As much as everyone just loved<\/em> those door-to-door salesmen who somehow managed to pry their way through closing front doors, we have moved beyond the days of hyper-pushy sales messages. Or, as the KISSMetrics<\/strong> blog puts it, clarity trumps persuasion. In the online retail world, consumers are faced with whatever you put on your product page as their sole guide for buying. They can’t run the vacuum along the floor and see it pick up five ropes. They can only read your copy or watch your YouTube video.<\/p>\n If your copy is not 100 percent accurate, there is no reason for them to purchase from you. In order to combat the pushy feel, KISSMetrics recommends writing conversationally; drawing people into your copy with an intriguing and informative narrative structure; listing benefits and features; and offering bullets, subheads, and other scannable elements for the 79 percent of consumers who won’t read the copy. These kinds of facts should be enough to persuade on their own, without the help of cheesy smiles or their Internet cousins, double exclamation points. Save us!!<\/p>\n \u00a0Read the informative copy at blog.kissmetrics.com<\/a>.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n While strong copy and factual information go a long way in keeping your site reputable, earning a Google<\/strong> Trusted Store badge can never hurt. The search engine recently introduced this concept. To acquire this badge, merchants must meet certain shipping and customer service requirements and report their metrics to Google. Users can then read “report cards” and see the letter grade bestowed on any site with a badge. The search engine also plans to offer purchase protection to consumers buying from trusted sites.\u00a0Though the idea is in preliminary stages, a couple of sites are already sporting the Google Trusted Store badge (check it out at babyage.com<\/a>–bottom right corner). Definitely something to watch.<\/p>\nTrusted Store Badge: Google’s Seal of Approval<\/h2>\n