What happened when a company in the dating space swapped an ineffective seal for the McAfee SECURE trustmark
The McAfee SECURE certification is now TrustedSite Certification. TrustedSite Certification includes an extended portfolio of earned certifications and trustmarks that help alleviate even more concerns of online shoppers. Explore the new features here.
LeadThink doesn't sell products to consumers. Instead, the company, which was founded in 2012, helps connect people with the dating platform that best fits their needs and situation.
Here's how it works: people arrive on one of LeadThink's many sites, fill out relevant information for their dating profile, and then, based on that info, are directed to the most suitable platform for them. This model both delivers users to the best dating platforms, and helps people find romance without swiping through hundreds of dating services that may not be suited for them.
A business model that requires trust
LeadThink's traffic comes from a variety of sources, according to co-founder and President Ophir Laizerovich. To generate traffic, they advertise on search engines, social networks, and do targeted ad buying as well.
Because customers are coming from external sites, arriving at a LeadThink URL, filling out somewhat intimate personal information, and then being routed to yet another URL, concerns about site legitimacy and security are common.
A lingering problem
To combat concerns that would prevent users from filling out information and moving on to their clients, Ophir was already using a security seal to increase conversions. Unfortunately, the seal he was using gave him technical troubles.
"We had a different badge on there and we got rid of it because it started interfering with the site. It started bogging down the site to where conversions started getting hurt."
In 2017, Ophir turned to the McAfee SECURE service. Familiar with the brand from a previous company he'd worked with, he expected the trustmark to increase conversions.
A test yields big results
As a naturally numbers-driven guy, Ophir decided to test the McAfee SECURE service on a variety of LeadThink sites. In October of 2017, he placed the floating trustmark on his sites, and showed half his traffic a version of the sites with the trustmark, and half a version without.
After four months, he was ready to see which sites performed better. And even though Ophir was expecting a conversion increase because the strength of the McAfee SECURE brand, he was still blown away by the numbers.
Though each test yielded slightly different results, Ophir saw that the McAfee SECURE trustmark increased LeadThink conversions between 11.4% to 13.7%!
A word of advice
Needless to say, Ophir was thrilled, calling the decision to add the McAfee SECURE trustmark to the rest of his sites a "no brainer." Further, he's confident the trustmark would work for any sites who need to collect personal information.
"Anybody who is in online marketing, who has landing pages, who needs people to fill out information, I would strongly recommend using trustmarks." He adds, "it's a no brainer if you see a site that's secure, you have a better feeling about supplying that information. With the website, you have that security there, people understand that, 'Yeah. I'm gonna protect my data.'"