How to market content

1. Use your social media outreach

The best content will connect with people, it will get them to think about the subject matter of the content, whether it is an editorial, infographic or video and encourage readers to form their own opinion. Whenever we create content, that is always the end-goal – to get people to think, and hopefully to like it. The most difficult part for smaller businesses is getting content to be picked up by the community and read by people, but this is why social networks have the potential to be so effective.

Even small businesses with a relatively limited social media outreach might be followed by other highly influential people with extensive outreach. The key is getting people to share it, so just make sure you post great content at an optimal time and make relevant people aware of it.

2. Have a marketing strategy in place

Don’t simply create one single link on your social media networks and expect it to go viral within 30 minutes. Have a plan in place before you release the content to extend its visibility beyond that of Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter. Research the most active industry forums and decide how you are going to discuss it and generate buzz around it – what is the hook of the piece? Will it create controversy? Does it promote your products or services? Try to answer these questions and build a marketing strategy for your best content because this will help it achieve its full potential.

3. Time your release

In the ‘Science of blogging’, Dan Zarrella conducted a series of experiments aimed at discovering how the most successful blogs function. One of these experiments was testing when the optimal time to create a link on a social network was – when is the best time get retweets on Twitter, or the best time to get likes on Facebook etc. The results were surprisingly significant, and the vast dataset that the results were taken from makes them reliable, but obviously there might be some variations depending on the niche of the industry.

The results showed that the best time to post a link on Twitter is around 4pm on a Friday, whereas Facebook activity appeared to be much more prevalent during weekends, and generally during the mornings. Timing to launch your content at peak times is another great tactic to optimise your content for success.

4. Be Patient

Great content doesn’t always explode within minutes of its launch – of course there are exceptions, but generally it could take days, weeks or even months before a piece of content really achieves its potential. It can be frustrating because obviously a lot of time and effort is taken into producing high-quality content, but the best thing to do is have faith, and let it share and spread organically. Don’t repeatedly spam your social network profiles with repeated links to the same content if it doesn’t start attracting traffic instantly because you risk alienating your client base or damaging brand awareness.

Creating superb, original and creative content is one of the best things a company can do, no matter the size of the business. It is the best way to communicate directly with your clients and keep them informed about brand products, services and offers as well as achieving higher rankings in the SERPs. Hopefully these short tips can help you develop the reach of your content, but if you have any further comments then please feel free to comment on this blog.

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The world’s most successful search engine has crushed bitter adversary Facebook in the scuffle to become the most viewed website of 2011 after it received on average a staggering 153million unique visitors every month in the US alone, whereas Facebook managed only 138million unique visitors a month.

What does this mean?

According to the market research company Nielsen, http://tinyurl.com/72cc66b the two internet leviathans were well in front of third placed Yahoo which had 130million unique visitors per month, minuscule in comparison. So what does this mean exactly?

To put it blunt Google rules the entire internet kingdom, or does it? it must be said that while it is extremely impressive to be the most visited site on the web, Google is primarily a search engine and despite their success they are without doubt in second place to Facebook in the rankings for most popular social networking site, with their still wet behind the ears Google+ failing to deliver the levels of success previously anticipated by the California based organisation.

Despite Facebook leading the way in the race for social networking nirvana, Google still has an opportunity to boast in this internet tug of war with Mark Zuckerberg’s group as YouTube (owned by Google) is still the world’s most popular online video site. Google 2, Facebook 1.

What is next for 2012?

So how can Google build on this for 2012 or is it just an irrelevant survey that is forgotten about by mid January?

As mentioned above while Google is dominating in search sites and online video sites, the tough nut they still have yet to crack is social networking. Is this the year Google invests heavily in its social networking platform by putting page rank and links on the back burner for the time being in the pursuit of social media success? Ask me in 2013.

