Robert Brecht’s Blog

Trust is an antecedent to satisfaction and satisfaction is an antecedent to loyalty. Think of it as a process that, if completed, will  help assure the success of your online efforts.

Because “Trust”  comes into play at the first encounter between an Internet user and your online marketing activities, you will never have an opportunity to satisfy an online visitor without being able to engender enough trust to cause that person to take a risk and take your advice, leave their personal information or purchase something from you. Trust is what mitigates Risk!

A previous blog of mine discussed satisfaction issues. You can find it here

Once the consumer has  had a satisfying transaction with you, then the trust needed for future interactions with your Internet marketing efforts should not be a problem. Notice I said “satisfying transaction. An unsatisfied consumer of your service will lose trust for future encounters.

In this three part post I want to address that first encounter a consumer has with your website. For the purposes of this post, I will assume that the website is not that of a well established brand, but that of  a website other than a household name. What can we do to build “initial” trust during that first encounter that will enable the visitor to take the actions we want. Whether that action is to take our advice, provide personal information, make a phone call, or purchase something, they all involve taking a risk in the minds of the consumer. I am assuming that their is some level of perceived value in the minds of the visitor for what you are offering. The relationship of value to risk is a subject for another day. Today it is all about trust.

How do we create trust on a website for a first time visitor?

Three areas that I want to discuss and which are important in trust building are:

• Perceived Risk
• Reputation
• Site Quality

I don’t represent that these are the only factors involved in getting people to take actions. Perceived value, incentives, time sensitivity, etc. all play a role. Marketing as a field has identified the important ones. While these help, we still need enough trust in their mind to get the online consumer to take actions

We need to create enough trust to convert the visitor, i.e., get them to take the action we favor.

Perceived Risk: We want to minimize the risk in the minds of the consumer to the actions we want them to take. How do we mitigate risk on a website with an unknown company and brand?  A number of methods can be utilized to reduce risk. Remember it is in the minds of the consumer where we must focus our efforts.  Perception is reality. Here are a few tactics you can use on your website.

1. Privacy Statement: Every website should have a privacy statement  that informs visitors about what information will be collected  and what will  be done with it. Over time, as users have become more secure with giving personal information online, there has been a decline in the overall importance of this issue relative to others. That does not mean it is still  not important and that consumers expect it.
2. Privacy Elements Adjacent to Calls to Action: Anytime you ask a visitor to take an action “risk” is created in their minds. If asking for information, you should reassure them that you will protect their privacy. This reassurance should be in direct juxtaposition to the call to action so that it is in front of their eyes as they make that “click” and submit it to  you.
3. Seeking Only the Absolute Essential Information: The more information you seek from a visitor, the greater the risk that is created.  With that in mind, you should only seek the absolute minimum information necessary from the consumer to fulfill your marketing needs. I have often seen sites ask for everything in the way of information from visitors. The result is a quick exit from the site.  Remember it is all about perception. That means that you should make an effort to make what information you do collect look as little as you can. Use a horizontal format for forms, i.e., put field across the form to shorten the length of the form. Use other methods to get the other information. If you have an address, you can get the zip code. If your clients are in once state, don’t include the “state” field. You get the picture. Minimize the number of fields and use design to minimize how it looks. Another strategy is to collect information in two stages, acquiring the email address before sending them to a page with a longer form. That way, if the visitors exits the longer form, you still have their email address to do relationship marketing and establish trust over time.
4. Statements of Others That Took the Requested Action: I will discuss this in more detail in the next post dealing with reputation as a factor in trust. The point here is to utilize testimonials related to reassuring consumers about the specific action they are about to take. If you asking them for their email address to subscribe to a newsletter, include a testimonial relating to the value of the newsletter and appreciating the fact that the action only resulted in valuable information and no spam.  The key here is being specific to the action to be taken.
5. Show the Value First: Before you ask consumers to take action, show them the value associated with it. How many times have I gone to a website, only to be told that I had to give them information BEFORE I could look at a demo, talk to someone, see the product specs, etc. How dumb is that!. You are asking me for my information before you have demonstrated that the information related to the product or service may or may not be of value to me. Talking about creating high risk in a consumer’s mind….these sites exaggerate it rather than minimize it. Don’t Do it unless all you care about are only the most highly motivated visitors who think your product or service  is the only potential answer to their need. Do it only if you have a monopoly on the product or service.
6. Use Third Party Security/Privacy Indicators: If you utilize third party services or applications to protect the information requested as part of the Call to Action, then using the names and logos of these service providers will help reassure the consumer that you are serious about protecting their privacy. A Verisign endorsement is an example of such a third party privacy credibility indicator.

In my following posts, I will discuss how Reputation and Site Quality increase trust and some strategies we can use in designing our website to increase trust levels needed for visitors to take the action we want.

Please add your own thoughts on building trust.

If you like what I am writing, subscribe to my RSS feed.

Tags: Brand + Technology, Internet Marketing, Non Linear Internet Marketing, Online Marketing, Website Design

This entry was posted on Thursday, April 23rd, 2009 at 3:18 pm and is filed under Internet Marketing, Marketing. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Responses are currently closed, but you can trackback from your own site.