Designing a website for your business represents a delicate balancing act. After all, you need to attract traffic and potential customers; however, you don’t want to be too in-your- face about with your marketing messages.
There’s power in being subtle when it comes to site design, especially when you’re trying to make your business seem legitimate and authoritative. While today’s traffic isn’t afraid to spend money online, they are naturally skeptical of any sites that don’t seem to be on the up and up.
Similarly, there are steps you can take via design to tick the following boxes for your traffic and ultimately drum up more business:
- Establish your business as a veteran of your niche, even if your brand new to the game
- Signal that you’re a trustworthy professional versus just another spammy site
- Make your site stand apart from your competitors
So, where do you start?
Legal Titles and Headers
If you’ve taken the essential steps to legally protect your financial future, including that of your business, you should definitely show it off to your traffic. This could mean using “LLC” or “Inc.” in the titles and headers of your site next to your company name to signal that you’re a legitimate business owner versus a part-timer trying to scrape by.
Legitimacy Through Logos
Having a professional logo to show off to your traffic can go a long way. Think about top brands such as Facebook, Apple and Nike, all of which sport iconic logos which are synonymous with what their brands represent. While you aren’t expected to boast the logo of a billion-dollar company, taking the time to brand your business via logos once again shows that you’re not an amateur.
There are plenty of sites which offer free logo builders or you could hire a designer or freelancer from Upwork or Fiverr to do the legwork for you.
Seal the Deal with Disclaimers
While disclaimers on-site may seem like little more than legalese, such elements show that your business has been around the block and that you’ve worked with people in the past. This ultimately gives visitors peace of mind and shows that your mean business. Literally.
Badges and Seals of Approval
If you have any certifications or endorsements, why not show them off on-site with a small icon or button on your landing page? You could also use past client logos as means of showing off your previous business at a glance.
Again, nobody wants to work with an absolute newbie. By displaying your past clients, visitors understand that you’re worth their time.
Powerful Proof Through Reviews and Testimonials
Perhaps representing the strongest form of social proof to market your business, reviews and testimonials are powerful tools that help your business stand out from the crowd. Including legitimate, positive feedback from real people isn’t in-your-face and represents the ultimate trust builder.
Whether you pull testimonials from social media or simply ask for them from previous customers via email, make sure to feature them front-and-center on-site.
Making your business seem like an authority doesn’t have to be rocket science, nor does it require you to spend a bunch of money on advertising. Instead, consider the free trust-building elements you can easily integrate on-site to seal the deal with your traffic and potential customers.