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At the moment, the changes are only going to apply to signed-in users at Google.com, who are searching in English.  They will be notified that the changes have been made to their SERPs when they see a notification that looks like this:

Another feature of this update is one that members of the search engine optimisation community have been calling for, for a long time.  That is the option to switch between personalised and depersonalised results with a single click.  This is easily done using this button,  located to the top right of the SERPs:

This is a great feature because it is making the effect of personalisation much more transparent, and allowing users to simply switch between personalised and depersonalised results gives them a level of control that was absent before ‘Search Plus Your World’.

How is personalisation going to affect my SERPs?

There are several ways that personalisation is going to affect your SERPs.  These include listing from the web that have been boosted because of your social (Google+) connections, listings that have been boosted because of personal behaviour, public Google+ posts and photos, and private or “limited” Google+ posts and photos.  The most eye-catching of these is the final point I mentioned about private content now appearing in the SERPs.  Google have provided an example of how private content will infiltrate the SERPs using a scenario where Googler, Amit Shighal, searches for ‘Chikoo’, which is the name of his dog, and the name of an Indian fruit.  In his personalised results, the SERP would look like this:

In this example, as highlighted by the Google arrow, we can see that the result is featuring in his results despite him not sharing it publically, but instead choosing a “limited” share option.  Before ‘Share Plus Your World’, Google wouldn’t have been able to list these photos when they Singhal searched for ‘Chikoo’ because they weren’t public, and therefore Google couldn’t see them.  However, it’s important to remember that this privately shared content will not appear in the public SERPs, only in your personalised ones.  Some have already suggested that the idea of private content appearing in the listings like it is public content is unsettling by its very nature, and it may take some getting used to.  To reach these photos, he would have had to use the separate Google+ Search:

Another feature of ‘Search Plus Your World’ is the ability to access only content that has been shared on Google+ or Picasa.  This can be done by clicking on the highlighted ‘Personal Results’ option that appears directly beneath the search bar:

Another new feature, that might be of particular to brands looking to Google+ for a social media marketing campaign, is the suggested ‘People and Pages on Google+’ that is suggested for certain queries.  For example, when I search for ‘Gaming’, Google suggests the following people and pages:

This is a perfect example of how having an optimised Google+ profile can give your brand a fantastic opportunity to increase visibility.  I’d imagine that the G+ profiles for IGN and G4 will get a lot of additional traffic through these listings, and as a result their main websites may see an increase in social network referral traffic.   This should illustrate to those still undecided about creating a G+ profile for their brand, that it really does have the potential to be highly effective strategy, and it is worth adopting it early to be ahead of the game when ‘Search Plus Your World’ goes global.

The final feature I’ll cover is the ability to quickly connect with other personal Google+ profiles in a way that is very similar to how ‘Direct Connect’ works for Google+ business pages, and comparable to the functionality of Facebook when you search for a person’s name.  So, if I wanted to search for Rand Fishkin from SEO Moz, this is how it would appear:

This makes it easier to connect with the people I follow, or am connected with through Google+, particularly because below this top listing, I can see what content they have publically shared because that might be of specific interest to me.  I would also be able to see content shared in a “limited” way, if it had been specifically shared with the circle I was part of.

One of the point’s I hope to cover in more detail, is how Google appear to be favouring their own product (Google+) ahead of other social platforms such as Facebook and Twitter, despite them both arguably being bigger data sources.  Interestingly Google have recently stated that they’d be open to collaboration with those social networks, but because they don’t allow Google to crawl and index them deeply enough, their impact in the SERPs is limited.  If Facebook and Twitter did allow Google to crawl them, do you think they would marginalise the impact of their own product in favour of two rivals?

In this post I’ve just covered the basics about how ‘Search Plus You World’ is changing the face of the SERPs as we traditionally know them.  However, several well-respected voiced in the SEO and internet marketing industries are already questioning the ethics, and the quality of these new result pages.  In the next few weeks I’ll be covering this area heavily, but if you have any queries about how this might affect your social media marketing strategies, then please don’t hesitate to contact Click Consult.

