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- Herausgeber: John Wiley & Sons
- Kategorie: Fachliteratur
- Sprache: Englisch
- Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2016
"If you need more traffic, leads and sales, you need The Conversion Code." Neil Patel co-founder Crazy Egg "We've helped 11,000+ businesses generate more than 31 million leads and consider The Conversion Code a must read." Oli Gardner co-founder Unbounce "We'd been closing 55% of our qualified appointments. We increased that to 76% as a direct result of implementing The Conversion Code." Dan Stewart CEO Happy Grasshopper "The strategies in The Conversion Code are highly effective and immediately helped our entire sales team. The book explains the science behind selling in a way that is simple to remember and easy to implement." Steve Pacinelli CMO BombBomb Capture and close more Internet leads with a new sales script and powerful marketing templates The Conversion Code provides a step-by-step blueprint for increasing sales in the modern, Internet-driven era. Today's consumers are savvy, and they have more options than ever before. Capturing their attention and turning it into revenue requires a whole new approach to marketing and sales. This book provides clear guidance toward conquering the new paradigm shift towards online lead generation and inside sales. You'll learn how to capture those invaluable Internet leads, convert them into appointments, and close more deals. Regardless of product or industry, this proven process will increase both the quantity and quality of leads and put your sales figures on the rise. Traditional sales and marketing advice is becoming less and less relevant as today's consumers are spending much more time online, and salespeople are calling, emailing, and texting leads instead of meeting them in person. This book shows you where to find them, how to engage them, and how to position your company as the ideal solution to their needs. * Engage with consumers more effectively online * Leverage the strengths of social media, apps, and blogs to capture more leads for less money * Convert more Internet leads into real-world prospects and sales appointments * Make connections on every call and learn the exact words that close more sales The business world is moving away from "belly-to-belly" interactions and traditional advertising. Companies are forced to engage with prospective customers first online--the vast majority through social media, mobile apps, blogs, and live chat--before ever meeting in person. Yesterday's marketing advice no longer applies to today's tech savvy, mobile-first, social media-addicted consumer, and the new sales environment demands that you meet consumers where they are and close them, quickly. The Conversion Code gives you an actionable blueprint for capturing Internet leads and turning them into customers.
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Table of Contents
Title Page
Copyright
Introduction: How The Conversion Code Was Created
How to Crack The Conversion Code
How You Can Crack The Conversion Code
The Conversion Code Creeds
Note
Part I: Capture Internet Leads
Chapter 1: Need More Leads?: How to Build Websites and Landing Pages That Consistently Capture Internet Leads
Content Is Not King if Your Goal Is Capturing and Converting Leads—Design, Being Purposeful and Landing Pages Are King
How to Quickly and Inexpensively Turn a Website into a Lead-Generating Machine
Landing Pages Are the New Black
Microwave Marketing Mentality
Get the Most Out of Your Website and Landing Pages by Retargeting the Visitors Who Do Not Convert
Notes
Chapter 2: Writing the Perfect Blog Post
Headline
Storytelling Hook
Fewer Characters per Line at First
Featured Image
The 1,500+ Word Sweet Spot
Soundbites for Social Sharing
Now You're Creating Content That Is
Ready
to Be Optimized for Lead Generation, Social Media, and Search Engines
Notes
Chapter 3: Optimizing Your Content for Lead Generation, Social Media, and Search Engines
Optimizing Your Content for Lead Generation
Optimizing Your Content for Social Media
Optimizing Your Content for Search Engines
Notes
Chapter 4: Advanced Facebook Marketing and Advertising Techniques That Generate “Ready to Buy” Leads
Facebook Profile Pro Tips
Facebook Groups
Facebook Pages
Facebook Ads
