If only they would believe everything we say. How easy selling would be.

After years of being conditioned to believe that marketers are liars (and sales people are worse), we as consumers have evolved into a very skeptical breed.  Sadly, our skepticism is often validated and reinforced by real-word experience in the marketplace.

So what do we do about it?  How do we differentiate ourselves and our message as simply being believable?  If we can figure this out, we’ll sell more (online and offline).  We’ll increase our conversion rates.  And we will be more profitable.

I would argue that believability is among the greatest weaknesses of today’s new business concepts. Consumers insist on compelling credibility… evidence that we will perform as promised. And we generally don’t get it from marketers.

I would go so far as to say that providing consumers with compelling reasons to believe our marketing message is as important as our presentation of features and benefits.

I found an outstanding supporter of this line of thought in author, groundbreaking marketing researcher, and chief of the Eureka Ranch, Doug Hall.  Doug says that it is almost impossible for marketers to over-communicate solid reasons to believe a marketing message.

Evidence of his wisdom can be seen in successful infomercials (the ones we see over and over… Bowflex, The Little Giant ladder, Proactiv skin care, etc.).

Let’s face it.  Along side the Internet, infomercials are about the least inherently trustworthy marketing medium there is. On the other hand, it is a powerful format to present fully the benefits of a product.

So what do successful infomercial creators do? They load up the message with reasons for us to believe what they are saying.

We’ve all seen the infomercial for Proactiv.  This is the skin treatment regimen invented by a couple of dermatologists (Doctors Katie Rodan and Kathy Fields) to eliminate acne. Their spokesperson is Vanessa Williams.  You know the one… it’s on every night (or so it seems).

I don’t think I’m exaggerating to say that less than 20% of this infomercial is dedicated to an actual discussion of the product.  The rest is just reasons we should believe.

After a very short product description, it starts with a list of the non-paid celebrities who owe their flawless faces to the magical elixir.  Jessica Simpson, Kelly Clarkson, Lindsay Lohan, Paulina Rubio, Puff Daddy (make that P-Diddy), the list goes on….

Then it’s on to the real life stories.  Amy Tucker, age 19, couldn’t get a date.  Look at her acne marred face. Presto! She’s hot and beating the guys away with a stick.  Ronald Bowman, 15 year old African American (Proactiv is not just for white girls.) – same story.  Margaret Chen before and after – (works for Asians too). Patrina Gunsolley, age 38 – worked like a charm (not just for kids). In fact MILLIONS of people have “discovered Proactiv Solution and changed their lives for the better.”

Now for the story of the doctors, Katie and Kathy, their impressive bios, and why they created Proactiv.

More stories. More celebrities. A few tears of joy. And I’ll be damned if I didn’t pick up the phone and order some! Not just a sample… I bought the continuity plan. As my inventory of Proactiv grew, I decided to cancel. But I swear I think it works – especially that Refining Mask.

My point – Proactiv and the other infomercials we see over and over succeed because they reassure us with LOTS of seemingly good reasons to believe what they are saying.  We should all take a lesson from them and apply it to our own messaging. Why SHOULD your audience believe what you are saying to them?

Doug Hall has discovered five proven strategies to communicating reasons to believe a marketing message.  With one exception, they are all equal in their effectiveness according to his research.

• Kitchen logic (Probability of success: 42%)
• Personal experience (Probability of success: 45%)
• Pedigree (Probability of success: 41%)
• Testimonial (Probability of success: 41%)
• Guarantee (Probability of success: 60%)

Kitchen logic conveys to customers HOW your product/service benefit is delivered, using language that your audience can easily understand and quickly relate to. Good old-fashioned logic…. We see HOW it works.  And it just makes sense.

Personal experience is about providing customers with an opportunity to see, feel, and experience your product or benefit.  There are three types of personal experience: 1. sampling, 2. demonstration, and 3. sensory feedback.  A demonstration is particularly effective when it is set in a situation that seems nearly hopeless.  “Can the amazing bathroom cleaner really work on this horrible mess???” Sensory feedback involves reinforcing a product’s effectiveness by helping prospects to see, feel, smell, taste, or touch the experience.