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Bearing this in mind, I thought it might be beneficial to cover some of the similarities between these two industries in a bit more detail.  It might even be worth discussing the differences as well because there are several important contrasts.

What is PR?

Firstly, it would be prudent to establish a definition of ‘PR’ or ‘Public Relations’.  PR is concerned with managing the reputation of a business with the objective of earning support and influencing the opinion of the public, particularly those that might be specifically interested in the service or conduct of an individual business.

Well, how is the comparable to SEO, I hear you say.  To achieve a higher online visibility, SEO strategists must determine the best channels of communication to distribute businesses content to an online community.  The content that the SEO copywriters create also has to be written in a very precise form that will appeal and interest that community, get shared through social media outlets and forums and win authoritative links.

In many ways the mind-set is very similar between the two professions, but because traditional PR is largely an offline practice and SEO is online, there are some differences.  I think the main variance is that search engine optimisation is ultimately about getting traffic to visit a website directly.  PR can more frequently be about simply making the public aware of a brand without implying explicitly that they should use that brand next time they are searching for a particular service.

Can I apply PR strategies to my SEO work?

There is one tactic that is employed lots by both PR and SEO professionals – that is to use press releases.  Press releases provide a great way to distribute information quickly and reliably through many reputable news channels that will be deemed as authoritative hubs of information by the online community.  They can be used to discuss new services, client acquisitions and research – anything that could be considered newsworthy by the online community.  The main difference between online and offline press releases that online ones are reliant on links and keywords to achieve maximum SEO value.  When press releases are being written by SEO agencies, they are written with increasing search engine visibility in mind.

It is also important to regularly publish and post other forms of content that are more distanced from advertising than press releases.  This can be the blog or articles that are published on a website and distributing them through Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn etc.  Regularly producing content that is suitable and interesting for the online community will help a business establish a solid foundation on which to build other facets of an SEO campaign such as link building and reputation management.

Another idea that has the same principles for both search marketing and PR company’s is to host a competition.  By hosting a competition you will be directly interacting with you clients, all the while building trust and establishing a positive brand association.  Online competitions are generally quite simple to organise and host.  For example, you can say raise awareness of a social media presence by offering a free sample of a service when your Twitter accounts reaches 500 followers, for example.

To conclude I would say that there are some striking similarities between SEO and PR, and often the skills from one profession are easily transferrable to the other.  Understanding how to interact with the community in order to transfer a brand message between a business and the public is a crucial practice in search engine optimisation and public relations.  Often the best SEO campaigns can strike a blend between the two, so if you have any questions about SEO or any of our other services please don’t hesitate to get in touch.

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At the crux of the book is the argument that personalisation is fragmenting the web. Websites are increasingly tailoring their services to each individual user – this means that when we search Google, or one of the other search engines, for something such as ‘climate change’ or ‘immigration’ we are likely to be served results that support the preconceptions we already have on these subjects. The search engines are able to do this through monitoring what websites we have already visited, and determining which results in relation to a query we are likely to find more useful. This personalisation also extends beyond the search engines, Facebook use EdgeRank to determine which friends updates we see in our news feed, and it is argued that the recommendations Amazon generates are causing its users to become myopic because they aren’t being offered an unbiased selection of results. In this search marketing blog, I’d like to explore the argument in a bit more detail – and hopefully at the end you can leave you view on the subject.

Are we in a Filter Bubble?

I’d like to focus specifically on Google throughout this blog because, as a search engine, it plays an incredibly large part in how we receive information on any subject. It is true that personalisation affects most of the searches conducted on Google, and the majority of casual users don’t even realise that the results they are shown are tailored to their idiosyncrasies. The main argument that Pariser puts forth is that because the information we receive is suited to us, it is serving as a form of propaganda, solidifying our biases and leaving users with tunnel-vision as they are unwilling to listen, or just unaware of counter arguments against their beliefs.

