The Credibility Branding Blog

Websites at "First Glance"sm Optimization

By Dr Bill Haig, Guest Contributer

Part 1 of 2 The Logo and Home Page Credibility Requirement

When visitors land on a website, the first thing they do is mentally evaluate in an instant whether they can trust the information on the site enough to continue.  Like all information, this is a matter of whether or not the source of the information can be trusted to overcome perceptions of risk, uncertainty and even possible identity theft. Trust or no trust happens during the visitor's initial impressions or "first glance" at a website when visitor is still unfamiliar with the vendor. 

In people to people interaction, we evaluate the person doing the talking before we accept the person's message. On a website, we evaluate the company behind the information. The company is evaluated at "first glance" during the first three seconds of a website encounter.

But on a website, the initial period of trust is not based on personal experience with the vendor. The visitor and vendor do not have a personal relationship history. The visitor makes a trust evaluation on what information, verbal and visual, is available. Otherwise, the vendor is faceless.

What do visitors look for during this critical period?

Research indicates that perception is done at "first glance" and on the basis of whether the company is considered credible or not.  Further, visitors look for what is termed "surface" cues for credibility. Stanford University web credibility researcher, Dr. B.J. Fogg, describes "surface credibility" as simple inspection of surface traits non-verbally communicated by visual design. 

In people to people communication this would be how a person looks, his or her dress, or hairstyle.  Whether the person is neat or sloppy. These are "surface credibility" characteristics.  We often hear the phrase, "you don't get a second chance to make a first good impression." 

Why is a first impression of people important? We trust or don't trust the credibility of people upon first meeting. This leads to accepting, or not accepting, what they have to say. The same is true at the moment of "first glance" at a website, except we look at the how credible the company logo and home page looks through non-verbal design elements. In an instant. This is critical for continued website success. The objective is to turn visitors into trusting customers who move on after "first glance" within the website for the purpose of purchasing a product or service. 

Wrong imagery. An ambulance company shows its product in Heaven. Why visitors move on.

Website studies on visitor use conclude that over seventy per cent of visitors leave at "first glance" if they do not consider a website credible.

 

On the positive side, my PhD research concluded that four times as many visitors will continue as conversion rate customers if a credibility-based logo is on the company website at "first glance" compared to a non-credible logo.

My research supports that of Dr. B.J. Fogg and his Stanford (as in University) Web Credibility Research, (http://credibility.stanford.edu/guidelines/index.html). Savvy website owners have two easy opportunities to look credible and boost visitor website trust at "first glance" to increase conversion rates:

 1.    Show that there is a real organization behind the website, as an honest trustworthy company. This is done most effectively with a credibility-based logo design sm representing the company.  The credible company logo is usually in the upper left hand corner of the website. Perception theory in communication persuasion suggests that people immediately want to know the source of the message which follows. Just like when we often look first for the name of the person on an envelop or post card. 

Similarly, visitors to a website look at the company logo, or search for the company name if there is no logo, at "first glance." 

Then, simultaneously, 

2. Show that there is a credible organization behind the website with an appropriately designed home page. A company website home page must be designed with the same appropriate credibility traits as in the company logo. This will also give consistency in credibility traits important to the company behind the website. 

Logos and home pages are perceived almost simultaneously.  People perceive the "whole" before they perceive the parts. Although the eye will go immediately to the company logo or name (as a part) after perceiving the "whole" or overall visual character of the home page. Thus, the company credibility-based logo design and the home page design must have a consistency in credibility design "look." For example, the logo cannot have a contemporary design and the home page a dated design.

The bottom line is that the whole visitor perception, logo and home page, must communicate credibility to assure the visitor continues at this initial web experience --- at "first glance." These first impressions are key to trust building and continued visitor conversions to being a customer.

About Powerlogos Design and Dr. Bill Haig

Powerlogos Design is the only creative and research based logo and home page design firm using proven principles in source credibility in communication persuasion to optimize online marketing. We call this Website Optimization at First Glancesm. The process we use is termed credibility-based logo designsm and credibility-based website designsm.

Started as an online firm in 2001, Dr. Bill Haig maintains the philosophy that logo and home page design apply proven communication persuasion principles enabling clients to have the assurance that their company logo and home page will be successful at "first glance." A unique and inexpensive logo and home page test methodology can be used for further, data based, assurance. 

