The Psychology of a Sale: How to Design a Website That Instantly Builds Trust

Trust. It’s one of the most important factors in making a sale, especially online. When visitors land on your website, they’re asking themselves one key question: “Can I trust this business?” If the answer is no, they’ll click away faster than you can say “conversion rate.” But if your website immediately inspires trust, you’re one giant step closer to making a sale. Today, we’re diving into the psychology of sale and exploring how to design a website that instantly builds trust with your audience.


Mentioned Resources

-> Decluttering your Business Workspace
EP 078: How to Declutter your Workspace for Increased Productivity with Amy Slenker-Smith

-> Tools to Create Image assets for your Business
Canva

–> Story Branding Resource
Building a StoryBrand by Don Miller



Rate, Review, & Follow on Apple Podcasts

If you’re loving my eCommerce Made Easy Podcast, I’d be thrilled if you could rate and review the show on Apple Podcasts. Your ratings and reviews help me reach more listeners and empower more people like you to thrive in the online business world.

Just click here to head over to Apple Podcasts, scroll down, give us a five-star rating, and share what you enjoyed most about the episode in the “Write a Review” section.

If you haven’t hit that follow button yet, now’s the perfect time! I have new episodes coming your way every week that you won’t want to miss. Hit the follow button and stay up to date with the eCommerce Made Easy Podcast! Follow Now!

This week’s episode is sponsored by our Search Engine Optimization Mini Course.  Our Free online digital course that teaches eCommerce and website owners how to level up their search engine rankings with some simple, doable steps!  Join us at www.ecommercemadeeasypodcast.com/seominicourse/

Join entrepreneurs and online business owners just like you in my Free Facebook Group “Website & Tech Tips for Online Business Owners”
 
 Where we help break down the tech and hurdles Online Business Owners encounter!
 
Simply to go ecommercemadeeasypodcast.com/facebook/ and answer the membership questions so we know you are a real, warm-hearted, online business owner.

Chapters

• 0:00 Building Trust on Your Website
• 9:01 Building Trust Through Social Proof

Transcript

Carrie Saunders: 0:34

Something we talk about a lot on this podcast is what makes your website come for better. One of the key elements of that is trust. It's one of the most important factors in making a sale, especially online. When visitors land on your website, they're asking themselves a key question Can I trust this business, especially if they're not familiar to you and you're new to them. Especially if they're not familiar to you and you're new to them, and if the answer is no, they're going to click away super fast but they don't feel like they can trust you right away. But if your website's immediately inspires trust, you're one giant leap closer to making a sale with that potential new customer. So today we're diving in to the psychology of a sale and exploring how to design a website that instantly builds trust with your audience. So let's get started.

Carrie Saunders: 1:24

Welcome to the e-commerce made easy podcast. I'm your host, ke Saunders. When we started this business, all I had was a couch, a laptop and a nine month old. My main goal to help others. Now, with over 20 years in the e-commerce building industry and even more than that in web development, I have seen a lot. I love breaking down the hard tech into easily understandable bits to help others be successful in their online business. Whether you're a seasoned e-commerce veteran or just starting out, you've come to the right place, so sit back, relax and let's dive into the world of e-commerce together. Welcome back to the e-commerce made easy podcast.

Carrie Saunders: 2:00

So today we're exploring how to design a website that builds trust. It's something we touch upon a lot on this podcast and I wanted to have a dedicated episode on building customer trust and we're going to talk about some psychological principles that influence trust. Design elements you can have on your website that can make or break your credibility to and actual steps to take your website from potentially not trustworthy to a trustworthy website and a great place for your audience to feel like. They feel like they can trust you and comfortable on your website, like they can trust you and comfortable on your website. So if you've ever wondered why some websites don't convert, trust could be potentially the actual reason that they're not converting very well and those ones that do convert effortlessly. Trust is definitely there and definitely a factor in making that website convert very effortlessly.

Carrie Saunders: 2:55

So, first, what really matters with our websites and how do we make the trust factor go higher? So, first off, first impressions matter and there's powerfulness in a visual trust. So when you land on the website, if it's clean and clear and modern looking and doesn't look super old or ancient, you're going to build a trust pretty quickly. If your website looks modern and clean and clear, it's the first thing visitors notice, and research shows that it takes just 50 milliseconds for people to inform an opinion about your website and if it doesn't look professional, they're likely to not trust you. 50 milliseconds, let that sink in. That's a really, really fast right.

