5 Ways to build trust (without paying for celebrities)

So you’re thinking about creating or building your own website for your solar business.

You’ve looked at the big solar companies, and you realise that they’ve spent a lot of money on sponsoring Australian sporting legends.

The whole point of these sponsorships is to make you feel like you can trust the company. If you know the sportsperson, and they’re endorsing this company, then this company must be trustworthy.

And the problem is that these sponsorships are very expensive, and you realise this is not something you can afford. So you’re feeling stuck.

But did you know there are other ways for you to create trust with your website without spending heaps of money?

In this video, you’ll learn that there are 5 ways to create trust without a big budget.

Help your customer get what they want.

To put it simply, your customer is only on your website because they want to find a solution to their problem.

They’re only there for themselves.

If you can help them get what they want, then you will be able to get what you want. 

You do this by talking about their problems, their pains, their frustrations. 

This shows that you understand them and care about them.

Only after you’ve talked about them, can you offer a solution. 

Definitely don’t start off and try to sell them anything. 

This is the first step in building trust. 

Start a blog

You can also build trust by giving value for free. This can be in either education or entertainment.

The easiest way to give value for free is to start a blog. 

Blogs are a great way for your potential customers to find out solutions to their problems. 

They have a problem, they read your article which helps them solve their problem. They feel like they have gained value. The only thing they paid for was their time. 

Now, I know what you’re thinking. 

“I don’t know what to write.”

“I’m not really an expert.” 

“I’m going to be found out.”

Before I started writing, that’s what I thought too. 

But the beautiful thing is that you get better the more you do it. 

You’re going to come across a topic that you’re not 100% sure about. This prompts you to do your own research, and you learn as part of this exercise. 

In addition, the more you write, the more Google will treat your site as an authority on solar, and the more likely your pages are going to rank well. 

This means the more visitors your site will receive.

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Write case studies

Testimonials are pretty standard these days. Almost all solar websites have them. Whilst they are great in building trust, they can be faked. And as a result, many visitors don’t trust testimonials as much.

The next level of testimonials are case studies. 

Presenting a case study gives an insight to your thought process and how you solve a particular problem. 

What is so different about case studies is that there is a clearly defined problem, solution and outcome. 

Your visitor can put themselves in your previous customers’ shoes and visualise the same outcome that you can help them get.

Case studies can be time consuming to write and produce, but they are a great way of creating trust.

Capture leads and build a list

Internet marketing was figured out 10 years ago.

Instead of trying to sell, sell, sell, we should be offering something of value for free in exchange for your visitors' contact information.

Once we have their contact information, we can continue to interact with them, offer education, offer education.

When the time is right, ask them to buy our product.

But still, everywhere you go, especially for solar websites, capturing contact information seems to be of the lowest importance. 

I argue it is still one of the most important.

Take a look at adamsolar.com.au, they’re offering free information on getting solar that will give you peace of mind for solar. I think that’s a great offer. 

For their visitors, it’s free, low commitment, and almost instantly in their letterbox. They’ve got very little to lose.

Show real photos of yourself

I think your website should show real photographs of you and your team.

But I can also understand why you don’t want to use photos of yourself. We generally don’t like how we look in photos, and once they’re out in the public, we can’t really take them back. Some people also don’t like to reveal their age, because they may appear too young or too old to their prospective customer.

On the other hand, real photos show authenticity and transparency. Even the most skeptical internet user wants to find people they can trust. We all want this. We all want to trust the person we’re dealing with. A real photo can go a long way to helping achieve that. 

In addition, we are far better at remembering people’s faces than of inanimate objects. Being memorable gives us the best chance of staying in the mind of our potential customers.

Conclusion

So in conclusion, whilst there are dozens more aspects we can copy and steal from larger solar companies, our video today shows us the top 5 things we can copy.

Just to recap:

1. Help your customer get what they want
2. Start a blog
3. Write case studies
4. Capture leads and build a list
5. Show real photos of yourself

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