Powerlogos Design analyizes and plans client credibility traits before design commences. A questionnaire is provided and a Logo Planning Report is prepared which includes a verbal description of the design objectives for the new credibility-based logo and subsequent home page. The company uses top international designers to interpret the objectives and create the preliminary and final designs. The result is a new logo and home page which works, done efficiently based on a mutually agreed upon plan, then created by top designers --- all under the supervision of Dr. Bill Haig.

Dr.Haig is a specialist in source credibility in communication persuasion principles applied to logo design, website credibility and online testing. He has over forty years experience in logo design and recently obtained his PhD applying his logo knowledge to website credibility and online testing.  He developed a unique online logo and home page testing methodology during three years of university supervised research.   

Dr. Haig can be reached at

bill@haigbranding.com

or by phone at 808 922 4042 (Hawaii Time.) Visit www.powerlogos.com for more articles and Dr. Haig's book on credibility-based logo design and website credibility.

Stay tuned for part two of this article!

Websites at "First Glance" Optimization

Another excellent article from Dr. Bill Haig, expert on credibility in logo and web site design:

The Logo and Home Page Credibility Requirements

By Dr. Bill Haig, Powerlogos Design

When visitors land on a website, the first thing they do is mentally evaluate in an instant whether they can trust the information on the site enough to continue. Like all information, this is a matter of whether or not the source of the information can be trusted to overcome perceptions of risk and uncertainty. Trust or no trust happens during the visitor's initial impressions or "first glance" at a website when visitor is still unfamiliar with the vendor.

Savvy website owners have two easy opportunities to look credible and boost visitor website trust at "first glance" to increase conversion rates:

 1.   Show that there is a real organization behind the website, as an honest trustworthy company. This is done most effectively with a credibility-based logo designsm representing the company.  The credible company logo is usually in the upper left hand corner of the website. Perception theory in communication persuasion suggests that people immediately want to know the source of the message which follows. Just like when we often look first for the name of the person on an envelop or post card. 

Similarly, visitors to a website look at the company logo, or search for the company name if there is no logo, at "first glance." 

Then, simultaneously,

2. Show that there is a credible organization behind the website with an appropriately designed home page. A company website home page must be designed with the same appropriate credibility traits as in the company logo. This will also give consistency in credibility traits important to the company behind the website. 

Logos and home pages are perceived almost simultaneously. Thus, the company credibility-based logo design and the home page design must have a consistency in credibility design "look." For example, the logo cannot have a contemporary design and the home page a dated design.

The bottom line is that the whole visitor perception, logo and home page, must communicate credibility to assure the visitor continues at this initial web experience --- at "first glance." These first impressions are key to trust building and continued visitor conversions toward being a customer.

Powerlogos Design and Dr. Bill Haig:

Powerlogos Design is the only creative and research based logo and home page design firm using proven principles in source credibility in communication persuasion to optimize online visitor to customer conversion rates. We call this Website Optimization at First Glance. The process we use is termed credibility-based logo design and credibility-based website design.

Started as an online firm in 2001, Dr. Bill Haig maintains the philosophy that logo and home page design apply proven source credibility principles in communication persuasion. The result is that clients have the assurance that their company logo and home page will be successful at "first glance" giving trust to the website company. 

Dr. Haig has over forty years experience in logo design and recently obtained his PhD applying his logo knowledge to website credibility and online testing. He developed a unique online logo and home page testing methodology during three years of university supervised research. 

How logo and home page credibility works in graphic design is further explained in several articles on his website, www.powerlogos.com and Dr. Haig's book on credibility-based logo designsm, The Power of Logos: How to Create Effective Company Logos, NY: Wiley, 1997. Dr. Haig can be reached at

bill@haigbranding.com

or by phone at 808 922 4042 (Hawaii Time.) 

Blogging, List Building and Brand Building

If you are an entrepreneur or even if you are a larger company, having a good qualified opt-in list is increasingly becoming a foundational marketing program. For those focused more on online sales it is your lifeblood. There are a lot of people out there discussing how to build a list, here are a few things I have learned using some of the obvious and also incorporating more strategies using my credibility branding model.

