Unless you’re a very trustworthy company like Microsoft, Salesforce, Adobe, Oracle, or SAP, which collectively corner nearly half of the global SaaS enterprise market, when buyers land on your page, will they trust what they see?
You don’t need to wait to become a big player to earn credibility in your clients’ eyes. At every stage of your products development you can implement five simple techniques that will allow you to immediately build user trust that will of course lead to more sales down the road. There are many critical elements that should be present in your website, but we also throw in some of our own tips and B2B software marketing strategies that we believe can have an immediate impact on your credibility as a B2B software vendor.
Your specific goals to build user trust on your website are:
- Make buyers stay on your website long enough to discover your product
- Educate them about your value proposition
- Give them the confidence to contact you or subscribe to your free trial
1. Provide thorough contact information
A live chat solution can give your site a big credibility boost.
According to the web usability report, displaying full contact details is the top factor respondents look for on a vendor website. The three essential information buyers want to know are:
- Who is behind the software?
- Where is it based?
- How to contact the vendor?
This means an email address or, worse, a P.O. box, won’t suffice. Rather that than, you should display your company name, a verifiable business address, and phone number/email address.
In today’s global B2B setup, where many suppliers are based out in other countries, buyers don’t really mind a non-U.S. physical address. Displaying your detailed contact information is one way of telling them that your business is real and that, in fact, you’re not hiding.
As added assurance and convenience to buyers, you can provide a live chat for site visitors’ initial queries. A Forrester Research study on live chat found that 44% of online customers said that having questions answered by a live person while in the middle of an online purchase is one of the most important features a website can offer.
Installing live chat on your website is as simple as copy-pasting a code from a slew of user-friendly help desk solutions available in the market today.
2. Engage buyers in your About Us and team bios
Your About Us page is also a prime section that can imbue user trust in your buyers’ mind. It’s the second top content asset that establishes the website’s credibility, according to the web usability study.
Amazingly, many traditional vendor websites overlook its potential and instead use templates to write their About Us copy. Dianne Huff from Content Marketing Institute said the page is a good opportunity to engage buyers about your company story.
People love success stories, B2B buyers included. By telling them your success story you’re connecting to them on an emotional level. This is even more critical in SaaS, where what you’re actually selling is not a software, but a long-term relationship.
FreshBooks didn’t just narrate its founding date and so-so company details. Instead, it talked about how it overcame challenges with a human interest perspective. Similarly, Moz tells its company story using a unique timeline with pictures and witty captions. Both successful vendors understand that by engaging buyers, it makes it easier to win their attention.
FreshBooks’ About Us is engaging.
Likewise, displaying team bios on the About Us page helps ease anxiety in buyers. Many vendor websites rather show their office building to project bigness, but the faces of people behind the company are more appealing to buyers and they breed familiarity. You can even add social media credentials to your key staff and turn them into ambassadors that buyers can relate to.
Meet Podio’s team.
3. Roll out clients and testimonials
Successful vendors are already doing this and you should do the same: display your A-list clients as proof of credibility. Buyers love to associate with winners not only out of vanity, but as a form of security. If Forbes 500 companies trust your software, other buyers are likely to feel that it’s safe to trust you, too.
If you lack A-list clients, showing legitimate business clients will also help. It isn’t just about the big brands. Even the fact that other companies are already using your software shows that someone has already trusted your software.
Aside from the client roll, showing actual testimonials from your satisfied users reinforces your credibility. Studies have pointed out that testimonials give a company credibility; hence, the key is to offer credible testimonials by showing your client’s company, its general location, and the contact person’s name and job title. If an non-disclosure agreement prohibits you to declare these data, you can use a first name, the location, and industry to give the testimonial at least some flesh.
Testimonials can also take the form of a short social media comment, so adding a Twitter or Facebook feed on your website helps buyers read what other users are saying about your software.
Moreover, don’t be limited publishing testimonials on your website. It’s a good idea to encourage your clients to post positive customer experience on external sites, for example review platforms. Consider these top review platforms where you can post user reviews.
Marketo says it has “thousands of clients” and it backs it up by showing you.
4. Display any awards you’ve got
Winning a major award for your SaaS like the Stevie Awards or B2B Marketing Award is great, but you could be waiting for a lifetime to bag a trophy. In the meantime, you can leverage niche awards and special certificates that also show your clients that you’ve been recognized for your services. Like the top industry trophies, niche B2B awards are an objective validation of your credibility and accomplishments.
For example, here on FinancesOnline, when you submit your software for a detailed review, you can earn a special certificate that highlights the app’s strong features. These special awards are granted to software that exhibits exemplary features and vendor reliability. What’s unique about niche awards is that they highlight your software’s value proposition to buyers. Consider the following FinancesOnline special awards that indicate specific app characteristics:
- Great Customer Support
- Recommended for Small Businesses
- Designed for Enterprises
- Useful Free Trial Certificate
- Great User Experience Certificate
- Best Training Materials Award
- Best Mobile Support Award
- Customer’s Choice Award
Earning any of these awards will draw buyers’ attention to your software’s specific strengths and will grant you additional media exposure. If you’d like to check if you’re eligible for any of our awards please contact us.
Some unique awards that products can win at FinancesOnline
5. Leverage pricing page to build trust
Price is also one the content key points that buyers want to see in a website. For many companies, especially among small business owners, price can be the factor for choosing software.
After the homepage, buyers are most likely to check the pricing page, so make sure the navigation is clear. Likewise, don’t just display price, leverage this page to earn user trust. Make it easy for buyers to compare the options by putting forward the value-for-money of each plan. Number of users, price per month, key features, and level of support are some of the major values that buyers want to know at once. For transparency, add FAQ on the pricing page to explain the inclusion details and terms to ensure that buyers understand what they’re getting.
You should also highlight the price point where buyers can feel comfortable and where you can leverage margins. For instance, placing the “Most Popular” plan in the middle works for many vendors because buyers tend to take the “safe” route, neither choosing the cheapest (where they might miss some features) or the most expensive (where they might pay for an unnecessary extra feature).
Displaying FAQ on the pricing page projects transparency and makes it easy for buyers to trust you.
CONCLUSION
Building credibility takes time, but looking credible can be done immediately if you know how to project the right look for your software website. You don’t need to be a big brand or win a major award to achieve credibility in your clients’ eyes; you just need to be more creative and leverage resources that you already have or, at least, resources within your reach now. Use the five techniques and B2B software marketing strategies presented above and your website’s trustworthiness is bound to rise.
Why is FinancesOnline free?
Leave a comment!