5 Ways to Build Trust with Your Clients Online (Before You’ve Met Them!)

Building trust with your clients online is just as important as it is offline. Like for real. (How else are they going to tell the difference between you and your competition?)  So ask yourself: What is it that I do (or my team does) in person that helps build a rapport with my clients and ultimately leads them to trust me/us? Then find ways to show and tell exactly that online and across social! Need a few thought-starters? Here are 5.

1. Create social proof by consistently commenting and engaging with your followers.

How does engaging with your followers build trust with future clients? Think of it this way: Reading and seeing how happy your current clients are vis a vis your back-and-forth conversation and comments on social media is like the social media version of a really good online review. Plus, when you engage on social media, it creates live social proof that you are who you say you are.

2. Show what’s really going on behind the scenes using Instagram stories.

You can write long paragraphs and blog posts about what you do and how you do it (and you should because it’s good for seo!), but ultimately, they need to see it to believe it. Enter Instagram stories. Florists, you could post photos of you and the team designing centerpieces. DJs, you might post a video of you putting together your sound setup. You get the picture!

3. Go live on Facebook Live and answer questions from your community.

It might seem intimidating, but one of the best ways to prove you know your stuff and show clients what you’re like in person is to go live on Facebook. You don’t have to be entirely off-the-cuff here either. Come up with a topic–maybe it’s a question you get all the time from your clients or maybe it’s an interview with someone on your team. You don’t need a fancy camera either. Your phone and a quiet place with natural light will do just fine!

4. Start a YouTube channel and provide weekly tips and tricks.

Okay, this one may require a bit more on the equipment side, but if you want to be known for something in particular–like really trusted for it–you might want to consider creating a YouTube channel. Why? Well consider this: 96% of 18- to 24-year-old Americans use YouTube (source: Statista). So in other words, for future clients looking for the best of the best at [insert your service/craft], they’ll search for you. Not only are your YouTube videos are likely to rank well in search, watching them will have your clients understanding what you’re really like in person before they even have had a chance to reach out.

5. Check those DMs and embrace all the chat features!

Last but not least, take advantage of messenger on Instagram and Facebook. For an increasing number of couples, Instagram and Facebook messenger are go-to tools when trying to get in contact with a company. (It’s the reason we created a messenger tool within The Knot and WeddingWire apps for couples to communicate with you!) When you reply back to them using their channel of choice, you not only get the conversation started quickly, you’re also showing them that you understand them and they can trust you.