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I'm thinking that I need to present the surfer with one to three sentences that will immediately build TRUST. Not try to sell any STUFF but just build a TRUST in the site / company. Then allow the surfer to click through and give him/her the benefits and begin the selling process. My STUFF is not that different than other sites STUFF in my industry.
Any ideas?
We are considering placing a text ad on a website which many competitors also advertise. I was looking through their self-written ads, noticing all of the multiple exclamation points!!!!!!!!!!!!
I thought to myself; Self, these all look like less-than-professional companies. Maybe there are customers that would appreciate a down-to-earth, professional ad.
So that is my strategy. Look professional, look reputable, and maybe I will draw some quality customers.
Travoli these are noble and common sense aims but offer a more cynical meaning.
Can I suggest a small change please?
"Be professional in all your actions, build a good reputation, do good work for quality customers."
The word "Look" implies appearance is everything, it is something but how about actual performance, do your existing customers refer you more business, they will if you are good, do you ask them to? Do they stay with you? etc etc .....
(no offence intended)
Mark
I spent last weekend reworking the pages that make my sales pitch (in this instance, sponsorships). I've always had some references to being a successful site "since 1995" on the page, but I now open with three very short paragraphs -7 sentences, total- that try to build trust in short order.
I'd like to distill it even further, but I manage to squeeze in focused references to
They increased the font size. To an artist's eye, the larger font is much less elegant. But the proof came in the conversion rate. The old font size was -1, and we went to default size. The conversion rate immediately went up more than 20%.
Sometimes other very simple changes work wonders:
1) Simplify the ordering instructions
2) Use a "cut to the chase" style in all copy
3) Eliminate just one click in the ordering process
4) Rename a navigation choice
5) Increase the size of the site's search box
6) Create a more prominent and appealing "Risk Reversal" statement
I've been able to generate increased conversion rates with each of these steps for one or another client.
I totally agree with your philosophy. Where there is a relationship and on-going work between customer and service provider, being honest and reputable will reward you with great future opportunities.
The particular service I spoke of is a simple, one-shot, impulse buy, inexpensive purchase. Also, customers rarely refer other customers. ( I bet you have a million ideas of the service I am selling, but I promise it is totally innocent)
Competitors are being very "attention getting" in their ads, and the target market is not necessairily looking for obnoxious claims of superiority.
Well, thats what I am banking on :) Two very different situations. Which brings up a good point.
Got any broad generalizations about your industry that might help us answer you Mike?
I go a slightly different way, hit them with a "look" of trust first, the text just confirms it. If the site "looks" the part just lead them straight to the products, the obsessive compulsives will still find the "about us" page etc and then move on to the checkout, the others will head straight for it.
your thing a "simple, one-shot, impulse buy, inexpensive purchase"
I did spend some minutes wondering what that could be ... and was tempted to argue that we are all in the relationship business ... but since I often get proven wrong I will refrain .. is there really no potential for a resale or any brand building / loyalty / recognition building etc ?
Mark
We target high spend clients with lots of personalised “service” in the process but also serve a lot of good clients who don't have loads of money. One of the real tricks is to filter “wannabees” from legitimate clients up front – the focus is on maximising the quality of the enquiries and then establishing “dialogue” (get them talking so they forget about the competitors... That’s trick 2 – the really hard bit.)
On site -
1) Faces of the people they’re most likely to “meet” on the front and contact pages (if you use eye candy, make it count)
2) Lots or “personalised” reference in the main content to focus on knowledge, familiarity and absolute authority. As NFFC says, “the text just confirms it” – not exactly in your face, a bit of a soft sell approach.
3) Demographics – if you are “abc” then we are the ones – if you are “xyz” then here’s the info (thanks for stopping by)...
4) Deliberate exclusion – part of the filtering process (you must fill in the form, sign up and you may get “abc” info etc.)
> one to three sentences that will immediately build TRUST
Trust comes with authority, longevity, security and reputation ... rare commodities in one bundle on the web.
FreeBee Do you not mean
ABC in your case = Buyers which is
1. Spending power = yes
2. With Real Enquiry = yes
3. looking to buy / for solution = yes
Need to get these people hooked and talking
your XYZ might be "Windowshoppers" .. not really looking or perhaps able to give any quality business .. so you need them to be happy to come back later if they become ABCs.
AB C1 C2 confuses me in your post because it is usually applied (in UK anyhow) to socio economic issues, profession, ecomomic circumstances etc rather than demography which I take to indicate population issues
Mike - you say "My STUFF is not that different than other sites STUFF in my industry" OK so your stuff may not have any visible USP but what about what you do with it or how you work?
Why should people buy from you rather than others??
Can you not develop a better relationship with your window shoppers to better convert them to customers sometime in the future...
I am sure I am doing much simpler things than you but the customer that is just signing up with me today I started a dialog with in February 2001 which eventually lead to him forgetting his current supplier and not even inviting him to quote.
