McAfee Secure Certificate - Increase Sales?

[olimits7]

Hi,

I had a McAfee sales rep contact me and I also read some articles online that say adding "McAfee Secure" increased sales for sites between 4-8%.

Placing the McAfee Secure certification mark on your web site has been proven to increase visitor-to-sales conversion rates.

Has anyone installed this McAfee Secure certificate on their site? Have you seen an increase in sales due to this certificate?

Thank you,

olimits7

[bwnbwn]

olimits7 think about it they are selling something and like all sales they say what their security seal will do this and increase that.

If in doubt put them to the test then report back.

Tell them you want proof they will give you a 60 daye trial test and see then you don't need to ask you have the data.

Please report back your findings.

[olimits7]

The way I try to think about it is to see myself as the customer. Sure, the certificate would look great on a site, but I think for me it wouldn't make or break a sale if I didn't see this certificate listed on a website.

Yes, I was going to maybe try it out for a month to test it, but just seeing if there is anyone on here who has tried this before.

Thank you,

olimits7

[dickbaker]

I consider myself a fairly sophisticated internet shopper, and I've never looked for a seal, even before I got into doing websites. I couldn't even tell you what seals were on the big sites such as Amazon, etc.

[bwnbwn]

olimits7 I did try it before it was bought out and can't report a favorable increase just a rather large expense.

That was 4 years ago maybe it has changed. I was offered a good deal and still turned it down but am intrested in what you find out from your free month trial.

Be sure and post back I am intrested in seeing if in fact it does what they say, but then again it may work for your nitch and have 0 effect in mine.

[ssgumby]

olimits, its been a few years since I initially signed up but I did see an increase in conversions from it. We ran a three month A/B test and it showed a definite improvement but I dont recall how much.

We still have it today, we consider it a marketing expense. It shows on google searches (if a user has the mcafee tool bar installed) which it think may help and it also provides me with my PCI compliance scanning .. all in all its a worthwhile expense for us.

[olimits7]

Thanks for the replies!

I'm still up in the air about adding this but if I do; I will definitely report back with an update!

Thank you,

olimits7

[Rugles]

Their sales people are very agressive. I get "the call" about every 3 months. When they last called I asked for a price to install it. Based on our page views I was shocked at how much they wanted and that they wanted it all up front at least a year in advance.

McAfee bought Hacker Safe a while back and I guess that gives it more credibility because way more people have heard of McAfee as compared to Hacker Safe. They were wise to dump the name Hacker Safe because its a big problem to put the word "hacker" anywhere on their website.

[rocknbil]

olimits7, what's on your mind when you buy something?

Get in. Do the transaction. Done.

The only thing that **normally** catches the attention of the average shopper are alerts: insecure items alerts, expired SSL certs, "you forgot to enter your email". If anything, they know only to look at the lock icon.

Only us (relatively) tech-savvy visitors look at the cert to see who the CA is, view source to see if it's posting to generic-system-mailer.cgi, or other things like this.

I cry "smoke and mirrors to get deeper into your wallet." What manufacturer wouldn't claim their product will produce higher sales, increased customer retention, and that blemishes, freckles, and warts will magically fade away?

I'm a little prejudiced, I'm not a MacAfee or Norton fan. So . . . grain of salt and all that . . .

[MrHard]

If the rep can convince you then it's true. It works, the integrity of the seal resulted in a sale. Get it.

I will have to admit that a bare bones cart with no seal at all does look a bit odd these days, and it could raise flags to have nothing, the name on the secure seal probably does not matter much.

[olimits7]

Their sales people are very agressive. I get "the call" about every 3 months.

You're not joking Rugles; now I keep on getting calls from the same sales rep every couple of days.

I told him already; that it's something I'm interested in but not right now and that I would call him when we decide to go through with this...but that doesn't seem to have worked!

olimits7

[MrHard]

I told him already; that it's something I'm interested in but not right now

That's about the worst answer I can think of. You have to tell these people 'not interested' right away or they are going to start calling more often, or even put you on additional call lists.

It's like training a dog. If you say 'bad dog' in a conversational tone, and how everything is sweet most of the time, and how about a treat, or a nice steak that I may be interested in giving you soon...

If you say "BAD DOG" and stamp your foot (the phone), works best on a loud wood floor, everything's not ok.

You are sending a clear message here, and the dog actually respects you more then if you were so sweet and nice when he just diddled on the rug again. In fact, saying it nicely may cause the dog to soil more often, because it likes the attention.

[olimits7]

That's about the worst answer I can think of.

Ok, please don't sugar coat it! lol. Your right though, when dealing with sales people you have to tell them "NO" or else they will keep on bothering you.

On the other hand, I think Cesar Millan has met his match; I can see it now "The Dog Whisperer with MrHard 2010 Fall Premiere!" hahaha... ;-)

olimits7

[rocknbil]

If you say "BAD DOG" and stamp your foot

I'm going to have to pass this one along to my wife, who enjoys creative ways of saying "no" to solicitors, on and off the phone . . .

looks around solicitor to the door . . . ". . . I'm sorry, is that big NO SOLICITING sign not clear enough, should I hang it a little higher on the door you walked through?"

I can see her saying BAD DOG into the phone . . . and she will use it too . . . awesome!

[ItsAllBallBearings]

Here's my experience:

- Too expensive, there are cheaper options out there. even free ones
- Bandwidth hog
- These safety seals only work if your audience is not very experienced online. Some people are either too uneducated, or just plain too dumb, to figure out what is a safe site or not. So, these seals help with that crowd. We still get calls every day from little old ladies who are "afraid to type their CC # into that mean ol' internet". DISCLAIMER - Its not just women, its men, young and old too.
- Aggressive sales staff - This is my #1 red flag when approached by a company. It shows either a lack of confidence in the product or in the business. Either way i run when i see an overly aggressive salesperson