by David B. Ascot
For visitors to go back to your website, you must have good credibility. This is what comprises the basis for trusting and believing that the products being promoted are genuine and of high quality. It takes a lot of commitment and sincerity to convince the leads and convert them eventually into regular customers.
The following approaches to convert clicks into purchases are given to intensify your marketing credibility:
Strategy #1: Indicate the Reasons Why the Claim is true.
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.
e.g. When you acknowledge your site as “The Lowest Priced Luggage Retailer in Australia”, you must give justification for this, like the following:
* You buy container loads at a time and take advantage of bulk discounts (show photos of the containers)
* Your warehouse is located in the suburbs, where you have a much lower rent and therefore lower overhead
* 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: Case Studies and Testimonials
If I could only use ONE credibility-boosting strategy, Case Studies / Testimonials would have to be it.
Positive RESULTS are what you achieve to give to the customers and case studies and testimonials are mostly comprised of details about results. They are certainly concrete and specific as conveyed by customers. Keep in mind that results are what customers are after and not the product itself.
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.
To get a simple but sincere testimonial, provide your customers with a few guiding questions and let them respond in their own words. This way the site will have authentic and true testimonials.
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:
* Designing a creative headline
* Displaying it in a Johnson Box
* Emphasise important words and results with vivid graphics.
* Adding a photo, audio stream or video stream from the testimonial provider
* Put on view the particular famous trademarks and logos of clients.
* Exhibiting graphs, scanned documents, screenshots or visual images of results.
Strategy #3: Association Indicators, Qualification, and Membership Certifications
If your business is associated or affiliated with other professional groups, display the logo on your website. The symbol of membership will give clients the impression that your business is an organised one.
ISO 9001 is a well-known certification; other certifications and qualifications may sound unknown. You must inform and explain the details to the visitors and customers about these. The following are some suggestions to do that:
* Give proper details of the membership and certification.
* Describe how you obtained it.
* Clarify the perspective of the certification (e.g. ‘Marketing Results’ is one of only 16 Google Adwords Qualified Companies in Australia)
* Justify the customers’ advantages of the membership.
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
Industry Awards can also boost your standing in the eyes of prospects and clients, but don’t go too over the top patting yourself on the back – try to tie the award into how you produce a better outcome for clients.
One example is the Combo IT’s “Awards” page providing particulars of the awards they have won; the page also includes nomination to the prestigious BRW Fast 100 list. Combo is highly respected not only because of the prestige of the awards, but the quality performance and services the company has executed.
Strategy #5: 3rd Party Verification Services
Services from 3rd party such as Verisign, the Better Business Bureau and HackerSafe give customers further assurance that the site is safe and authentic to do professional practices and that their policies regarding customer services are reliable. Make your site verified not only to attract buyers, but to improve the quality of your industry and site as well.