Robert Brecht’s Blog

Website Quality In  Generating Initial Trust

Today’s post deals with the role of website quality on establishing initial trust in the mind of the visitor to the website. As previously stated in the two previous blogs on this subject, we are assuming that the visitor has no first hand knowledge or experience with the organization that has the website.  My first post in this series with developing trust dealt with the role of perceived risk in that process and how you can minimize the perception of risk. You can find Part One here. The second post in this series deals with the role of reputation and specific strategies we can employ to build our reputation in the eyes of the potential consumer of our products and services. You can find Part Two here.

It should be no surprise that the quality of a website impacts the trust of the Internet visitor to it. After all, aren’t we affected by what we see when we visit a “bricks and mortar” business outlet?  Our course we are.  If we are going to buy stock, would we have greater trust in a brokerage business located in a nice facility with nice furniture staffed by professional looking employees who are conversant and readily share evidence of their success as opposed to a stock broker located in a run down building in a strip center with garish furniture and employees in torn shorts and T shirts who are illiterate and say “trust me?” (Wow…did I really write a sentence that long? So much for the usability factor for this post)

A website is a place we conduct business. For many organizations, it is the only place they conduct business. It is logical to assume that part of the process of initial trust development is the quality of the place we do business. Research bears that out.

(I would like to digress a moment to say, that all of the information in my blog is either based on objective research, my own experience or the experience of other highly recognized marketing professionals. I have made a purposeful decision to leave out research citations from my posts. If  you would like me to provide that information, I would be happy to do it. )

Lets discuss what the research says about perceived site quality  in establishing initial perceived trust. You notice I use “perceived” a lot because “perception is reality” in the mind of the visitor. It is also important to remember that what you and I perceive may be different from what you target customer perceives. I discussed this in more detail in a previous post on customer insight. My point is that the perception of quality is in the eyes of the visitor and nor in the mind of your website designer. That is why I advocate the involvement of target market consumers in the website development process and testing much of what we do.

What Do You See…a Duck or Bunny?

Perceptions is Reality

Never…Never believe that your customer thinks like you!

The quality of a website is important. Consumers make inferences regarding the business behind the website based on their initial impressions and experiences with it. There is data to support that, as consumers become increasingly more comfortable with the Internet as a medium for commerce, that the importance of website quality is increasing vis-a-vis the other trust engendering factors. Website developers should devote increased attention to just how well they design and build a site based on what we have learned regarding the importance of the perception of quality has on the overall perception of the business and whether to trust it with an online transaction.

Developing a quality website: Remember that initial impressions of website take place at the emotional level as does much of the purchasing decision process. A quality website in the minds of the visitor will be one designed specifically for them at several levels. They include:

• Graphic Design
• Structural Design
• Content Design
• User Experience Design

It is not the intent of this particular blog to provide the detailed discussion of design elements that create the perception of quality, but, instead to address them in general and provide illustrative examples.

Graphic Design: There  are a lot of good resources on creating a quality website from a graphic design perspective. Many of them are based on proven graphic design principles. I would only argue that designers and developers do a couple of more things as part of their efforts: 1. Understand the profile of the target market and their psychographics and design for them. 2. Understand the business purpose of the website and design for it. 3. Understand what the marketing field has learned about color psychology, eye path, graphics, etc and incorporate that information into the design of a quality website.

Structural Design: We regard structural design as the overall organization and accessibility of information on a website. Designing and testing for usability addresses the structural design elements. Examples of good structural design include  intuitive and consistent navigation, copy consistent with audience reading levels, site loading quickly, etc.  Good structural design is an essential element of the perception of a quality website in the minds of visitors.

Content Design: Content is the informational components of our website. It is the Persuasive Components that will, if done right, increase the likelihood that visitors will take the action we would like them to take. Examples of content design elements include the use of branding elements such as a logo and Value Proposition, good persuasive copy with headlines and subheads, bullet points, testimonials, calls to action, etc. In fact, the content and design process should be done after we have the visitor profiles and site objectives…well before the graphic design process addressed above.

