What do Richard Nixon, Britney Spears, and the Boy Who Cried Wolf all have in common? I’ll tell you first what they don’t have in common. They didn’t all shave their head and smash a paparazzi photographer’s car window with an umbrella.
That was just Britney. What they do all have in common is a loss of credibility.
So how does this relate to you?
One of the most valuable (and inexpensive) elements of your inbound strategy is credibility. What is credibility actually? It is defined as the quality of being trusted and believed in. Unlike the case of those stated above, a lack of credibility most likely won’t get you impeached, thrown in rehab, or all of your sheep eaten. What it will do is increase the number of missed opportunities your business incurs. The sooner you implement credibility indicators on your site, the sooner you’ll stop losing unassured prospects to competitors, and the sooner you start improving your business’s conversion rates and sales.
The process of establishing this credibility is extremely important, but also a bit of a catch-22. If your business wants to establish credibility, you need to let your work do the talking; and, if you want the opportunity to let your work do the talking, you need to first have credibility. But hey, that’s life.
As if it wasn’t difficult enough to establish credibility, the perseverance of scammers and fraudulent businesses show no sign of stopping, requiring businesses to go to greater lengths in order to convince prospects of their legitimacy.
Fortunately, these “greater lengths” are much more difficult to achieve for scammers than they are for your legitimate business. As a matter of fact, your business might even already possess the credibility factors you need. Now, you just need to make sure you are using them properly.
Here are 5 ways you should be using credibility indicators to establish trust with your audience, convert them into customers, and drive sales.
1. Testimonials
The cliche is true: actions speak louder than words. When it comes to business, however, someone else’s words can sometimes speak louder than both your words and your actions. Having customer testimonials on your site from clients, industry leaders, or any other legitimate source that can attest to your credibility is extremely valuable for building trust with your visitors and keeping them moving down your sales funnel.
ScholarshipApp, scholarship management tool for students , increased sales by 41% after adding a customer testimonial to their website! The company ran split-tests to measure the huge impact that such a minor addition made on their page.
In addition to using written testimonials, it is best practice to always include a photo and title of the person making the testimonial, as well as a video testimonial whenever possible. Doing this humanizes the person speaking on behalf of your business and is more convincing to your audience that you can deliver on what this person says you can. In other words, you need to establish credibility for the person who is helping you establish credibility. Sigh.
2. Reviews
Be careful not to confuse testimonials with reviews. While testimonials are typically something that you request with the intent of posting on your website, reviews should be much more hands-off. A global study by Nielsen revealed that 92% of customers around the world trust a review above all other forms of advertising. Express Watches is an example of just one business in particular that saw a 58% increase in sales by simply adding customer reviews to their product pages.
Another study revealed that 88% of customers read reviews to determine the quality of a local business. Another survey revealed that 63% of customers are more likely to make a purchase because of reviews. Among these consumers, there are typically three types of people who leave company reviews:
Type 1: Those who were extremely happy with your product/service
Type 2: Those who were extremely upset with your product/service
Type 3: Those who will provide a holistic and balanced review of your product/service
Can you guess which of those three types is the most valuable reviewer to help increase conversion rates? I’ll give you a hint: It’s Type 3.
While positive reviews are important to have on your website, they don’t always provide an accurate representation of the product. Consumers read reviews with hopes of finding information that was not advertised on that specific company’s website. It’s very rarely the case that everyone is happy with your business’s offerings, and your prospects know that. Too many overly positive reviews can raise suspicion whereas Type 3 reviewers provide the necessary unbiased perspective that converts. These are the reviewers who say, “Well the XYZ feature was not as useful as I had hoped for, but the ABC feature surpassed my expectations.”
Most consumers reading reviews are doing so at a critical point in the decision stage of their buyer’s journey, and it’s the type of honest insight that a Type 3 reviewer provides that will solidify their decision. If they are convinced to buy the product––great! You’ve made a sale. And if they don’t––even better! You just saved yourself the time of having to give a refund to a customer specifically looking to buy your product for its “XYZ feature”.
3. Awards and Recognition
In the immortal words of Kanye West, “[It’s] hard to be humble when you stuntin’ on a jumbotron”. While you can definitely afford to be a little more humble than Kanye, the truth is that sharing any awards and recognition your business has received on your website is one of the best credibility indicators you can provide.
Bag Servant is one company that was able to tie their low conversion rates back to a lack of trust from visitors browsing their site. After displaying the “WOW award” that was presented to them by a renowned businesswoman in that industry on their business’s website, conversions skyrocketed by more than 72%!
Awards and recognition reiterate that your business is as good as you say you are in your website copy. Going back to the idea of letting your actions speak for you, awards and recognition are the way to do it. They bring a degree of authority to your brand that instills your audience with a new level of respect and trust for your business.
4. Badges
Badges are small, often overlooked, elements of your website that are capable of making a huge impact. These badges can demonstrate certifications, recognition, awards, and most importantly, website security.
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Shopping cart abandonment rates generally fall between 55%-75%. Among those consumers dropping out of purchases, 17% admitted to concerns about payment security. Blue Fountain Media recognized this problem and decided to add website security trust badges to their site––resulting in a 42% increase in sales!
Check-out pages are one of the most popular places for trust badges because they’re often where your prospects require the most reassurance on their purchase. While it seems like a minor detail of your website, adding the security of a trust badge is proven to make a meaningful impact on conversion rates, in addition to generating more revenue from existing traffic.
5. Social Connections
In a world where social media dictates such a large portion of your audience reach, social connections (likes, followers, etc.) on social media platforms is key to building your credibility.
If your social media page is the first point-of-contact that a visitor has with your business, one of the first things they are going to do to assess your credibility is look at the amount of social connections you have.
Many social media platforms, such as Facebook and Twitter, will show you which of your friends have followed or shared that page. For one business trying to increase webinar opt-ins, implementing this type of bandwagon psychology into their marketing strategy increased conversion rates by 38%. This is a helpful tool for getting your audience to take your intended action, so that you can then add them to your marketing sequence and keep them moving down your sales funnel.
The importance of credibility indicators on your business’s website is indisputable and is more often than not a deciding factor in whether or not a prospect takes your intended action. More credibility on your end means more assurance on the consumer’s end, and more assurance on the consumer’s end means more leads, conversions and sales for your business.
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So what else can you do right now to start optimizing conversion rates and begin producing happier customers? Stay ahead of the curve and check out our ebook covering more practices for turning visitors into leads.
