How Professionals Build Trust on the Web:
“What I Believe Is…”

What’s the best web or blog site you’ve seen lately that does a good job of representing a professional?

For me, it’s the site of Dr. Frank Lipman, MD.

I love this site because right away, in the first seconds, you are drawn into reading his key quotes, and you know exactly what kind of man this is, and what business he’s in.

This site is well done. This is how professionals can build trust on the Web. This is good content marketing for the professional service provider.

If you’re in any kind of service business, if you’re a doctor, lawyer, coach, consultant, author, speaker, you know how important the trust factor is. People want to know you, first, then more about your business options.

Trust is one the hardest things to build into the “blink” factor on a web site. It’s one thing to grab readers’ attention with great headlines and clever tag lines. It’s another level of challenge when the stakes are serious like health, wealth, and life satisfaction.

Does anyone know how they did that revolving banner at the top? Please let me know, because I want one for a client.

Why do I like this? Because the most important thing you want to find out about a professional on his or her blog or website is the stuff Dr. Lipman says at the very top in his banner. And since it’s revolving, it sustains attention and keeps people reading.

I also like the page “My Story.” What a great way to get people to find out more about you. I’ve encouraged my clients to do more of this, on their blog About pages. Write your real story, the story behind why you do what you do, the ‘backstory.’

I am working with a new client rewriting her web pages and was inspired by this site. As a result, I asked my client to complete a few sentences. It’s my hope she’ll write some great quotes that will inspire visitors to her site to stay and read more about her story.

To get her going, I provided a few sentence completion exercises. I’ll share with you here some  sentences that anyone can complete and use in their own content marketing.

Here they are:

• “I see myself as a partner in my client’s…”
• “Most people with whom I work with are not… but are…”
• “My philosophy is simple, to…”
• “I practice what I call…”
• “The first step is to help people see …”
• “What I try to do is…”
• “There is no such thing as a person who…”
• “Life and work are…”
• “When we know… , it’s easier to make lasting changes.”
• “I believe that most people can…”
• “There’s no greater joy for me than to see a client…”
• “When people are given… they can… and the results for the organization are…”
• “”I often see this happen after I’ve been working with someone for awhile:…”
• “I believe that one of the keys to happiness and success in anything, whether life or work, is to…”

Add your own. Write out some key sentences that sum up your philosophy and beliefs as they apply to working with your clients. Add them to your blog or website and see if you can improve your trust factor.

Want to contribute a few here? Go ahead, please leave a comment with your ideas…