From syndicating content to relying on sales enablement, here are 17 answers to the question, “What are the best ways for a B2C company to build trust and credibility with its prospects & customers?”
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Syndicate Content
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Create Multiple Contact Options
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Make a Well-Designed Website and LinkedIn Page
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Encourage People to Create and Share Video Testimonials
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Partner With Podcasters
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Communicate Your Company’s Values
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Ask for Genuine Feedback
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Instill Loyalty Programs
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Follow Through With Your Customers
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Show Your Expertise
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Use Nano-Influencers
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Maintain Consistency
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Remember That Trust Goes Two Ways
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Explain Your Sales Model Effectively
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Showcase the Company’s Highlights
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Stop Trying to Build Trust and Credibility
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Provide Sales Enablement, Regardless of the Price
Syndicate Content
Building trust and credibility with prospects is a key element of success for any B2C company. An uncommon way to achieve this goal is to syndicate content. This involves sharing the company’s original content with its affiliates, ‌allowing the affiliated audiences access to the same material on their own platform or space.
By doing so, B2C companies can leverage the trusted relationships that third-party websites have already established with their audiences, demonstrating a level of credibility without having to start from scratch.
With this strategy, a B2C company also expands its reach and increases brand visibility while strengthening consumer confidence in its product or service offerings.
Carly Hill, Operations Manager, VirtualHolidayParty
Create Multiple Contact Options
Make it easy for potential clients and customers to contact you. For example, social media, email, and live chat are some of the most common ways to provide opportunities for prospects to inquire about services and products.
Having multiple ways to communicate with your business offers more potential for prospects to reach out in a way that works best for them.
Patricio Paucar, Co-Founder and Chief Customer Officer, Navi
Make a Well-Designed Website and LinkedIn Page
Designing a great website and an appealing LinkedIn page can involve developing a brand that is easily recognizable, speaking in an authentic voice, and connecting with customers via relevant content.
Companies should strive to create an online presence that appeals to users who are likely to be interested in the products or services they offer. Designing a website should involve focusing on providing quality information that users can quickly access.
Setting up regular campaigns on LinkedIn—including thought leadership articles and networking events—will help build relationships with potential customers or clients and leave them feeling confident in the company’s offerings.
Jim Campbell, Owner, Camp Media
Encourage People to Create and Share Video Testimonials
Customers creating video testimonials build rapport with prospects because they allow potential customers to see real people who have had success with your product or service.
You can use social media influencers to endorse and promote your brand, which will help build trust and credibility in the eyes of consumers. Finally, be sure to monitor reviews of your product or service online, and quickly address any negative feedback.
This shows potential customers that you will provide them with a great customer experience. These strategies can help build trust and credibility with prospects, helping your B2C company succeed.
Asker Ahmed, Director and Founder, iProcess
Partner With Podcasters
Many podcasts have highly engaged and loyal audiences who are interested in the topics discussed in the show. By partnering with podcasts that align with the company’s target market, the company can reach its ideal prospects and establish credibility with them.
Many competitors in the mattress-in-a-box industry I work in sponsor them because they build trust to introduce the company’s brand, values, and products in a relaxed setting.
Brian Hawkins, Marketing Manager, GhostBed
Communicate Your Company’s Values
Too many B2C companies avoid discussing societal or cultural issues because they are concerned about reaction. However, your silence says a lot. Be confident in telling your customers what your business stands for and what it opposes.
If you have nothing to stand for or believe in, from the standpoint of the customer, you are meaningless. Before your prospective clients ever consider working with you, you must establish their trust by demonstrating that you share their values, issues, and objectives.
Your company should run in a way that is consistent with your morals. The perception and reputation of your brand will significantly improve if your staff are aware of your vision and concentrate on communicating it to both internal and external audiences.
When you are completely open and honest with your prospects, you may try to develop trust by highlighting your common values. Inform people if your company’s mission is actively changing the world for the better and why it is beneficial.
Joe Li, Managing Director, CheckYa
Ask for Genuine Feedback
Your number-one strategy for building trust and credibility with a B2C brand is through genuine consumer reviews. Asking people who have already used your services or bought your products to leave reviews is going to be paramount to showing people you are a trustworthy company.
There are several ways of doing this. Google reviews, which most people will use to find out more about your business, so they can make those reviews feel more legitimate.
Another way is creating video testimonials from real consumers, which can again make it feel more authentic, as anybody can write a nice paragraph and claim it is a customer review.
Avoid posting false reviews to make yourself look better; most consumers are now completely savvy to this, as they review everything, so they will easily spot the difference when something isn’t genuine.
Hardy Selo, Property and Digital Marketing Expert, Property Guru
Instill Loyalty Programs
One strategy for building trust and credibility could be a loyalty perk program—providing incentives for returning customers to shop again creates positive branding and recognition that can lead to encouraging more referrals or conversions from recent visitors.
Offering discounts, exclusive access to brand events, or other personalized rewards not only conveys care that builds trust but also encourages repeat patronage, which helps drive revenue growth in the long term.
You can also advertise stats on repeat buyers to give consumers peace of mind that the product is of quality enough to purchase again.
