As you may or may not already know, the know, like and trust factor is important for any business. But does it apply to online businesses? More now than ever!
For example, if your website visitors know that they can buy something on your site with confidence and know that their order will be delivered quickly and securely, then they are more likely to return in the future. And when people know who you are and what you stand for, they’re also more likely to recommend your business.
In this post, I’ll share some know/like/trust factors that are important for online businesses and how you can go about increasing know/like/trust in a way that benefits your business.
What is know, like and trust?
Know, like and trust is one of the most important principles in business. It is the idea that your customers know who you are, like what they know about you and trust you enough to get their credit card out and get excited to buy one of your products or services.
Many people who start online businesses mainly look to make a quick buck and search for the latest trendy marketing tactic, like PPC or SEO to drive traffic and make money online. While these marketing tactics can work, know/like/trust is what makes the biggest difference between a business that does well and one that fails.
In a nutshell:
- Know: Getting people to see your products, services, you and your business. This is what everyone who starts an online business does. It’s driving traffic using paid methods (like PPC) or free methods (like SEO or social media).
- Like: People like what they see about your business and the products you offer. A LOT of people who try their hand at online business fail at this stage. Your goal shouldn’t be to sell them something. It’s to build a relationship and show that you care about them enough so that they like you and what you and your business stands for. Think of it like greeting a customer at a store with a smile and having a bit of a nice chit chat with them in a way that doesn’t come off as wanting their money. Make sure your eyes are on your potential customer rather than on their wallet.
- Trust: Give them enough value and proof that what you offer is amazing that they believe that their money would be well spent on you. No-one likes to be scammed. When you go out and tell people to buy your stuff, no-one will be comfortable taking up that offer. It’s important to come across as non-salesy and offer to provide value instead to see whether your potential customer would truly benefit from your offer. Social proof and reviews online about you also go a long way to make your potential customer confident enough to choose to buy from you.
If you can get these 3 factors right, you have an online business set up for long term success.
How do I build know, like and online?
There are many ways to build know, like and trust with an online business:
- You could start an email list where subscribers get access to special offers as well as freebies such as eBooks. This can help to build up your “know”.
- Create social media profiles for yourself (and connect them together) so people can easily find out more about who you are and connect with you directly. This can help to build up your “like”.
- Offer product reviews from other real customers on your site so they feel comfortable buying from you too. This might be through videos or screenshots. This can help to build up your “trust”.
It’s important when you are branding your online business to know what you stand for, but it’s also important that people know who you are. When you communicate with them through social media channels, be sure they know what your product or service is about and what it stands for.
If you own an e-commerce site like Amazon or Etsy, then make certain that customers know that they can trust buying you by including clear information about secure payment methods and shipping practices on the site.
And when it comes to knowing what a business stands for? It’s so important in any walk of life these days, but especially online! If someone knows how much a company values its employees or supports great causes in addition to selling amazing products – well those things will definitely impact whether someone wants to buy from them or not.
This is know, like and trust online! It’s all about building a relationship with your business so that customers know who you are – through branding on the site as well as social media channels – they know what you stand for, and finally they can trust buying from you.
What does it look like? For example, look at these businesses where know, like and trust has been built really well online: Amazon AND Etsy!! Both of them have great branding across their sites to show people who they are but also use social media channels to build relationships between buyers & sellers (and now both own Whole Foods!).
We created an entire blog post series to show how to build that know, like and trust factor using Facebook organic marketing strategies.
How know, like and trust applies to online business?
When people visit your website, one of their first impressions will be based on how much they know about its owner (you). If all information appears professional and trustworthy but more importantly if they can find exactly what they’re looking for quickly without any trouble then this builds know, like and trust.
They’ll begin to feel comfortable buying things through your website knowing that everything goes smoothly! This increases sales opportunities exponentially as more visitors become returning customers.
A lot of online businesses nowadays can do some things right and not so much others. This would then lead them to failures or non-consistent income coming in to their business.
A lot of people know and are great at the “know” factor. They know how to run great ads, or write great posts to rank on SEO, or get a lot of people to see them on social media. Most often than not, they fail at the “like” and “trust” aspect of it.
With “trust”, there are plenty of fake reviews out there or they would get affiliates involved who would end up writing positive reviews anyway so that they can earn commissions. People catch onto things like this nowadays, and so you would need to find ways to really deliver trust in your business.