Take, for example, a person that is searching Google for the query ‘climate change’ for the first time. The first link they click might be a webpage arguing that ‘climate change’ is a fallacy, from that webpage they follow links to other websites supporting this argument, and from those websites they delve deeper into this particular theory. The next time they search Google for ‘climate change’, instead of the SERPs being populated with unbiased information representing arguments both for its existence and against its existence, the results supporting the idea that it is a fallacy will be ranked higher, obviously making them more likely to be clicked. This starts a cycle where the searcher may just become unaware of arguments stating that ‘climate change’ is a reality, leaving them with a biased view and perhaps an unwillingness to accept other arguments. This is a bit of an exaggerated example, as it would generally take Google longer than one search, to really start influencing the results it shows, but it indicates how Pariser’s argument is structured.

The second part of the argument is that it creates a privacy nightmare, because websites are capable of harvesting vast data on individual users, and this is creating a ‘big brother’ level of paranoia amongst some digital and social commentators including Pariser. There is truth in this argument, particularly as Facebook have recently had to restructure their privacy settings by setting on limits on how long they can retain data on ad-clicks, amongst other things. Another argument of Pariser’s is that in authoritarian states, the algorithms that tell help filter results to suit our needs, can also filter out news that we shouldn’t see – it increases censorship. So, while there are some significant arguments supporting Pariser’s view, in the book he tends to ignore the counter claims to this argument – dare I suggest a hint of irony?

While personalisation does affect almost all internet searches, it is possible to remove all personalisation with a single click – a fact that goes unmentioned in the book. This may be because, as I stated earlier, many casual users are perhaps unaware that their results on Google are filtered. However, simply by clicking the ‘Verbatim’ search tool on Google, all personalisation filters are removed, and each Web Browser has the option of ‘private browsing’. It can also be argued that personalisation makes it more likely that serendipitous results are more likely to be favoured as interesting results are generated along with relevant results. This is supported by a study conducted by Microsoft in 2009 that states, “rather than harming serendipity, personalization appears to identify interesting results in addition to relevant ones.” This means that, perhaps as a consequence, a result we may not have come across in the deep 50+ pages of results the search engines generates, may be elevated to the first page based on our previous search history. This would suggest that personalisation is in fact opening more doors for us, rather than restricting them.

I would have to conclude that I disagree with Pariser to an extent, because I don’t believe personalisation is harming users as much as he states, however, I do feel it would be beneficial for more users to be aware of how personalisation affects them and what they can do to limit those effects. I would suspect the majority of internet marketing agencies and search engine optimisation specialists would agree, as there is also the argument that personalisation is driving digital marketing innovation and requiring agencies such as Click Consult to work harder than ever to produce the best results for clients. I’d be interested to hear your thoughts on the matter, so please feel free to comment.

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The first feature of Bing that is worth mentioning is located in their Webmaster tools and it provides a guaranteed method of having your URL or website indexed by Bing. The feature is simply the option to ‘Submit URL’ directly to the search engine itself, and it offers peace of mind to the webmaster because they can be confident that their website, or a specific webpage will be indexed. After this process, they can begin to analyse the relevant metrics related to SEO that are available in Bing Webmaster Tool Accounts.

A main focus for Bing in recent months and years has been developing their Webmaster Tools. SEO has evolved at an incredible rate in recent times and people are now realising that keyword-loaded Meta tags and optimised URLs are no longer effective in terms of achieving higher rankings. Times have changed, and this is what Bing are trying to help webmasters understand by providing them with incredibly detailed and accurate analytic reports that have one purpose – to help webmasters improve user experience.