Pedigree is about providing confidence to potential customers as a result of detailing the heritage behind a product or service.  There are three types of pedigrees: 1. Development Pedigree (providing credibility as a result of the design, creation, formulation, or production process behind a product or service). Consider the impressive bios of the two Proactiv dermatologists.  2. Marketing Pedigree (best selling, recommended by 3 of 4 doctors, etc.); and 3. Trademark Pedigree (using a brand or trademark that has a pedigree of trust – Good Housekeeping).

Testimonials can be provided by customers, experts, or independent third parties. Media quotes can also be a good source of independent testimonials. In my opinion, however, our skepticism as consumer is even beginning to attack the tried and true testimonial. Particularly in print, we are becoming suspicious.  Is this a real person?  Did they actually say this?  How can we be sure? For this reason, particularly online, marketers are evolving to the next-generation testimonial: customer reviews.  Which would you rather read – a testimonial (which almost by definition is a positive statement) or a review? For now at least, reviews are perceived as more objective.  And the most effective ones contain a little something NEGATIVE. We all know nothing is perfect.  And we trust the few marketers who will acknowledge that about their own product or service.

Guarantees can be the most powerful reason to believe IF the fine print is minimized. Doug Hall made an interesting discovery relative to guarantees that we can all validate at a gut level.  The power of a guarantee is directly linked to the level of risk that the marketer is perceived to be taking. If you aren’t taking any risk with your guarantee – you must not have much confidence in what you’re selling.

In no particular order, here are a few more practical tips especially for online marketers.

1. Proof your copy. Misspellings and grammatical errors erode credibility. That said…
2. Write as though you are speaking to only a single prospect at a time.  We experience the Web alone – you and the site you are visiting.  Write accordingly. Write like a person might speak – not like you are writing an article for a technical journal. A casual writing style does NOT erode credibility. To the contrary, it gives your audience a sense of your company’s personality and thereby builds trust.
3. Have a simple privacy policy and remind people of it every time you ask them to give you personal information.
4. Test your site. Broken links, like misspellings, erode credibility.
5. Permit a negative product review.  If you are transparent enough to reveal a criticism of one product, prospects will be more likely trust your positive statements about another.
6. Write using the active voice. A brief lesson on active vs. passive voice… All sentences that contain action verbs have a voice, either active or passive.  The voice tells the reader whether the subject performs or receives the verb’s action.  In sentences with active voice, the agent (doer) of the action is the subject. EXAMPLE: Bill shot the clerk.

In passive voice sentences, the receiver of the verb’s action becomes the subject of the sentence. EXAMPLE: The clerk was shot.Writing scholars say you should use the active voice in most of your writing because it engages the reader more effectively than passive voice.  I agree.  But the real reason I advocate use of the active voice in marketing copy is because we as consumers what to know exactly who does what.We want accountability. Passive voice is squishy and feels like the writer is hiding something.

   Judge for yourself.  Which do you feel better about:
   Your order has been received.  OR We received your order.
   You will be notified…. OR We will call you….
   Returns will be accepted…. OR We accept returns….

   Things just feel better (more definitive) when they are communicated in the active voice.  So use it.

Twice in two days, I’ve had the same conversation with marketers suffering from the same confusion. Both are organizations that rely on lead generation as the first step in their sales processes. That is to say, they expose prospects to their marketing message in an effort to move them to contact the company, learn more, and finalize a sale.

The problem both companies had (and I see this all the time) is they were falling into the trap of over-communicating in their marketing materials… telling their whole stories… every detail… forgetting that the goal of their marketing is not to close the sale on the spot. Rather, the goal is to motivate a prospect to call and engage in the sales process.

