Credibility is one of the most important factors in converting website visitors into enquirers. It's the nature of marketing pitches to make claims or promises about what you do and the results you can achieve. But getting website visitors to believe what you say is the key to generating more leads and expanding your online sales pipeline.
The following approaches to convert clicks into purchases are given to intensify your marketing credibility:
Strategy #1: Express the reasons
Explain why you claim that your site can provide quality products and services. It will help the customers learn information about the site and trust the message you posted.
If you claim that you are "The Lowest Priced Luggage Retailer in Australia", give brief explanations for this. For example:
* You buy container loads at a time and take advantage of bulk discounts (show photos of the containers)
* Explain that your lower overhead makes your cost of sales equally lower.
* Explain that your gross margins for one-time volume purchases are lower for regular customers.
* Most of your business comes via the Internet, avoiding the big media costs of your big-end-of-town competitors
Try to explain your objective for every promotion to convince the customers of your integrity. If you are selling on discounts or some of your products are on sale, explain the reason behind these actions. According to Jay Abraham, "You can't discount your way out of a marketing problem; you need to educate your way out".
Strategy #2: Your site should display case studies and testimonials
Case Studies / Testimonials are two of the perfect credibility enhancing techniques.
Case Studies are the prevailing examples or illustration of a specific instance that you or your product had passed on to the customer. Take note that buyers do not patronise the products alone, but most importantly the RESULTS.
It goes without saying that your testimonials need to be genuine. Some sites feature testimonials that sound, well, fake. They use too many superlatives and read like they've been ripped from the pages of a Hollywood B-movie script.
One of the best ways to accumulate a file of Case Studies is to provide your clients with a few guiding questions and have them respon in their own words. This will produce testimonials that sound authentic and "ring tue" to the reader.
You should also remember that Testimonials and Case Studies have become a standard feature on many websites. They can be easily ignored by website visitors UNLESS you go to the trouble of "exponentialising" them.
You can "Highlight" a Testimonial or Case Study by:
* Adding a headline
* Placing it in a Johnson Box
* Highlighting key phrases and results with bold or another form of graphical emphasis
* Display images and audio or video stream of the testimonial provider
* Inserting logos and trademarks of clients.
* Exhibiting graphs, scanned documents, screenshots or visual images of results.
Strategy #3: Association Marks, Qualifications and Certifications
Certifications and indicators of membership in established associations can also be displayed in the website. It will not only enhance the credibility of your site and industry, but will also constitute endorsements from a third party.
Some qualifications and certifications will be well know to your audience (e.g. ISO 9001). Others will be more obscure, so the onus is on you to EDUCATE prospects and clients about the certification. Here are some ideas to do that:
* Give the details of the certification and why you pursued it.
* Describe how you obtained it.
* Explain the context of the certification (e.g. "Marketing Results is one of only 16 Google Adwords Qualified Companies in Australia)
* Clarify to the customers how it will benefit them.
Certifications and qualifications are great, because they not only increase your ability to deliver for customers and clients, but they also start to flesh out a "360 degree" view of your company from multiple third-party perspectives that can serve to shorten the trust cycle.
Strategy #4: Awards and Recognitions
Recognitions as outstanding in your industry will heighten a good impression in the eyes of visitors and clients, but avoid complacency and don't overlook your objective of giving positive results and satisfaction to customers.
Here's a good example of this in practice. Combo IT's "Awards" page provides details of the awards they have won (including inclusion on the prestigious BRW Fast 100 list). Not ony the prestige of the awards, but the fact that Combo is a multi-award winning company, helps to build an impression of legitimacy and competence - enough, certainly, to shortlist them as a prospective supplier.
Strategy #5: 3rd Party Verification Services
3rd party verification services such as Verisign, the Better Business Bureau and HackerSafe can also reassure visitors that your site is legitimate and that your business practices and customer service policies are sound. The key here is to refer to "industry standard" sources as much as possible - you don't want to rely on little-known verification services that don't have enough recognition to reflect favourably on you (although having said that, "official-looking" logos would probably help - that would be an interesting thing to test.) - 15465
The following approaches to convert clicks into purchases are given to intensify your marketing credibility:
Strategy #1: Express the reasons
Explain why you claim that your site can provide quality products and services. It will help the customers learn information about the site and trust the message you posted.