Blogging:

Blogging is a great way to establish your brand by using content to establish expertise and personality. I call it a networking and branding building platform. Your web site is a brochure, your blog is you own personal magazine that can illustrate your point and show what you know.  The networking part is leveraging the power of your voice and the audience you are building to improve your relationship with influencers who by association can improve your brand. Here are a few hints to do that:

• Re-post articles of those you want endorsements from or influencers you would like to form relationships with and tell them you reposted one of their works
• Do a review of these same people content and blogs and ;et them know you did so
• Ask readers to join your email list / blogger list

Blogging is a great way to drive a new audience to your newsletter list, if they like your blog they want more.

Squeeze pages and Bonus Gifts:

Squeeze pages are designed to build your list; you give away free stuff on the squeeze page in exchange for an email address. I recently created one for my credibility branding audit (you can check out here). You can use is as a broader strategy; start with a squeeze page to build a qualified list for a specific product. Then offer a phased approach of phased products to that audience.

Try out social networking sites

There are a number of social networking site that will drive traffic and if done right can drive the right traffic to create new subscribers, here are a couple:

• List Bandit - List building networks; one I recently cam across is List Bandit. It is a group of like mined individuals building lists on top of each other, it is worth signing up and trying it. It is a little confusing to start but you get a series of emails that start to walk you through how it works. Also a hint… at the beginning they offer you a special deal that only comes up at the time of signing up they are right and it is a good deal if you can afford it.
• Stumbleupon is a downloadable toolbar that embeds into your browser and gives you the      chance to surf through thousands of excellent pages that have been stumbled upon by other web-users. You can drive traffic by telling the right audience about something that is relevant to them (maybe your blog).
• Del.icio.us is a place to store your bookmarks in one place, bookmark things for yourself and friends and check out what other people are bookmarking. The key is to drive people to your bookmarks      and also get onto other peoples lists. This is another one of those credibility branding things, if you can get on an influencers list it drives traffic and builds your credibility by association.
• Twitter a mini blog based on only 40 characters per post based on the premise “what are you doing” build a following here too.
• Squidoo build a page about your passions create a specific lens of your product here is mine. You      can also start you own groups, I started one that is starting to slowly build.
• MyBlogLog, one of my favorites this is a blogging networking community. Bloggers are      influencers and are ahead of the curve, MyBlogLog allows you to meet and interact with fellow bloggers. A great site where you meat great professional friends that are doing the same thing as you. I have gotten many newsletter subscribers from here and fans and I have become fans of      some pretty awesome people.
• There are a lot more… please leave comments with ones you have found to work and how they work.

Pop Ups

The days of pop ups are waning, however apparently they still work. The key is to have it pop up at the end of their stay as they are clicking away and offer a gift to incent them giving their email.

Bottom line with all of this is to go after the audiences that make sense for your product don’t get an email address just to get an email address. Use these practices to drive a pre-qualified audience to you products. Use them to further establish your credibility and to get those points of credibility across in your messaging. Be careful not to get distracted by these tactics by doing too much of this and not running your business.

IS YOUR LOGO REALLY WORKING ON YOUR WEB SITE? (Special Offer!)

This is for the first 25 respondents only (so hurry up)!

As we all know, making sales on your Web site involves a lot of factors. Ever consider your logo as part of the success (or not) of your Web site?

Our logo expert, Dr. Bill Haig, has done some interesting research on this and has determined that your logo must be credible on your website to be effective. For example, company logos designed with specific company credibility traits will increase the conversion rate 2x to 4x compared to logos which are not credibility based. That could mean increasing sales 2x to 4x.  It is all a matter of trusting the company behind the website. This is the focus of his recent PhD dissertation.

Following up from yesterday's excellent post by Bill, he is offering a no cost logo evaluation for your company to the first 25 people who respond. This is a good opportunity to receive an expert opinion about your logo.

Bill provides a three page evaluation report, including background as to why Credibility Based Logo Design works. He gives examples of credible logos. His objective is to give small business an understanding how logos contribute to the bottom line when they are credible. The flip side, of course, is that a company logo can actually be a distraction when customers cannot trust a company when it does not look credible.

Here is what you do:

1. Send Bill a full description of your company business. Just ramble as if you are describing it to someone who knows nothing about it.

