Signs of Confidence in 5 Words:
Security, Social, Testimonial, Reviews, Awards
When you walk into a shop you can unconsciously pick up signals that make you confident of buying. How do you give these signals online?
Security
Visitors, of course, want to know that your site is safe to use. A security certificate (HTTPS) is vital for an e-commerce site or any site that needs a logon.
Social Signals
Having a Facebook page and visitors seeing friends who also ‘like the page’ is a boon (if they are logged into Facebook).
Testimonials / Our Customers
Another important sign is customers who have given your site the thumbs up. Better still if you have pictures of people and celebrity or authority figures also add to that feeling of confidence.
Reviews
Online marketers rave about User Generated Content which means reviews and they have a significant impact on helping a purchase. You can spend a lot of money installing a back-end system like BazaarVoice or you can build your own database, it’s a question of scale. Cheaper alternative reviews systems are available like reviews.co.uk
Third Party Awards
I would also include an endorsement for a celebrity or expert in this section. Getting an award or an acknowledgement also adds credibility everything from a Hitwise top site (for the big boys) to a local newspaper logo will work to your site’s advantage.
Other Signs of Website Confidence
Loyalty schemes make customers more confident online. They may not wish to participate but it shows commitment on the merchant’s part.
Partnerships with another brand are another vote for your site.
Terms & Conditions is a page often visited so take some care to make readable and important.
Customer Care signals like a phone number, a smiling face, live chat or even the fact that you have your address on the contact page instead of just a form also soothe an anxious visitor looking for trust signals before he or she commits to giving your site money.
A well thought out and friendly Returns Policy is also vital along with your ‘Guarantee’ to commit to something like answering a phone call in ‘x’ amount of time or ‘100%’.
Add Calls to Action
Calls to action to most people mean getting them to buy. There are other more useful calls to action that again aid the ‘Signs of Confidence’ in your site. The call might be to sign up for an email newsletter, like a Facebook page, join Twitter or look at a video on your YouTube channel.
Read through your site and see where you can add a ‘sign of confidence.’
All the best,
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