Typically we try and target a specific type of person - they're very often either wealthy and mature or young-ish and pretty broke. The latter group potentially become good clients because they're likely to turn out wealthy like their parents. Both groups share common interests.
So back to the topic, building trust in 1 to 3 sentences? Understanding your target market is a pretty important step.
It's really combined with what NFFC said, the 'look' that meets their expectations has to be there. I've seen some of NF's stuff... it just oozes high-$$ website design and immediately dispels any idea that this is the proverbial two guys in a basement. (I think it's 3 guys in a loft, but who can be sure.?)
>Use a "cut to the chase" style in all copy
Absolutely! The money page should be the 'path of least resistance.' People are lazy... they really don't want to surf your site, they just want to be quickly convinced that this is the right place to do business.
>Rename a navigation choice
I'll add to that... give several different descriptions for the same link to your money page and use them in pairs or even triples. You never know what's going to catch their interest, and sometimes it takes more than a single nudge to motivate them to click.
This is *so* important- with the aging of the online population, and the near certainty that the older group has more money and assumably poorern <but not necessarily poor> eyesight, this is the way to go.
Besides, I like the concept of giving the user control of their text.
Congratulations on your web site, which is an example of how e-shopping should be: elegant, fast and no-nonsense
I think the use of the word "elegant" speaks volumes, sometimes first impressions count a lot.
Indeed <cliche> you only get one chance to make a first impression.</cliche>
Any chance of the url so I can take a look at your site?
PS: bigjohnt mentions larger font sizes to which I agree. I watch people using their computers as much as possible (an eye openner), last one.. my doctor was having trouble with his PC and his "mouse to hand to eye" coordination was such that he could not get near the buttons or even the background of the dialog box to login to his system.... painfully slow to watch .. I went straight back and started rethinking settings and page layouts!!
I see loads of websites using fonts fixed at trendy small sizes ... which allow only skilled users to override them ... it creates just another group of potential customers who will find a site hard to use.
Mark
I would like to know how bad my site is...
You can't compare conversion rates for the STUFF we sell with the STUFF you sell.
But assume ours is 1% and we aren't greedy - we just want 2%
[mileage will vary]
All I am interested in is to know how high can a conversion rate gets. For any stuff.
If said 10% or 25% what would that mean to anyone?
You need to make friends with a direct competitor and compare notes.
It is done all the time.
In Stock - Same Day Shipping
We Inventory What We Sell
All Genuine Brand Names - No Knockoffs or Imitations
We Ship Direct - No Drop Ships
1. "Free Shipping"
2. Sales stated in $$$$ saved, not %%%% off
When I worked in retail, we tested two coupons. One was $10 off any purchase over $100. The second was 10% off any purchase over $100. You may not believe this, but the $10 coupon had almost twice the redemption rate! -- Math trauma afflicts many people when you start talking percentages.
Speaking from in front of a Mac, default font size is almost always best (or a CSS pixel size that comes close to the norma default)... I've seen more sites than I can count with teeny, garbled fuzzy gibberish instead of text, because the designer uses a stylish tiny font for Windows, and Mac will show the font *even smaller*
I don't think -1 is that severe, but it's about at the threshold where I start changing my display sizes.
(edited by: Travoli at 2:00 pm (gmt) on Dec. 10, 2001)
From last year I remember these statistics being published...
Most ecommerce sites (over 70%) have a lower than 2% conversion rate. Around 50% have less than 1% conversion rate. Industry leader for conversions is Amazon.com and even they don't come close to breaking the 10% barrier.
Ammon Johns
You give me that kind of service, and I become a repeat customer. So your STUFF might be the same as the other guy's but you can ship it better.
If I am looking for information I like to be able to find the information fast. Thus structured information (like WMW) is likely to be what will case me to return to a site. (P.S. I am never likely to buy from a site I use for information and also extremely unlikely to click ad links)
Well, that would be the case in my line of business.
Any essential elements suggested for the aboutus section?
The clients you are most likely to NOT convert would more often than not fit into the category of punters inclined to actually read the aboutus.
What are the killer phrases used to gain trust here?
I have to admit, this thread has caused me to suddenly worry about our aboutus - I think we have wasted a good aid to increasing conversion.
Going to have to think about this a while.
For the sites with niche items, I am more inclined to buy if they've sold me on the product even if the site isn't really professional looking. But I also click away when I encounter simple hype. For the less niche products, I find myself going for the lowest price OUT of the stores which lend themselves to credibility and are easy to buy from(usability).
It is nice to hear the 1% average being talked about as I used to believe that maybe other sites were doing amazing conversion rates. It is great when you know that you have a x amount of visitors per day and most days it is 1% but then you get those 2% or even 3% days
Anyway I would like to add two things
1)I have always avoided slagging off other/competitors sites. It is amazing how many sites do this and I know the impression I get when I read this sort of thing
2)Communication - When people order from the web they know are dealing with machines. When the autoresponder or mailer turns into a human being and a dialogue is started you are half the way to making your next sale already
Woody
