Behaviourally effective websites, part 1: Establishing confidence

You have somewhere between 0.5 and 7 seconds* to convince your website visitor to stay on your site. The first thing you need to lock in is Confidence, so let’s look at how.

Confidence in Me

‘Confidence in Me’ is all about reassuring your visitor that they have arrived at their intended destination. Fail to do this and they’ll click back to where they came from and you risk them never returning.

When someone lands on your website they have created an expectation in their mind about it. If they’ve clicked through from an ad, they will be looking for language and imagery that confirms that they have arrived at the right destination – this makes Landing Pages an ideal strategy because you have the freedom to tailor the page so that it mirrors the ad.

Here’s an example from iiNet where the copy in their ad is reflected on their website so that the visitor knows exactly that they are in the right place.

Above: iiNet effectively builds Confidence in Me

Unfortunately, too many businesses are linking ads to their home page and expecting their visitor to make the content connection. While your website’s content is familiar to you it is not to your visitor, and if you dump them on your site without helping to reassure that they are in the right place then you’ll end up being dumped yourself.

Here’s an example from a dental surgery which grabs attention in their ad but fails to establish confidence that the visitor has landed in the right place.

Above: Dental surgery misses chance to build Confidence in Me

Confidence in You

‘Confidence in You’ is about credentialing yourself to your visitor. Who are you and are you worth getting to know? Remember, this is all within a few seconds so it does not mean bleating about your history and philosophy – this is about industry accreditations, testimonials, years established, awards – anything that at a quick glance conveys that you are reputable.

Above: Anymeeting lets visitors know that they are trusted by 300,000 users

Above: Internet company lets itself down by not creating Confidence in their services

Next week we’ll be looking at how you go about convincing your visitor that you – and only you – can solve their problem.

*LandofBrand.com cite 0.5 seconds and Marketing Experiments MECLAB cite 7 seconds

Bri Williams runs People Patterns Pty Ltd, a consultancy specialising in the application of behavioural economics to everyday business issues. Bri is a presenter, consultant and author who you can find out more about at www.peoplepatterns.com.au, viabri@peoplepatterns.com.au or by following on Twitter @peoplepatterns.