4 ways to earn trust online (How to humanize your website)

One of the hardest things to do online is to prove you’re a legitimate company that offers value. The truth is, there are plenty of scammers out there and many new business owners with poor practices and a poor quality product. 

How can you prove to customers that you’re a relatable, good-hearted business owner, who can truly help them with your products or services?

You need to humanize your business. What does that mean?

To humanize your business is to reveal the human aspect of your website, brand or online presence. From the customer perspective, that means it must feel like real, relatable people are running your company. In other words, be transparent with customers. Give them a behind-the-scenes look inside your business, share personal details about the people who run your organization and basically just be human. 
​
Here are some ideas on how to do that.

4 ways to humanize your business

1. Give behind-the-scenes access with video

One of the best ways to humanize your business is to shoot a behind-the-scenes video of your company’s office and staff. 

If you’ve read my book Instant Credibility Online, you already know that a high-quality video does two things: it shows there are real people working at your business, and it proves you have money and likely paying clients. Which is good because how many people want to eat at an unknown restaurant with no customers? 

Video has a feel of being expensive. And illegitimate companies likely wouldn’t have the budget to produce one—at least that’s the thinking. 

Besides the behind-the-scenes video, really any video that features your staff and offices will do wonders for humanizing your business. You could shoot something as simple as your staff talking about your product, service or business and how it adds value to your customers.

2. Mention you and your employees’ hobbies

Your About page is the perfect place to name you and your staff’s hobbies. And you should. Because doing so creates a warm connection between your business and prospects. What’s a warm connection? 

It’s something you or staff have in common with prospects that make them feel like they know you, as if there’s some kind of friendly connection between the two of you. For example, I often connect with customers over my love of NBA hoops, and prospects have even brought up this hobby of mine on our first call. In other words, they read about it on my website or saw me mention it somewhere online and felt compelled to share their similar interest. The result was an instant warm connection.

3. Showcase client and affiliation logos ​

While logos scream volumes for your credibility, they can also create a warm connection. I regularly recommend clients to include logos from their own clients, affiliations or partners on their website. Just like hobbies mentioned above, when prospects see you’re affiliated with a familiar brand, a connection is created instantly. 

For example, if they’re friends with the owner of their local burger joint and see you’re partners with them, they’ll be happier to work with you. To the prospect, it will feel like she already knows you because she knows Sam, the burger joint owner. You become almost like an instant friend by association. And this warm connection is the equivalent of earning a little bit of trust that you can leverage to win the prospect’s business.

4. Share pictures of yourself, staff and office

Just like video, pictures of yourself, staff and offices humanize your business. 

Whenever possible, avoid stock photos and use real pictures. Stock photos can be used by anyone. They’re impersonal, lack uniqueness and can raise questions about the authenticity of your business. So if you have the budget, hire a professional photographer to shoot pictures of your team. It will be a worthwhile investment for your website and online presence.

Action step—do this today

Review your website today under the lens of the four points above. 

Sure, you may not have the ability to produce a video or showcase brand name logos. That’s okay. But anyone can personalize their About page, so go add a picture of yourself and staff and name some of your hobbies. The About page is typically the second most read page on a website (after the homepage), so personalizing it will go a long way to helping you earn trust online.

You can win over website prospects (Even with little traffic)

Earning trust online today may seem like a huge challenge. 

Especially after the pandemic, more and more people are trying to enter the online business game. There’s a lot of competition and you may feel it’s impossible to gain an edge, get noticed and earn trust. 

But you just need to take that first step. 

No, humanizing your business isn’t going to bring traffic. But it will create a connection with the website visitors already coming—so don’t let these prospects slip away. 

Take the action step above and start reinventing your business online now.