In a recent interview conducted by Eric Enge at Stone Temple Consulting, Duane Forrester, a senior Product Manager with Bing’s Webmaster Program, spoke at length about the how their Webmaster Tools provide site owners with a holistic data set that presents a ‘world-view’ on the quality of a website, as opposed to getting bogged down in minutiae and technical detail. Forrester himself says, “The tools are a space where we have a conversation with the owner of the website. The goal is to give them something of value that will help them create a better product.” This means that Bing wants to help webmasters improve their product, because this is going to help Bing itself become a better product by offering up more relevant and better quality search results. Bing see their tools almost as an opportunity to educate the webmaster about why their website is running a certain way, and how they can modify it to improve results.

There are several other key points key takeaway points that Forrester made in that interview relating to how Bing is aiming to become a closer rival to Google – at least in terms of search:

• Forrester said the ranking of priorities for web publishers should be as followed:1. Content 2. Social Media 3. Links.
• Bing also have their own internal metric known as ‘Static Rank’, which is used to judge the value of a webpage as they perceive it.
• Bing have an allowance of 1% for what they call ‘Dirt’ in Sitemaps. ‘Dirt’ means following a URL and seeing a redirect, a 404 error or a 500 error. After this 1% allowance they begin to lose trust in that website.
• Bing are going to use RSS feeds to locate content as a cost saving measure.
• Page performance is NOT a ranking factor for Bing. Forrester states that a page with a 4 second load time may well be more useful to a user than a page with a 1 second load time – the important thing is the quality of the content.

So, is it time that we in the digital marketing industry started paying more attention to Bing as another hub to base search marketing strategies? Here at Click Consult we are able to strategize and build campaigns across all the major search engines – but please feel free to comment and give your opinion on the matter.

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6-10    Factors that can help you optimise your conversion rate:

6.     Give important text a prominent position on the page

Carrying on from the last point I made in my previous article, the benefit-orientated text you write needs to be placed on prominent positions on the webpage users where visitors have the most chance of reading it and absorbing it.  As I discussed in an earlier blog, in an eye-tracking study conducted by Jakob Nielsen he found out that internet users always browse the computer screen in an F-shape pattern.  This should be accounted for by the web development staff who decides how to place the text on-page.  So, an optimised page might have the logo and slogan on the top left hand side of the screen, with a benefit-orientated headline or feature placed directly below it or to the right of the logo.  Then you might want to include some more text detailing the benefits of the products or services you offer placed just below your headline.  It’s a fairly crude example, but it hopefully illustrates how something as subtle as text placement can positively influence conversion rates.

The same principle applies to the placement of links, as well as text.  The links that you think are the most significant, or the ones that the user might click the most should also be placed prominently on the webpage.  There’s no point having all links to pages where users can purchase one of your products stuffed down at the bottom of the page because they users might not even see it, let alone click it.

7.    Include effective calls to action

A call to actions is a phrase that will encourage the visitor to respond to take immediate action to the sales message that is being put across on the website.  An effective call to action will encourage the reader to complete a conversion by becoming a microcosmic example of the six psychological factors of persuasion.  The best calls to actions encourage users to act so:

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8.    Use images to motivate and persuade

The images you use on your website can play a huge part in how professional or credible site visitors deem your website to be.  If you are selling a service then the logical option is to use images that show the benefit of the service you are offering, or if you sell a product then you show that product.  It’s also important to consider source credibility and how this can affect the users interpretation of a website.  For example, if you are going to use an image to show a product, then that picture needs to be high quality and bespoke, not a stock photo or a picture that has been used elsewhere on the website.  It needs to fit into the veneer of the rest of the website and encourage users that the company endorsing these images is credible, reliable and trustworthy, therefore making them more likely to complete a conversion.

9.    Engage with site visitors where possible

Interactive website components are a fantastic way to interact and engage with website visitors coming to your website.  It has to be said that this section comes with a caveat; while you want to engage your users, you don’t want it to be at the detriment of page load speed and you certainly wouldn’t want interactive elements to become intrusive for the visitor.  These interactive elements could include Flash, Audio or Video component on the website, but they become more engaging to the user than textual elements and this interaction can build confidence and trust with the user.

