People are looking for people or digital trappings that creates authority (Authority)
Which hair length do you think suits me best, short or long? Which shampoo do you recommend for dry hair? And what can I do to prevent split ends? When you ask your hairdresser these questions, you will listen to her answers attentively, you will trust her recommendations and even purchase some of the products she has shown you. Why? Because your hairdresser has years of experience and knows for sure what you should or shouldn’t do with your hair.
Authority is the 3rd principle in Dr. Robert Cialdini’s research. The Authority principle means that people are more likely to listen, follow and act if a person has a certain job title, wears a uniform or is using accessories related to their job. These factors are physical. In digital marketing, you should apply other initiatives like digital trappings to signal authority on your shop.
Below, you can read about specific examples from brands that include the “Authority” principle in their marketing initiatives to influence and persuade customers to make a decision that will benefit you. This blog mainly focuses on things that you can implement in your shop.
Experts — Shopify
Shopify is using authority by telling its customers that they can build their store with expert help. Shopify has different experts like 3D modelling experts, setup experts, design experts, web design experts etc.
Your customer service employees are your experts. Let your customers know what your customer service team can do to help them. You could mention on Facebook that your customer service team has extensive experience in this and that, that you will always respond within two minutes, and that everybody can be assured that their email will be responded to within 24 hours.
avXperten
avXperten is an online shop that talks about its online and offline customer department with success. They mention on their shop that they will answer telephone calls within 1–2 minutes and respond to emails within an hour.
Rito
A live chat function is another way of showing that you want to deliver good customer service by being available when your customers need you — even if a customer has a question 8 pm in the evening, outside your normal opening hours.
On Rito’s shop, customers can communicate with customer services through a live chat function whereby customers can ask all types of questions about specific products, delivery policy or when a certain product is due back in stock etc.
Blog — Bedre Nætter
Employees at Bedre Nætter regard themselves as being experts when it comes to sleeping better at night. They are demonstrating they are experts by writing blogs on topics like “What happens if you don’t get enough sleep”, “Sweating during the night” etc.
Think about what kind of blog post you could write to indicate that you’re an expert and to persuade your customers by means of authority. If you don’t consider yourself to be an expert, you can write a blog post in which you use another expert’s ideas and arguments — but, remember to include a link to the original blog and tell readers that this blog is based on another expert’s ideas.
A clothing shop can write a blog post about, for example, clothing trends in 2019, 5 must-haves this season, or give an explanation as to why an item is so popular. An interior decoration store can write a blog post about, for example, new interior decoration brands in stock, how to decorate your home with raw materials or 4 common mistakes that people make when decorating their home. A bike shop can focus on blog posts that cover, say, the 8 best cycling helmets, how to maintain your bicycle through the winter or a guide to choosing the right cycling outfit.
“About us” page — Danish Skincare
It’s not enough for shops just to have an “About us” page if they don’t manage to tell their story in the right way. Shops must focus on why they started their shop and what their main objective is. It’s too boring and too general just to say that they deliver good quality products and cheap prices. Danish Skincare do it differently when they tell their story.
They show a video of their founder talking about the company’s aims and objectives — which is to get people to smile more with the help of their products. They are not focusing on the functional benefits of their products, but rather the emotional benefits. Watch their story here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6yUoty1ClkI&feature=youtu.be
Talk about what inspired you to start your shop, what your overarching vision is, what your objective is by running an online shop. By having an “About us” page with text or a video you’ll indicate to your customers that you have authority. To enhance the sense of authority, add personal pictures of your company’s founder and the rest of the team like Cykelpartner does.
Testimonials — Luxo living
On Luxo Living, you can read real-time recommendations from existing customers. Existing customers mention the good things they experience when making a purchase from Luxo Living.
These recommendations imply that Luxo Living is a big success with its customers. Moreover, these recommendations persuade new customers to buy from Luxo Living because recommendations increase authority and trustworthiness.
Influence your customers buying decision by having recommendations from your existing customers on your shop. You should also include how many recommendations you have on Trustpilot like Luxo Living is doing with “5,109 recommendations”.
If you are in a situation whereby you need more recommendations to increase authority and trustworthiness among your customers, you should make a plan as to how to obtain more recommendations from them. Read Trustpilot’s own guide here:
Numbers of customers — Teeshoppen
To underpin your written recommendations, you can let new customers know how many satisfied customers you have. Teeshoppen have indicated their number of satisfied customers on their shop with the text “More than 50,000 satisfied customers”. Highlight the number of customers on your shop to trigger authority and to let new customers know that you already have a lot of happy customers.
Social likes — Trendday
Another way of showing authority through numbers is by showing how many likes you have received on your SoMe channels. Trendday presents their Facebook page with likes on their shop, so potential customers can see how popular they are.
Establish authority and trustworthiness on your shop by using these examples from Danish Skincare, Teeshoppen, Luxo Living etc. Here is a short summary of things that you can do to trigger authority and persuade new customers to say “Yes” to you:
- Talk about your experts, for instance, your customer services team
- Write a blog in which you give tips
- Create an “About us” page that focuses on your mission and objectives
- Show recommendations and the number of customers you have
- Add a “Like” button for Facebook and show the numbers of likes your page/site has
If you have other ideas on how to indicate authority, please feel free to share them in the comments below.
