Ensuring That Consumers Can Trust Your Brand Online.
Improving conversion rates can be a lot more simple than you think. Although sales tactics will always exists, it's important that we all begin to understand what consumers are currently valuing online: Their ability to trust a brand during their buying process..Before the world wide web, the foundation of purchases, relationships, and even partnerships was significantly different. Aside from convenience, many leaned on trust and reliability when executing business transactions. Reviews consisted of “asking around” and most referrals came from local recommendations. Once the internet became prevalent, spammy tactics and even misleading information was used to persuade consumers and business owners. There were no parameters and guerrilla marketing efforts created success for those that didn’t even provide a solution. Persuading consumers to trust your brand online wasn’t even being considered.
Although a majority of these strategies ceased once people became more educated in the digital world, we still live in a competitive age that focuses on grabbing the attention of those strolling through. Engaging catch phrases or relevant images are used to capture one’s attention, but are we reaching a point where this becomes ineffective as well? Are business owners starting to figure out that user’s experience is now being considered and valued?
So much has changed in the last decade alone. Instead of going to the local establishment and hand-picking our needs, we now immerse ourselves in an extensive conversion funnel that includes comparison, research, and even leverage. In addition to the decision-making process, there’s also an array of things that can go wrong. Shipping, manufacturing, customization, human error, and quality can often negatively impact the user experience. Although our “on-demand” culture may seem to address fingertip convenience, we quite possibly could be less productive than before. So how can we combat this and reach sustainability? It’s simple. Consumers want to know how they can trust a brand online – and let’s be frank, if they aren’t sure, then they’re probably going to bounce.
Providing clarity throughout the sales cycle will help you begin to build online relationships while creating a sense of loyalty. More so, developing your marketing strategy around the user experience will help ensure that consumers can trust your brand online. Although it’s inevitably up to you to provide the need your visitors crave, here are a few examples that enable them to eliminate you from their conversion funnel.
1. Your Message Doesn’t Make Sense.
If you follow my writing, you’ll soon realize that messaging is one of the most important factors when it comes to marketing. No matter if you’re advertising in the newspaper or on social media, your message needs to be consistent. If you find yourself wavering from the specific products or services you provide, simply to attract potential customers, then you’re setting yourself up for failure. This may work from time to time, but if you’re looking to consistently grow, then it’s important that you establish your brand and stay within your niche.
2. You’re Trying to Hard.
A potential customer has visited your website but they aren’t quite ready to pull the trigger. Their decision-making process is stagnant because other priorities have trumped their initial purchase attempt. In the meantime, you’ve begun to execute retargeting efforts to keep them engaged. The problem is, you’re overwhelming them with information. They begin to see your ad on Facebook and after the 3rd or 4th email, they’ve now placed you in their spam folder. Consider their intelligence, for once. If you engage them with quality content from the start, they’ll remember you in a positive manner.
3. You’re Not Getting to the Point.
How many times have you been immersed in the buying process and landed on a site with far too much information? With content currently being king, and SEO not far behind, it’s understandable why this is common. But, it doesn’t make it effective when addressing trustability. Continuously revising your copy or adding content to your landing page in order to improve rankings might backfire on you in the long run. If you’re expecting visitors to convert on your landing page, then get to the point – or at least organize your content in a way that’s presentable to avoid overwhelming consumers.
4. You’re Too Focused on Adsense.
If the main objective of your website surrounds traffic, then you’re probably pretty focused on charging affiliates for their ads. Although this is a great source of income, don’t allow it to distract users from your offering. Aside from news or blogging, you’re not going to make a living off of advertisements – especially if traffic declines. If a visitor has to “X” out of an immediate ad, then search for a contact form amongst other call-to-actions, how long do you think they’ll stay? Ensuring that consumers can trust your brand online includes your ability to provide them with the only solution they’re looking for right now.
Gaining the trust of potential customers online is a lot harder than it’s made out to be. At the end of the day, always lean on consistency. Sometimes users only count on you to provide them with one solution – and that’s OK. When you’re attempting to grow your brand and expand online, it’s important that you have a strategy.
Most importantly, once you’re able to finally get them on your page, don’t lose them. Get to the point, provide clarity, and let them make the best decision, for themselves. If you take the time to be precise on the front end, then you have nothing to worry about. You can begin talking about other ventures and expansion once you scale and own the niche you set out to dominate. Be patient and build your brand one brick at a time and consumers will easily begin to trust your brand online.
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Feel free to analyze the the current strategic marketing solutions I provide. By working together, I assist passionate business owners with reaching their potential by developing proper brand messaging through the right channels. Most importantly, through trust.