When was the last time you ever did business with someone you
didn't trust? When did you last do business with someone that
you suspected of being dishonest? Never.
This is because trust and credibility are crucial in any business
transaction. In fact, engendering these qualities in your
visitor is perhaps the most important aspect of running a
commercial website. Without building trust or credibility, you'
ll never be able to sell your product or service(s). This is
because your potential customer has no idea who they're dealing
with, what your reputation is, and if they're going to get what
they expect. If they can't trust you, why would they pick you
instead of someone who they can trust?
So, to help you create a trusting environment on your website, I'
ve compiled a list of ten things you can do:
1 - Don't Make Outrageous Claims.
This one is common sense, but you would be surprised at how many
people break this rule. Have you ever visited a site that's
obviously been built for a little "mom & pop" shop that claims
they're "The #1 Blah Blah Blah in America," the "The Best on the
Planet," or something similar? And what impression does that
leave with you? Probably that these people don't know what
they're doing or are not to be trusted. So please people, be
reasonable with what you say, because people won't believe you
otherwise.
2 - Check for and correct any grammar or spelling errors.
I've said this so many times before, but it's SO important that
the content of your site is essentially flawless. Nothing says,
"We're not to be trusted!" better than some spelling and grammar
errors. To correct this problem, it's best to get several people
to read through your site and point out any errors they see.
Also, ALWAYS run any content you've made through a spell checker
immediately before posting it.
3 - Give a risk-free guarantee on your product or services (and
make it "no questions asked").
Think about the beauty of this tactic. It does two things for
you right away. First of all, it removes any risk for the
customer, so they are usually far more likely to buy. Secondly,
it builds trust because the customer assumes that if you're
offering a "no questions asked" guarantee, you're willing to
trust them. And if you're willing to trust them, they're usually
willing to trust you!
4 - Publish a free newsletter.
It's been proven that it usually takes more than one exposure to
a product or service before someone will buy it. By running a
free newsletter, you can gain those needed exposures. In the
process of exposing those potential clients to your product or
service repeatedly, you can also build trust with your newsletter
if your content is good. If you've got something valuable and
helpful to say, people will see you as an expert in your field
and therefore trust you. And then you get their business.
5 - Use testimonials!
I can't stress how important putting testimonials on your website
is. If people can see proof that you've made previous customers
happy, they almost always trust you. However, in order for this
to be effective, you've got to do several things: first, NEVER
make up testimonials. Second, make sure the testimonials are
specific about how you helped the customer or client instead of
something general like, "You guys are great!" Something like
that is not specific enough, and you might as well leave it out.
Third, make sure the people providing the testimonials are easy
to contact either via an e-mail address or with a website
address.
6 - Provide visitors with plenty of contact information.
Many online businesses are fly-by-night companies who are here
today and gone tomorrow. People are especially scared of getting
cheated by one of these companies or people. So, in order to
assuage their fears, make your contact information readily
available for viewing at all times. You should ALWAYS include
your phone number, address, and e-mail addresses in an easily
accessible section of your website.
7 - Let people get to know who you are.
A perfect way to go about doing this is to have an "About Us"
page that gives a bit of background on all the members of your
company or business. This is effective because the Internet is a
very impersonal medium. Adding information about who you are
often warms people up to your offer because they feel like
they're dealing with a real person instead of a computer screen.
When people feel like they "know you," they trust you as well.
8 - Take the "honest" approach from time to time.
It's somewhat difficult to convey to you exactly what you should
do to accomplish this. But the concept is pretty simple.you don'
t always have to try to "sell" your visitor on your product or
service. Try being honest and up-front with your visitors and
potential customers. For a good example what I'm talking about,
just visit my site. (http://sybren.net) You'll see that in
places, I'm very blunt about what we're trying to accomplish and
how we can help you. By trying to avoid "hyping" the visitor, I
often gain their trust.
9 - Write articles for other websites and newsletters related to
your field of expertise.
When someone reads your informative and enlightening article on a
topic they need help with, they immediately regard you as an
expert, and they feel as though they can trust you. When you've
engendered their trust, and they are already interested in the
type of product or service you offer, it's VERY easy to make a
sale. All you have to do is get them to your website!
10 - Make your site look like it was made by a pro!
If you visited a run-down, nasty store with dusty shelves and
cluttered items, you'd never buy one thing from them, even if
their prices were incredible and their product quite good. If
your website is "virtually" run-down, the same thing's going to
happen - no one will buy from you. You've got to look good to
sell well, because people do judge a book by its cover, and
they'll your website by its "cover." So get your site designed
by a pro or invest some time learning how to make it look good by
yourself. If you don't, you'll never reap the full potential of
the Internet.
Hopefully, these suggestions will help you on your way to
becoming an online success (or more of one if you already are).
Good luck!
About the Author
Micah Cranman is the owner of Sybren
Design, located at http://sybren.net a small business web
design and development firm. You may contact Micah by visiting
http://www.sybren.net/contactus.htm or mailto:sybren@sybren.net