Online Trust Indicators

You’re treating clicks like it’s a conversion path, but your users are navigating it like a minefield. 💣 It’s not just a gap in data, it’s a gap in perspective. 👀 Users aren't just navigating your website, they're navigating their trust in you. 👉 The real signal? It’s in the ⏸️ pause before the click. That moment of: “I’m curious… but I don’t trust you yet.” → Conversion Rate Optimization (CRO) typically prioritizes visible trust indicators like badges, reviews, and guarantees. But most of the time, it overlooks a critical variable: emotional reassurance. Why is this important? According to behavioral insights, users form gut-level judgments in as little as 50 milliseconds. So, before logic takes hold, emotion decides. Put another way… Ignore the emotional pause, that split-second user skimming your content, and you risk losing potential conversions before trust is even on the table. ❇️ This is where trust is won or lost. 👉 So then, how can we get better at offering emotional reassurance? Small shifts in language. Take this illustrative example: 👇 A fintech startup with auto investing powered by AI (yup, you guessed it), sleek UX and zero commission, and the whole shebang. Everything looked right....but conversions stalled at the “Connect your bank” step. ❌ Dashboards showed low click-through. The typical response? → Increase Ad spend. Push more traffic. But having a session 📺 replay helped tell a deeper story: → People hovered over the tooltip “Why do we need this?” link…then left. But how come? The tool tip was perfect, factual, accurate, informative, and linked to more info.. Well… What if we made a real change with something more human, something that changes that emotional moment before the click…Why? 👉 Because...small shifts in language lead to big shifts in belief. ✅ The generic tooltip with something ❤️ human: ⤵ “We use bank-level encryption. Your money stays in your account until you choose to invest. You’re in full control, always.” ✅ Then add a founder’s note with their pic 🤳: ⤵ “We’ve been burned by hidden fees too. This platform is different, and we’ll prove it.” I bet you can already imagine the impact this change can make…bounce rate will drop, bank connections will rise, and trust will become more believable. Real connection isn’t created by over-optimized funnels, shorter forms, fewer fields, and faster clicks alone. 👉 It's built in the quiet spaces between words, in the ❤️ hearts and 🧠 minds of people. → The pause. →→ The restraint. →→→ The earned emotion. So if your voice feels like it’s loud and pushing for a conversion…try whispering something real instead. Trust is built in the ⏸️ pause, not the push. #B2BMarketing #Marketing #Startups #Sales #AI #Leadership #Strategy

We Placed USPs Near Checkout… and Sales Went Up! In eCommerce, even the smallest on-page optimizations can make a measurable impact on conversion rates. We recently tested a simple but strategic tweak for an online retailer: positioning key unique selling points (USPs) directly next to the checkout button in the cart. The goal? Encourage hesitant buyers by reinforcing trust and value at the final stage of the purchase journey. The Experiment 💡 Hypothesis: Customers who are undecided at checkout may need a final push. Displaying USPs like “Free Shipping,” “Easy Returns,” or “Secure Checkout” could reduce hesitation and increase completed purchases. 🔎 What We Changed: We repositioned key USPs right beside the call-to-action button, ensuring that they were clearly visible at the critical moment of decision-making. The Results: 📈 +1.58% increase in conversion rate 💰 +1.73% boost in revenue per visitor 📊 +1.49% lift in profit per visitor 🛒 Projected: 179 additional orders per month if implemented permanently This test showed consistent positive trends across all devices and audience types, reinforcing the impact of subtle psychological triggers in the checkout flow. Key Takeaways: ✅ Trust signals matter. Shoppers often need one final reassurance before clicking “Buy.” Strategically placed USPs can eliminate last-minute doubts. ✅ Small changes drive big impact. A 1.58% lift in conversions may seem minor, but at scale, this translates to significant revenue growth over time. ✅ Works across all devices. Whether on desktop or mobile, the enhanced visibility of USPs improved conversion rates consistently. Next Steps: Given these findings, we’ve fully deployed this variation sitewide and will continue to refine USP placement, messaging, and design to optimize further. 🔍 Have you tested adding trust signals near your checkout? Let’s discuss—what has worked (or not worked) for your store? 👇

Coming to Microsoft Teams: New Trust Indicators to help prevent oversharing. Microsoft is rolling out a new feature in Teams designed to help users quickly identify if someone in your meeting or chat is external to your organisation. This will help reduce the risk of sharing sensitive information in meetings and chats. Trust Indicators are visual badges or icons that will appear next to participants' names in chat messages, participant lists, calls, search results, notifications, activity list, and profile cards. These indicators come in different sizes (full badge, truncated badge or Icon only) to scale to different UI surfaces and be unobtrusive and will clearly show whether someone is: ✔️ External to your organisation ✔️ A guest ✔️ An anonymous participant The exact badge you see depends on how that person is related to you or your organisation. 1️⃣ External-Familiar: this is someone outside of your organisation that you or your organisation already trusts. Eg someone who is a member of a shared channel within your organisation or part of an external organisation that your organisation has set up a cross tenant trust arrangement. 2️⃣ External-Unfamiliar: this is someone from outside your organisation that you or your organisation doesn’t explicitly trust or recognise. Eg An unmanaged /personal account or someone from outside of your organisation and your organisation doesn't have an explicit allowlist or blocklist. 3️⃣ A Guest: A person from outside your organisation, added as a Microsoft Entra B2B Guest in your organisation. 4️⃣ Unverified: An anonymous user that Teams can’t verify such as someone who joins a meeting without signing in or verifying their email address. There are also trust indicators for groups such as meeting and group chats, or channels that include someone from outside your organisation. Rollout out to Public Preview in late September to late November 2025 and General Availability in late November 2025 to early January 2026 and will be enabled by default, with no admin action required. This is a small but useful step towards safer collaboration,

