Weekly Conversion Tip: Point Of Action Assurances

A good website keeps visitors engaged and always presents options to continue moving toward the end goal.  Sometimes, a perfectly good website can steer you to the goal but for some reason, visitors still aren’t clicking.  Why?  Well there are many reasons, one of the main reasons is because online shopping is all about confidence.  We need to feel safe sending information or money to what is, for all intense and purposes, some random company we found online.  As online business owners, one of the ways that we can do this is to assure our potential customers that we’re on the up and up at the point of action.  We call these, “Point of Action Assurances”.

What They Are

A point of action assurance, is a logo, icon or link providing some kind of additional information that demonstrates our credibility or concern for your safety or security.

How To Get Them

First, start with accreditations you may have.  These can include things like the Better Business Bureau or in our case Google accreditations.  Also think about things like your PHD or your 2010 award for customer service.  Then, think about what other similar credentials you can pick up in your industry and get those too.  You don’t need to list 10 icons beneath your contact form (that would be overkill) but 2 or 3 key points can certainly make a difference.

Where And How To Use Them

OK, let’s take a look at how we’re going to use these logos.  There are two ways to use these.  The first, is to put them on every page of your website.  For example, the TechWyse website has our internet marketing accreditations up in the top right hand corner of every page.

The other way to use these, is directly beneath your action items.  This can include things like the submit button your contact forms or the buy now button on your eCommerce website.

Here is an example of this being used with a contact form:

And here is an example using secure credit card logos on the homepage of a website:

I think you get the idea so I won’t hit you over the head with it too much.  Logos and icons of this type can have a fantastic effect on your sales if used softly.  A word of warning however: be careful with hacker safe logos and make sure you A/B test anything of this kind.  Why?  Because in my experience, it can sometimes increase the number of panicked customer service calls wondering about security as it puts the issue in the forefront of their minds.  Otherwise, have fun with this and make sure you measure to ensure that it is indeed supporting your sales!