Helping you build trust in your business
In a Post Covid (non face-to-face) World
If you offer advice or coaching (of any kind) and you’ve previously relied heavily on face-to-face contact to build (and maintain) trust with your clients, you might feel that your world has been turned upside down.
Most, if not all, of your location advantage, has gone.
You now have to compete on a national or perhaps international stage. And while increased numbers of people online will mean more opportunities for some advisers and coaches, many will face threats from this sudden big shift into the digital world.
Which camp are you in, today?
How will you build (and maintain) trust now?
Well, in one sense, nothing has changed.
Whether you meet face to face or online, the evidence* says that to build trust you just have to demonstrate your Competence and Warmth.
* Source: Universal dimensions of social cognition: warmth and competence (Susan Fiske, Amy Cuddy and Peter Glick)
The challenge, of course, is to consistently be and do all the things that prove your trustworthy claims.
Here are some of the things that sit behind warmth and competence in my view.
Building and maintaining trust has never been easy; the difference now is that we’re forced to demonstrate those attributes online, and for that, you need excellent digital shop windows, in the form of your website and Social Media presence.
In this suddenly more competitive world, you need to become a digital go-to place for trustworthy ideas and advice.
How will you now attract and engage the right people?
People are looking more closely at what you say online.
Your words need to attract and engage your target audience – as well as your established (and trusting) clients.
That means writing as if you’re talking directly to those people (in plain English) on how you can help with the issues that matter to them.
It also means writing regularly with relevant and unique content… and refreshing and updating your old Insights too.
Does your website help you build trust today?
Don’t waste time or money creating great content to put in your shop window – if the shop looks awful, is unsafe or difficult to enter.
It’s better to have no website (and stick with LinkedIn and Twitter, for example) if your platform undermines your image.
How does your website stack up?
To be clear, I don’t build websites but if you’re unsure where to find people to make a good job of this for you, I could offer some pointers.
Sadly, as with most markets, there are cowboys to avoid in that arena.
Here’s what I think are must-have features for your website now.
- Security – https is just part of that.
- Fast loading pages – visitors to your site will simply not wait if your pages load slowly.
- A good look and feel – on all browsers and mobile phones.
- Ease of navigation – for your visitors to find what they want.
- Ease of navigation – for you to add new pages and edit the ones you have.
- Analytics – to see who’s visiting your site – and how long they stay.
And if you’re a Web Dev’t expert, feel free to add to this list.
If your website needs fixing, please find someone (good) to do the work – or start over as necessary.
This does not have to be horribly expensive but it will end up that way if you cut too many corners. You’ll build multiple cheap sites and still end up paying the money for a proper one!
Oh, yes. Sadly,
I’ve been there,
and done that!
So, find good people to design, build and maintain a solid platform for you.
It’s essential if you plan to use it for some time to come.
You build trust with your content
I’m sure you’ve heard this before, but it bears repeating.
Once you have a solid platform,
what really matters is your content.
Try this checklist to see if your current content is up to the job:
- Do you have a reasonable set of signature Insights, that clearly illustrate your core knowledge and prove your helpfulness?
- Are those core Insights all up to date?
- Are they well written, engaging, colourful… and edited?
- Are your Insights being read and your videos being watched – to the end?
- How would your visitors (not your friends!) say your articles left them feeling? Would they say they felt: Informed, Fascinated, Amused, Surprised, Challenged or even Inspired?
Do your articles invite a conversation?
Is it realistic to think that your visitors feel relieved (after reading your Insights) to have found someone to explain their problem in plain English?
Do your Insights leave your readers with a desire to get to know you better – perhaps even read more of your work?
Do your articles prove your warmth and competence – and lead your readers to reach out for your help?
If you’re answering yes to all these questions, you don’t need help from me – or any other writer.
If not, and you’d like to change those answers to, ‘yes’ – and you’re already familiar with my work, let’s talk about that.
Transforming your website into a ‘go-to’ place for high quality and engaging Insights is not an overnight job.
However, in this new world (where your local advantage is gone) I’m not sure what choice you have.
Book an initial chat to discuss this further
I don’t charge for those of course, and they’re always good fun!
Just be aware that I currently only have space for one new client. So, if you want to take action on this, now is a very good time.
Whatever you’re doing to build trust in your business, I wish you the best of luck with it. It’s certainly harder without physical contact.
Thanks for dropping in
Paul
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