The Essentials of Running a Great Facebook Ad
The Perfect Facebook Ad Funnel
Four Facebook Ad Types Everyone Should Run
Notes
Chapter 5: Simple Strategies (Beyond Facebook) That Drive Massive Traffic and Leads to Your Website and Landing Pages
Email Marketing
Retargeting
Curation
YouTube
Guest Blogging
Podcasting
Webinars
Notes
Part II: Create Quality Appointments
Chapter 6: How to Use CRM, SMS, and Marketing Automation to Immediately Turn a New Lead into a Hot Appointment
The Fortune is in the Follow-Up
Speed + Tenacity + Script = Highest Conversion Rate Possible
SMS > Email
Emails That Work
Chapter 7: Need More Appointments? How to Use Email Marketing, Retargeting, and User Tracking to Turn Old Leads into Quality Appointments
There Is No Longer an Old Lead Bucket
Ads as a Lead Follow-Up Tool
Part III: Close More Sales
Chapter 8: Need to Know Exactly What to Say to a Lead on the Phone?: How to Have a Perfect First Minute on a Sales Call with an Internet Lead
The Two-Step Precall Lead “Stalk”
Chapter 9: The Digging Deep Technique: Questions to Ask That Make It Impossible for an Internet Lead to Say No
The Digging Deep Technique
Notes
Chapter 10: How to Build Trust with an Internet Lead in Two Simple Steps
Chapter 11: Proactively Uncovering Objections
Chapter 12: How to Start Closing an Internet Lead Using the “Five Yes Technique”
The 20/20/20 Sale
Chapter 13: How to Pitch Using the “Feature, Benefit, Tie-Down Technique” and Identify Exactly When to Close
Always Be Closing
Chapter 14: Exactly What to Say When You Start to Close
Chapter 15: The Two-Step Close
Step 1: The Trial Close
Step 2: The Slot Close
Chapter 16: What to Say When Someone Still Says No
Buying Questions versus Objections
ARCing
Chapter 17: They Said Yes! Now What Do You Say?
Chapter 18: How to Turn a Closed Internet Lead into Even More Sales
Bonus: Checking the Analytics and Metrics That Actually Matter (and what to do based on what you find)
Website Metrics That Matter
Landing Page Metrics That Matter
Facebook Metrics That Matter
Email Marketing Metrics That Matter
Sales Metrics That Matter
Notes
Index
End User License Agreement
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Guide
Table of Contents
Begin Reading
List of Illustrations
Chapter 1: Need More Leads?: How to Build Websites and Landing Pages That Consistently Capture Internet Leads
Figure 1.1
Figure 1.2
Figure 1.3
Chapter 2: Writing the Perfect Blog Post
Figure 2.1 Average Length of Top-Performing Content
Chapter 4: Advanced Facebook Marketing and Advertising Techniques That Generate “Ready to Buy” Leads
Figure 4.1
Figure 4.2
Figure 4.3
Figure 4.4
Chapter 5: Simple Strategies (Beyond Facebook) That Drive Massive Traffic and Leads to Your Website and Landing Pages
Figure 5.1
Chapter 6: How to Use CRM, SMS, and Marketing Automation to Immediately Turn a New Lead into a Hot Appointment
Figure 6.1
Figure 6.2
Figure 6.3 Impact of Speed-to-Response on Lead Conversion
Figure 6.4 The Optimal Number of Calls
Figure 6.5 Best Days and Times to Contact Leads
Chapter 8: Need to Know Exactly What to Say to a Lead on the Phone?: How to Have a Perfect First Minute on a Sales Call with an Internet Lead
Figure 8.1
Figure 8.2
Chapter 13: How to Pitch Using the “Feature, Benefit, Tie-Down Technique” and Identify Exactly When to Close
Figure 13.1
THE CONVERSION CODE
CAPTURE INTERNET LEADSCREATE QUALITY APPOINTMENTSCLOSE MORE SALES
CHRIS SMITH
This book is printed on acid-free paper. ∞
Copyright © 2016 by Chris Smith. All rights reserved
Published by John Wiley & Sons, Inc., Hoboken, New Jersey
Published simultaneously in Canada
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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data is available.
ISBN 978-1-119-21188-4 (hardback)
978-1-119-21189-1 (epdf)
978-1-119-21190-7 (epub)
Cover image: Mike Mangigian
Cover design: Wiley
Internal Graphics & Charts: Mike Mangigian and Allie DeCastro
Edited by: Steve Smith
Introduction
How The Conversion Code Was Created
The Conversion Code is a new blueprint for marketers and salespeople that shows you how to capture and convert Internet leads into closed sales at the highest rate possible. Using my exact “code” outlined in this book, you will immediately get more website traffic and more Internet leads, but, most importantly, close more sales.