These ways to engage with visitors doesn’t have to stop with audio/visual components of the webpage.  The two most established ways of engaging an audience is through the use or hosting of blogs and forums.  These interactive chat rooms allow people visiting a website to engage directly businesses, which promotes a feeling of community and user satisfaction that is conducive to an improved rate of conversions.

10.    Be prepared to experiment with various layouts

When you are optimising the layout and text of your website to encourage as many conversions as possible, it is always a balancing act, and it could take a great deal of testing to blend the perfect text, with the best images and the most effective link placements.  Naturally, this takes time, but using some of the tools that Google provides can help streamline the process, allowing you to experiment with numerous page layouts at the same time.

That concludes my series of blog posts on conversion rate optimisation.  So, I’ve covered source credibility, the six psychological influences of persuasion, and in these final couple I’ve rounded up everything in a nice user-friendly ‘Top 10′ list.  If you have any further questions about conversion rate optimisation, or any other search marketing services we offer than please feel free to leave a comment.

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Factors that can help you optimise your conversion rate

1.    Professional design

In this section, the word ‘professional’ really needs to be interchangeable with ‘credibility-based’, because a professional design or layout essentially promotes valuable source credibility.  There are three specific internal factors that I think contribute to a professional web design, and they are speed, accessibility and attractiveness.

I think website load speed is one of the most important factors of web design because if it is too slow then users will leave before they have even seen this site.  In this fascinating post by KISSmetrics, they produce some interesting facts about how slow load time can damage traffic quantities and user experience.  Cutting down on unnecessary functionality and over loading a page with graphic-heavy HTML design can reduce load time greatly and generate higher traffic levels leading to a greater chance of completed conversions.

Accessibility is equally important, and by that I mean how easy a website is for visitors to use.  A well-structured taxonomy that is fluid and intuitive will help website visitors locate the information they are seeking quickly and improve the chance of completed conversions.

Attractiveness in a website creates perceived credibility and higher aesthetic level is more likely to win conversions as website visitors can be confident they are dealing with competent, trustworthy professionals.

Websites with a credible veneer ensure that more prospects become conversions.  If they are free of mistakes, with solid structure and intuitive navigation then they are optimised to maximise conversion rates.

2.    Professionally crafted logo

In the blog I wrote about source credibility and conversion rate optimisation, I discussed in some detail the importance of having a professionally designed logo.  It may seem to be a minor component in the grand scheme that is a fully functioning website, but the most revealing statistic is that websites featuring credibility-optimised logos achieve 2x to 4x more conversions.  If your logo is trusted by your visitors, then they are also much more likely to trust the brand message that is being presented to them.

Essentially a logo becomes a symbol that represents everything a business stands for; they imply trust, superiority, authority and loyalty and no matter how inconsequential it may seem, it will get your website more conversions.

3.    Use fluid and intuitive navigation

The most efficient and effective website navigation ensures that the visitor can travel to the information they need to as quickly as possible.  When designing the website it is best to think about the most obvious paths that visitors might take when visiting your website, then look for ways to smoothen and shorten that path for the most positive user experience.

If you can incorporate benefit-orientated text into internal anchor text then that will encourage visitors to keep clicking and makes the acquisition of a product or service much more likely.  HTML and XML sitemaps can also be employed to give users a streamlined view of the website and a view of the path that they need to take before deciding whether or not to complete a conversion.

4.    Write a memorable slogan

As well as having a professionally designed logo, it is equally important to have a memorable slogan that embraces the company’s ethos, and translates it into something that engages with the people reading that slogan.  People will often connect a logo and slogan together to help them identify with a brand – and if you can replicate this online then you not only increase the chances of winning a conversion, but the visitor is likely to leave with your website with a heightened brand awareness.

