A few simple additions to your website will help you convert visitors into customers.
I’ve often said that your website is the hub of all of your industrial marketing activity. It houses all of your content, and serves as a means for potential customers to vet your company.
Conveying a sense of quality and stability through your website is important, because you’re not some fly-by-night company making knock-off products, are you?
Didn’t think so. Don’t let your website visitors leave thinking you are.
Francisco Rosales provides some great tips for helping industrial marketers make their prospects feel confident in buying from you after their website visit.
1. Storytelling with boundaries
Developing an engaging storyline on a website, i.e. details about who works at the company, how it came into being, the values behind it, help visitors and customers better understand who they are dealing with while giving them a sense of belonging.
The challenge is being evocative without turning your audience off. Think tone. Is the tone of your copy in keeping with who your business serves along with your own values? It won’t be the same for every business. Take into account what your customers say about your business.
2. Respect customer confidentiality and give them a sense of security
When people feel safe, they’re more at ease. Giving people a sense of security while on your website is a sure way of keeping them motivated to stay.
Several different A/B tests of pages on websites in which security icons were added or verbiage to let people know that their email addresses would not be shared, increased conversion rates at checkouts and list sign ups.
A UK retailer of watches increased sales of one of its Seiko watches by 107% just by replacing it’s price guarantee with an authenticity badge. Clearly, customers had more anxiety about purchasing an imitation watch than paying more than necessary.
3. Only over promise if you can over deliver
It’s tempting to tell your customers you’ll provide next day delivery or respond to requests for information within the hour. By all means, if you can follow through, make those promises.
Giving people additional reasons to believe in your business or product can make the difference between a sale and an abandoned cart.
The result: customers who trust buying from them will continue to do so loyally.
4. Add real testimonials
Testimonials are extremely effective in providing social proof on a website. Adding testimonials shows new visitors that your business is trustworthy.
Here’s the thing. Only add them if they are real, relevant and you can attach a name to them. Testimonials from “Anonymous” or “Suzie Q.” are less than inspiring in giving people a reason to believe that “real” people have engaged in business with you.
Think about embedding tweets from others directly on your site. They include a picture and are clickable.
These tips are simple and can be easily incorporated into nearly any website.
Trust is earned, not given. Be proactive and provide these obvious assurances that you take your customers’ concerns seriously.
Photo credit: vagawi
