I've written lots of posts dealing with online persuasion. But if your website doesn't appear trustworthy, you'll never get a chance to persuade anyone; visitors won't stick around long enough to enter into a conversation. So this week I'm going to backpedal a bit and cover trustworthiness.

It's not necessary (or desirable) to do everything presented here. And well-known organizations already carry an air of authority; they don't have to work so hard. (In fact, some of the items listed here would appear downright silly on a site like Apple.com.)

This "Trustworthiness Checklist" is intended more for small, new or otherwise unknown websites.

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A client recently asked for my input on a Cause Marketing (or "Corporate Social Responsibility") initiative they were considering. As some readers might be considering similar projects, I'll share my thoughts here.

There are several recent studies on this subject, but the one I find most compelling was conducted by K.L. Becker-Olsen and B.A. Cudmore*.

According to this study, three factors influence whether a cause marketing campaign will succeed or backfire: Fit, Motivation and Timing.

1. Fit

Customers must believe the campaign/cause is a good fit with the company that's sponsoring it. For instance, these campaigns might be a good fit:

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"I give a great foot massage..."

We don't like uncertainty. We'll take a less-than-perfect choice over an ambiguous choice any day. It might take some convincing to make us buy a less-than-perfect choice, but at least we'll consider it. An uncertain choice? Forget about it.

Consider the real-world example of being set up on a date. Which would you go for?

1. Photo of an attractive but less than perfect person. Plus a description of how wonderful the person is: Kind, honest, successful, funny, smart...
2. Same description as above, but no photo.

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"Do the Opposite!"

Last week I discussed Social Proof: the powerful tendency for people to "follow the pack" when determining a course of action.

It's important to understand how Social Proof works. Because it applies both to good and bad behavior. ("Sure, I threw some rocks at the cars... but everyone was doing it!")

If we don't understand the ramifications of Social Proof, we may unintentionally motivate people to do the exact opposite of what we want.

It's in public service messages that Negative Social Proof most commonly insinuates itself. Take the following messages for example:

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When we're not sure what action to take, we often look to see what others are doing... and follow their lead. "If everyone's doing it, it must be good."

Social psychologists call this "Social Proof". And, harnessed properly, it's one of the most powerful and widely applicable of all online persuasion tactics.

Robert Cialdini gives a great example of Social Proof.* An infomercial included a typical call to action: "Operators are waiting, please call now."

This was changed to: "If operators are busy, please call again."

You might think such a change would make sales worse. After all, who wants to keep redialing a number and getting a busy signal? But in fact, this single change drove sales through the roof. Why?

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A few weeks ago, a reader noted that the tactics outlined in my Persuasive Web Design series could be used toward unethical ends.

Let's explore this issue. When is it okay to use psychological "tricks" to manipulate our visitors' behavior?

Clearly Ethical Uses of Online Persuasion

When the intended action is healthy and positive, I think it's pretty hard to question the ethics. For example:

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We don't like to evaluate products in a vacuum. We prefer — even need — to contrast and compare products to other, similar products.

This principle applies to all product attributes: taste, smell, attractiveness, etc. Just to keep it simple, let's stick to an easily-quantified attribute: price.

Logical Online Persuasion

Say you're looking for an outboard motor. You find a 20 HP Motor for $1,900. Is this a good price?

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Finding meaningful insights in data means knowing how to combine data and make useful comparisons. Insight is in the details. All data in aggregate is "crap". Everyone keeps saying this.

So why is it that reporting suites give you such useless metrics by default?

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We are irresistibly drawn to FREE offers. To an extent, this makes sense: if you get something FREE, there's no risk. So why not accept it?

But as Dan Ariely points out in his fascinating book, Predictably Irrational, our obsession with FREE goes beyond the logical. We'll take FREE options over better, non-free options.

Dan Ariely gives many examples of the power of FREE. I'll outline just three in this post.

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"You have a tendency to be critical of yourself..."

P.T. Barnum (of circus fame) was a man of many talents. For example, he could take one look at a man, then wow him with a "remarkably accurate" description of his personality.

Barnum would say things like, "Sometimes you're shy, but you can also be a real stage ham." And his subject would say, "Yes, that's so true!"

But Barnum was no Sherlock Holmes (or even Dr House). He had little knowledge of science, no special gift for deductive reasoning. Rather, Barnum's genius was his realization that most people share the same strengths and weaknesses.

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