Carrie Saunders: 3:42

So some of the ways we can build trust is using a clean, modern design. As we just touched on, we want to avoid cluttered layouts and outdated styles, so we want to have it be minimalist, and we talked about this on the podcast episode with Amy Slinker-Smith on making yourself more organized. We can do this on our website too. When we have white space to look at on our website and making it minimalist and clean, that gives our eyes the ability to land on the important things. So a clean, modern design is definitely important and we'll link to that episode in the show notes because I think it brings out some great points that you can bring home here for building trust too.

Carrie Saunders: 4:24

We also want to have consistent branding. So we don't want to have a ton of fonts. We don't want to have a ton of colors. Usually two to three is typical for fonts and colors, potentially up to four if you're a bit more of an advanced brand. But you need to know how to use those properly. So we want to have cohesive colors, fonts and image styles, too that relate and match to each other. So we don't want to have two different images on our website. They're a stark contrast from each other that creates questions in the person's mind when they're looking at your site. So we want to have a cohesive brand identity and if you haven't spent some time refining your brand and defining the colors, defining the fonts, defining your style and your persona, then that is something that you need to write down on your task list and make sure that you address that next and do and then review your website to make sure it aligns with that and investing in high quality visuals.

Carrie Saunders: 5:24

So we want to make sure that our images are not blurry. We want to make sure that the graphics are nice and clean and clear and really look professional. You can even do this in free software like Canva, so don't feel like you have to like go out and spend a ton of money, but as long as you're purposeful and consistent, then that's going to really drive this home and really help you be more consistent in your brand and in your visuals, and we want to make sure that we're using professional images. If you have the paid plan of canva, it has a whole bunch of great resources in there I'm going to link to it in the show notes as well and it can be a really good time saver so you're not searching all over the Internet for images and then you're not sure whether you're allowed to use them or not in Canva. If you have the pro design, you're allowed to use those images on your website, and so we want to make sure everything's clean and clear and crisp and it's cropped properly. So no weird cropping of your images. All those little details can really demean trust if you don't do them properly. So it's not just about the aesthetics, it's also about creating an environment where visitors feel comfortable and confident. So when you're making it feel cohesive and not like a cluttered room we all probably have a cluttered room or cluttered space in our house. So as long as it doesn't look like that cluttered room, it looks cohesive and purposeful, then that's really going to help build trust.

Carrie Saunders: 6:50

The second way we can build trust is through transparency. It is something I talk about a lot on this podcast. Customers want to know who they're dealing with, what to expect and how you're going to deliver your promises. So some ways you can build transparency is through an About Us section on your page. This is something I talk about a lot. I think it's super important that people understand who's behind the business. Share your story, your mission and your values on this About Us page. I want you to highlight people behind your business, too, to create that human connection. If it's just you, if you're just a solo entrepreneur, highlight some things, even include some of your hobbies, too. That helps make us more human. If you have staff, feel free to include some things about them that they're comfortable with you sharing. That's going to help build trust too, and then they'll see that there's a team behind you as well.

Carrie Saunders: 7:43

We also want to be clear about our pricing and our policies. This is something I talk about is like you know, if you actually ship physical goods, that needs to be there and very clear, easy to get to, on how you're going to ship, the expected time frame, etc. And then for whether you sell physical goods or services, then we need to make sure our policies are very clear Our return policies if it's physical goods. Our money back guarantees if you're doing products or services. Making sure all those are very upfront. Making sure we don't have any hidden fees. Making sure all those are very upfront. Making sure we don't have any hidden fees. We don't want them to go at checkout and then find there's some additional cost that is going to be added on. Make sure any additional costs that you might need to incur on them whether it's border fees, whether you're shipping across seas or whether it's an extra service fee or things like that we want to make sure those are clear up front before they start their checkout process. So being very transparent goes a long way. Don't feel like you're going to make the customer run away because you're showing these extra fees that they're going to have. They're going to be thankful to know that up front so they can have that in their brain when they're processing the cost of your product or service.

