How Startups Can Creatively Signal Trust in Their Product Messaging

In e-commerce, startups often focus on typical trust signals, such as customer reviews and security badges (SSL certificates), to convey to potential customers that they can be trusted — but in a crowded market, this alone won’t suffice.

There are some uncommon trust signals startups can leverage.  

1. A big number associated with your customers/products:  If you are a startup that has sold to a significant number of customers, do not hesitate to publicly disclose this figure.  Perhaps you haven’t yet sold to 100,000 customers and consequently don’t want to display the number of customers. You can be more creative in such cases and focus on, perhaps, the number of units you have sold; this can be interesting if each product you sell comes with multiple units. For instance, if you sell pairs of socks that come in packs of five, then instead of counting 20,000 orders, you can signal that you have put 100,000 actual pairs of socks on people’s feet. If you sell a liquid product, maybe the volume sold is more interesting than the number of customers. Your creativity is your best friend in this context.
2. Real-time statistics.  Showing real-time statistics (like the number of customers who have viewed a website) is more common; however, you can still leverage this principle of showing real-time data with more creative numbers. Maybe you’re a coffee roaster who has sold 2,437 bags this month — why not show this in real-time on your product pages? This will help customers see active engagement, reinforcing that your business is active, thriving and in demand.  Another metric you can utilize in such a context is a zip code tracker.

Integrate trust signals into product messaging.  Once you have identified the specific metrics that will help your customers trust your brand and product, you should leverage these metrics across multiple surfaces and customer touchpoints.  Besides product pages, a few other critical touchpoints are checkout pages, post-purchase pages/emails and your newsletters. Take every opportunity to highlight your key trust metrics.

Pitfalls and best practices.  Firstly, it is important that you do not fabricate any statistics. This is a surefire way to ruin your reputation if discovered. This will also not help you build the right culture amongst your employees.  Another aspect to remember is to not overload your customers with too many statistics. Be clear about the one or two key figures that you feel will move the needle and only publicize those.  Lastly, if possible, communicate these trust signals with humor, but don’t undermine your credibility with overly gimmicky tactics.