
- Send a follow up email to your customer, asking them to provide feedback on their experience with your business
- Offer your consumers a discount of their next order or purchase if they leave feedback on Google or your website. For online customers this could be via email, or if you sell in store this could be added to the receipt and have your till staff notify customers of the offer
Don't forget to respond to online reviews, not only does responding to reviews make you look responsive and trustworthy, on Google responding to reviews boosts your businesses local SEO.
Recommendations:
Personal recommendations are the number one driver of consumer purchase decisions at every stage of the purchase cycle. Recommendations are a great to market your brand through word-of-mouth, increase your brand awareness and trust in your brand. If you have built a relationship with your customers where they want to personally recommend you to their friends and family, this shows your target audience that your brand is trustworthy and has strong customer care.
So, how exactly do you increase recommendations of your business?
- Start by providing each and every customer with a memorable experience, if your customers feel important and looked after they are more likely to recommend your products or services
- Offer discounts and offers for customers who recommend your business. For example if your business sells dog collars online, create an offer where if you refer someone else to buy a collar both of you receive 10% off your next order
- Show appreciation to customers who recommend your product, as customers who have recommended you once are more likely to recommend your business again. So by showing your appreciation you are helping to build a positive relationship with your customers.