Conversion Basics: Trust and Authority

It is, without any shade of a doubt, undeniably true that in order to get lots of conversions from your PPC Advertising Campaign you need to have a good working knowledge of PPC Management. You need to know what Quality Score, Click Through Rate and Google SERP Rank are, how to improve them and why they are important.

However, if you forget about the basics, if you ignore the fact that all effective marketing comes down to the development of trust and authority, it won’t matter how many optimized advertisement text options you create for your PPC Campaign. True PPC Advertising success lays in the basics of conversions... trust and authority.

Technology moves on, People stay the same
A little over ten years ago, the Internet was an unknown entity. Today, we have the Internet with us at all times via our telephones and other mobile devices. Even the small butcher’s shop around the corner has a very professional looking website, designed to function perfectly on a mobile device, and we catch up on the morning news via our Twitter streams instead of the archaic version of the morning newspaper over a cup of coffee.

Technology moves fast and it will keep on moving.

However, people stay the same. It’s true that we learn how to use new forms of technology and that most of us like getting to know new forms of technology. It’s true that we enjoy being able to buy online, to find the nearest drug store via our telephone, call them directly with one click of a button on their advertisement and then visit them in store within the hour.

We love the convenience, the speed and the wealth of information and choice that technology offers us. But the reasons behind our conversions, the reasons why people choose to buy, haven’t changed at all.

If a potential customer knows that your company is a leading authority on the product or service in question and if they trust in your company, they will convert. If they suspect that you know nothing and that you are not to be trusted in any way, they will go elsewhere.

Therefore, despite the increase in technology, despite the fact that seven years ago hardly anyone knew what a conversion was, the only way to get people to convert online and to increase your PPC conversion rate is through the development of trust and authority. So let’s get started...

Building Authority
Prove that you know lots about your industry. Prove that you are an expert in your field. Prove that what you say is grounded in reliable research, knowledge and practical understanding. Prove, prove, and prove yourself every day.

Ok... fine... HOW do you prove yourself via the Internet? The avenues for this are endless because technology and its developments are endless, but here is a list of the most important, perhaps...

1. The Mother Ship: Your Website
In general, authoritative websites are clear, simple and well organized. When internet-users can see who you are, what you do and how to get in contact without having to think for even one second, you look authoritative because it is clear that you know what you’re doing, what you offer and who you are.

The content on each of your web pages need only be about 450 words long, but this content must answer all possible questions about your business and your industry that an internet-user might have so that they don’t have to go elsewhere to find out the answers.

For example, if you own a pet shop, list all the products you sell on one page, clearly and neatly in alphabetical order or some kind of categorical order. Then dedicate another page to listing all the awards, training or certificates in pet care that you have. Then dedicate another page to listing the top ten most common pet problems (like fleas) and the solutions that your business provides.

Simple but comprehensive = authoritative.

2. Blog it!
Continuing with the idea of a pet shop, dedicate your blog to posts about pet ailments, pet success stories, pet-walking services, pet toys, pet treats and other cool products that your business sells in store.

Contribute a blog post of 400 words every day on a very clear subject matter and make sure that all possible questions are answered. If you can back up your content with facts and figures and research from trusted sources, do so and then put links to those sources in your posts.

Don’t be greedy by not sending your readers elsewhere on the Internet. If you share things with them, they will come back to you again because you are the authority that they trust.

3. Link Up via LinkedIn
Get an account in LinkedIn and fill it in as thoroughly as possible. Make friends with people in groups related to you and share. Don’t be frightened of making friends with other people working in your business. You won’t lose custom to the competition if your contacts are good and your services are reliable. In fact, you are likely to gain more custom by being associated with competitors than by not being associated with them.

4. Facebook
We all know what it is, we all receive alerts and updates from pages that we have “liked”, so we all know that we need a Facebook Page for our businesses too. Get one!

Make it simple, list your products and then make sure that any updates or posts you make on your website and blog are directly posted to your Facebook Page. If you share what you do, people will soon realize that you are an expert. If you don’t share, nobody will ever know that you are the world’s leading peanut butter maker and never visit your site to buy your product and convert.

5. Face to Face
Go to conferences, workshops and networking events in your industry. Pitch your session ideas and your products. Give guest lectures at local colleges or at internal meetings. Present yourself as an authority and you will be seen as one. Conversions come easy to people who are clearly the best in their field and who have something to teach and share with the rest of the world

Building Trust
The first thing to do is to watch this short video taken from an SES San Francisco keynote in 2010, given by Tim Ash of Sitetuners.com

 

Ash explains in his keynote the real potential and importance of going back to basics when it comes to online marketing, PPC Advertising, SEO, social networking, sales in general, whatever. The focus of his keynote is all about recognizing and remembering the fact that humans will always be humans.

Yes, we love technology, yes we buy online, yes we enjoy surfing the Internet on our mobile phones and yes we will become obsessed by the next big thing that all online marketers will have to get to grips with.

But... we will never stop being human, our brains will always choose trustworthy companies over companies that we know nothing about or companies that have disappointed us in the past and we will remain incredibly, perhaps even stupidly, loyal to these companies for years to come. Trust, once established, is difficult to break.

Be very clear in what it is that your company stands for and make sure that all your employees are aware of this company branding idea too. Decide who you are, what you offer and stick with that. Consistency is one of the best ways of developing and strengthening trust in general and it works in the same way for PPC Advertising and conversion increase.

Enjoying the benefits of a successful PPC Advertising Campaign with lots of Conversions
Finally... enjoy!

Now that you have refocused your approach to online marketing in general, your PPC Advertising Campaigns will start to show an increase in conversions. Be patient, stick to the basic plan of building and maintaining trust and authority online and offline and reap the benefits of your simple approach for years to come.

Remember, technology changes and people adapt in order to be able to use it as part of their daily lives, but the human mind does not change. The human mind will only convert when there is trust and authority, irrespective of the wonders of technology around us.

So... are you an authority? Can you be trusted? Have you shared this with the world? Conversion basics. Get to it!