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How to Build Trust at Every Stage of the Customer Journey

Brand Development

To provide frictionless commerce and compelling internet marketing campaigns in Miami, your customer journey should be fast, easy, and secure.  

But the most important thing is to lead with trust. Now that the customer journey is no longer linear and consumers can jump in and out of the four stages at any point, trust is what’s going to keep them engaged and committed to your business.  

Trust is the key to your long-term revenue growth. It convinces prospects to complete their transaction with you, return to buy again, feel confident in spending more on your brand, and recommend you to others.  

Your ultimate goal should be to provide a cohesive and seamless omnichannel experience that proves your business is trustworthy at every stage of the customer journey.  

But before we discuss how you can build trust at every stage of the customer journey, let us first tackle what customer trust is and why it’s more crucial today than ever before.  

What is Customer Trust and Why is it Important?

What exactly is customer trust and what does it look like today? Customer trust is a reciprocal behavior to what your customers receive from you.  

When you understand their needs, provide relevant offerings, respect them, and make them feel special by personalizing your internet marketing strategy in Miami, you earn their trust and convert them into loyal buyers.  

Plus, they insist their friends and family to do business with you too!

Knowing how to build trust at every stage of the customer journey is critical to staying competitive in today’s business climate. Consumers are 7x more likely to purchase from brands they trust.  

Modern consumers are also becoming increasingly savvy, selective, and doubtful about their purchasing decisions. Statistics show that 55% of customers trust companies less than they used to.  

It's very alarming to know that consumers have become cynical but if you look at the bright side, you'll see that it's an opportunity for you to grow your company.  

How? Well, if you can deliver a better customer experience than your competitors, you can attract 93% of people who say they would buy again from companies that offer excellent customer service.  

Different Ways You Can Build Frictionless Commerce for SMEs Through Trust

1. Awareness Stage

Internet marketing in Miami

Awareness is the first stage of the customer’s journey. To build trust in this stage, you need to make a good first impression. You want to captivate prospects who just discovered your brand and pique their interest enough to make them want to explore what you have to offer.  

To build trust in the awareness stage, here are some things you need to do:

Optimize your website design and navigation.

Studies show that website design and navigation have the biggest influence on a user’s first impressions of a brand. This means you’d want to create an aesthetically pleasing web design that’s also functional.  

Choose your website’s images, font, and color schemes strategically.  

Publish visually appealing content across all communication channels.

55% of customers discover new products and brands on social media. So, aside from using captivating visuals on your site, you also want to make your brand’s visual identity across all touchpoints aesthetically pleasing and cohesive.  

Invest in a custom domain name and use it as your social media handles.  

Invest in a custom domain name that will make your business appear more professional and trustworthy. As much as possible your business and domain name should be the same, including your social media handles.  

It fosters brand recall, which makes it easier to remember and search for you online. Consistency also makes you look more put together.

Include Your Business Emails

Aside from your domain and social media handles, you also want your business emails to be consistent with the rest of your branding and to appear trustworthy.  

It will help a maintain professional and consistent branding when it comes to communicating with your customers. This means ditching your cowboy121@yahoo.com for something more in line with your brand name or business.  

Create a Strong Online Presence

During this stage, buyers are likely to come across your solution organically. To capture their attention, you need to have a strong online presence.  

This means you need to have a robust internet marketing strategy in Miami and post regularly on your social media accounts and blog.  

However, you can’t just post anything. You want your website, blog, and social media posts to share your brand’s story and showcase your authenticity to resonate with your target customers and show them that you share the same values.  

Present a Solution

Aside from aesthetically pleasing visuals and consistent branding, another way to appeal to and captivate potential customers is to recognize their pain points and present a solution.  

Highlight how you will solve their problem and why it’s better compared to your competitors.  

2. Interest Stage

Once you’ve managed to make a nice first impression and impressed the customer with your solution. They'll likely browse your site or go through your social media account. Here’s what you should focus on next:

Optimize Product Descriptions

Missing or unclear product information is one of the reasons why 20% of purchases are abandoned. This means that it’s so critical to provide clear and detailed product descriptions to convince cynical buyers.  

Although a picture is worth a thousand words, it can sometimes get skewed, look different on a screen, and miss some important details. A good product description allows you to correct any mistakes in a photo and point out details, like the materials the product is made from, measurements, and its different uses.  

According to a Salsify 2017 study, “detailed product descriptions” were among the top three features people look for when deciding to buy groceries, clothing, or electronics online.  

87% of people also consider product descriptions extremely important when buying online.

Make sure your product descriptions include all important details and highlight what makes them unique and worthwhile.  You can even feature them in your internet marketing campaigns in Miami.  

Take Various Angles of Your Product or Showcase it in a Video

A flat image can never fully capture the dimensions and beauty of your product.  

