I’ve recently observed a very clever guy run some testing for our website. You can find out about him at www.empathy.net.nz. Anyway, we’re testing because we can be better. We’re already pretty good but I believe the website can be extraordinary so we’re always looking to improve. We’re also trying to broaden our appeal. So I need to understand how to keep our customers while increasing our pull.
The testing was a mix between usability testing and market research interviews. We weren’t just testing whether our customers could navigate through the website and complete tasks. We were also trying to understand if the information provided was useful.
We also want to understand the visitor’s motivations. And whether our communications and offer are understood and attractive. I’ll probably harp on about these things some other time. However, the part that this post is about is whether the user is engaged enough to trust.
Trust is important for websites and ecommerce sites in particular. No one is going to give you money if they can’t reach a level of trust with you. So as we handle a lot of client funds for share trading we take a lot of effort to build trust in a number of areas. These include:
• We’re not some tin pot outfit, we’re a major financial player
• We’re qualified to do the service we offer
• We’re technically proficient and reliable
• We’re beyond reproach in handling your money
• We’re audited
• We’re regulated
• We’re upfront and transparent
• We’re local
• We’re people
• We do what we say we do
We get a lot of this across in our website to varying degrees of success. We found out there are levels of credibility that your customer will assign to you.
On one level as a share broker we get a credibility factor of 2-6 out of 10. We are usually at the high side because we don’t provide advice. There is a mistrust of financial advisors in New Zealand because they haven’t had a great track record of late.
However, Direct Broking is part of the largest banking group in New Zealand. Our credibility goes up to 10 when visitors see we’re part of the Group. That says a tremendous amount about www.anz.co.nz and www.nationalbank.co.nz and the great job they’ve done for their customers. It also says a lot about our industry and the state of the financial industry in general in New Zealand. So tick, we’re doing well there.
We’re the leading online share broker in New Zealand. That knowledge also assigns us trust. We also tick a lot of other boxes and come out reasonably well on the trust factor. But you know what? When the user had got to the end of the testing and we quizzed them; we found that we still didn’t reach the necessary level of trust.
This was all because the website carries banner advertising.
One user commented they wouldn’t use someone who used advertising in that way (i.e. the traditional banner etc). Another said the advertising was competing for their attention. Another thought the adverts were competing for their dollar and they were very confused. While we don’t put competing investment products on, we do carry the brand of the issuer of certain investments we sell and this gives the impression of sending them off to a competitor.
Having a standard banner advert is diminishing our brand. It’s an interesting thing as the site is still largely as it was when a leading New Zealand brand company designed it. Scenario thought the idea so good they even tried to sell the advertising for us with Traffik.
Overall, this website was a lot of very basic mistakes identified in the testing, all typical of brand agencies building websites, but that is for another time. But fault in this case really lies with my predecessor who still heavily advocates internet advertising, teaches courses in it and was the main driver behind advertising being on the website.
It really is really, really important in ecommerce to be prepared to unlearn, to not listen to yourself but listen to and learn from your users. You cannot force your own view on how things should be on web users.
Looking backward at the headline data, the sudden and continuous drop in market share that was experienced prior to my arrival begins with the period that advertising was introduced. It cannot be a coincidence.
The banner advertising also put us second place as a supplier of choice. The competitors don’t have advertising on their websites. Testing comments highlighted this. So it probably lost us more revenue than we got from it.
The key comment though wasn’t that advertising on the website was a bad idea. Just the delivery was very poor. “If it is relevant and helpful, I’d use it and it wouldn’t distract from what I’m trying to do on your website.” So if we discretely advertised an educational book about share trading, it would enhance our brand through enhancing the user experience.
The main conclusion though is that for an ecommerce site like ours, the concept of generating money from advertising can do more harm than good. Serious thought should be put into whether or not to do it at all. And if you do, ensure it is relevant and discrete otherwise you will diminish customer trust and diminish your brand.
It is time to revisit whether we carry advertising and if we do, how?
