Merriam-Webster defines ‘credibility’ as: “the quality or power of inspiring belief”
The lack of credibility is the downfall of so many new businesses, both online and off. Credibility isn’t just important, it's vital to the success and growth of your business. If you operate an online business, then the very nature of the internet precludes blind trust. We can’t see or touch others. We can’t read body language or facial expressions. The only way we have to judge the credibility of others is by what they say about themselves, what others say about them, and how valid and, yes, CREDIBLE the information is that they publish on their websites or post to blogs and forums.
So what is your credibility worth?
In answer to the above question... It's worth EVERYTHING. Without credibility you won’t get far in the world of business and especially ebusiness.
So How Do You Build Credibility?
Note: Most of what follows pertains to building credibility for an online business. However, these days there's a fine line between online and offline business. More and more businesses are developing an online presence and taking advantage of the opportunities online marketing offers for their growth and success.
You'll need to build, or have built for you, a website that's very professional looking, easy to navigate and loaded with useful information about your business's specialty. Once that's done, the following ten tips will help you build your credibility and, as a result, your home business.
1. Narrow Your Niche
Have you ever heard the old saying, “pick your battles?”
Essentially what that means is that you should choose to fight a battle that you at least have a chance of winning. When you first start your business you need to keep your focus on one primary product or service. You probably won't have the resources to to do otherwise. So, instead of providing landscaping, lawn care, snow removal and tree trimming in your new lawn and garden care business, narrow down your focus, your niche. Stick with just lawn and garden care for the first while, until you get established, build a reputation and, of course, build creditbility.
No matter what niche market you're thinking of going after, you can whittle it down even further. By doing this you improve your chances of being recognized as an expert and gaining credibility in that market.
An excellent real life example of narrowing a niche down to a more detailed market is that of Red Bull. Coke and Pepsi dominate the soft drink industry, and have for years, but the energy drink market didn’t have much of anything when Red Bull first launched its product.... and it succeeded. It succeeded because it limited the competition it had to face for market share and developed its brand as THE energy drink, thus gaining credibility.
2. Free Reports
A free report on a targeted niche subject can be written and ready to be delivered to your prospects in a matter of hours. You already know your subject matter so you can scratch the many hours of research that would be necessary if you were writing a report on a topic that you knew nothing about. You already have all of the information that you need right there in your head.
You don't have to make it a long report. A report of ten or twelve pages is long enough, especially when it's being given away. Your goal is to demonstrate that you have the skills and knowledge to provide the service or product you're offering.
3. Ezines
Publishing your own ezine is a great way to build your credibility. Yes, you can publish your own ezine even if you don’t have a list yet. Just like there are article directories on the Internet, there are also ezine directories. You can write your own ezine and submit it to any or all of the ezine directories where other website owners and ezine publishers have access to it. And, of course, you can publish your ezine on your website for your visitors to read or download and start building a list at the same time.
Putting an ezine together does take time. However, unless you have a ton of money to spend on paid advertising to build your credibility, you'll have to take advantage of free options, which only cost you in time.
4. Paid Advertising for First-Hand Exposure
I'm the first to admit that paid advertising can be very expensive and out of the question for many new home based business owners to consider. However, some paid advertising is almost a must in order to build your credibility.
You need first-hand exposure, fast, in order to effectively build your online credibility and paid advertising is one of the best ways to gain that exposure. Google Adwords is a fairly affordable method for increasing your visibility and recognition, and there are literally hundreds of ebooks and article on how to use and profit from Adwords. If you do have the funds, you could hire an online advertising firm to place advertising for you. Or go to Google and type the words: ‘paid internet advertising’, into the search box. You'll get a ton of hits.
5. Article Writing
Writing articles on your niche topic is one of the best, fastest and free ways of gaining online credibility. Netizens consume information almost faster than it can be produced. The market for good articles is almost unlimited. If you can write decent and marketable articles, it's one of the surest ways to speed up the development of your personal and business credibility.
You can write and submit articles to article banks and directories. The articles will, hopefully, be picked up and republished by other website owners and ezine publishers. These articles, which contain your website address, contact and copyright information, will add links for the search engine spiders to count and help improve your PageRank (PR) in search engine results. They'll also give you needed exposure in your quest for credibility and allow you to share your expertise.
If you've never written an article before, don't worry. Like almost everything else, there's tons of information available online to help you figure it out. As well, EzineArticles.com provide their contributors with tips, resources and even an ecourse to help you get the most out of your articles.
