I’m sure you’ve heard it more times than necessary by now, being online goes way past only having a social media presence! It’s true, social media is one of the places where a lot of your customers are most likely to find you and buy from you but if there hasn’t been a backdrop of efforts then you won’t even be able to attract and retain these customers.
When a customer gets to your Instagram page for example, there are certain things that can make them instantly trust you even before they patronize you.
1. The first is having a website, a place off social media
A website (eShop, landing page or any other internet space) instantly increases your credibility and makes your customers trust you. Why?
It is because it shows that you have an identity outside of just Instagram or Facebook. It means that customers have an alternate way to reach you if they don’t feel like coming on social media (you must have heard of people that deactivate their Instagram just to take a break from social media!). A lot of people don’t even have social media accounts!
Tell me, if these people now want to patronize you and they are not on social media, they will definitely find someone who has a proper website and that means you have just lost a potential customer!
Remember, not everyone likes to have chitchats with vendors in their DMs so having an online platform like an eShop is a great way to retain customers like this. Most people know that vendors who invest in a website take their business more seriously, for that reason they will see you as credible and take your business seriously too. It will even prevent some unserious customers from entering your DM.
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2. Have multiple contact details
You want your customers to perceive you as reachable so you must have multiple contacts! For example, your DM can be open, you can put a Whatsapp link on your bio as well as a website link for your customers to order from. You can also leave a call number and an email. In fact, the whole package!
Once customers perceive you as accessible, it increases their trust in you. The other day, I tried to call a vendor to make enquiries about his product and the number wasn’t going through! Ah! That is how I will have a heart attack if I’ve already paid for this one’s product O! No! No!! No!!!, no customer wants that kind of stress.
3. Be detailed about your product or service offering and what you do
Yes, have a clear business description so that your potential customers know what you do and can immediately decide if they need your services or not. Saying too many things which may be unclear is a turn off and your customers will go somewhere else that can tell them exactly what they need.
State what your business is about, your vision, so that your customers know what you are about. More important is your location as well; customers want to know that you are real because the amount of fake accounts that exist online is unbelievable. You cannot do anything that will make your potentials mistrust you – that will be a loss for you.
4. Use crisp and clear graphics (Images and Videos)
I am talking about pictures and other visual elements of your social media or online space. Just like with the website, customers can see when you as a vendor are actually invested in your business through the quality of your pictures.
Ask yourself, if you see a business page with low quality or in fact, outright bad pictures – will you want to buy from them? Even if you do, perhaps you were referred to them, your confidence level in that business will decrease because you will instantly perceive them as unserious for not investing in something as little as the appearance and good pictures for their page.
So have good quality pictures on your page. A picture is worth a thousand words! Good quality pictures show that you take your business seriously! An amazing tool for this is FotoP to help you create high quality product images for your brand.
5. Reviews and collaborations; The human element !
The human element is simply the presence of real people in your brand. Two ways to do this is through reviews and collaborations.
Posting reviews of people that have used your product or patronized your brand is another great way to build your credibility because it lets people know that your service has been tested and trusted by other people and you have evidence to show for it. Reviews of customers happily rocking your product or even screenshots of a chat where they are happy about receiving their order goes a long way to convince new customers to trust you.
Collaboration on the other hand is not so simple – you have to find a brand that is in your industry or one that isn’t but you can offer a complimentary service to your customers. For example, a vendor selling bags and another selling shoes can do a giveaway for their customers. Not only does this prove that you are not a fake, it shows that you are accepted by other vendors and this increases trust in your brand!