During the last decade, I worked inside sales jobs and have called more than ten thousand Internet leads. I even worked for two different billionaires: Dan Gilbert and Lou Pearlman. Gilbert is most notably the owner of Quicken Loans and the Cleveland Cavaliers, while Pearlman sadly/impressively made household names of Britney Spears, *NSync, and the Backstreet Boys. I've got a decent three-point shot and I love to sing in the shower, but they didn't hire me for those skills. Instead, I was an elite-level inside salesperson for their ten-figure organizations.
At Quicken Loans for Gilbert, I sold mortgages (when interest rates were over 7 percent and the housing market was crashing). At Fashion Rock, for Pearlman, I sold “event vacations” in Orlando, where talent agents were (sort of) looking for the next big thing. Like a pre-American Idol, American Idol.
At both companies, I sold over the phone from a cubicle (dialing for dollars Boiler Room–style), calling people who had requested more information online (or through a radio or TV ad). I was given a name, a number, and a phone. My job was to call the leads and close them, that day, including getting their credit card number. For the loans, I also had to get a contract signed and get the lead to give me their Social Security number over the phone within the first five minutes of the call.
In The Conversion Code I will teach you exactly what, when, and how to say things over the phone to people so that day in and day out you convince them to buy from you. In fact, the sales script in Section Three of this book works so well and is so easy for you to duplicate that it should almost be illegal (spoiler alert: some of what I learned at Lou Perlman's company actually was).
You will indeed feel like what you are learning in this book gives you an unfair advantage. It does. I often stop as I am teaching the “code” to remind myself that while it does feel amazing to be so good at inside sales that you can quite literally sell anyone anything, you also need a Spider-Man mentality: With great power comes great responsibility.
Taking what I learned doing inside sales (the legal and ethical parts) for Gilbert and Pearlman, I landed an outside sales job that included selling from the stage as a keynote speaker for Move Inc. Move is a publicly traded company now owned by NewsCorp (Rupert Murdoch's Fox News/Wall Street Journal empire) and is nearly a billion-dollar market cap company. To start, I drove to two offices each day throughout the state of Florida and sold CRM, websites, and other online marketing solutions to real estate agents. I had to leave the office with a signed contract or the sale went to the inside sales team and I didn't get the commission. I also spoke at national trade shows and conferences, again having to close that day or not getting a commission. Using my “code,” I won Move's Presidents Club Award in my first year, outselling their most seasoned reps, even though I had no experience in outside sales OR selling software.
It was during my time at Move when I started video blogging and using Facebook for business purposes under a brand I co-founded for them (with an amazing guy named Steve Pacinelli) called Tech Savvy Agent. Within no time we were getting 100,000+ page views per month and generating tens of thousands of Likes and Leads. Basically, I had only been a salesperson my entire life until I started Tech Savvy Agent. Now, I was a marketer too. And the leads I was generating were quality and they were closing
Next, I was hired to be a sales coach and public speaker for the inside and outside sales teams at DotLoop, a transaction management and electronic signature company. My official job title was actually “Chief Paper Killer.” As I taught DotLoop's sales team “The Conversion Code” you could see the lightbulbs going off. They left every sales coaching session lusting to get back on the phones. They would show up telling me they “just needed help closing” and they would leave telling me that my “code” was their “best sales coaching ever” and an immediate “game changer.” During my third year with the company, DotLoop was acquired for $108 million by Zillow Group. Not quite another billion dollar experience, but a nine-figure exit is not too shabby.
Today, I am a partner at my own company—Curaytor. Curaytor specializes in helping small business owners with lead generation and lead conversion through our simple software and proven strategies. We combine ideas and innovation with execution for small business owners who are too busy to do everything themselves. Each and every month we generate tens of thousands of Internet leads, turning many of them into closed sales. Simply put, we do “The Conversion Code” that you will learn in this book for them (minus calling their leads, for that we give them the script that is in Section Three).