User Experience Design: This factor addresses  the personalization of the website experience. It has only been recently that the personalization of Internet marketing efforts has been shown to be an increasingly important factor in getting conversion, i.e. getting people to take our most favored actions.  Examples of ways we personalize the user experience include, use of photographs or video to personalize the business and its representatives; providing a different website experiences by segmenting the visitor based on previous visits, geographic location, site content interactions, etc; and use of synchronous communications media, e.g.,  instant messaging, click to call, etc. The more we tailor the website experience to a particular visitor the higher the quality of website that will be perceived on the part of that visitor.

Amateurish websites do not engender the kind of trust needed for a consumer to take action on it, unless the visitor is extremely motivated. We know that highly motivated people will put up with bad websites and still take action. So, if you have the world’s greatest product or service that fills a huge need and you have no competition, then you can ignore much of what I have written about the importance of creating initial trust for website visitors.

If you are like the rest of us, take the time to address perceived risk, reputation and site quality as you develop your website.

Your comments are appreciated. What other ways can we build trust in visitors with no experience with us?

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.

Trust is First Factor in Success Proccess

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.

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Today I would like to address the issue of color in Internet marketing. I have discussed in a previous blog the fact that “buying” decisions are primarily made at the emotional gratification level. Once made, the decision is supported at the rational level based on the attributes and benefits of the product or service. We know that colors elicit certain emotions and associations. Based on this, it is logical to conclude that our choice of color can either enhance or detract from our online marketing efforts.

We have also previously discussed about how important insight about our probable customers is to our Internet marketing efforts. The more  we know about the demographic and psychographic factors of our target markets, the more focused are efforts at reaching them with a message that will resonate with them. Color is part of our overall message.

I do not intend for this blog to be a treatise on the psychology of color.  There are many websites and books that can provide more information on this subject. One I like is:

http://websitetips.com/color/tutorials/#meaning

The colors we use in our online marketing efforts should reflect:

• Our Company, products and services
• Our target customer

Colors Should Reflect Who We Are: The colors we use in our efforts to get our message across to our target market should be reflective of who we are.  For example, if our business is building playgrounds or selling toys, the colors we use are going to reflect “fun and excitement.”  Use of primary, saturated colors, including yellow and green, are appropriate to reflect these emotional associations. If, on the other hand, our business is buying houses from those who are entering the foreclosure process we probably don’t want to reflect “fun and excitement.”  A better emotional connections would be “trust and credibility” and our color scheme should reflect it. Likely blue would be the predominant color, highlighted with blacks, etc.

Colors should reflect our customers: Our online marketing color choices should reflect the customer insight we have gained by researching our target and flanker markets. Depending on who are probable customers are and where they are located, the choice of color can be a fairly complex process. The more focused our marketing efforts at the most probable customer, the easier it is to decide on a color palette for our online marketing efforts.

Colors Elicit Emotional Associations: Our Internet marketing strategy should be to associate our organization’s products our services with positive emotional associations in the mind of our target probable customer. Color selection is part of that strategy. Specific colors have been shown to be associated with specific emotional feelings and can have an impact on the actions they take. Blue, for example, is associated with trust and reliability. Careful though…it is also associated with sadness and coolness. Red is associated with excitement, danger, passion, speed, strength and sex.  Black is associated with sophistication, seductive and mysterious emotional triggers. Any wonder why adult websites utilize red and black as their dominant color scheme? Remember though that the emotional associations of colors are culturally based. Another reason why you must know your customer.

Customers Have Color Preferences: Another factor in the selection of color for e-commerce is the preferences of our target market, i.e., our most probable customers. We can be more effective utilizing colors that reflect what our customers like than using colors that our customers do not like. There are gender, age and cultural differences that must go into the selection process. I believe that many online marketing designers default to “blue” as a dominant color because it is that it is the most favorite color as a whole. I am reminded of a former client that had a product specifically targeted to women in the 21 to 59 age group. They chose orange and brown as the color scheme for their marketing and  product packaging. What they failed to take into consideration is that orange and brown are the least favorite colors of their target market. That fact worked against the remainder of their message.  A little research could of saved them a lot of wasted effort.

What do you think?

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