How to Evoke Trust on Your Landing Pages
“To be trusted is a greater compliment than being loved.” -George MacDonald
According to the Merriam-Webster Dictionary, trust is the “ belief that someone or something is reliable, good, honest, and effective”. Trust is an important emotional trigger because if a visitor does not believe you are reliable, good, honest, or effective, they are not going to want to interact with you. A visitor needs to rely on you and believe you are honest, have good intentions, and that you will provide the value you offer.
Due to the fact that emotions drive many of our purchasing decisions, and due to the fact that trust is a powerful emotional trigger that should be emphasized in almost every CRO strategy, we are dedicating an entire post to it – from what it is, to why we use it, to how we portray it online.
HOW IS TRUST RELEVANT TO CONVERSION OPTIMIZATION?
According to Forbes, trust is not just a singular thing. Trust is “a relationship established between a trustor and a trustee…The role of the trustor is to take risks; the role of the trustee is to be trustworthy.” So while we discuss different options for increasing trust on your site, you should remember to add only things that are true and relevant to you. If you want to be trusted, you need to be trustworthy. Being trustworthy and trusted is worth it because trust increases brand loyalty, customer development, and decreases churn. Creating loyal customers who will recommend you to their friends is definitely something to strive for because, according to 2015 statistics, personal recommendations were the most trusted form of advertising- with 83 percent of respondents stating that they somewhat or completely trusted recommendations they got from friends and acquaintances.
If you ask someone to leave their email in return for an e-book, they need to trust that you will actually send them that e-book and that your e-book is of high quality and will be helpful. If a user decides to purchase something from you online, they need to rely on you and believe that you will send that item to their home in an efficient manner, and that the item will be in good shape too!
As you can see, trust can motivate a customer to buy, and it can increase returning visitors as well. So trust is important for our conversion rates. However, trust is a complex emotion. How do you convey it online – without a handshake, eye contact, or a warm smile?
Think of your site as your resume. You have but a few seconds to form an impression on your customers and make them trust you with your website’s design and messaging. Below are 4 tested methods we use to increase trust for our clients:
1. EVOKING TRUST WITH TRUST SEALS
One way to evoke trust is with well-known trust seals, which are logos and symbols that increase credibility.
These can be:
- Security Seals – These are logos that show that your site is secure. Norton Security, McAfee Security and many others, are often used to show that your site is safe, that these companies have inspected your privacy and security level and that private details will not be compromised or shared. Baymard Institute researched which icons were perceived as most trustworthy by online users and here are the results:
- Diplomas and approval from official organizations- This technique is used mainly by doctors, veterinarians, accountants,lawyer and other accredited professionals. Highlight the fact that your business has been certified and/or that you are certified/have a license with icons from the appropriate well-known establishments.
Express Watch, a Seiko watch dealer, originally had a ‘discount price guarantee’ symbol on their product page.
When they tested substituting it for a trust seal, stating they are an authorized dealer, their sales increased by 107%!
Variation:
2. EVOKING TRUST WITH SOCIAL PROOF
Social Proof is a powerful driver of trust. It uses the power of numbers and the “bandwagon effect” to prove that you can be trusted. Robert Cialdini discusses social proof in his book Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion and says that often times, when people do not know how to act, they look to others’ behavior to see how they should act.
- The Power of Numbers – There are a few ways you can use numbers to increase trust on your landing pages or homepage: