This Post is Guaranteed to Boost your Conversion Rates
I’ll be honest. A year ago, I was an unbeliever. The idea that something on your site could influence me to buy or not buy was hogwash. No stupid seal or testimonial was going to change my mind. Let me tell you, if you’re not doing everything you can to boost the conversion rate of your website - you’re either losing your money or losing your client’s money (and your client should probably fire you). Over the last year, my eyes have been opened and I’ve begun to realize how much power I have over website visitors to squash their fears and nudge them toward making larger purchases. Here’s an overview of three of the tools at your disposal:
Seals
Seals matter. Most sites should see conversion increases of 10-30%. Which seals are most important/work best? You’ll have to do your own testing on that, but they definitely make a difference. According to a recent national survey by Consumer Reports, more than 71% of online shoppers look for third party seals. The key is place them where they matter most. Security seals should be on checkout pages, BBB seals should be homepages and product pages, etc.. The goal is to give the visitor the security they need to take the next action, whatever that might be. There are many different kinds of seals ranging from general business seals, security scans or SSL seals. I doubt most consumers can tell the difference between the types of seals, but obviously the more well-known brands should carry the most weight. Common seals include BBB, McAfee (formerly Hacker safe), Trust Guard, Hacker Proof, Control Scan and Verisign. McAfee, Trust Guard and Hacker Proof all offer some sort of conversion increase guarantee.
Testimonials
I always discounted testimonials in the past because obviously they can’t be be verified and maybe many others ignore them as well, but a significant percentage of visitors do not. Depending on the site and quality of the testimonials, typical sites should see conversion boosts of 5-50%. Rather than rehash it all, read this excellent post from Grokdotcom on the Dos and Don’ts of Testimonials.
Alternate Payment Options
Depending on what you sell and your target customer, this could be a major or minor factor. When I began accepting credit card payments instead of just PayPal on my web design company directory, my total sales went up over 25% despite the fact that every single one of my advertisers probably has a PayPal account. People use different payment methods for many different reasons, including security of their financial information, no credit card and protection from fraud. Try PayPal, Google Checkout, eCheck, Moneybookers, Bill Me Later and eLayaway. As a side bonus, sometimes you can save quite a bit with an alternate method.
There are many other ways to boost conversion rates, but I’ll be saving those for a follow up post. As I said at the beginning of the post, if you’re not doing ALL you can to optimize your website and give your customers security, you’re not doing enough.
Most importantly though, TEST TEST TEST. Do not implement any of these options without testing your site. Google Analytics and Google Website Optimizer makes this super easy. My next blog post will feature my #1 tip on how to implement Google Website Optimizer in seconds so subscribe to RSS now (<-call to action, we’ll see if it boosts my blog subscription rate).
Scott Brandley:
Hi James,
Scott Brandley with Trust Guard here. I completely agree with you about testing and I just wanted to stress the particular importance of split testing since it goes along so well with your article.
Any website owners that are reading this and aren’t split testing their sites on a continual basis, are leaving a ton of money on the table. In split tests we do on our sites, we regularly see increases of 10-50% just from making small changes or enhancements to our pages and then split testing those changes against the current design. Those 10-50% increases add up fast!
There are a number of free and paid split testing options on the market. If you don’t know what split testing is, you need to make finding out a priority.
When it comes to trust seals, split testing is also very important. One of the things we’ve done at Trust Guard is build split testing right into our seals, so our customers can see the exact increase in conversion that adding Trust Guard to their site gives them.
Bottom line, you can’t improve what you can’t test.
Keep up the good work and the great content James!
Regards,
Scott Brandley
CEO
Trust Guard
James Paden:
Thanks for the message, Scott. I could not agree more and my next post will share how I use Google Website Optimizer to easily run split tests.
And for the record, we use Trust Guard at One Click Ventures. You have an excellent product that’s more affordable than the competition. And it’s great to see a CEO personally monitoring the blogosphere. Keep up the good work!
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