The importance of trust signals for building your brand
Last updated on August 29th, 2024 at 01:13 pm
Who do you trust the most?
Which brands do you trust, which influencers, which businesses?
Trust is important in business to convince customers to use your company’s services and get your company seen in the first place.
With Google now including trustworthiness as a core part of its ranking system, it’s essential to consider how you can build meaningful relationships.
This is where trust signals come in.
They are what brands and businesses need to enhance credibility and make prospects feel more secure and comfortable.
What is a trust signal?
A trust signal is something that proves to prospective customers that you’re reliable and credible.
It is crucial to feature trust signals on your website to enhance consumer trust and drive purchasing behaviour. Examples of trust signals could include:
- Testimonials from real users
- Positive PR coverage in print, online or broadcast media
- Awards or accreditations from credible industry bodies
- Speaker slots on podcasts or at events, or guest posts for other companies
- Sharing expertise that prospective customers find useful
- A case study of your latest success story
- Positive social media engagement from your audience
- Quality backlinks and a strong domain authority on your website
- High-ranking positions for branded and non-branded keywords
Trust signals can inform different sections of a business growth strategy, including inbound marketing, outbound marketing and your website.
For example, a genuine positive review from a client on your social media can be a fantastic trust signal.
Something like this can be used on your website, as an inbound trust signal, or it can be activated through concerted marketing efforts and used as an outbound tool.
Ultimately, leveraging these trust signals helps to garner a positive brand image.
Why trustworthy content is important for prospective customers
Trust signals aren’t just reviews from customers. The content you create can also create trust signals for search.
Have you noticed that traffic to your website has suddenly gone up or down significantly? It may well be down to Google’s September 2023 “Helpful content update.”
This was a change to Google’s search algorithm that, it said, would bring “helpful, reliable, people-first content” higher up the search engine results pages. Google’s algorithm plays a crucial role in determining page trustworthiness by rewarding content that demonstrates expertise, experience authoritativeness, and trustworthiness (E-E-A-T)
Google said on its website: “The helpful content system aims to better reward content where visitors feel they’ve had a satisfying experience, while content that doesn’t meet a visitor’s expectation won’t perform as well.”
Getting on the right side of Google
Sites filled with unhelpful content and articles stuffed with keywords to try and improve SEO but not giving the reader new information may plummet down the Google rankings.
On the other hand, if you’re providing relevant, useful content that’s created with the reader in mind, you’ll be ranked better.
When you use E-E-A-T content you can guarantee trust signals more easily. You’re effectively signposting yourself to Google’s search quality raters that yours is the site to direct traffic towards.
Make sure you keep up with Google’s guidelines. They often change and the key to creating content that puts out the right trust signals is keeping on top of your search engine results position.
Building trust through media mentions and public relations
By using trust signals in the right way, and alongside a robust PR strategy, you can help your business stand out against its competitors.
PR can ensure you maximise your content as proof points through several methods. This may include securing coverage with backlinks from reputable websites or entering your business into awards that will put you in front of your sector media.
Media mentions also play a crucial role in establishing credibility and trust for businesses, as they serve as a trust signal through association with well-known media brands.
Another way of building trust is to be transparent in terms of business ethics or your supply chain. A PR agency will be able to help you communicate these effectively so that potential customers are clear on where you stand.
If you’re open and honest it’s simple for your audience to check whether your values align and trust you with their custom.
Growing brand reputation proactively
The saying, make hay when the sun shines, doesn’t just apply to farmers.
The more positive PR you can generate while things are going well, the more likely you are to build positive relations and garner brand loyalty.
Customer testimonials, as a form of social proof, can significantly improve brand trust by showcasing authentic feedback from happy customers. Testimonials and reviews are excellent trust signals for search and actual humans.
Sure you’re prices might be cheaper. But when the customers are making a business case, five-star ratings with a slightly higher cost look a lot more appealing than a discounted two-star vendor, with a slew of bad reviews.
It might sound old-had in our digital world but never underestimate the power of word of mouth and third-party endorsement.
To that end, PR coverage is also important for search engine optimisation. The more frequently you’re mentioned on third-party websites, the more credibility it adds to your website and the better your chances of appearing further up the Google rankings.
Third-party proof-points and customer testimonials
You can take out all the ads you like saying your offering is amazing, but consumer trust in adverts is low.
You may find this tactic doesn’t bring a good return on investment.
If, on the other hand, you get someone else to say you’re great, that’s worth far more when it comes to building trust. For example, media coverage from an independent journalist or an industry awards judge may well repeat exactly what you’ve told them about your work in your press release or award entry form, but it’s far more credible now that it’s coming out of the mouth of a third party.
Featuring trust signals on your website, such as reviews, ratings, badges, and testimonials, can significantly enhance trust and influence purchasing decisions.
A PR agency with expertise in your industry will also know how your other companies and competitors are trying to position themselves and be able to help you carve out a share of voice e.g. by commenting on wider developments within your area of expertise to reach new audiences.
They can also help you make use of storytelling to better connect with your audience and stay front of mind. By leveraging their existing contacts within the trade or national media, good public relations specialists can help you achieve maximum impact with any PR campaign you run.
Potential Customers & The Value of Reviews
When you can, give potential customers the gift of going second.
If they can see a raft of reviews from happy customers, or case studies detailing how working with you has benefitted someone similar to them, then it’s easier for them to leap from browsing to purchasing.
Satisfied customers significantly influence potential buyers’ purchasing decisions, as their positive feedback and endorsements serve as powerful social proof.
If you’re a B2B business, reviews can offer benefits for both parties. Another business can leave you a review, but at the same time improve their brand trust and signals. They benefit from the halo effect of working with a trusted business, and you benefit from clients being able to check out who that company is to reassure themselves that your reviews or case studies are legitimate.
Of course, persuading customers to leave a review, however satisfied they are with your business, is not easy.
People are busy and there’s usually no benefit for them to spare time to write about their experiences. So consider how you can incentivise your customers to leave positive reviews and testimonials.
Trust signals, social proof, and social media
Social channels can be a fantastic way to gather lots of testimonials, as well as create and increase brand visibility to a wider audience.
Social proof is a crucial psychological phenomenon that influences consumer behaviour by leveraging endorsements from peers, such as customer reviews and testimonials.
However, it can be a double-edged sword, because negative feedback on Facebook, for example, is likely to be seen more quickly than it might be on your website.
So it’s vital to monitor social media and marketing channels well – both the ones you have a deliberate presence on and those you don’t, where people will still comment about you regardless – to be able to swiftly respond to queries and comments before they have a chance to escalate.
Measuring the impact of trust
There are many ways you can measure the success of your trust signals to track whether your efforts are having the desired impact.
Trust signals help customers feel more secure and at ease with their purchasing decisions, ensuring they believe their money is safe and that they will receive what they paid for.
For example, the number of visitors to websites, your Google rankings, and what consumers are saying about you on social media platforms or surveys.
A PR agency can also help you monitor brand awareness, your market share and share of voice – how often you’re mentioned compared to competitor brands in, for example, media coverage.
Why trust signals will continue to be important in the future
Businesses and consumers get caught out every day by scams, false reviews and fake news. The introduction of AI such as ChatGPT has reduced trust that anything people read is genuine, and the use of AI chatbots to replace customer service departments can lead to frustrating experiences for customers.
Prioritising building different types of trust signals brings back the human, people-first aspect Google is now looking for, as well as attracting and retaining customers. An example of a trust signal that has evolved is the Google Trusted Store, which is transitioning to Google Customer Reviews.
PR plays a valuable role for companies in building trust signals with your audience. It can drive continued support to your company and prove to prospects that your brand is reliable and credible, while at the same time making your content more valuable for the long-term.
Get in touch today to find out how we can help grow your business’s trust signals and get your company seen.