5.    Make benefits clear in text

If you want users to convert with you, and not any of your competitors, then you have to make it as clear as possible why converting with you is going to benefit them more.  The best way to do this is in the on-page text – headlines, slogans, product descriptions, titles.  The language you use in the text on a webpage designed to encourage conversions has to be very specific; it must imply to visitors that they stand to gain from using your services without sounding desperate or needy.  If you can achieve this then you really improve the chances of turning as many prospects into converters as possible.

So that’s the end of the first part of this holistic guide to conversion rate optimisation, so hopefully you’ll be back to read the conclusion.  If you have any queries in the meantime then please feel free to leave a comment.

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I’m sure people will be cynical about linking the word ‘psychology’ and internet marketing, but with many industries facing fierce competition in the SERPs, I think appreciating more some of these pseudo-scientific factors could really help businesses improve their chances of achieving search marketing success.

Six Key Principles of Persuasion:

Reciprocation:

Reciprocation is probably one of the most common persuasion tools used by internet marketers to get visitors to click their links or buy their products.  There are two reasons for this; firstly, giving a gift establishes loyalty and trust between the gift giver and the recipient, secondly, as humans we often feel the desire to repay a gift, or what we interpret as a gift.  Reciprocity is really considered to be a social norm, and as such, this has been exploited by search marketers to gain a healthier conversion rate.

For example, a website owner might give visitors a free white paper, or a free downloadable tool that would normally cost them something.  This can also be part of a trade – so you might offer someone a free sample of something on your website in exchange for an email address or a subscription to a newsletter.  This will induce a feeling of loyalty and trust in the user, making them more likely to complete a conversion instantly, or in the future.

Consistency and commitment:

Another aspect of human nature that can be used to influence our online behaviour is a need for consistency, specifically if we make a commitment or a decision, it’s important that future actions are consistent with that initial decision.  An offline sales technique is often to ask buyers a basic yet biased question, if they would like to save money/time/resources, for example.  Obviously the answer would be yes, then a follow-up question is asked about a problem specific to them and how the service being sold can help.  Because of the affirmative answer to the first question, the buyer will be more likely to give a positive response to the second, more significant question.

A similar situation can be invoked online by using intelligently written text on the website to generate lots of ‘little yesses’ from the visitor.  When the ‘big yes’ comes (if they want to complete a conversion or not), they are much more likely to give a positive response.

Social proof:

As human, our decisions are often influenced by the actions of others – this is known as ‘social evidence’ and it is often used as a tactic by internet marketers to promote compliance in a prospective site visitor.  Social proof is often manifested when client lists or awards are published on a website because it says to the user ‘other people trust this website, so should I’.  A great example of social proof in action is on Amazon and the ‘Customers who bought this item also bought…’ because it suggests a buyer should make further purchases (or conversions) based on the actions of others.

Social proof breeds trust, familiarity and source credibility by displaying or advertising the fact that other people have interacted successfully with a website.  It’s a powerful marketing tool that is widely used by websites from a range of industries.

Liking:

Would you rather make a purchase from a friend, or someone you know as opposed to a website or business you are unfamiliar with?  The answer is obviously the former and this is something internet marketers attempt to replicate by adopting personas in the text they write for websites.  This creates a friendly, welcoming, warm and personal touch to a website that will be unfamiliar with first time visitors.  If the text on the webpage is able to generate some kind of emotional reaction in the visitor, it is suggested that they will be much more likely to complete a conversion.

Authority:

Humans react to authority.  There have been stories of members of the public handing over money to people simply because they are wearing what looks like an official uniform.  I’m not saying that internet marketers aim to transform websites into something they are not, but giving them the veneer of an authoritative industry resource undoubtedly builds trust with site visitors making them more likely to complete a conversion.

There are many ways to do this, and often the techniques draw on aspects from the previous psychological persuaders mentioned in this blog.  Citing references from other industry experts or publicising the expertise and experience of staff can contribute to the site visitor being instilled with the feeling that they are dealing with an authoritative source making them much likelier to convert.