6. Forums
Forums are still one of the most popular kinds of sites on the net today. Probably only surpassed by social networking sites like FaceBook, Twitter and MySpace. The reason is simple. They're places where people have the freedom to express their opinions and communicate with other people around the world about almost any topic imaginable. And, people do in fact use forums to do that very thing.
Forums are places on the internet where people with the same or similar interests or common problems gather. You can find forums for almost any subject by using your favorite search engine, typing in keywords followed by the word ‘forums’ and get lots of hits.
By finding and posting to forums that are related to your niche, you have a pool of potential paying customers to talk to about your product or service that can help them with their problems, concerns or interests. And by helping people solve their problems or answer their questions, your positioning yourself as an expert.
There are rules, however, for posting in forums. Blatant advertising is strictly prohibited in almost every forum. You are allowed to add a short signature to your posts, where you can promote your business or product, but out and out promotion will get you kicked out quick. You need to establish yourself as a welcomed member of the group. This takes time, but after you become accepted, what you have to say will be accepted as an offer of help and not seen as an advertisement. You can share your expertise on the subject and be seen as a friend helping a friend rather than as a business trying to sell something.
7. Podcasting
Wikipedia describes a podcast as a series of digital-media files which are distributed over the internet using syndication feeds for playback on portable media players and computers. The term podcast, like broadcast, can refer either to the series of content itself or to the method by which it is syndicated; the latter is also called podcasting.
The host or author of a podcast is often called a podcaster.
Podcasting is one of the easiest ways to establish your online credibility because people like and trust people they know. There's no better way of getting to know people than by talking to them and podcasting easily accomplishes this goal.
The beauty of podcasting is that podcast listeners aren't interested in listening to the cliché morning drive radio personality type. They want real people. If you can talk about what excites you, what you're passionate about, and what you're an expert in, then you can do well podcasting.
8. Teleseminars & Webinars
Webinars and teleseminars automatically establish you as the expert. When you teach what you know, you’re automatically qualified as an expert in your field. Whether you’re a real estate agent, a salesperson, a small business owner or an author, when people are willing to learn from your experience, you establish credibility.
Teleseminars are basically seminars that are given over the telephone. Your guests will not need leave their homes; which means they don’t have to make extensive arrangements, or pay expensive travel costs to attend. They simply call a telephone number and enter a special access code to listen in to the seminar, hence, the term “teleseminar.”
Webinars are interactive in the sense that information doesn’t just go in one direction (from presenter to listener), but rather in a “hands on” format that enables the host and guest speakers to intermingle with their attendees in a virtual setting.
9. Ecourses
Ecourses are a timed-released format of delivering valuable information via email. The course segment emails consist of shorter pieces of information that can be consumed in generally 1-2 minutes. Using autoresponder technology, the lessons can be delivered with a specific interval of time in between and delivered automatically, with no regular human attention needed beyond the setup of the eCourse. Because you're getting in front of the prospective client each time s/he receives a new segment of the ecourse, the ecourse permits the prospective client to get to know you before hiring you, thus making the it the perfect relationship builder and credibility builder.
For the purposes of building and establishing your credibility, the ecourse should be offered free of charge and used as a tool to demonstrate your knowledge, skills and expertise in your chosen field.
An ecourse is pretty simple to write. Come up with a topic that is appropriate for your target market. Each lesson becomes a simple article. Write 5-10 lessons, and you have a terrific ecourse ready to show off your brilliance and vast knowledge :-). Or, if you like to write Top 10 lists, create one of those and make each bullet point become one of your lessons for the ecourse.
10. Testimonials and Product Reviews
By using past customers’ unsolicited testimonials and/or product reviews you can easily establish your trustworthiness and credibility.
What you say, personally, about your product or service doesn't have as much pull or believability as was your clients or customers have to say.
What carries a lot of weight -as far as credibility goes- are the opinions of other experts in your field. But what carries the greatest weight is what the customers themselves say.
This means that you can get instant credibility if you present the unsolicited testimonials of your satisfied customers. These testimonials should be accompanied with the email address or website and full name of the customer. If you provide excellent service or an outstanding product, testimonials will come unsolicited. When you receive one, just email the individual and ask if they would mind if you published their comments. Most people will be happy to oblige.
I hope you found this article interesting and helpful.
Until next time,
Terry
