A Personal Feel that Builds Trust

Large companies spend tens of millions of dollars to build a brand. This expenditure buys name recognition and the confidence that goes with it, a favorable position or association in the mind of the consumer, and a belief that a company with so much invested in its reputation will not disappoint its customers. Investments in brand development pay rich dividends.

But smaller companies just can't afford the money it takes to establish a national brand. Instead of relying upon an established reputation, they are required to build trust and confidence from the moment a customer lands on their site. Big companies have their brand, but small companies have the advantage of a personal face and personal character to the business -- and connecting personally can be a very powerful sales motivator indeed!

Show Photos of Yourself or Your Staff

For years I've displayed a photo of myself on my website. I went to a professional photographer to get as good a photo as I could. But, frankly, I'm not handsome enough to win customers. I don't display the photo out of vanity. I show it for one reason: so people will perceive me as a person, and therefore begin to establish a relationship with me through my writings.

In a sense, you are what makes your small business different from all the rest. You are your own brand.

If you're a woman, you might not want to show a photo of yourself, but perhaps a group photo of your staff or sales team. Professional photos taken for this purpose can project the personal service you show your customers. They put faces behind the name. And people connect with people. Give people the choice of doing business with a cheerful, competent person rather than a faceless corporation and they'll choose the person every time.

Wells Fargo talks about "your personal banker," Wal-Mart features its own employees in national TV ads, and MicroWarehouse.com's "brand" includes a picture of one of its phone order-takers.

If you have an existing brick-and-mortar business, show a photo of the building, too. Even if it doesn't look spectacular, it demonstrates that your business isn't just a cyber-vapor pretending to be an online store.

Show Photos of Happy People on the Front Page

But don't stop with photos of yourself and your staff. Instead of animated letters and blue buttons, provide centers of human interest on your front page. Find photos of happy people who are part of the demographic target group you've determined are your best customers. To see how this is done, take a look at Wal-Mart. http://www.wal-mart.com You can secure royalty-free people shots for your website from PhotoDisc http://www.photodisc.com for about $30 each -- a small price to pay for attractive models and excellent photography.

Shoppers will relate to the people they see at your site. If they look confident and at ease, it will help to lessen a shopper's natural distrust of unknown Internet shops.

Tell the Story of Your Business

To build trust you'll also want to tell the story of your business. You may think that shoppers won't care about the details. But it's precisely these details that show your store is for real, that your values of honesty and hard work underlie your whole business. I've read some business stories that really made me WANT to make a purchase because I liked the people I was reading about. Here's a sample of the style you might want to employ:

I've been interested in Lionel electric trains ever since my brother and I received a set on Christmas Day 1953 from a cousin who was in the Air Force. Ever since then, trains have fascinated me.

My wife, Doris, and I actually met at a model train show at the Cow Palace in San Francisco, and were married six weeks later, so both of us have a keen interest in trains. Click here to see two of the train layouts we have in our recreation room.

Doris and I began Toot-Toot Model Train Village six years ago in a small store near our home in Fresno, California. We opened our Internet store (toot-toot-trains.com) in 1998, and since then we've outgrown our facilities twice. Our fair prices and huge selection have built a growing network of delighted hobbyists who come back again and again.

Feel free to e-mail us with your questions. We promptly answer all our e-mail,and stand behind our products with a 100% No Questions Asked 60 Day Return Guarantee. But since our products are the finest quality and we take care to test everything before shipping, we've only had to make good on our guarantee three times in our six year history.

We look forward to serving you and your train hobby.

Sincerely,
Herb and Doris Fitzmeyer
Toot-Toot Model Train Village

I realize that this sounds kind of hokey, but it builds trust. It has a way of bringing the shopper into a bit of the storeowners' lives and their passion for trains. When the shopper is finished reading, he is much more ready to purchase from Herb and Doris than he was before. What they've said is believable and winsome. (Of course, you know that Herb and Doris Fitzmeyer and the Toot-Toot Model Train Village are imaginary! But don't you wish they were real?)

Write in a Chatty Manner

Let the big companies write in their elevated, third person, slightly distant tone. But you need to write in the same way you would talk to a shopper if she were directly across from you. It'll help you build a bond of friendship and trust that will produce sales.

Display Testimonials from Satisfied Customers

As you develop satisfied customers, e-mail them and ask whether you can use for your promotional materials the kind words they've written. Nearly always they'll agree. Then excerpt two or three sentences for the testimonial. Make sure you use a variety of topics -- one about your great customer service, another about your selection and prices, a third about how you took special time to explain something, a fourth about how they recommend your site to their friends, and a fifth about the promptness of your e-mails and shipping. Feel free to remove extraneous phrases or clauses from the final testimony, but make sure you don't change the wording or intent of the key items you leave in. Use full names with their permission, where they live, and ideally, a phone number to contact them. (Listing an e-mail address will subject your top customers to a barrage of spam.)

The personal touch is a powerful way to build trust.