Scarcity:

Scarcity is a label attached to the instinct humans have when we assign something a higher value because the opportunity appears to be less available.  Car dealerships and mobile phone sellers employ this tactic regularly.  I can give a personal example from when a salesman in a phone shop tried to press me into signing a contract by saying that the offer they were running ended at midnight and they only had one phone left in store.  I knew both of these things not to be true, but it shows how scarcity is employed to encourage prospects to convert.

Some website owners might use ‘perceived scarcity’ to increase the rate of conversions by limiting the number of products or services they can giveaway during a ‘special offer’ period, for example.  The scarcity principle can also be invoked by the on-page text, making hints at limited stock numbers and subtly implying that visitors should complete a conversion while they are on the site, or risk missing out on something.

Conversion Rate Optimisation

Hopefully after reading this blog you might have had some ideas you can use to increase the rate of conversions on your website.  Here at Click Consult we have team of dedicated CRO experts trained to improve how often visitors interact beneficially with your website.  If you have any further questions then please feel free to comment and I’ll make sure to get back to you.

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Source Credibility

The most basic definition of source credibility is the believability of a communicator, as perceived by the recipient of the message.  This might sound a bit erudite for our humble search marketing blog, so I’ll translate it into terms more relevant to internet marketing.  As an online business, your source credibility would be determined by whether visitors to your website deem it to be authoritative and trustworthy.  Of course, if they do then they are much more likely to complete a conversion with you rather than at a competitor that they consider to have less source credibility.  Naturally as humans in an offline environment, we are more likely to believe and act on the messages given to us by sources we believe to be credible, and this theory is not lost in translation when applied to the online domain.

The important thing to remember is that there are certain things websites can do to improve their perceived source credibility.  The first thing I’ll discuss is the company logo; something that might seem quite arbitrary, but in reality a professionally designed logo can have a profound effect on conversion rates.  Some studies have determined that a website presenting a credible and professional logo can generate 2x to 4x more click-throughs than a website with an amateurish logo.  An American professor called William Haig created a framework for credible logo design that consisted of the following characteristics:

•    Credibility-based design
•    Symbolic of the company’s core competency
•    Designed to communicate the company is trustworthy
•    Planned in content and design form
•    Symbol to the left of the company name,
•    Prominent in application
•    Graphical symbol and name that work together

Can you apply these traits to your logo, and if not, it’s worth considering that it could be having a detrimental effect on your conversion rates.  Do you think that Haig’s principles can be found in the Click Consult company logo above?

So, other than the logo, what else can a website do to promote source credibility and improve the rate of conversions?  The first thing is a professional sheen that instils confidence in the website visitor.  This professional look can be created by having lots of engaging and quality ad-free content presented above the fold of the webpage, fluent and easily accessible navigation and a layout that allows the user to quickly and intuitively absorb all the information that you, the webmaster, want them to.

The key to this final point about helping the user intuitively absorb relevant information is partly dependant on the quality of the content that is present on the webpage.  Is the language customer-focused, technically accurate and augmented with certain trigger-words specifically included to make the users want to complete a conversion with you?  These are all features of content on a website that has undergone conversion rate optimisation.

Perhaps the most significant feature of websites well optimised for conversions is that they solve the problem the visitor had that has bought them to the website in the first place.  This might be a problem deciding on what speaker system to buy, which music news webzine to subscribe to or which restaurant to have dinner at that night.  As website owners, or CRO experts, you should always be thinking about what queries might bring a user to your site, what questions might they have and how efficiently does your website provide an answer to those questions.  Thoroughly optimised websites are persuasive, accessible and well structured; if it is all these things then visitors will deem it to have high source credibility and are likely to complete a conversion.

Hopefully this blog has raised some interesting points about CRO and broader internet marketing subjects, but if you have any further questions then please feel free to leave a comment.

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