Here are a few testimonials from our clients at Curaytor:
“Before using Curaytor I was at about $200k (in income). Looks like my next 12 months may be in the $600–$750k range.”
“In the 1st 6 months of 2015 we bypassed our 2014 Total Sales!”
“I have doubled my business”
“Business increased by over 100% in 12 months”
“2015 will be our best year ever”
“Best investment I've made in my 14 years…Hands down.”
“My business is up 52% since we partnered with Curaytor and we are looking at growing another 50% next year!”
Using “The Conversion Code,” for ourselves Curaytor passed $5,000,000 in annual recurring revenue in less than three years (and we are growing like a weed). To ensure the success of my first start-up, I even personally got back on the phone and sold the first couple million in recurring revenue myself, using the exact strategies and scripts that are in this book.
The only difference between doing inside sales for yourself and doing it for someone else is that you need (a) something awesome to sell that you own and (b) qualified leads to sell it to. So in the first two sections of The Conversion Code, I will teach you exactly how we generate great Internet leads (at a low cost per click, lead, and acquisition) and how we use technology, people, and marketing automation to turn those leads into an endless supply of quality appointments for our sales team.
With that being said, I truly believe marketing automation is greatly overrated and is being used too frequently as a crutch. Technology and software have become an excuse not to do the real work of picking up the phone and talking to people about what you sell and whether it is right for them. If you want to make more money by closing online leads, you have to pick up the damn phone. If you have more usernames and passwords than customers you are doing it wrong.
The idea of a “cart” or “e-commerce” is a myth for most. Sure, we may buy things from Amazon or Zappos without ever speaking to a sales rep, but if YOU actually think that YOU can simply get leads from the Internet to buy stuff from YOU (that actually costs more than a few dollars) without ever calling them, YOU are wrong. Bottom line? Most companies need to pick up the phone to close a lead and are so focused on working smarter, not harder, that they are tripping over nickels to pick up pennies. Never forget that conversations create closings.
I feel really blessed that I learned how to sell before I learned how to market. I learned how to convert leads before I learned how to generate them. So when I became a marketer, I saw a big responsibility in my new role. My approach to marketing came from my work in the inside sales cubicle, knowing from first-hand experience how difficult it can be to dial for dollars every single day. How could I approach marketing wanting to get bad leads just so that I could point to vanity metrics that don't even matter? I know my sales script works, and I respect a salesperson's time because I am one, so when I teach you how to generate leads be rest assured that my goals are quantity AND quality.
Marketing can do a much better job of sending purchase-ready leads to sales. In fact, if most marketers actually had to call the leads they're generating, they'd want to quit their job or fire themselves. It's one thing to get someone to “Like,” “Follow,” or subscribe by email—it's another to get their time. And it's a whole other thing to get someone's credit card number.
Due to the recent digital revolution I will even go as far as to proclaim that every lead is now an Internet lead. We're all online, every day all day. The world is changing, and your strategies need to change along with it. We look at Facebook on our phones more than we look at each other in the face. Regardless of whether they submit their information through the web form on your website or not, every human is now conditioned to look online before making a purchase. And thanks to our social media addiction you can now generate demand, not just fulfill it.
If you are in sales or marketing and your job doesn't involve Internet leads, then I have some bad news for you: You're really missing out and leaving tons of money on the table. I have good news for you, too: You picked up this book. Whether you're in marketing or sales, whether you're a seasoned sales rep or new to social media marketing, The Conversion Code is your guide to getting an ROI, ASAP.
How to Crack The Conversion Code
What Is The Conversion Code?
The Conversion Code is the new formula for being a great marketer and salesperson in the Internet era. It's a proven step-by-step blueprint to increasing leads and sales, immediately. Today's customers are savvy, and they have more options than ever before. Capturing their attention and turning it into revenue requires a whole new approach. The Conversion Code provides clear guidance for conquering the new paradigm shift toward online lead generation and inside sales.
Traditional sales and marketing advice is becoming less and less relevant. This book addresses the importance of purposeful Internet lead generation and conversion, instead of passive lead generation and conversion. You'll actually learn how to generate demand instead of just fulfilling it.
