Increase Online Sales by Reducing Customer Anxiety - The Scientific Approach
This afternoon I attended the web seminar mentioned in the previous blog post. The seminar was put on by Marketing Experiments Journal, a very professional outfit that takes the science of online marketing to levels you would normally expect from a college course. The subject of the seminar was how to decrease customer anxiety levels and thus increase the conversion rate of a website. In other words, how do you alleviate any fears a customer might have and get them to click on the “Buy” button? Well, one of the things I am most impressed with from these guys is the degree of statistical analysis they put into these things. Most website owners simply guess at what will work on a website, usually from what THEY would want to see. The thing is that the science of raising website conversion is not a matter of guesswork, and it is certainly a matter of knowing your audience. Let’s get right to the 7 tips which formed the basis of this whole talk. And, for each, I will interject my own view and advice on the matter.
Use testimonials
More specifically, use testimonials which address specific points of customer anxiety. For example, if you know that speed of shipping is a concern, post a testimonial that talks about how fast your shipping was. If support is a concern, post a testimonial which talks about how great your after-sale support is. Really pay attention to the purpose of each testimonial rather than simply posting anything that says good things about you.
Use language and tone in your copy
Pay close attention to your audience and what their state of mind is. Use language on your website that specifically caters to your audience. For example, if your intended audience is a younger one, your typical corporate speak is probably not going to sell anything. The presenter of the seminar also alluded to the importance of matching the tone of the customer and said a future report of their journal would discuss how to make a site actually cater to the particular mood of the customer. Now that will be very interesting, if it is some kind of real-time thing.
Use Credibility Indicators
Use badges and certifications from trusted groups to show that your business is legit. These might include:
Include Site Ratings
Ratings from third party, trusted sources are good for credibility. Such as:
Doing this obviously means being registered as a merchant with these sites and having good customer feedback.
Offer a Guarantee
Assure the customer that they are not stuck with whatever it is they are buying if they don’t like it. Offer things like 90 days risk free, 100% satisfaction guarantee, 100% money back guarantee. Many smaller operations may not be keen on openly offering refunds, although experience usually shows that making it available brings in a lot more business than it will cost by way of actual returns.
Enhance your Visible Reputation
Include anxiety-reducing site features like an About Us page and Support. Make a very clear option to contact your staff, and provide a contact phone number. Don’t hide behind the anonymity of the internet. People want to know that they can call and talk to a real person if they have to.
Pay Attention to Design
Use site colors and themes that match the nature of your product and audience. Pay attention to size, color, shape, motion and position. The speaker said one of his methods was to print a website and then literally draw on the print-out what things grab his eye. It is all about eye path. The ultimate goal is for the person to click the “Buy” button. You want your website to direct the eye path directly to that buy button, with good copy and items to reduce anxiety guiding them down the page. And you want the page designed more as a vertical path - do not make too much use of the lateral path (as in making the person look side-to-side or key bits of information. The natural tendency is to move DOWN the page.
Have you ever seen one of these marketing sites whose homepage is designed TOTALLY to sell you something? You see a lot of these with sites trying to sell you some guy’s money-making system. Here is an example I found in a quick Google search: www.realwebmoney.net. Now sites like these I find a little funny, because these guys are making their money on selling the system. Trust me, it isn’t the charity of some guy who made millions and then just feels like showing you how to do it. The selling of the course IS their system. That said, these guys really now how to do ad copy and design a site. You will notice that this guy’s site is littered with highlighted phrases specifically designed to hit the key buttons of the audience, show the benefit, and alleviate anxieties about whether it will work. The page is also designed vertically - with no sidebars. It contains testimonials. It provides the sense of a good deal by showing the huge price deduction (which trust me, is ALWAYS there). Lastly, at the point of sale (the big “Order Now” button), there is a big box underneath with a signature of the author and a 100% satisfaction guarantee with a big seal to show off. The signature is a good point, because it is important to realize that people buy from people, not companies. Giving a site the big corporate look and hiding your staff behind a veil of the contact form is not a way to sell things.
This is classic ad copy and it applies many of the points addressed here and in the seminar. And, reading vertically down the page, it reads very much like a TV commercial might. It hits them with a big headline to get attention, peppers them with key points, testimonials. Then, right when you’re thinking that it might be good, he hits you with some items to alleviate doubt. See the “Want Proof?”. He even throws in a little javascript test to see how much money you can make. The test is bull crap (and doesn’t even work right), but I admire the effort because people love interactivity.
Lastly, the speaker provided a formula which, quite frankly, appears to be very arbitrary, but I thought I’d pass it on anyway. It is:
C = 4M + 3V + 2(I-F) - 2A.
That is…
Conversion = 4(Motivation) + 3(Value) + 2(Interest - Friction) - 2(Anxiety)
He calls this the MEC Conversion and apparently covers it in one of their online certification courses. Now, it seems to me that a customer’s motivation and interest are pretty much dictated by them. However, site design and ad copy can do a lot to increase value, reduce friction and anxiety. Value would be the perceived value of your offer. Friction would be the degree of how hard it is or how long it takes to make the purchase. And anxiety is the whole point of this post, the worries the customer might have.
To sum all this up, I want to make a point that conversion is a process, not an event. There is no single point where one can sit back and say “My site is perfect”. One must constantly measure conversion rates and work the site to keep conversions up and look for improvement. One should begin actually measuring conversion rates in their online stores. Even if you are not doing e-commerce. For example, perhaps your goal is simply for a visitor to sign up for your newsletter. Well, start tracking conversion rates based on the number of people who sign up daily. Any business will tell you that it is a lot easier to sell the people whose attention you already have than to get the interest of newbies. Even at PCMech, we make ecommerce sales in our store. In the past, I have made high use of the mailing list in a sort of brute force attempt to drive more people to the store. However, it is equally important to pay attention to the elements that will increase the conversion rate of people who walk into the store already. So, it’s a two-pronged approach.
- Drive more people into the store.
- Perfect the store so that a higher rate of those who go to the store actually buy.
With that, happy selling. I hope this post has proven useful for you in your online selling endeavors.
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