Five Techwe are
Jul 14, 2008

Writing Trusted Web Content For Your Service Business

If you are a service based business you need your website to create, build or maintain a high level of trust. Whether you are a service for consumers (lawn care, electrician, chiropractor, mechanic) or a service for businesses (consultant, accountant, web designer, bank), you are after the user’s trust.

Building Trust With Your Website Content
When you meet with someone in person, there are factors that earn their trust. Some of the trust factors are appearance from how you are dressed, the way you talk, the way you listen, the examples you can give them of your success. You also have the ability to tailor the conversation to each personality type or issue to hit their hotspots, answer their biggest questions and ultimately earn their trust.

Online, it’s tough to adjust on the fly, but here is how you can provide content on your website to earn their trust. Below is a Trusted Web Content Pyramid that I will break down to give you the best chance or earning your website visitors trust and their business.

Trusted website content

+ Case Studies – Top Level
This is at the top for me. Why? Because I feel that ultimately every user feels significant trust in seeing their same situation or problem addressed. Getting the user to think “That’s the same issue or need I have, they have what I need.”. Building this content our on your website is simple, just outline what the customers issue is/was, then talk about how your service solves it, mix in some type of visuals to compliment and reinforce your solution and close it with the outcome. Building out these case studies and and continually adding to them brings trusted content to your website.

In a brief example our web design portfolio and project blog posts are examples of this. We outline what the client’s needs were when they came to us, the services we put into their website and the outcome is available for viewing on the site and by clicking the link to visit the website for yourself.

+ Features – Mid Level
Many companies often mistake their features as the top content on their website. Although very important, it’s not the top. To get the most out of your service features and build trust, make sure you organize the information correctly and make it easy to read. Make use of bullet points or icons to separate out features. Keep descriptions short by providing the main feature and then limiting yourself to one or two sentences of supporting information. Provide details, specs or data that supports in anyway possible. Lastly make use of visuals to support your features. This can be in the form of photos, graphics or video.

+ Benefits – Mid Level
If anything from this post, remember this: can the marketing copy. People are tired of the “latest, greatest, biggest, blah …blah …blah”. Use website content that is straightforward and real to relay your benefits. Link to the case studies and examples you have provided on your site (top level) as they relate to the specific benefits. When possible, translate your service benefits into numbers. What do you save the consumer or business in money, time or efficiency? Finding ways to provide numbers give the user a clear message on your benefit.

+ Company Info, Visuals & Clients – Bottom Level
Yes these are on the bottom, but they do the dirty work of a supporting role. Having information on your companies history, awards, key staff and affiliations provides a personal touch and needed background. Highlighting staff that customers might interact with builds familiarity and that builds trust.

I touched on visuals earlier and I probably will do an entire post on this at some point, but at least provide photos of YOU. Showing your employees, your company, your vehicles, your office or anything else builds familiarity and trust. You can obviously take things to a different level in using a professional photographer or web company to shoot them or producing a video. Lastly list out your past customers, clients or even add a few testimonials. If you do put out some testimonials, I suggest adding a photo of the client or project, not just having the same boring 2 or 3 sentences everyone provides on their website.

There you have some simple ways to write and produce content on your website that builds trust and business. Put them to use or maybe share how you have already had success online by leveraging similar items to my pyramid or examples.

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