As far as “like” goes, it’s more about building relationships with people especially through social media channels that are really authentic and not just for the sake of selling stuff to them. It can be done in a subtle way where you know when to engage with them or share something really valuable which they might need but didn’t know was out there!
Most online businesses fail at the “like” and always appear to be pushing for a sale or driving potential customers to a so-called “high-converting” landing page. People buy from other people. Not some fancy funnel. Even if they end up buying from your funnel, they may end up refunding later on or not become a returning customer forcing you to keep driving traffic all the time.
The know, like and trust factor is what makes people want to buy from you over the next person who offers a similar product or service. It’s all about presentation! If someone comes across your online business with great branding that shows they know what they’re doing – but don’t have any social media presence at all? Then no one will know them as well as the competition… there goes their “like”! And if customers can’t clearly see how much this company values employees AND supports worthy causes on top of selling amazing products? Well then those things won’t matter either because not enough information exists for potential buyers to find out. That undoes an entire level of trust too and without trust, why would anyone bother buying??
Why know, like and trust are important for online businesses?
Well, first of all know/like/trust is important for any business. But how does it apply to online businesses? It’s more important than ever! Here are some reasons why it’s important:
- Repeat customers. People who know you, like what you offer and trust you enough, they will keep coming back to buy more. Look at McDonalds for example. So many people know, like and trust the brand so much that they make it a routine to buy food there regularly or buy on the way home from a long trip.
- It can generate word of mouth recommendations. People who know, like and trust your brand would be thrilled to let their friends and family know about your business. This can generate a snowball effect when you have so many people talking about your brand which only has positive benefits to your bottom line.
- No need to worry too much about driving traffic. If you can get repeat customers to your business, you don’t need to worry as much about driving boatloads of traffic. You could get away with a handful of customers that could feed you for life! And it’s not just about regular customers either. Word of mouth from your existing customers will help organically drive free traffic to your business anyway. Word of mouth traffic is the best kind of traffic on the planet at the moment.
How know, like and trust can be gained by the customer
It’s important to know what kind of relationship you want with your customers. Do they simply need to know who you are? Or do they also need to know, like and trust in addition? It can be a fine line when it comes down to this but it is possible! Let’s look at some ways that people gain these things online:
Social proof
Social media platforms have become great for building know, like & trust. Think about the last time you made an online purchase. Did someone rave about their experience so much on social media that you were convinced without any question whatsoever that buying from them was the best choice ever!?
This type of word of mouth marketing will give anyone’s business instant credibility all over the internet – not to mention great sales!
Online reviews
When you know people have reviewed a product online, it’s easy for them to trust that someone else has bought the same thing and enjoyed their experience of buying from this business before – they know what’s going on behind the scenes at least a little bit. This gives customers reassurance about your company which builds know, like & trust between buyer & seller.
Online reviews should come from reputable sources like Google reviews, or on social media directly from people. Screenshots on landing pages can work, but can also be conceived as fake.
Being mentioned on other sites
Being mentioned on news websites and other people’s blogs can be a great way to build a lot of trust. News sites are considered trustworthy (putting aside all the “fake news” stuff that we always hear about). If people search up your business and see that you’ve been featured in the news, that can literally close the deal for your products and services. We offer article writing services for businesses and publish them to high traffic sites like Yahoo Finance, Associated Press, and MorningStar to name a few. Reach out to us if you’d like us to help with this.
The importance of know, like and trust in establishing a successful online business
It’s important to know, like & trust your customers. This is the number one reason why successful online businesses are so well-known and widely popular among many people who know them. It builds credibility in their brand which increases sales tremendously over time! If you can get know/like/trust for customers then this will increase conversions exponentially increasing profits at a rapid rate. In turn, this makes it easier to attract new clients too because they’ll see an increased following on social media or referral traffic from happy existing ones! So remember – know, like and trust between customer & business will give you all of these things: more repeat custom being just one example of that! There are other benefits including word of mouth referrals which drive massive amounts of free traffic to your online business.
Know, like and trust for customers is an absolute necessity if you want a successful online business!
Summary
The know, like and trust factor is an important aspect of online business. When customers know that they can buy with confidence on your site, know that their orders will be delivered quickly and securely, know who you are and what you stand for; it becomes easier to establish a successful online business. It’s also more likely that people will recommend your company when the know, like and trust factors are in place too!
Let us help set up your website so both visitors find what they need easily while establishing this important balance between customer satisfaction and profitability.