2. Include why your business is unique. What do you do that your competitors do not do.

3. Send your logo.

Bill’s email address for this special no cost logo evaluation is

bill@haigbranding.com

For more about Bill’s proven Credibility Based Logo Design strategy, please read the articles which appear here regularly. His website is www.powerlogos.com and he can be reached by phone at 808-922-4042 Hawaii Time after 9 am.

G Cred, Social Media and Credibility Branding

John Follis a prolific advertising entrepreneur wrote a great article on G Cred (Google credibility) in his Art & Commerce column in Adweek (and quoted me no less).

This story is about Google as an increasingly important point of credibility.

The path to being included in the article is also part of the social media world and my credibility branding model. I found John’s blog The Follis Report through the great blogging social networking site MyBlogLog. I read his article which I re-posted on the Credibility Branding Blog in March, then let John know about it. He contacted me and we had several discussions about his G Cred theory. I offered a quote for an article he was writing and he was eventually able to use it here.

See, this stuff works J

Here is the article from Adweek; John offers an important marketing consideration…

Art & Commerce: Do We Have G Cred?
May 21, 2007
By John Follis

In this hype-happy, what-to-believe world, it comes down to a very basic, fundamental thing: credibility. How does one get it? How does one convincingly communicate it? And is there a Good Housekeeping Seal of the 21st century?

"Street cred" has been one recent barometric buzzword. Defined by the American Heritage Dictionary as "acceptability or popularity, especially among young people in urban areas," the legitimacy of street cred should not be minimized. As discussed in Malcolm Gladwell's The Tipping Point, the urban environment of street cred has been the birthplace of more than a few trends that have found their way into the mid-American mainstream. As true as that is, however, in today's high-speed cyberspace, street cred is … well … so 2005. There's a new cred in town, and it's called "G cred."

If you haven't guessed, the "G" is for Google. And while the term G cred may be new to you, it's been in the Urban Dictionary for over a year.

G cred (n.): Google credibility. What someone sees when they Google your name, business, product, organization or whatever. It's an increasingly important measure of legitimacy and how seriously someone will take you.

More than the cred of the day, G cred is the cred of the next decade. In her new book, The Credibility Factor, market communications strategist Jennifer McLean offers support for that claim: "While there are multiple forms of credibility found within a company or product, Google is playing an increasingly important role in the perception puzzle. The bottom line is: Credibility fosters trust, and Google is here to stay as a measure of that credibility."

As Google and the Web continue to mature, online visibility will equate to credibility on every level. It does now, through blogs and a myriad of social media sites that have become a respected, easily accessible and exponentially expanding source of cred. In short, word of mouth on steroids. What's important to realize in this Web 2.0 world is that G cred doesn't just apply to every business, product and organization. It also applies to every professional. And that's not a new thought. Respected marketing gurus like Tom Peters and Seth Godin have been preaching the value of building one's "personal brand" for years. Godin's Purple Cow champions the value of standing out and "being remarkable." Similarly, in The Brand You, Peters explains how career survival is not about blending in but about standing out:

"Regardless of age, position or the business we happen to be in, we need to understand the importance of branding. We are CEOs of our own companies: Me Inc. To be in business today, our most important job is to be head marketer for the brand called You."

If that was true when Peters wrote it back in 1997, just imagine how true it is today. And that means visibility online. If you do a Google search on yourself and little comes up, or it's dated, well that's not good. If you happen to be someone in the marketing communications business and that happens, you'd better hope it's not your clients who are doing the searching.

As Google continues to rattle the cages of traditional media ("Google Gooses Big Media," Time, March 16), traditional agency execs had better start focusing more attention on the online model, regardless of their success at immediately monetizing it. In less than a decade, Google has gone from $0 to $3.1 billion in after-tax profits. With that, the new reality is that "nontraditional advertising" ain't so nontraditional anymore. Regardless of who wins this latest Clash of the Media Titans, I would venture to say that no media company, or ad agency, should expect to win long term if they don't fully understand and embrace the new rules of the game.

As much as this is sounding a lot like an ad for Google, it's not meant to be. I have no business or personal ties to Google, no direct or indirect company connections and, unfortunately, no Google stock. My point is simply that, as I hear a growing number of CEOs and business owners refer to advertising as "the A word," I've come to realize that it's no longer enough for agency execs to merely know about the curve. We'd best be ahead of it.

