Shopper.com/2) Building Trust

2) Building Trust

I have mentioned several times that trust is the cornerstone of LTD sales.

To a LTD buyer, Buying LTDs almost feels like investing in a business.

Which, in a way, is true.

Buyers are investing in the longevity of the company. Some know they will not use it until months or years later.


So we need to improve our credibility and help LTD buyers trust us.

 

How to build credibility and improve trust?

  • How do founders/ brand speak or acts
  • Web design
  • Social media presence 
  • Web presence
  • Reviews
  • Support
  • Changelog
  • Others

I'll go over each point below for Shopper.com

 

How do founders/ brand speak or acts 

Follow these rules:


Be:

  • Honest
  • Transparent
  • Super patient (this is really hard sometimes).
    • Know that it is impossible for everyone to like your tool. There will always be haters. Even if they make ridiculous comments in public, we should keep our cool and respond twice as nicely - not for the hater, but for others to see. I have seen so many founders damage their reputation and lost customers because they blew up in public. 
  • Keep your cool and be nice.
    • Slay your enemies with kindness
  • (If possible: fun)
    • If you are fun and funny, people will like you. And if they like you, they'll support your product. Few founders succeed at this, but when they do, they are handsomely rewarded.
  • (If possible: feel part of the community).
    • When founders post something, it's usually about their product and nothing else. Even if people are used to it (only if it's approved, members will not hesitate to mock and report unapproved self-promotion), you'll get more support and engagement if you also post like a LTD buyer.

Search for Stuart from Riku and Vineet from Teliportme in the community. They are very popular founders with the LTD community.
 

Avoid:

  • Promises.
    • Especially about things you are not sure about. For example: Feature X will be released by X
  • Hype without substance
  • And the opposite of everything mentioned in the bullet points above. 


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Once you start creating more posts and content, I'll let you know if I find anything that might sidetrack you from your goals.

 

Web design

The website should feel high quality and have all the elements that inspire confidence.

Buyers will almost certainly visit the website a few times before making a decision.

The good news is the Shopper.com website is very well done.

Two things I would add is to include Linkedin social media for at least the duration of the campaign.

Sumo-lings like to do research on Linkedin, and if we leave it there, we not only make it easier for them, but we tell them we have nothing to hide.

Second, include testimonials from your influencers.

This tells Sumo-lings that we are popular and successful people are loving the tool. 

They will trust your tool more without even trying it.

 

Social media presence

Sumo-lings will check your social media profiles to see if they are well maintained. While it's not a deal breaker if we see a blank or new page, it's always encouraging to know that the company is making marketing efforts to attract customers. 

The more effort you put into your product and marketing, the more you signal to buyers that you have a plan to succeed and that you do not plan on closing up shop anytime soon.

Shopper.com's social media profiles have a decent number of likes and followers. The posts are also regular and fresh.

Superb :D

Best of all, your Linkedin profile has 5k+ followers, good engagement on every post and shows that you have 39 employees.



Sumo-lings digging deeper might find it odd that a number of your employees have no names or profile pictures, but are simply referred to as "Linkedin member". 



You might consider cleaning this up, although I do not think it's a big deal.

 

Reviews

Reviws are one of the most important factors in this list. Sumo-lings will search for keywords like Shopper.com reviews to see if anyone is writing about you.

But more importantly, whether you are listed on sites like G2, Capterra, and TrustPilot, and how many 5-star reviews you have.

They may not click in to read each of them but the snippet that shows up in Google search will give them a good idea.

 

Example of VBout, a previous Appsumo deal. We ran an incentive review campaign for them.

I recommend you run an incentive review campaign before launching LTD to get the best impact. 

Since members do not know if there will be LTD, they will be more willing to participate in the incentive review. 

Without the LTD, the prizes will also be more enticing. 

We can schedule this right after the post to recruit beta testers.

 

Support

Fast support and good quality support not only solves Sumo-ling's quickly, but also shows that you care.

I recommend to be present in 4 places.

  • Appsumo deal page
  • General LTD community
  • Your LTD community
  • Support Tickets.

    It sounds like a lot, but members asking questions in the LTD community can save you time. Very often questions can be answered by another member who knows the answer.

    I also advise you not to join all LTD communities. If you are taggable, they expect you to answer. You spread yourself too thin by being everywhere. 

    Only be active in a few active LTD communities. Luckily you are already in the most active one (my group).

 

Changelog

I have talked about this in the call. We should have an active changelog that includes both major and minor updates. Go as far back as you can. (3-6 months before launch is ideal).

 

Others

  • Share credentials of the founding team in Pinned comment or certain posts if you have some impressive things to share.
    • Some e.g. from previous founders:
      • Successfully built SaaS companies.
      • Have connections.
      • Graduate from Harvard
      • Raised funding
      • Many VCs are interested
      • Have partnered with XXX
      • Have worked with XXX
      • Expertise in XXX
      • It can be anything really, you get the idea :)

 

Building trust will help us improve the conversion rate of our traffic. It's not too much to say that you can increase the conversion rate by another 1-2% if you take all the measures mentioned above.

That's at least another 5,000 - 10,000 sales.

 

Now let's look at Content Creation.