People used to sit through two-minute commercials and couldn't fast-forward them. Now our attention is everywhere…which means it's nowhere for long. In fact, a recent study by Silverpop says you have eight seconds to capture someone's attention online before they move on to the next thing.1
How You Can Crack The Conversion Code
Like any code, The Conversion Code has multiple steps. There is insanely valuable information in each, but I want to give YOU the help YOU need most, right now. I am keenly aware that many salespeople do NOT have to generate their own leads OR even set their own appointments. They simply work for a company (like Quicken Loans or Curaytor) that does that for them. I am also aware that most marketers never make sales calls (sad, but true). So think of this as a choose-your-own-adventure book and ask yourself the following questions before you get started.
Do you need to generate more leads now? Is your problem that you just don't have enough people to talk to about what you sell? Start with Section One.
After you read and do what you learn in Section One, you'll have a consistent flow of quality Internet leads.
I know it might seem impossible to have new leads in your inbox each and every day, but I can tell you from my experience that it's not. In fact it's fairly easy if you know exactly what to do.
Do you already have Internet leads, but need help turning them into sales appointments? Section Two is where you should start. Using specific tools and tactics, I will teach you how to create appointments with Internet leads so that you are pitching to new (and old) prospects every single day.
Do you already have plenty of leads to call right now and you just need to know what to say to close them? You're going to want to start with Section Three, which covers exactly what to say to get leads to buy from you.
Inside each section is an easy-to-follow blueprint for improving your business right now. The fundamentals of sales and marketing have changed. Have you? I'm going to share with you what the new pillars of sales and marketing really are.
One of my first sales coaches was a telemarketing genius who taught me more about inside sales than any one person has. He would give a powerful 15- to 20-minute lesson on selling each morning before we started pounding the phones, calling leads. It was actually the only time he ever spoke to us.…
I remember he loved to say, “Most of you will learn more than you will ever earn while you work here.” Boy, was he right (even though I also earned a lot while there). There was one sketch in particular that he drew that perfectly conveys what you will learn, and then do day after day, because you read this book. It is a very simple drawing, yet it is branded into my brain, and I recommend that you engrave it into yours as well. I think about it with every marketing campaign I craft and on every sales call I make. It's shown in Figure I.1.
Figure I.1
He used the graph to explain why enthusiasm and timing matter so much when you are selling over the phone. He said the “iasm” from enthusiasm stood for I Am Sold Myself (see Figure I.2).
Figure I.2
Your job on the phone when talking to leads is actually very simple: to be so enthusiastic about the product you sell that you get them over that buying line. Then and only then can you close them. The same drawing also applies nicely to marketing. It's just that you have to get them more excited than the “cost” of them giving you their contact information. Then and only then can you capture them.
Exactly what, when, and how to say things to actually make this happen are all covered in this book and a critical part of my “code.”
I was sad to learn after I left Fashion Rock that my sales coach had actually been arrested nine years earlier on federal bank fraud charges for his involvement in a telemarketing operation. He had actually developed a script that was too good, because it crossed several ethical lines and contained bold-faced lies.
If Lou Pearlman's company was a “black hat” sales organization, Quicken Loans was where I learned “white hat” selling. Quicken Loans taught me more in five weeks of sales training than any university could have in four years.
Another a-ha! moment worth sharing about inside sales (before we get into the X's and O's of lead generation and conversion) came courtesy of Dan Gilbert during my new hire orientation in Michigan. He spoke about Albert Mehrabian's 7-38-55 Percent Rule and the science behind how humans communicate. Gilbert explained that how people communicate actually breaks down into only three buckets (see Figure I.3).
Figure I.3 How Humans Communicate
The first and most significant impact on human communication is actually body language. Bad news, he said. When you are selling over the phone to an Internet lead, body language is gone.
The next is tone. This is where I shine. I am a wordsmith, but I'm also from the south and I talk slow. I sound super trustworthy over the phone, but also smart. Honest, but sharp. Educated, but not “better than you.” It is very difficult to teach people how to improve their tone, but let me make it very clear upfront that the words in the script that you will learn in this book work a lot better if your tone is great. In fact, if you add tone and body language (everything but the actual words you say), it is 93 percent of how humans communicate.
