There have been some researches in the field of first impression and digital trust.
We will be evaluating some of these researches at this point
The first research we will evaluate and see how the outcome will assist us in our digital marketing journey is the research conducted by four British researchers.
The research objective is to determine the impact of different designs and information content to customers trust and influence in their online decision making.
They came out with an interesting outcome and guideline that will greatly help your digital marketing activities.
There outcome of this researches strongly re-emphasize the need for the digital marketer to grab the attention of the visitor to his online platform immediately the individual visits his site.
It estimated the time it takes for a new online visitor to form an opinion about an online platform and the timeline stated in that research is about 0.05 seconds.
This should call for intentionality in our online activities.
Whether it is an ecommerce website, a blog post, a podcast or any other activity of a digital marketer carried out online should be laced with attention grabbing and positive first impression spices.
The researches wanted to answer the question of the impact of design and information data on trust and mistrust of a website.
Stretch further how will this impact the website`s visitors action on the purchase journey. 4 key factors were identified and this should guide anyone that intends to be a good digital marketer, The 4 factors are
1, Visual designs
2 Value Proposition
3 Graphics and imagery
4. Personal touch
Visual Design: Visual appeal is what meets the eye. It’s the colors, shapes, pictures, fonts, white space, and overall visual balance of a design.
Whether a website appeals to us affects how we perceive it, how we use it, and how we remember it. The research emphasized this thought-line.
The outcomes showed that a whooping 94 percent of the participants are more for the visual appeal of a website while only 6 percent focused on the content of the website.
The key things that made up the visual appeal based on the research outcome include web complex, busy layout, lack of navigation aids, boring web design especially use of color, pop up adverts, slow introductions to site, small print, too much text, corporate look and feel, poor search facilities.
So if you want to capture your audience at the first visit to your website these critical factors above are not to be played with.
In addition to the research by the British researchers, Google also conducted her own research to ascertain what influences trust, credibility and acceptance of a website on the surface view or visit of a prospective client.
Their research outcome was not in variance to the British researchers it rather reinforces their views.
The google team focused on 2 key things in their research .They evaluated how first impression is impacted by visual complexity and prototypicality.
The researchers concluded that visual complexity and prototypicality plays a crucial role when it comes to people judging a website which will further impact the action they take on the website.
The research established that users prefer websites with low complexity and high prototypicality. They prefer a website they can easily navigate through.
A website that is not too different from the standard website they are used to. At times that standardization may be a product of industry leaders or general design concept.
In case of e commerce, A user will look forward for an e commerce website to be designed close to Amazon, Alibaba or Jumia.
A Nigerian shopper is already used to this e commerce platform.
A new design that is totally a concept outside these existing one will put off the user or make it difficult to accept that.
Human brain easily classifies things into clusters and prefers dealing with clusters with the same pattern.
Hence website designers should be guided by these two factors and ensure that their designs eliminates visual complexities and also take prototypicality into consideration.
2. Value Proposition .A value proposition is a promise of value to be delivered, communicated, and acknowledged.
It is also a belief from the customer about how value will be delivered, experienced and acquired.
A value proposition can apply to an entire organization, or parts thereof, or customer accounts, or products or services.
Who you are, what you have done, your competencies, tract records, what you can offer, who you have offered the service to before.
Value proposition is getting the online customer take the desired action.
Neil Rackham value proposition model offers us some insight on the key things to focus on when writing our value proposition which normally should be on our homepage.
He stated that value proposition should consist of four main parts: capability, impact, proof, and cost (that is, the price a customer is expected to pay).
The 3 earlier components of capability impact and proof will directly impact on the cost the client will be willing to pay .
It has been established that value proposition will impact on the first impression and action plan of online users
3 .Graphics and imagery
Graphics and imagery play crucial role in the impression of visitors to a website or online article/Platform.
Graphics design and imagery can influence how people perceive your website.
It is recommended that when designing it should be simple, convey the intended message.
The designer should make the design professional and should not cluster colors. The theme of the web design should subtly be captured in the graphics and imagery.
Let these also act as a marketing platform but done subtly.
When putting a graphics on your webpage or platform, you need to ensure that it does not contain images that will distract or be offensive to the targeted audience so that they won’t be distracted from the central theme or message.
4. Personal Touch.
Let there be a personal touch that will show that there are real people behind the brand or the website.
People prefer dealing with real human rather than robot.
When designing the website, use pictures that can exude trust.
Real time pictures, avoid cheesy stock pictures that an average graphic designer used.
Ensure the pictures of your team is on the site if possible. Try and reflect your office place or other real life pictures