Got G cred?

Click here to read it from the source.

How Valuable is Your Blog? – Exploring The Points of Credibility

Dario D’Onofrio over at The Business Hackers Blog wrote a great article back in April about the value of your website. So why should you care? It is simply another point of credibility. Think of all the ways that your product could be more credible then highlight them through your marketing materials. It will different for select audiences. For example an audience of online marketers is going to very interested in how you rank and how valuable your site is. It has meaning to them in a way that instills trust. So Check out ways to figure this out through Darip’s post…

Estimate the value of your website in 5 minutes…

Posted on April 11, 2007
The Business Hackers Blog

Do you know how to find out if website A is worth more/less than website B. It is good to have some unbiased data that is easily available online. Those are some of the tools you might find useful:

· Google Pagerank Toolbar - checks your blog’s pagerank or how Google values your blog according to the number of inbound links that your blog has. The higher the pagerank the higher the blog value.

· Live Pagerank - checks your blog’s pagerank in all Google Datacenters.

· AlexaRank - ranks a blog according to traffic received. The lower the AlexaRank the higher the blog value.

· Technorati Rank - ranks a blog according to the number of blogs linking to it.

· Blog Juice Calculator - ranks a tool according to the number of BlogLines subscribers, Alexarank, Technorati Rank, and inbound links. The higher the blog juice, the higher the blog value.

· SEOMoz PageStrength SEO Tool - ranks a blog  according to its domain name’s age, DMOZ (open directory project) listing, inbound links, indexed pages from various search engines, etc.

· WeBuildPages Cool SEO Tool - it shows a blog’s placement for a certain keyword/phrase is searched.

 

Credibility Branding Through Thought Leadership

One of the most powerful strategies in a brand-building effort is a thought leadership program. This program involves executing tactics that position a person (spokesperson or sole entrepreneur) as an industry expert. It paves the way for a company to tap the industry mood and deliver high-level, thoughtful insights. Your product or company spokesperson is now positioned as the influencer. What better way to attract influencers than to be one? By being recognized as an expert, you raise the credibility bar yet again.

I have discussed previously  how product features alone just aren’t cutting it as the main asset of a marketing message. And as important as benefits (what pain are you solving?) are, companies and entrepreneurs sometimes need an even higher level of positioning. Being positioned by the industry as an innovator allows you to now become the commentator on industry trends and issues. Being an influencer brings the ability to shape the market trends directly. The other obvious benefit is recognition and instant credibility. As the thought leader (influencer), you are now positioning your product and your company as leaders by proxy.

Here is a short list of thought leadership programs

· High profile media relations (business publications high circulation mass consumer press and targeted vertical trade publications)

· Bylined and contributed articles

· Awards

· Speakers programs

· Newsletters

· Blogs

· Street teams / taste testing / bake offs

· Category creation

· Publicity stunts / video news releases

Case Studies and Unique Story Angles Boost Marketing Credibility

Here is a great article out of the Wall street Journal (subscription required, sorry) talking about the importance of influencer relationships in advertising. In this instance it is large companies that are showcasing small businesses as example s of business success using the large companies’ products and/or services.

The key word in the story is credibility, and with credibility comes the opportunity to raise the profile and play at a new level. This applies to large companies as well, especially in the form of strategic partnerships. The partnership can be used to pursue a new demographic, to strengthen the perception or improve the product itself to enhance the joint brands. Boasting each brand’s strengths improves overall credibility.

So for small to medium sized companies, where have you been having a great experience with a large company you have hired? Offer yourself as a case study, tell them about the return on investment you have experienced and you might just be their next poster child in a multimillion dollar campaign.

Talking about a small company increasing its profile, I recently watched the local news and they offered a story about  a race between local courier and the reporter who had an in-car GPS device  for managing traffic and directions. There were three different races and three broadcast segments, and the courier won every time. This courier who likely has zero advertising (or PR) budget just received three 90-minute spots that highlighted him and his courier company. I bet you his business saw some remarkable lift.

Where can you leverage a unique story angle like this one and pitch it to the assignment desk/producers of your regional news? Or where is there a case study that you can offer to a large company you have bought services from?