Digital Trust Standards: An Overview Digital trust standards are crucial for ensuring secure and reliable online interactions. Here's a breakdown of some key organizations and their standards: 1. International Organization for Standardization (ISO) Focus: Develops and publishes International Standards across various industries. Key Standards: ISO 18013-5:2021: Standardizes aspects of Mobile Driver's Licenses (mDLs). ISO 18013-7:2024: Addresses online presentation of mDLs. ISO 23220 (Parts 3 & 4): Generalizes the mDL standard to other Mobile Documents (mDocs). 2. OpenID Foundation (OIDF) Focus: Develops standards for online identity and authentication. Key Standards: OpenID Connect: Enables interoperable authentication. OpenID4VCI: Supports the issuance of verifiable credentials. OpenID4VP: Allows verifiers to request and holders to present verifiable credentials. 3. Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) Focus: Develops and promotes internet standards. Key Standards: JWE (JSON Web Encryption): Encrypts data. JWK (JSON Web Key): Represents cryptographic keys. JWS (JSON Web Signature): Digitally signs data. JWT (JSON Web Token): Represents claims securely between two parties. HTTP Signatures: Enables secure exchange of HTTP messages. OAuth 2.0: A protocol for authorization. 4. World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) Focus: Develops web standards, including those for accessibility, internationalization, privacy, and security. Key Standards: Digital Credentials API: Enables applications to request, access, and present digital credentials. Decentralized Identifiers (DIDs): Specifies the structure and usage of DIDs. Verifiable Credentials Data Model: Defines a standard format for verifiable credentials. JSON-LD: A method for encoding Linked Data using JSON. 5. Decentralized Identity Foundation (DIF) Focus: Develops foundational elements for an open and interoperable decentralized identity ecosystem. Key Standards: Presentation Exchange: Defines how verifiers request and verify verifiable presentations. DIDComm Messaging: A secure messaging protocol built on DIDs. Well-Known DID Configuration: Establishes a standard for associating a DID with a web domain. Why are these standards important? These standards promote interoperability, security, and trust in digital interactions. They help ensure that different systems and organizations can work together seamlessly, while also protecting user privacy and data integrity. #digitaltrust #standards #interoperability #security #privacy #identity #ISO #OIDF #IETF #W3C #DIF

If your PR report looks impressive with big numbers but still feels empty, this post is for you. Most agencies still sell visibility KPIs — impressions, mentions, share of voice, AVE, reach. These agencies aren't wrong in doing it, as these metrics are can be measured with ease. But these metrics lack meaning for clients. These numbers tell you how often your name showed up, not whether your story landed or your reputation strengthened. What you should be tracking instead are Trust Signals — the real indicators of reputation movement. Trust Signals look like this: - A journalist quoting you without you pitching them. - A client repeating your messaging unprompted. - An investor referencing your thought piece in a meeting. - Employees sharing company news with pride. These are lagging indicators of belief. They don’t fit neatly in a dashboard and that's why most agencies avoid them. But if your PR work doesn’t move trust, it’s just paid noise management. PR done right builds confidence in your name, not just coverage reports. So next time you get your monthly report, ask one simple question: “Which of these numbers tells me people trust us more than last month?” Which metric did your PR agency report last month?

Digital Trust is the new currency of the B2B world. Without it, even the best products can struggle to gain traction. At Landbase, we’ve seen firsthand how trust—or the lack of it—impacts lead generation and customer acquisition. When businesses don’t trust your brand, your outreach goes unanswered, your campaigns fall flat, and your growth stalls. The good news? There are actionable steps any business can take to boost their Digital Trust Score and build credibility with prospects: 1️⃣ Optimize Your Online Footprint: Keep your website up-to-date, mobile-friendly, and fast. High-quality, regularly updated content helps establish authority and shows you're actively engaged. 2️⃣ Strengthen SEO and Backlinks: Build your reputation by earning backlinks from trusted, industry-relevant websites. This signals that others vouch for your content and expertise. 3️⃣ Gather and Respond to Reviews: Encourage customers to leave reviews and actively respond to them—positive and negative. Authentic engagement shows you care about your customer experience. 4️⃣ Improve Your Email and Domain Health: Avoid spam filters by keeping your domain clean, your email lists up-to-date, and following best practices for email outreach. A strong sender reputation builds trust before your email is even opened. Building trust takes time, but the results are worth it. A higher trust score means better engagement, higher conversion rates, and long-term customer loyalty. How is your company prioritizing digital trust? Let me know in the comments. At Landbase, we created a free digital trust assessment tool that reviews your brand's trust score in real-time using agentic AI model. Take the assessment here: https://lnkd.in/gXVSfjE6