The word
trust is a very powerful word. This is primarily because it conveys emotion. It is imperative that your customers have a positive emotional connection with your site in order for it to successful. To create trust, there are certain things that online merchants must do. This article highlights several trust building methods that MachInteractive's clients have successfully used and recommends to new clients.
A Trustworthy Web Design is Vital
The most important place to begin building trust is with your web design. When visitors come to your site do they get the impression that you are a serious online merchant? Too many people fall into the "I designed it myself!" trap and refuse to get out. Let a web design professional coupled with a site usability and optimization specialist work with you to create a site design that will both maximize your online/offline sales and comply with industry best practices. This alone can dramatically increase the number of conversions your web site receives.
Other Essentials
- Your site must have a physical address and phone number confidently displayed on every page. This is one of the first things online shoppers look for when dealing with small online businesses.
- Be sure to include links to your Privacy Policy, Return Policy and Shipping Policy. Many online shoppers want to review these before placing orders so it is highly recommended to create these and make sure visitors can easily locate them.
- An SSL certificate seal from VeriSign or GeoTrust will give customers reassurance that their online transactions are safe and secure. It is amazing how many sites still accept online orders without having a SSL certificate installed. This is that is both extremely reckless and very illegal.
- You should take special care to ensure that your pages are free of typos and spelling errors. After all, your site represents you to the world. It is highly recommended that you hire a professional copywriter to write or at least edit all site copy.
- Check out the BBBOnline Reliability and Privacy Seal programs. The Better Business Bureau is one of the most important trust building seals available today. We only recommend displaying this seal if you have a perfect record with them; otherwise, including the seal could have a negative impact on your sales.
- Your site should be completely free of broken links. A recent poll by emarketer.com reported that consumers find broken links to be highly annoying.
Highly Recommended
- Keep your site content up-to-date! If people arrive at your site and see "Affiliate program coming in 2003!" they are going to think the site is dormant and leave.
- Include genuine customer testimonials, third-party endorsements, achievement awards, and case studies
- Hacker Safe's slogan is "Build the trust that builds your business. Start boosting sales today by certifying your site HACKER SAFE". - Their sales pitch says it all.
- Offering alternative payment methods such as PayPal can help boost your online sales and displaying their verified by PayPal seal can also help boost consumer confidence.
- Include seals of industry associations to which you belong.
Optional
- Place professional photos of your staff and facilities on your About Us pages. People want to know who they are doing business with.
- The TRUSTe seal lets consumers know that you are committed to protecting their online privacy.
It is unfortunate to say that most of the above tactics are rarely used. Thus, many merchants never realize the full potential of their online store. By executing the above trust-building tactics, you are practically guaranteed to see an increase in online conversions.