Symbiotic Marketing Helps Big, Small Businesses
The Wall Street Journal (subscription required)

Big companies are increasingly realizing that using real people with real businesses in their ad campaigns lends credibility to their efforts. It also provides a cheap and effective way to target niche audiences--be it the African-American, Latino or other communities, such as environmentalists or pet enthusiasts.

For their part, small businesses featured in these ads get the kind of marketing and recognition that might take years to get on their own. And they do so with very little effort -- and on someone else's tab.

For example, DogToys.com, a Web retailer and wholesaler of pet products based in West Chester, Pa., was showcased last month with two other local entrepreneurs in a regional promotion for Verizon's broadband technology. Although the commercial didn't result in an immediate sales increase, founder Jill Gizzio says the ad helped her business reach a higher level of credibility. - Read the whole story...

Keeping Up with Industry News Just Got Easier

Great advice from John Jantsch over at Duct Tape Marketing. I have been talking ad nauseum about the importance of research and keeping on top of the editorial and blogger landscape. The following is not only great resource for you and but also to send the results to your clients, or internal corporate constituents. The idea is letting technology aggregate relevant industry content so you don’t have to.

Why do you need to keep up? Get out of the myopic box of your own company and product. Explore the opinions and news of the industry and your competitors. It will open your mind to new ideas, unique messaging and what your customers are interested in. Become a hero to your clients by delivering the breaking news in their industry.

Read John’s post…

mySyndicaat^TM – Delivering Personalized Information via RSS

By John Jantsch  Duct Tape Marketing

Just when you thought you were getting the hang of using RSS as a research tool, someone, like me, comes along and tells you that it's not enough.

Now it's become ultra easy to use RSS technology to create individual feeds of information and supply them to your best clients. You know they want to figure this RSS thing out but just can't seem to get around to it. So, do it for them.

Here's what I would suggest. Go to www.mysyndicaat.com and create personalized, search specific, RSS feeds, mash them together and deliver customized information to your clients on a daily basis. The current trendy name for this is a newsradar

Syndicaat allows you to easily mash multiple feeds together creating one very focused and personalized feed. (Yahoo Pipes does this as well, but my results with it have been spotty)

So, let's say you have a client that produces tents for active outdoor types. You can search very specific terms and phrases in Google News, Yahoo News, Bloglines, Technorati, Google Blogs, Outdoor Forums, and anything else that produces an RSS feed and mash all the content about your client, their competitors, the industry, specific keywords and phrases, you name in, into one digestible, personalized newsfeed that changes daily. (Don't tell your client how easy this is, just do it and bill them for it - they'll thank you.)

Talk about a great way to get a competitive edge. It's like creating personalized publications for each client or each marketing segment you serve. What if you did this for your prospects as a way to show them what you could do? You can make all this content public or create private password protected feeds. You can also republish the RSS feed and data on any web page on your site using simple javascript or even Feedburner's Buzz Boost and then put it in your client's private page on your website. So now they come to your website for their industry news everyday - you got to like the sound of that.

Click here to read it from the source

It’s Strategy that Makes Marketing Work Not Tactics

Chris Brown over at the Branding & Marketing Blog hits the nail right on the head with her post below. Stop living in what I call tactic land and develop a strong, sound strategy that the tactics can live in. The strategy is the structure upon which all activity is filtered through. When a company has no strategy, efficiencies decrease because there is no sounding board for whether a tactic makes sense or not..

While Chris is specifically speaking to the need for web sites, it addresses this issue nicely. Thanks Chris for the following insight:

Creating Marketing Tactics to Support Sales & Profitability

By Chris Brown, Branding & Marketing Blog

Sometimes a business professional will come to me and ask if we "do websites"... and if we do create websites, "how much?"

My answer is "Yes" and "It depends."

To me it's much more important to make sure the marketing strategy and marketing program aligns with the objectives of the sales department to support the overall company's strategy, than it is to "do a website." Otherwise, a new website is created, looks and works great, but the actual impact to the profitability overtime doesn't improve. I don't recommend doing a new website unless you it's part of your overall program. You want it to positively impact your overall sales & marketing goals. Tactics without strategy is wasting your marketing budget.

I've heard it called "Ready, fire, aim." You know what I mean.

To read the entire post click here and scroll down to the April 24^th post