By presenting your products through different views, you can give your product a sense of tangibility, as well as a chance for users to see your item in detail.  

Use photos and videos to help potential customers get a grasp of the feel and fit of your products.  

Showcase Your Authenticity

Studies show that 77% of consumers are more likely to trust a business if they share the same values.  

For example, if a person is environmentally conscious, they're more likely to buy from businesses that are practicing sustainable business practices.  

Determine your brand’s core values and make an effort to show what you stand for as a brand.  

Not just in your campaigns or brand messaging but also in implementing changes in your processes, sourcing, manufacturing, and packaging.  

What do you believe in as a company? What’s the bigger picture of what you do? Is it to make the world a cleaner and greener place? Is it to promote inclusivity and equality for all?

Start by incorporating what you stand for into your About Us page, product descriptions, and internet marketing campaigns in Miami.  

Check Your Grammar and Spelling

It feels sketchy when a website has some words spelled wrong or the grammar in the product description is off.  

Keep your business professional and trustworthy by using the right words, and punctuation, and check your grammar. You can always hire professional help if writing content isn’t your forte.  

3. Consideration Stage

Customer is window shopping online

This is the stage when a customer is interested in what you have to offer, but isn’t quite ready to buy. There’s a little bit of doubt and they want to explore other available options.  

Make it easier for them to compare prices and determine that your products are exactly what they need. Here’s how you can ease the anxiety of potential customers as they make a decision:

Create Comparison Guides

Whether it’s through a blog or video, show potential customers how your products or services stack up against your competitors.  

Showcase Social Proof

88% of customers trust online reviews as much as they trust personal recommendations from friends and family.  

What better way to convince customers to choose you over your competitors than showing them social signals that prove your store is legitimate and trustworthy?  

There are many ways you can build social proof, such as case studies, product reviews, testimonials, user-generated content, or influencer internet marketing in Miami.  

The more social proof is out there about your brand, products, and services the easier it is for customers to trust you with their money.  

Create Clear Returns Policy

Shopping online can be a little tricky, especially because you don't have a chance to see the product in real life and try it out. So it can be difficult to convince customers to buy, especially if you're selling something pricey.  

Give your customers a sense of security by providing them with a clear returns policy. Go over your returns and exchange policy and ensure it clearly explains the following:

  • Procedure for returns
  • What items can be refunded
  • Who shoulders the return shipping
  • What items can be returned
  • Number of days the customer has to return the item
  • Whether they’ll get a replacement, full refund, or store credit

Provide Privacy Protection and Online Payment Security

You want customers to feel safe giving you their personal and financial information.  

Go through your payment process and identify any possible security concerns that your customers might have. For example, the payment methods you accept might not be familiar to your customers.  

Another way to make your customers feel more secure shopping on your site is by displaying SSL certificates and third-party logos in the checkout and footer of your site.  

4. Purchase Stage

Customer buying from online store.

At this stage, customers are finally ready to buy! The key to making sure that they check out is by making their shopping experience as smooth as possible. Here’s how:

Get Rid of Distractions

You want to keep your customers on the checkout page until they hit that "confirm" button. To do this, get rid of anything that may distract them elsewhere. It means don't surprise them with product recommendations and pop-up ads.  

You want your checkout process to be easy, quick, and delightful. To do this, limit your form fields between three and four. Only ask for their delivery details, payment details, and order review and confirmation.  

Provide Real-Time Order Updates Until Last Mile Delivery

Establishing trust doesn’t stop the moment a customer has finally checked out. It's only the beginning of cultivating a strong relationship with your customers.  

Keep your customers updated about their orders by providing them with real-time information about their items. Is it being packed? Out for delivery? Let them know.  

It's also important to be proactive whenever there’s a problem. Be upfront about it, apologize, and let your customers know how you’re going to solve it. This gives them peace of mind and deepens their trust in your brand.  

Provide Excellent Post-Purchase Customer Service

Now that your customers’ orders have been successfully delivered, continue to establish trust and cultivate the relationship by asking for their feedback.  

Make them feel heard by acknowledging their feedback and acting on them.  

It’s also important to provide your customers with post-purchase content and internet marketing campaigns in Miami that will help make the most out of your products or services, like onboarding content, how-to videos, tutorials, product update, and many more.  

Take Your Business to the Next Level by Building Trust at Every Stage of the Customer Journey!

Now that you know what to do to build trust at every stage of the customer journey, it’s time to apply these best practices.  

Just remember that customers have different expectations so it’s important to keep track and monitor your results and make changes accordingly.

At Digital Resource, we can help you craft effective digital marketing campaigns in Miami that convert! Want to see results in just a month? Contact us today to know how we can make it possible for your business.  

 

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