You’ve spent money and time trying to drive traffic to your website’s landing pages. Wouldn’t you like to know you’re not losing visitors because you fail to inspire trust? You’ve likely heard that you have anywhere from 3 to 30 seconds to grab your visitors’ attention once they land on your site. That’s true, and one of the best ways to do that is to quickly build trust, which encourages visitors to keep reading, scrolling and clicking.
But how can you build trust through such a flat interface as a computer screen or mobile device? Here are five simple but effective tactics to inspire the kind of trust that will stop people from clicking away to one of your competitors.
1. Attorney photos. First, put a picture of yourself on the landing pages of your site. The reason is simple: people like dealing with other people, not some faceless entity. Your photo lets them know there’s a real human behind your firm. It doesn’t matter if you don’t like your picture, or don’t think you’re “attractive” enough. It’s not about you, it’s about them, their comfort, and their trust level. So get your picture taken if you haven’t already and get it up on each and every page that serves as a portal or entry into the site.
2. Testimonials. This should be a no-brainer, but it is all too often overlooked. In many cases, testimonials are buried on a specific “Testimonials” page. But most visitors won’t stick around long enough to reach that page. Instead, place at least two or three short, incisive testimonials front and center on your landing pages, and make sure the visitor doesn’t need to click or scroll to see them. Often you won’t need to use a full review, just a sentence or two can get the point across. Pull out the pithy statement that captures the heart of the testimonial. And, of course, make sure the reviews are positive!
3. Relevant expertise. When someone lands on your webpage, they want to know, without having to jump around, whether you have the knowledge and experience to handle their specific problem. They don’t care about your general education; they care if you have what it takes to help them. So, know your primary target client’s problem, and write your landing page’s content to target that client, exactly and specifically. Answer her likely questions with relevant expertise right there, at the top of the landing page. Bullet points work great for this. You can, often in four or five bullets, zero in on exactly why she came to your page and let her know you are the perfect lawyer to handle her concerns.
4. Badges. Badges are nothing more than icons, typically provided by independent organizations that rate attorneys. Examples include Super Lawyers, Martindale-Hubbell, National Academy of Personal Injury Attorneys (NAOPIA) and others. I suggest you include them, but not at the top of the page. Why? Because even though they may impress, most people won’t have a clue about those organizations. For that reason, badges belong underneath items one through three above.
5. Your “About Us” page. Yes, I know I said this article was about building trust on your landing pages, but the importance of having a well-written “about” page on your website can’t be overlooked. Once your landing page has created a powerful, trustworthy first impression, a visitor will want to know more about you and your firm. For that, nothing beats the “About Us” page. Here, you can provide all those general details I told you NOT to include on your landing pages, such as practice areas, affiliations, published articles or books, and more. Go ahead and overdo it, because there’s plenty of room here to trumpet all the things that make you and your firm unique.
There you have it. Five tactics you can use to make your landing pages much more effective at reaching your ultimate goal: converting visitors into clients.
Tom Dunn is marketing director for an aviation attorney. He is a media and marketing expert, consulting with attorneys to help them improve their client acquisition and return on marketing investment.
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