The 5 secrets to digital marketing for luxury brands. (Hint: it's about trust).
Luxury brands have always placed a high value on being trustworthy, because their reputation depends on it. It's something that has traditionally been built over time through personal interactions but online it can be a challenge because it doesn’t have the same level of emotion and empathy as a real physical experience. However there is a lot you can do online to build trust. Here are our top five tips…
Note: we have adopted all of these techniques on our own website with great success over the last two years. They come from a book called: 'They ask. You Answer' by Marcus Sheridan. It's the only book on digital marketing we recommend to our clients and the only book you will ever need to read on this subject in our opinion. You can buy it here. We are not in anyway affiliated with Marcus Sheridan or earn any money from recommending his books, it's just that we feel the book lends itself perfectly to how luxury brands should interact with their customers online.
1. Look amazing
So how do we build trust? Well, it starts with a stunning luxury website which will attract the right kind of high net worth customers and keep them engaged. Wealthy individuals are looking at luxury websites all the time so they expect the very highest quality when they land on your site. No exceptions. A great looking luxury website will also establish trust in the eyes of search engines, which means higher rankings and more clicks. By giving everything you do online an impeccable edge, you are showing both your potential customers and search engines that you are serious about every aspect of your luxury business. See how Crow's Hall significantly increased enquiries in July 2022 within a week of launch.
2. Answer their questions
Wealthy consumers are savvier than ever and they won't just buy because your website look nice (although it helps a lot). They have questions that need answering. The book, 'They Ask You Answer', is all about identifying the top 10, 20, 50 questions your customers and prospects want the answers to when they are searching online. All you have to do is answer them it’s that simple. This can be done in the form of a blog, FAQ's, or pages within your website. When you answer your prospects' questions you engage them and give them what they want. This builds trust in your brand in their eyes and also has a knock-on benefit of telling search engines your site is relevant and rich in content, in turn improving rankings for your chosen keywords.
3. Talk about your people
Don't be afraid to reveal the people behind the brand—your employees' faces can do a lot more than just sell products; they help create an emotional connection with clients (and potential clients) who may not have otherwise been interested in working with you. Here are some examples from previous websites we have built: bccr.ltd/about, vertisaviation.com/team.
4. List your competitors
This one always get push back when we announce it to clients - but there is a method in the madness. We recommend you list all your main competitors on your site. "Are you crazy?" No we're not, and the reason is that it will probably take someone no longer than 5 minutes to research all your competitors online. They will find them easily. So why not beat them to it and publish the list on your website? This builds a huge amount of trust (and brand confidence) in your prospect's mind and shows that you are an honest and transparent business. We published a list of our top 10 competitors on our website around two years ago here: luxurylloyd.com/competitors, and it's the biggest thing that really resonates with people when they get in touch with us. Why not give it a try yourself?
5. Tell them the price
If you sell luxury products online, such as watches, jewellery, leather goods, yacht or super cars, you will almost certainly publish prices on your website for all to see. But many luxury service companies have flexible, project based pricing... think high-end landscapers, wedding planners, classic car restorers, etc (we've worked with all these kind of companies - see our work section for more info). In this case it's easy to assume that it's impossible to publish pricing on your website because they can be so flexible. But we disagree.
Price is the number one thing people want to know about when they interact with your brand whether that's online, over the phone or face to face. So rather than be cryptic, tell people the price - in plain sight - on your website. Of course if your prices are flexible, tell them that, and give them a range from X to Y.
Comments always come back to us on this issue like: "But I need to talk to them and PERSUADE them why we charge what we do first." or "what if our competitors find out how much the charge?" We thought exactly the same and then two years ago we published our prices on our website - none of our competitors did and they still don't. And do you know what happened? Our enquiries dropped by almost 50%. BUT, instead received enquiry we received was super qualified and inevitably turned into new business for us. Our conversation rate went up 300%. Why? Because we gave our prospects what they were looking for BEFORE they got in touch with us. This created instant trust.
Conclusion
In the absence of meeting your clients face to face or in store, you can build deep trust with your audience online - by being radically up front, honest and transparent. We tried it two years ago and have never looked back. Why not give it a go. We guarantee it will pay off hugely in the end.