This is why you hear quips like “motion creates emotion” and why you often see inside sales reps standing and selling (or throwing a football to one another) as they talk to a lead. It gets their blood pumping, makes the long days of dialing for dollars a little more bearable, but most importantly, it improves their tone! I sold more vacations in one day than most of the salespeople alongside me sold in a week. I wrote more loans in my first week at Quicken Loans than most of their seasoned bankers wrote in an entire month. I can assure you that my words and looks were not why people were buying. I barely knew what I was talking about (“fake it 'til you make it” comes to mind) and they couldn't see me. My success out of the gate was simply my enthusiastic tone, plus the company providing me with a proven script and solid leads.
Having worked with some extremely talented people during my career, I noticed that the BEST inside salespeople have the following trait: They have a very positive mental attitude. In fact, they have a “black Lab mind-set”—they are happy to see every lead (thanks to Estately CEO Galen Ward for sharing that great analogy with me). The best inside sales reps also work hard and put in effort, daily. Plus, they are constantly sharpening their axe and looking for more knowledge about how they can get even better at sales and closing people.
If you're a business, what do you need to thrive in today's Internet era? The same things that you needed a decade ago and you will still need a decade from now. You need leads, appointments, and sales. In this book, I'll teach you how to get all three.
Because every lead is now an Internet lead, demand for marketing automation and inside sales is way up. Inside sales is growing like crazy because the Internet is growing like crazy. Being good at traditional marketing and belly-to-belly sales does not make you good at Internet marketing and inside sales.
Most of the advice and books about marketing and sales were conceived in the pre-social media, pre-mobile era by people who have never had to call even one Internet lead. I'm a fan of legendary sales trainers like Zig Ziglar and Brian Tracy, but they never had to call 10,000+ Internet leads and close them to feed their kids. These are new trends that require a new approach, a new script, and a new coach. Unless you have actually called hundreds of Internet leads a week, for years, you simply can't teach what is in this book.
What you say, how you say it, and when you say it matter a lot. There has been infinitely more innovation in the marketing world than in the sales world. What you say on a call with an Internet lead is as complex and scientific as the marketing automation campaigns marketers build and launch using HubSpot or Infusionsoft. In Section Three of this book you will learn a new proven script that I crafted specifically for web leads.
The Conversion Code Creeds
The Conversion Code is packed with the science of sales and marketing. I'm going to teach you many concepts, formulas, and technical elements that will improve your business. But if you ever feel overwhelmed, I want you to stay focused on the fundamentals. I call them The Conversion Code Creeds, and there is one for each section of the book. Write them down, print them out, and hang them in your cubicle.
The Conversion Code Marketer's Creed
Leads are people too
Image is everything
Facebook is the Internet
Analytics are overrated
Every word counts
The Conversion Code Scheduler's Creed
Every second matters
Zero cold calls
Human companies win
The fortune is in the follow-up
Every word counts
The Conversion Code Closer's Creed
Yes is not an accident
Conversations create clients
Dig deep or go to sleep
You're in charge
Every word counts
The Conversion Code will resharpen your marketing and sales axe for the new, modern Internet-driven era and help you consistently crush your quota. Enjoy!
Note
1
8 Seconds to Capture Attention: Silverpop’s Landing Page Report. Report. 2009. Accessed September 30, 2015.
http://www.silverpop.com/downloads/white-papers/Silverpop-LandingPageReport-Study.pdf
.
Part I
Capture Internet Leads
Chapter 1
Need More Leads?
How to Build Websites and Landing Pages That Consistently Capture Internet Leads
If you are reading this book, there is a good chance that you have heard (possibly even a nauseating number of times) that if you want to win online, “content is king.”
Content Is Not King if Your Goal Is Capturing and Converting Leads—Design, Being Purposeful and Landing Pages Are King
When building your website or landing pages (or changing and improving the ones you may already have), a “conversion-first” approach to design and user experience is a must. Simply put: Great design builds trust and trust is and always has been why people buy things, online and off. As Zig Ziglar once said, “If people like you, they'll listen to you. But if they trust you, they'll do business with you.”
