In the old days, future customers met you for the first time when they walked into your establishment. Maybe they saw you on a billboard, in the newspaper, or on TV. But, in effect, they didn’t know you or your brand in advance. At most, they may have heard a good word from a family member or friend.

These days, it’s the reverse.

In theory, a customer can know just about everything there is to know about your brand before they decide to do business with you. Sure, they won’t have the felt sense of working with you, what it’s actually like to be your customer. But unless they like what they find online, they’ll never give you that chance.

Today, the work of building trust begins the moment a would-be customer identifies a need.

Businesses build or break trust based on what they do before the first meeting ever happens.

It starts with your approach to brand development, especially in your digital properties.

Your Website Isn’t Just A Digital Brochure: It’s Your Brand Distilled

In the world of brand trust and marketing credibility, customer perception is king.

Customers’ first impressions of your professional presence happen online, so it’s crucial to take a close look at how you show up in the digital world. While you can’t control everything people say about you online, you can manage perception by being highly intentional about how your brand is presented on your website.

If you feel like something is “off” about your brand presentation or brand development, your website is the first place to look. Not only is it responsible for a majority of first impressions, but it’s also the place where you have the greatest freedom to fine-tune your message and the customer experience that grows from it.

For seasoned leaders, the question becomes:

What’s the high-leverage way to ensure you’re building brand trust to the utmost?

Here’s where to start evaluating your marketing credibility:

1. Website Tone

Tone consists of all the unspoken assumptions and knowledge we convey with word choices. Your most valuable asset when you’re optimizing website tone is your insight into your own audience. What platforms do they use? What do they read? Which authorities do they trust? These examples can inform your own tone.

Some elements of tone are nearly universal. For instance, you want to be sure your website conveys respect for your audience and their needs. Consider these three elements of charisma and how they can fit into your tone:

• Presence: Your brand is “there” for your customers by being responsive and easy to reach.
• Warmth: Warmth comes through as you show understanding of your customers’ problems.
• Competence: Competence can be signaled through testimonials, awards, and social proof.

2. Brand Language

Brand language goes a step beyond website tone. It’s about the recurring vocabulary you use to describe your brand, your team, and your customers. Much of it consists of branded terms, like your name and slogan, that should always be consistent. Think taglines, mission statements, and core messaging.

While a slogan is often protected by trademark, other signature phrases and metaphors usually aren’t. To keep these fresh and aligned with brand positioning, it’s a wise idea to have an in-house style guide. Mismatches in brand language can make you look less professional, which subtly undermines trust.

3. Visual Consistency

When it comes to your website, visual consistency mistakes can sabotage a relationship.

Why?

• Confusion: When parts of a website look different, visitors may think they’ve gotten turned around.
• Mistrust: Visual inconsistency can make people feel like your website is broken, wrong, or “hacked.”
• Abandonment: Without realizing it, people usually respond to this anxiety by clicking away for good.

Visual consistency is paramount in brand development, and you can see it in all mature brands. That includes elements like a branded color scheme, font choices, and logos that look good in different sizes and contexts.

4. How You Show Up

It’s been said that who you are is how you lead.

“How you show up” might seem vague, but it speaks to the commitment you make every day – your brand’s promised experience, which makes you different from every other option on the market.

Part of that is literal: how you show up on Google Reviews, for example. You influence customer perception by keeping information up to date and leaving professional, courteous responses to reviews, even negative ones.

It also speaks to your core values and how your brand lives them. Studies show customers want to work with brands that represent their values. Weave them through your website’s narrative, not just your “About” page.

New York Ave helps companies like yours bring brand development down to earth to craft compelling communication that builds trust. Contact us today to find out more or get started.