As amazing as the internet can be, it’s also a pretty scary place.
Scams are rife online. The number of iPads I own doesn’t even closely resemble the number I’ve apparently ‘won’. The NSA can turn on your webcam and spy on you at any time. Thirteen year olds with laptops are hacking computers to mine bitcoin. And everywhere you go you need to protect your password like it’s your only child.
Knowing all this, it’s hard to believe anyone types their credit card information into the web at all. But somehow, your job as an ecommerce vendor is to convince them to do just that: hand their most guarded secrets over to you.
Obviously, you need to show potential customer you can be trusted. So, let’s take a look at a few of the ways we can build our legitimacy online.
Invest in your website design
Your website is your online shop front. And just like a run down bricks and mortar store isn’t going to attract anyone to shop, an outdated website will also scare away your potential buyers.
Case in point; would you buy a car from Ling?
Ensure you invest in a nice, modern website. More importantly – make sure it works! Nothing raises eyebrows like broken links or buggy pages.
Keeping your website up to date and working properly ensures that your customers know you’re a legitimate business, not a quick scam. Scammers don’t go to those lengths. Need proof? Check your Spam folder.
Have readily accessible contact details
Ensure your contact details are accessible. If at all possible, include a phone number that your customers can reach you on during business hours. Otherwise, a support or enquiry email address would also work just fine.
Not only is it great customer service to have a dedicated channel for your buyers to talk to a real life, walking, talking person – but having a phone number, a physical address, and a business number shows your visitors that there’s a real person behind the website – not a faceless, basement-dweller looking to steal your card details to buy Mountain Dew and Pizza Hut.
Get a Google Business account
If you haven’t already – sign up for a Google My Business account.
Google Business accounts give you a huge range of benefits online. For starters, when people search for your company name in the search engine, they’ll see a proper business card, rather than just your website URL. This allows you to showcase your logo and other business imagery right there in the search results. This helps attract more customers, and puts you in much higher repute than your Google Business-less competitors.
It’s free to sign up. All you need is a physical location and a postal address.
Ask for reviews
If you have a Google Business account, there’s even more great news. Now you can ask for reviews from your happy customers!
Building up a solid bank of positive reviews shows potential customers you can definitely be trusted. After all, you can say whatever you like about yourself in your own website – but if others are backing up your claims, it’s a different story. The same principle explains why Referral Marketing works so well.
Google reviews are probably your most valuable, as they appear in front of all your organic traffic. However, for some businesses, reviews on Facebook – or even dedicated review websites like Product Review – will be just as effective.
Use Lifecycle Marketing principles
Lifecycle Marketing is ecommerce’s best friend. If you want to ensure that your customers are connected to your brand, you need to reach them at the right points in their customer journey with the right messaging. That’s the only way to turn a customer into a brand advocate.
Don’t worry – you won’t have to spend your life on the phone. This is where digital, Lifecycle practices some in. With the right marketing platform, you can automate the majority of the work!
Lifecycle automations will help to encourage repeat purchases, reviews, referrals and build brand affinity with your clientele. Plus, if your customers are hearing from you every so often, not only do they trust you’re a legitimate business; they know you care.
If you need any help with any of the above, or want to find out more about lifecycle automations, get in touch with one of our strategists! We’d love to see how we can help improve your business.