I find this happens most often when companies write their own marketing copy.  They are so close to what they’re doing, they lose their ability to trim down their story. They can no longer write copy that engages prospects quickly, established the firm’s credibility, yet leaves enough to talk about that it makes sense for the prospect to call.

This problem is VERY easy to stumble into. I struggle with it myself when I’m writing about products or services that I’ve been part of creating.

Here’s what seems to happen…

You understand so well the rationale behind each element of what you do. And you’re such an informed critic of your own product/service offering that anything less than a full explanation of everything you provide (and why) starts to feel incomplete to you.

The result – you wind up trying to wet the whistle of your prospects with a fire hose.  WAY too much information… and way more than they need in order to reach the decision to give you a call.

The information overload either dissuades prospects from investing the time to process your message – or you answer so many of their questions that they no longer need to call you to learn more and begin the sales process.

The next time you find yourself reviewing a lead generation program, ask yourself the following questions:

• Does our marketing earn the scarce attention of our audience?
• Does our marketing (design and copy) establish our firm’s credibility?
• Does our message differentiate us from our competitors?
• Does our copy help prospects qualify themselves?
• Are we providing a compelling reason for prospects to engage in our sales process?
• Is our copy concise and scannable enough to engage a busy prospect?

These can be tough questions to answer for yourself. This is one time when it can really pay to get some objective feedback.

I was working on the early planning of a new web site recently, and I was struck by a realization that I think may prove helpful to many of you who follow this blog.

As I have said countless times, effective online selling hinges on your ability to climb into your prospect’s head (empathize) and speak to her in the way she needs to be spoken to in order to move her to action. You have to anticipate her questions and make answers available in the right places – coinciding with her own buying process.

I have done this dozens of times now, but as I worked through the process today, something useful occurred to me.

When people sit down to think through the content of their new web site, the process often goes something like this. (This is especially true in smaller businesses where the web site doesn’t have a dedicated person/team attending to it.)

Step One: Identify the pages that all sites seem to need – Home, About Us, Contact Us, Products/Services, FAQ (Frequently Asked Questions)… you know the ones.

Step Two: Identify the pages that are unique to the company. Often these pages show up on sub-navigation underneath of the standard pages.

Step Three: Assign each page to someone on the team to write the content.

Step Four: (often overlooked): Review and edit the content to be sure that it is error-free and has a consistent voice.

Here’s the problem.

Empathy for your audience often never surfaces in this process – with ONE exception.  The FAQ page.

There are two types of FAQ pages. There are the FAQs that are really just softball questions that you lob up to yourself in order to make the case for buying your product. And there are FAQs that actually resolve questions that prospects really have.

I would argue that you want your FAQ to generally fall in the latter category.  The case for buying your product should be made in the more prominent site copy. If you are pinning your hopes to making the sale on the FAQ page – forget about it.

That’s not to say that the FAQ can’t reinforce your selling points. Sure, lob yourself a few softballs if you like. But also provide answers to the questions that people actually need to resolve in order to move to the next step in the buying process.

The reason I raise the issue at all is simply this.  Developing the FAQ page is too often the only time that the people building web sites ever really attempt to empathize with their audience.

Creating a quality FAQ forces you to empathize. God forbid – you may even ask your sales and customer service people what your prospects are really asking.

Let me propose a simple exercise that without a doubt will help you to squeeze more sales from your web site.

Invest some serious energy in your FAQ page.  Really think hard. And enlist the help of the people who actually touch your customers and prospects to define and articulate the questions that your prospects bring to their buying processes. Write down these questions and carefully craft your answers.

Now… PRETEND YOU HAD TO DELETE YOUR FAQ PAGE.

That’s right.  You have to answer these questions in your site copy… in your product descriptions… through the course of your checkout process. You no longer have your FAQ crutch to fall back upon.

How does that change your site?

Certainly there is a place on most every site for an FAQ page, so don’t delete yours – even after you complete this exercise. But consider the empathy that a good FAQ page demands of its author, and bring that empathy to each page on your site.

What are the questions that your prospects must resolve in order to take action?

