The health industry is loaded with misinformation.
It’s hard to know what to trust when it comes to health websites.
Heck, it’s hard to know whom to trust when it comes to experts like doctors, nutritionists and your friends and family. It seems like everyone has an opinion about how to be healthy.
If you’re in the health industry and you’re running an e-commerce site you’re in a difficult game. You have to convince customers to purchase your health products. They want to believe your claims that the products will make their lives better, but they will be skeptical.
Too many people have been burned. There are too many products out there that don’t work.
Here is how you can overcome that to increase sales on your health e-commerce site.
Show Certifications, Partnerships, Clients
I just said that people want to believe you, but they are usually skeptical. This person is meeting you – or your website – for the first time. You can make claims, but it’s going to be hard to get them to turn over their money even if it’s a relatively low amount.
The first way to overcome this is to use social proof that you’re a rock star.
Here is the first reason this works.
Marketer and psychology nut Derek Halpern looked into the idea of becoming famous. He examined psychology research that showed how people could raise their own profile by associating with celebrities or people they admired.
From How To Become Famous:
When researchers posted pictures of non-famous people with famous people, participants ranked the non-famous person more famous than they actually were.
It’s kind of a famous-by-association phenomenon.
The way you can take advantage of how the human mind works is to make your brand more reputable by showcasing your certifications, partnerships and clients.
Check out this example. It’s the Zappos shopping cart:
Chances are that people trust Zappos, but let’s pretend they don’t. The person gets to the checkout and they’re wondering if they should use the regular checkout. They see the PayPal option. The person trusts PayPal. They figure since PayPal partners with Zappos they can trust Zappos.
They might use PayPal this time, but once the transaction goes well they might use Zappos in the future for the checkout.
Companies do this all the time with logos on their sites. They showcase partners and clients.
You can do the same with your health certifications. People trust certifications. When you show people proof that you’re certified organic they are more likely to trust the third party than just taking your word for it.
Answer Specific Customer Questions
This point builds on the point above.
A company I love to follow for their case studies in conversion is Conversion Rate Experts.
Here are some of their case studies:
· SEOmoz
Their entire process is built on getting customer feedback. They ask customers why they do certain things. They follow the paths customers take through websites.
It turns out that throughout the process of visiting an e-commerce website that customers have questions. They have questions about the process, your company and how the sales process works.
In really simple terms, Conversion Rate Experts takes the questions site visitors have, gets answers from the company they’re working with and puts those answers on the site in the correct places.
It seems really simple, but chances are that some of the biggest questions your customers are asking aren’t answered on your site.
You already know the common questions your customer is asking. Your customer service department deals with questions all the time.
Answer those questions on the site.
A big thing you’ll likely notice is that your product pages for healthy items will probably have to include a lot more information.
People will want to see detailed information about how the products work. They might want to see what other customers think.
Answer objections of customers and you’ll win them over.
Conclusion
The main point here for your health e-commerce website is that you’re looking to build long-term relationships with your customers.
Conversion and promotion is a tricky game. It can be easy to optimize for the quick sale, but you want to make sure your customers are on board for the long haul. It’s the best outcome for your company.
Simply be honest about the certifications your company and products have. Answer questions your customers have with honest information.
It’s the winning formula for a winning e-commerce website.
