How To Build Trust With Your Audience

The biggest reason why bloggers fail at blogging is because they failed to build trust with their audience. For years people have been told to not trust everything you read and hear on the internet, this statement makes the job of internet marketers harder.

If you want to earn money in selling products, services, or affiliate products you must build trust with your audience. You can recommend products to your heart’s content but if you don’t show your audience why they should trust your opinion the sales are just not going to come.

Why Your Audience Needs To Trust You

If a complete stranger walked up to you and recommended a product would you run out and purchase it? Probably not, right? You’re more likely to write down the product – if it’s applicable to you – and then research the product online.

However, if in reading your post they get to see how the product relates to you and you give them several opportunities to see how much you recommend a product, they are more likely to buy from you.

When your audience trusts you they are more likely to buy from you.

How To Get Your Audience To Trust You

Building trust in your audience does not mean you should be fake about it. It means actually getting real with your audience in who you are. It means being honest and truthful about everything you recommend.

So as you go through the steps below keep in mind who you are, your story, and how your story relates to your audience.

Only Recommend Products You Use

When it comes to making recommendations, always stick to products you know and love. It’s the most recommended piece of advice that bloggers receive when we are reading about improving affiliate sales.

There are exceptions to this piece of advice. If you are doing a roundup post of something a certain niche will like – for example, “10 Toys 5 Year Old Boys Love” – but these are not toys that you personally own, you will want to only list things with amazing reviews.

Be honest about what you personally own and what you don’t yet own but want to share your own research on. For instance, your child might not be an art kid and instead be a building kid. However, you know that there are a lot of art kids out there so you research art supplies to include in an activities for kids post.

You might not own the supplies, however, you are sharing research on them to better inform your audience. This helps to build trust because it also lets your audience know that you aren’t just thinking about kids like your kid.

I highly recommend sticking to products that you do own and use in all of your recommendations. In most cases you will be able to speak more honestly and knowledgeably about the product. This naturally builds trust with your audience.

woman typing at a laptop with an open magazine and cellphone next to her

Add Proof To Your Content

Proof is your biggest asset to building trust with your audience. Proof of use, proof a product works, proof a product is as good as you say it is.

Proof can come in screenshots, stats, and pictures of the product and its usefulness.

If you used a service and it helped you to accomplish a goal you show your before and after screenshots of your stats. If you used a cleaning product and it got the tough stains out of a sofa, use before and after pictures.

Proof is often the biggest selling point in any recommendation.

Recommend Often In Different Ways

Don’t do just one review post and call your recommendation done. If you love a product, find different ways to recommend it.

I use a meal planning service called eMeals to help plan out my meals. It’s great for busy moms who need quick and easy meals. It compiles a grocery list and will even help you schedule a pickup or delivery of this list. I love this product.

So I recommend it in several meal planning posts, budget eat posts, quick and easy dinner roundup posts, and more. Plus I have a full on review of this post. All these posts link to each other and the meal planning service.

The reader now has information on how to use the app, how helpful the app is, and different ways to use the app. They found all this information from my site which makes me an authority on this app and someone who is trustworthy.

Never ever stick with just one method for recommending a product or service. Recommend it in many different ways. Each product you recommend should have a minimum of 5 posts focused on this recommendation.

Be Yourself

Be completely honest and yourself when you talk about the products. You aren’t actually selling the product. You are being honest about your experiences with the said product.

You are doing nothing more than sharing about the product and what it’s done for you. How has the product solved your problem? How has the product helped you? How has the product changed your life?

You need to be completely yourself in your explanation about the product. Don’t sell the features of the product, instead explain how the product made you feel and helped you.

It’s About Your Audience But…

The biggest piece of advice that people always like to give when talking about being a successful blogger is, all your content should be geared to help your audience.

This is absolutely important but there should always be a “by” at the end of that sentence. Your content should be geared to help your audience by using your own experiences.

When you are building trust with your audience it’s important to make sure that you are using your own experiences to further your main point. This helps your ideal audience to feel connected to you. They can relate to your experience and trust that what you say may help them with their own problems.

Give, Give, Give

There is a lot of talk about the take and not a lot of talk about the give. You are looking to find raving fans of your work, to start, you need to make sure you are giving them plenty to come back for.

Give them as much as you can that will help them solve their problems. This can come in the form of entertainment, advice, information, workbooks, printables, and guides.

The give is just one part of building trust with your audience but it’s an effective way to show your audience how you can help them solve their biggest problems in your niche.

Use Trustworthy Sources In Your Content

Especially in the beginning it’s important to build trust by using information from trustworthy sources. If you mention a study, link to it. If you mention a theory, link to it.

Linking to other trustworthy sources not only helps with letting your audience know that you know what you are talking about, it also helps with SEO. This is because you are linking something with more authority which triggers Google to better understand what your content is about and how it should rank.

Trustworthy sources in your content can help your audience to feel secure that you know what you are talking about and know how to do your research. They can take your word for whatever recommendations or statements you make.

Be Consistent

Be consistent in your recommendations. If you love a certain product and recommend it in a bunch of posts, but then in one post recommend a completely different product, it seems odd and untrustworthy.

You need to be consistent in what you recommend, in your posting schedule, and in your story. If people can count that you are consistent it builds trust in you.

Laptop on table with pencil and paper and a cup of coffee

Building Trust With Your Readers

Building trust is easiest when you are yourself. First lesson in building trust with your audience is in being honest and being yourself with your audience. It gives your audience comfort in knowing that you are completely true to your word.

Share your story, be consistent, recommend products that you love and use yourself, and above all be completely honest with your audience. This is how you build trust and an audience of raving fans.

What’s your favorite way to build trust with your audience? Let me know in the comments below. Follow me on Pinterest for more like this and pin this to your favorite blogging tips boards.

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