In this chapter, I will cover the best ways to capture quality Internet leads using a website and landing pages. In the real world, before you invite anyone over for dinner you clean your house. Online is no different. Before we can send traffic to our website we need to make sure it will convert. Sadly, I see far too many companies that have a website so poorly designed that they are even willing to admit they wouldn't hire themselves based on it.
Because almost every business already has a website, I will start with that. But not before I mention that a critical component of cracking The Conversion Code is to understand that for online lead generation and conversion, landing pages are a much better option than websites.
Ideally, a company will be using both. But if you are reading this and you really need leads as quickly as possible, landing pages are the better choice.
How to Build a Website That Builds Trust and Captures Leads
Recent research1 (which I discovered thanks to Social Triggers founder Derek Halpern, who was a guest on our podcast) conducted by Elizabeth Sillence, Pam Briggs, and Lesley Fishwick, entitled “Trust and Mistrust of Online Health Sites,” proves that design online = trust and sales. Here is an excerpt from their study and what they learned:
Do different design and information content factors influence trust and mistrust of online health sites? Fifteen women faced with a risky health decision were observed while searching the Internet for information and advice over four consecutive weeks. Women at various stages of menopause participated in the study (41–60+ years, mean age 49). All the women were interested in finding out more about the menopause and all used the Internet at least once a week, although they had different degrees of confidence with respect to being online.
Participants discussed their first impressions of a website. There were two factors that led them to reject or mistrust a website quickly. The overwhelming majority of comments related to the design of the website.
Ninety-four percent cited design and only 6 percent cited content in relation to “the number of times a factor was mentioned as a percentage of the total number of comments about rejection.” So maybe content isn't king after all.…
Here were some of the women's first impressions and remarks about website design (or lack thereof):
“I found the screen too busy. I couldn't quite latch onto anything straight away”
(female, 66 years old)
.
“It's so clinical, so pasty, lots of white lots of pale blue obviously trying to be gentle on the eye”
(female, 48 years old)
.
“The banners, when they are trying to sell you something or click down here for your free whatever, you just get turned off”
(female, 49 years old)
.
“One of them I didn't like the color of. I couldn't wait to get out. It was an insipid green backdrop it just put me off reading it”
(female, 53 years old)
.
“There was just nothing I liked about it at all. I didn't like the colors, the text, the layout”
(female, 52 years old)
.
This honest, harsh feedback from the participants reminded me of the famous David Ogilvy quote: “The consumer isn't a moron; she is your wife.”
If you are going to capture and convert quality Internet leads, you need to gain their trust. Start with their list of critiques and look at your current website to see what you are “guilty” of.
The principles of good web design hold true across demographics. Code Academy, an online interactive program that offers free coding classes (and likely represents a totally different demographic than the aforementioned study), offered eerily similar advice2 to the women in the health site study.
In September 2015, even the U.S. government crafted design standards for all of its sites moving forward.3 If middle-aged women, coders, and politicians all agree about the importance of good web design, doesn't it seem foolish to ignore them and not make some changes to your site?
Here's a combination of design principles that showed up on lists from the aforementioned Baby Boomers, Brainiacs, and Bureaucrats. I have also added my interpretation as to why these principles matter so much.
One Column
Having a one-column layout allows for a “one page, one purpose” approach. Two- and three-column website designs can feel cluttered, complex, and busy. Plus, it's much easier to make a one-column layout responsive for mobile devices, which is where more than 50% of your traffic and leads will come from. If you are going to use a platform like Wordpress or Squarespace to build your website, be sure to look for one-column themes.
Social Proof
“They are great” is the new “We are great.” When you display the feedback of your happiest customers, and not just your own marketing messages, you will find that the quantity and quality of your leads from your website will increase.
Using actual reviews from Yelp, Google, or Facebook and recommendations from LinkedIn is ideal. Remember, your leads can instantly identify and already trust those logos much more so than yours. It amazes me how many business owners have GREAT reviews online, but they don't actually showcase those reviews on their own website in a beautiful way.
In fact, “88% of consumers say they trust online reviews as much as personal recommendations.”4
