How important is it for your target audience to see you as a trusted brand? According to one survey, nearly 80% of millennial customers said they were driven to purchase a product based on trust in a brand name.
Brand trust has a huge impact on customer loyalty and businesses’ bottom lines, so it’s wise for ecommerce companies to instill trust among recurring and prospective customers alike. Learn more about why brand trust is important and how trust is built.
What is brand trust?
Brand trust is a measure of how much customers trust a particular company, product, or service. Generally, brand trust refers to the public perception of whether or not a business is trustworthy based on its actions and communications as well as the customer experience. A variety of factors influence brand trust, including brand values, the quality of a company’s products or services, good customer service, and transparent messaging. It’s a critical part of your brand equity—how customers perceive your brand overall.
Trust isn’t built overnight, but by consistently prioritizing consumer preferences and maintaining transparency, you can build relationships that fortify your business.
Why is brand trust important?
There are several reasons why it’s important to build trust with your customers, including:
Increased sales
Brand trust has a major impact on customers’ purchasing decisions. When consumers trust brands, they purchase their products more frequently and are more likely to engage in word-of-mouth marketing, leading to increased sales and higher profit margins. Without brand trust, companies struggle to maintain consistent sales. One survey reported that only 10% of surveyed shoppers said they continued shopping from a brand that had lost their trust. The rest said they stopped using a product and purchased from a competitor based on poor brand trust. When customers develop an affinity for a specific brand’s product, it may be the only brand they buy it from—even when lower-priced options are available.
Higher customer retention
Maintaining a high level of brand trust can help you earn loyal customers who make repeat purchases. Increasing brand loyalty goes hand in hand with an increasing customer retention rate. Focusing on brand trust can improve how new customers view your company and confirm the trust of customers who return to your products or services after having a positive experience.
Improved reputation
Brand trust can improve how consumers perceive your company and talk about it with their friends and family in person and online, also known as word-of-mouth marketing. Brand trust impacts other important factors like brand equity, or the overall perceived value of a brand, as well as brand affinity, or the emotional connection customers have with a brand.
How to build brand trust
- Define your values
- Communicate clearly and promptly
- Keep your messaging consistent
- Build social proof
- Choose the right partners
- Manage your social media presence
- Prioritize transparency
- Monitor key metrics
Here’s how to build brand trust with your customer base:
1. Define your values
Define your brand values by writing out a list of key principles that guide your business operations. Write a concise mission statement with action-oriented language about what your company does, how it does it, and why. Revise your mission statement and list of core values and include a final draft on your website to communicate to your audience what’s important to your business.
For example, if one of your company’s core values is ecommerce sustainability, write out a clear statement on your website explaining how your business practices support those values. You might include specific examples like using recycled materials in your products and packaging design.
2. Communicate clearly and promptly
Set up an effective customer service process that responds to customer queries and concerns quickly. Train your customer care team to exercise empathy and active listening during customer interactions. Practice customer advocacy by prioritizing and anticipating the needs of your customers, and respond to requests in a timely manner with a professional and friendly tone. Consider using a chatbot or conversational AI tool to provide 24/7 customer support even when you or your team are unavailable.
3. Keep your messaging consistent
Create brand guidelines for your business that define your brand’s style, voice, and tone. Share these guidelines with your whole team and ensure that all your customer-facing materials abide by your guidelines. Whether it’s your blog or social media copy for a new digital marketing strategy, brand consistency helps keep your customers engaged throughout their journey, from initial awareness through to purchasing.
4. Build social proof
Social proof is a psychological phenomenon defined by people making decisions based on the opinions and actions of others. Acquiring social proof involves gathering positive user-generated content like user testimonials, reviews, and endorsements. This is a key aspect of a word-of-mouth marketing campaign designed to encourage customers to recommend a product or service to their network.
Negative feedback—even one bad review—can have a huge impact on the perception of your brand. Be sure to deliver on any promise you’ve made to your customers to earn a trustworthy brand identity and incentivize referrals. For example, if you promise delivery of products in two days, make sure that your order fulfillment process is ready to make deliveries within that time frame.
5. Choose the right partners
Another important strategy for building brand trust is choosing partners who align with your brand values. This includes partners like employees, dropshipping suppliers, distributors, retailers, affiliates, and influencers. Research any potential partner thoroughly before hiring or working with them to make sure they have a trustworthy reputation that will enhance your own company’s brand and ensure you successfully fulfill your brand promises.
6. Manage your social media presence
Develop a social media marketing strategy that highlights your brand values and social proof from happy customers, employees, and partners. Your brand strategy on social media can include an influencer marketing campaign that involves partnering with influencers who promote brands that align with their audience. Trusted influencers with loyal audiences can increase brand trust by endorsing and recommending products or services for companies they know their audiences will like.
7. Prioritize transparency
Building trust with your customers requires you to be honest and open with them about what goes into your products and services and how your business operates. Write a transparent About Us page for your website that highlights the story of your company and shares your vision and priorities.
Trusted brands are also transparent with their customers about how they use their personal data. In fact, according to one survey, approximately 66% of respondents stated they would trust a company that was transparent about how they use their customers’ personal data.
8. Monitor key metrics
Track key performance indicators (KPIs) while building brand trust to evaluate how well different marketing and sales strategies are working. Some of the main KPIs that relate to brand trust include customer satisfaction, retention rate, and Net Promoter Score (NPS), all of which measure customer loyalty.
An example of brand trust
One example of a company that has successfully built brand trust with its customer base is the skin care company Dieux Skin. On an episode of the Shopify Masters podcast, cofounder and CEO Charlotte Palermino discusses how Dieux Skin built brand trust through expertise and transparency. “What we wanted to do was create something that was clinically vetted and price transparent,” Charlotte says.
Charlotte helped Dieux Skin build a following on social media platforms like TikTok by creating informative and entertaining content that offers an inside look at the company’s products, operations, and story. “We call ourselves a ‘too much information’ brand,” Charlotte says. “Sharing that journey—sharing what your skin needs, what it doesn’t, how it’s so varied, and that, quite frankly, our products are not going to be for everybody—really actually resonated with people because it’s real.”
Brand trust FAQ
How do I measure brand trust?
You can measure brand trust using key performance indicators (KPIs) like retention rate and Net Promoter Score (NPS).
What is the meaning of brand trust?
Brand trust is a term that represents the public perception of the trustworthiness of a particular company, product, or service, and how likely that company is to deliver on its promises to consumers.
What are the benefits of brand trust?
There are several benefits to building trust with your customers, including improved brand loyalty and increased sales.