Michael Alexis, CEO, Tiny Campfire
Follow Through With Your Customers
It’s so easy to stop engaging with your customers once they’ve paid at the counter or left a review on your website. Yet, follow-through is what makes an appreciable difference between cultivating long-term relationships and constantly pursuing new prospects.
The challenge may be that you have tens or hundreds of different customers, each with their own tastes and attitudes toward follow-ups. So let your customers know that you’d love to hear how your goods and services are making a difference in their lives.
Directly ask them if they’re interested in receiving noise-free emails or texts regarding their experiences, fresh developments, tips, and more valuable insights—not spam.
Jon Torres, CEO, Jon Torres
Show Your Expertise
One of the best ways to show you’re an expert in your industry is to create an educational blog that teaches your audience about the products or services that you offer.
Not only will this help to build trust and credibility, but it will also help to increase traffic to your website and convert more prospects into customers. Another way to establish yourself as an expert is to take part in speaking engagements and panel discussions.
By sharing your knowledge and experience with others, you will reach a wider audience and help to build your reputation as a go-to resource for information about your industry.
Luciano Colos, Founder and CEO, PitchGrade
Use Nano-Influencers
When you mention influencer marketing, what often comes to mind is to empty heavy bags of dollars on mega-celebrities with millions of fans to promote your product.
Research has shown that mega-influencers often lack that individualized or personalized connection to your target audience to get them to buy your product and become returning customers. Such mega influencers work better in boosting reach and brand visibility.
But if your campaign aim is conversion, you want more niche nano-influencers with personalized interactions with their audience. These are the “small but mighty guys” that take time to respond to comments and engage their audience instead of emotionlessly dumping products on their page and jumping off shopping with what you pay them.
These influencers have built trust with their audience not just for their fame but for how tangible and reachable they are on social media, thanks to more individualized interactions.
Lotus Felix, CEO, Lotus Brains Studio
Maintain Consistency
Being consistent requires dedication and effort, but it will pay dividends in terms of loyalty from your customers. Maintaining a reliable product or service offering that meets expectations sends clear signals to customers that they can trust you.
I am a firm believer that I thoroughly meet customer needs when I consistently deliver quality products, provide helpful service, and am reliable and flexible in response time.
Ludovic Chung-Sao, Lead Engineer and Founder, Zen Soundproof
Remember That Trust Goes Two Ways
You may know your product is outstanding and sometimes life-changing, but prospects have yet to experience the benefits.
Asking prospects to pay upfront without fully testing out your product can cast doubt and negatively affect your conversion rate. Offering a free trial or money-back guarantee within a short time period shows you believe in your product and builds trust with your prospect.
Ronald Osborne, Founder, Ronald Osborne Business Consultancy
Explain Your Sales Model Effectively
Providing content that explains a company’s products or services in easy-to-follow steps offers value to customers and reinforces why that business is trustworthy and reliable.
This strategy also empowers prospects to make smarter purchasing decisions and highlights the brand as an authority on the subject. Answering customers’ questions before they ask them helps them feel more confident interacting with the company and creates a better connection.
Derek Bruce, First Aid Training Director, Skills Training Group
Showcase the Company’s Highlights
Demonstrating to customers that the company has acted in their best interests will help to build trust. Showing a video of an employee working hard to make a customer happy builds respect quickly.
Visibility around those moments that build the foundation of a good relationship with customers is a superb learning moment for everyone.
Alexandre Robicquet, Co-Founder and CEO, Crossing Minds
Stop Trying to Build Trust and Credibility
As a high-touch, high-ticket service provider, I know the importance of trust and credibility. My clients share their most intimate, often horrible experiences, and I put them on paper.
Early in my business, I loaded prospects with evidence of my expertise—I sent writing samples, resumes, success stories, and long-winded email responses. Then, I had an epiphany. Two clients shared the same insight one week: “I signed with you because you didn’t tell me what I wanted to hear. You told me the truth.”
I used to think very little of those conversations and I saw them as casual chats after the actual work of trust-building was already done. That day, I realized my clients didn’t want or need all those materials.
They needed me to treat them like a friend, and I would never lie to a friend. We can’t strategize trust and credibility. The only real way to build them is the old-fashioned way—through honest, transparent, personal relationships.
Amanda Edgar, CEO and Certified Ghostwriter, DAS Author Services
Provide Sales Enablement, Regardless of the Price
Unlike B2B sales, which can justify full, multi-stage sales processes, B2C players must be more parsimonious. Low-price points cause automation, making it hard for customers to feel a personal connection.
Although a full sales process may be untenable, sales enablement is often financially viable, even at very low price points. I commonly used live chat software to swiftly connect with potential customers, quickly resolving objections and carrying them through to sale.
This may seem like a money sink, but if your marketing is on point and your software is running smoothly, sales enablement rarely takes much time. Often, customers just want reassurance that you are genuine, and only require five minutes of someone’s time.
Instant communication often yields valuable feedback, allowing customers to reach out and voice concerns immediately, providing valuable data for optimization and future automation.
Oliver Savill, CEO and Founder, Assessment Day