If you claim that you are "The Lowest Priced Luggage Retailer in Australia", give brief explanations for this. For example:
* You buy container loads at a time and take advantage of bulk discounts (show photos of the containers)
* Explain that your lower overhead makes your cost of sales equally lower.
* Explain that your gross margins for one-time volume purchases are lower for regular customers.
* Most of your business comes via the Internet, avoiding the big media costs of your big-end-of-town competitors
Try to explain your objective for every promotion to convince the customers of your integrity. If you are selling on discounts or some of your products are on sale, explain the reason behind these actions. According to Jay Abraham, "You can't discount your way out of a marketing problem; you need to educate your way out".
Strategy #2: Your site should display case studies and testimonials
Case Studies / Testimonials are two of the perfect credibility enhancing techniques.
Case Studies are the prevailing examples or illustration of a specific instance that you or your product had passed on to the customer. Take note that buyers do not patronise the products alone, but most importantly the RESULTS.
It goes without saying that your testimonials need to be genuine. Some sites feature testimonials that sound, well, fake. They use too many superlatives and read like they've been ripped from the pages of a Hollywood B-movie script.
One of the best ways to accumulate a file of Case Studies is to provide your clients with a few guiding questions and have them respon in their own words. This will produce testimonials that sound authentic and "ring tue" to the reader.
You should also remember that Testimonials and Case Studies have become a standard feature on many websites. They can be easily ignored by website visitors UNLESS you go to the trouble of "exponentialising" them.
You can "Highlight" a Testimonial or Case Study by:
* Adding a headline
* Placing it in a Johnson Box
* Highlighting key phrases and results with bold or another form of graphical emphasis
* Display images and audio or video stream of the testimonial provider
* Inserting logos and trademarks of clients.
* Exhibiting graphs, scanned documents, screenshots or visual images of results.
Strategy #3: Association Marks, Qualifications and Certifications
Certifications and indicators of membership in established associations can also be displayed in the website. It will not only enhance the credibility of your site and industry, but will also constitute endorsements from a third party.
Some qualifications and certifications will be well know to your audience (e.g. ISO 9001). Others will be more obscure, so the onus is on you to EDUCATE prospects and clients about the certification. Here are some ideas to do that:
* Give the details of the certification and why you pursued it.
* Describe how you obtained it.
* Explain the context of the certification (e.g. "Marketing Results is one of only 16 Google Adwords Qualified Companies in Australia)
* Clarify to the customers how it will benefit them.
Certifications and qualifications are great, because they not only increase your ability to deliver for customers and clients, but they also start to flesh out a "360 degree" view of your company from multiple third-party perspectives that can serve to shorten the trust cycle.
Strategy #4: Awards and Recognitions
Recognitions as outstanding in your industry will heighten a good impression in the eyes of visitors and clients, but avoid complacency and don't overlook your objective of giving positive results and satisfaction to customers.
Here's a good example of this in practice. Combo IT's "Awards" page provides details of the awards they have won (including inclusion on the prestigious BRW Fast 100 list). Not ony the prestige of the awards, but the fact that Combo is a multi-award winning company, helps to build an impression of legitimacy and competence - enough, certainly, to shortlist them as a prospective supplier.
Strategy #5: 3rd Party Verification Services
3rd party verification services such as Verisign, the Better Business Bureau and HackerSafe can also reassure visitors that your site is legitimate and that your business practices and customer service policies are sound. The key here is to refer to "industry standard" sources as much as possible - you don't want to rely on little-known verification services that don't have enough recognition to reflect favourably on you (although having said that, "official-looking" logos would probably help - that would be an interesting thing to test.) - 15465
About the Author:
About the author: David B. Ascot offers advice on sales lead generation methods that will assist your business to benefit from successful online lead generation.