Carrie Saunders: 9:01

And then number three for building trust on a website that's super critical is a social proof. It is the psychology of following the crowd, and it's something we just tend to do as humans. Some of us do it more than others, but it's definitely something that's ingrained in us as humans is we want to be doing what others are doing and we trust our crowd, our friends and our family whenever they give a review or testimonial. So you know, it's just human nature that we as humans will recommend the things that are our favorites, the things that we love, and so when we see that on our website and see these testimonials of people and why they love this product or service, what it does for them, how it helps them and even some of the constructive criticism they might give on the product, that really boosts your confidence in that website when you're a consumer looking at it. So don't even shy away from those customer testimonials or reviews that have a bit of constructive criticism in there. As long as they're constructive and giving really good feedback and are objectionable, then that can really help boost the confidence, because somebody can really then place their minds in that buyer's shoes and see whether it's a good fit for them or not.

Carrie Saunders: 10:20

So I want to make sure that you're showcasing reviews and testimonials. We want to have them prominent on the website and we want them to be from real customers and make sure it looks like they're from real customers too. So things that we can do to make it look like they're from real customers because the way you want them to actually be from real customers is taking screenshots. Say, somebody's giving you a review on Facebook or Pinterest or some sort of social media or maybe Google reviews. Take screenshots and put those screenshots on your website, because people recognize the look of those pages and will recognize that's truly from those platforms. And then, in the case of Google reviews, you can link directly to the Google reviews and then they know for sure somebody has logged in and posted this review on your website. And it's also great if you can ask the permission of those people who've reviewed you those customers and see if you can get a photo of them if they don't mind you showing their photo on your website. That's a really great way to also build trust.

Carrie Saunders: 11:26

You can also build trust by highlighting actual numbers on your website. So let's say you've had quite a few customers. You could put over 10,000 happy customers. Us, for example, we have over 16,000 customers in the past 22 years. So we tend to highlight that we have had that many customers and most of them are repeat customers as well. So you know emphasizing that as well, especially if your number is really high. Emphasize how many repeat customers you have, and I have that note now in my brain because I need to make sure that we are doing that as well, because you don't want them to be 16,000 one-off customers. Depending upon what your product or service is. You can also put in rated 4.9 out of five stars on Google.

Carrie Saunders: 12:12

Put some numbers behind it. Numbers are easy to draw our eyes to and easy for us to process as humans. So when you're putting those, actually use numbers rather than written words for those numbers too. It makes them stand out a lot better. So that's a little tidbit there. And you can also feature recognizable brands or media mentions too on your website this is something very common to have about two thirds of the way down your page and show some reputable brands you've worked with or clients you've worked with, maybe magazines you're published in, etc. So all these social proof can really tap into the psychological principle of safety in numbers and making visitors feel more confident in choosing you for their product or service.

Carrie Saunders: 12:57

Now number four point number four is trust through security and credibility. So online shoppers are cautious about sharing their personal payment information many times. Especially in the modern day, we're a bit more savvy about that. So demonstrating that your site is secure is critical for building trust. This is an absolute must. You always have to have HTTPS in front of your website. If you can get your website without that S in it, with just HTTP, and it doesn't redirect you to HTTPS, that's a big red flag and I want you to fix that now. And if you're not quite sure how to fix it, you can contact us or a trusted service provider. It must have that in it now. Google penalizes you if you don't have it as well as people are super aware of this. Actually, browsers make it really hard to go to a website without the s in front of the h or at the end of the http, so you need to make sure that that is set up, that your website is always at https, and if you've been around for a while, it's very possible that your website will respond without that S on it. So I want you to double check that. If you've been around for a while that's something I run into a lot that businesses that have been around for seven or more years may have the ability to see the website with HTTP only without the S. So make sure you're fixing that. I can't stress that enough.