Go answer them!

Surround yourself with smart people, and you can’t help but get a little smarter yourself.  I participated in a conference call between a couple of Web marketing experts – Shell Harris and Alyssa Duvall (President and VP of Strategy for Virginia SEO firm, Big Oak) and Howard Kaplan, one of the big wigs at Future Now (the thought leaders in online conversion).

It was a simple revelation, but one well worth sharing here. The problem that most of refer to simply as Web conversion, “I want to increase my site’s conversion rate,” is actually a symptom of two separate and distinct issues. What are those issues you ask???

Usability and persuasion. As you’ll see, this is actually a worthwhile distinction.

This post primarily addresses usability.  Consider the elements of conversion that relate to enabling site visitors to overcome hurdles in the process of taking action… finding a product, putting it into a shopping cart, checking out….

An equally important but very different matter to be considered when optimizing a site’s ability to convert visitors into customers (or people who take action) is that of persuasion.  I may understand perfectly well how to use your site, but I’m simply not moved to action by what I see.  Let’s view “persuasion” for the purpose of this discussion as a matter of addressing gaps… in understanding, believability, and selling momentum. I have and will continue to address persuasion in other posts.

Shop.org research indicates that shopping cart abandonment rates are as high as 75%. I would argue that this phenomenon is more an issue of usability than persuasion.  The top issues that irritate online customers continue to be problems with the checkout process and difficulty finding products on the site.

The root of this problem is often our natural tendency to design our sites as though WE are the users. In fact, our customers generally behave (and interact with our sites) in ways that are entirely dissimilar to our own behavior. What is intuitive to you after hours of hard work in fashioning your site’s purchase process may very well be confusing to your visitors.

So what are we to do?

In a perfect world, we would all conduct usability tests and actually observe users as they interact with our sites.  Web analytics tools offer a little bit of help, but you just can’t beat the experience of actually watching your users. So, if your budget is tight, use friends and family members.  Feed them well one evening and watch as they complete certain tasks on your site.  Where do they get stumped? Make a list, and eliminate these hurdles.

Here are 15 helpful tips:

1. In the checkout process, offer a progress indicator to show where the user is in the process and how much further they have to go.
2. Show a final receipt BEFORE the order is placed and allow users to change their order quickly and easily from there.
3. Keep your shipping and return policies in plain view (or easily accessible) throughout the checkout process.
4. Label your action buttons clearly.  Don’t say “submit” if what you mean is “place my order.”
5. NEVER require customers to register in order to checkout. If you must, offer registration as an option AFTER the order is placed.
6. Use clear and simple language.  The price of confusion is lost sales.
7. Use familiar standards in designing your checkout process. This is no place to get creative.
8. Be sure people can get ALL of the information they need without placing an item in the shopping cart.  Can your users find shipping costs and return policies without embarking on the checkout process?  If not, expect astronomical cart abandon rates as you are using the checkout process to answer pre-purchase decision questions.
9. Break the purchase process into manageable pieces that are not individually overwhelming.
10. Clearly present sub totals and totals so that customers are not surprised in the end by hidden costs.
11. Guarantee your site’s security.  People still have security concerns, so address them. And if you ask for atypical information in order to checkout, explain why you need it. Displaying security related logos (i.e. Verisign and Hacker Safe) has been shown to yield 5-10% improvements in conversion rates.
12. The display of products in your shopping cart should leave NO DOUBT that the customer is ordering what she actually wants.
13. Count the clicks between product selection and final checkout. If the number of clicks is greater than three, take a close look to be sure your process is as efficient as it can be.
14. Display your physical address and phone number – and even photos of your staff to remind your customers that they are dealing with real people who have a physical presence.
15. PROOF YOUR SITE for typos, broken links and other lazy errors.  These kill your credibility.

Put these tips into practice, and half of your conversion problems will be well on their way to resolution. Unfortunately, the other half of the problem is tougher to solve – persuading your visitors to take action in the first place.  More on this in future posts.