Gerald Barnbaum worked as a doctor for well over 20 years. And then, they found out he wasn't a real doctor.

Everything started in 1971.

Having had his license as a pharmacist revoked due to medical fraud, Gerald Barnbaum assumed the name of a practicing orthopedic surgeon, Gerald Barnes, and got a job as a physician at the Pacific Southwest Medical Group in California.

And then an insane series of events ensued.

In 1979, he was charged with accidental manslaughter.

One of his patients was suffering from undiagnosed Type I diabetes. All the symptoms were there: dry mouth, chronic thirst, dizziness, and rapid weight loss. 

But the "doctor" prescribed him a drug for vertigo. 

They found the 29-year-old man dead in his house a few days later. 

Now everybody knew he was a fake.

Except, maybe they didn't…

He was able to briefly work as a referral doctor a few years later. 

That is, until he was caught again in 1984.

He got another job in Los Angeles where he worked for another few years between medical facilities in the area, earning more than $400,000 per year.

He kept this cycle of getting caught and getting work numerous times. That was, until around the late '90s, where he was sentenced to 12.5 years of prison for charges related to mail fraud and the dispensing of controlled substances.

Trust indicators are powerful. 

The fact that a good con man with decent patient rapport and the right documents (although to be fair, not his own) was able to fool everybody, shows it. 

That's why we need to be responsible with this power. 

Trust indicators let us give off an air of authority we wouldn't be able to show otherwise.

Doctors have their white coats, stethoscopes, drawers full of medical samples, and a diploma that hangs on the wall.

Marketers? We have product testimonials, page designs, brand recognition, and our overall results.

And when it comes to landing pages, these trust enhancers generate the legitimacy and credibility we need to help our leads go through our campaigns.

Which, as a side effect, also improves conversion rates.

Because if leads find the page suspicious, will they truly be willing to buy from a dodgy anything?

So what are the main elements that can help generate trust in your pages?

Tackling the big 4 landing page trust enhancers

The ones I'll be talking about here are:

• Testimonials and ratings
• Professional design ("real" pictures, good spacing, etc)
• Logos (whether your own, from clients, or press mentions)
• Numbers (number of users, usage numbers, product results)

We'll go through them one by one and see some examples of each. The big idea behind every one is to disarm one or more objections on some level. 

Some will tackle the quality of your product. Some the credibility. Others concentrate on reducing risk.

I'll talk about them as they come up.

So let's begin.

1) Testimonials and ratings

If your leads are thinking:

• "How do I know this is legit?" 
• "Have other people used it? What have they said about it?" or
• "How do I know this is right for me?" 

Then testimonials and ratings should be your go-to for disarming these types of objections. 

Their main use is to increase credibility and perception of the quality of your products. 

They are the ultimate social proof. 

Good testimonials are worth their weight in gold for any product. Whenever you can, ask them from your clients and use them when possible. 

2) Design principles (Images, spacing, UX, etc)

Low-quality pictures kill conversions.

Bad color design makes pages look dodgy. 

Weird spacing between elements raises eyebrows. 

Presentation is everything in the world of sales. 

The same goes for landing pages. 

The quality of your design (which includes color schemes, good spacing, site organization, and images) directly impacts how leads perceive your product.

And we know this because of the numbers.

To show you a bit of what I mean…

Here's an article on how bigger images increased conversions by 63%

Here's an article on 6 ways keeping usability in mind increased conversions 

And here's a case study on how removing clutter and distractions also increased conversions 

So copywriters, become friends with your designers. 

Design principles are a factor that plays a favor to your overall campaign. Remember that.

3) Logos (whether your own or from others)

Logos show credibility through representation.

It's an indirect way of telling someone:

"Hey, we have a thing that is so important, that we made an image that represents that thing. Here it is". 

If you're working in businesses on the small scale, it's a good plus to have (not everybody on that level has a logo, which is a good way to stand out if that's the goal.)

Plus, branding! It's a quick way to create consistency between pages and give them an "identity" so to speak.

But that's only for your logo.

What's really going to convince leads of your trustworthiness…

That would be other people's logos.

Including them instantly increases legitimacy (in pretty much the same way testimonials do).

And it does this because when you see other people's logos on your page, you subconsciously think:

"If other companies have featured/worked with them, then I can trust them a lot more."

It's a sort of social proof in a way.

So thinking of it in those terms is the best way to tackling it.

4) Numbers (Amounts, size, years, etc.)

Numbers are like duct tape - You can use it to fix (or in this case, convey) almost anything.

This simple tool can help you communicate:

• experience
• skill level
• professionalism
• customer satisfaction 
• probability of success
• or pretty much anything you can think of.

This is because it's well known numbers have an impressive effect on our psychology 

And saying anything like:

• "10,000+ happy parents use our service…"
• "5473 projects successfully deployed…"
• "16 offices worldwide…"

Makes your product or company more trustworthy than anything.

Numbers show credibility in ways other tools don't let you. 

In fact, the only real hard part is building up those numbers to be that high.

So start counting so that when you have them, you can use them.

Wrapping things up

Trust becomes easier the bigger the business is. 

Your logo becomes more recognizable, your numbers get bigger, you get more testimonials, ratings and case studies and you can pay for better design. (Pay your designers).

The hard part is the start. You have to build trust before you're allowed to flaunt it.

So, concentrate on building that trust and that's when these tools will open up to you.

Find every opportunity to use them. And use them responsibly.

We need marketers with more moral in this world.

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My name is Mauro [Maw-ro] and I'm the guy who wrote this article. I have a newsletter where once a week I send an insightful idea on how to improve landing pages for your marketing campaigns. If you're interested, you can sign up to get them in your email here.