Carrie Saunders: 14:22

Another thing you can do is display trusted badges like security certificates, payment provider logos, that kind of build some confidence and it's a great visual when people might have a preference for how they are checking out, whether they like to use PayPal or Venmo or something like that. Having those on the website is a great visual for building trust and then they know that their payment's getting processed through a large, trusted company. And you can also highlight guarantees on the website. Say, you have a 15-day money-back guarantee or something like that. Make sure that's very clear and visible and easy to find and easy to see. That really can help build that confidence, especially if it's a higher ticket item and somebody is not quite sure whether it's the right fit. You can also create easy ways to get a hold of you as well, which is a little bit of a side note here, especially if you have a high ticket. Having a chat or a quick way to get a hold of you is a little bit of a side note here, especially if you have high ticket. Having a chat or a quick way to get ahold of you is a good idea.

Carrie Saunders: 15:24

And then the last point is emotional connection. We want to speak to the hearts. So trust isn't just built with facts, it's also built with emotion. So we want to connect with our audience on a deeper level that can create a sense of loyalty and trust that goes beyond just logic. We think with both our logical brain and with our heart brain or our emotion brain, so we want to make sure we're connecting to both. So some of the ways you can do that and create an emotional connection is using storytelling, and we'll link to in the show notes the book the Story Brand by Donald Miller. It's a really great book on using storytelling on your website so you can share personal antidotes or stories about how your business has impacted customers, and stories are very memorable way to help people remember you. So when you're using story and you can even think about this when you're having a conversation with your friend what do they do? They usually talk to you in stories and you remember the stories better than if they just told you a fact about their day. Right when they build the story behind it, that's when it makes it more interesting and more memorable and you get a more sense of emotional connection as well. So that helps connect them at the emotional level.

Carrie Saunders: 16:37

And we also want to look at writing with conversational copy. I know for us it's a very hard habit to break. We've been around for over 22 years, so back then it was a bit more normal to speak in a bit more of a corporate or businessy tone. So we're trying to undo that in our own business and write more conversational copy because we want to be in the position where it seems like we're talking to our customers rather than at our customers. And I use those words because I feel like you're being talked at when you're being talked in a businessy way, but you're being talked to, you're talking to your friend whenever it's a bit more conversational language. So we want to avoid using overly formal language when we're talking on our website. That can really help build that customer trust.

Carrie Saunders: 17:26

And then in this also section we can also talk about showing empathy. We want to acknowledge our audience's pain points and position our business as a solution. So, for example, you can use the words we understand how frustrating it can be to find a reliable coach and that's why we're here to help. So we're talking about the pain points that our customers are having. In this example, we're talking about how we understand how frustrating it is to find a reliable coach, and that's why we're here to help. That's again the phrase, again, just to make you you know. I know when we're listening sometimes we need to hear it a second time. So we're talking about their pain points, how we understand it and what we're here to do for them. So when customers feel understood and valued, they're more likely to trust and connect with your brand.

Carrie Saunders: 18:13

Okay, so let's do a short summary of this episode. So we are talking about customer trust on our website and how to design one that instantly builds trust. So, first off, we talked about visuals and making sure that they're appealing visuals and use clean design, consistent branding and high quality photos or videos that make a great impact on our customers, especially for the first impression. We also want to be very transparent. So number two is being very transparent. We want to share our story, our policies and our contact information in a very easy way so they can easily connect with us and it helps foster openness.

Carrie Saunders: 18:54

Point number three was leveraging social proof. We want to highlight reviews. We want to highlight testimonials, social media mentions or any other mentions you might have that help build trust and social proof. And number four was prioritizing security. We want to make sure our website are HTTPS only. You can't use it via HTTP. We want to display any trust badges or payment processors that we use or guarantees that we have for our business. And then, number five, we want to build emotional connections. We want to use storytelling to do that. We want to use conversational language and we want to build empathy to create that deeper relationship with our potential buyers empathy to create that deeper relationship with our potential buyers. So by incorporating these elements, you can transform your website into a trustworthy, high converting asset for your business that will keep working for you day after day, hour after hour, month after month.

Carrie Saunders: 19:50

All right, so that's all we have for this week's episode of the e-commerce made easy podcast. I hope it was super helpful for you. We would love it if you would rate us on Apple podcast. That helps get our business name out there more and helps us reach more customers, just like you, to help them make their websites much better. And if you have any questions or suggestions, you're welcome to find us on social media. Our links are on our website and you can also email us at podcast at bcsengineeringcom, and you can always find our show notes at ecommercemadeeasypodcastcom website. And we will see you next week.