Lesson five – Building Trust with your Website – December 2009
The one thing every website must do!
It must immediately establish your organization as legitimate and credible when someone lands on the home page.
And the best way to accomplish that is to have a professional look and substance to your site!
| In this age of cynicism it is extremely credible and powerful to give genuine information about you, your organization and your products or services. Research has shown that facts are as effective as emotional appeals in persuading people to deal with internet based organizations.
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Here are some ways to make your website instill confidence in your perspective customer:
- A professional design and look – no homemade web sites please.
- A professional logo – logos should help explain what you do and what you are providing.
- Additional familiar logos if possible – especially in your secure check out section.
- Name, phone number, and e mail address on every page – once again it reminds me that I am dealing with a real organization.
- Confidence builders – a privacy policy, a real address, a return policy or guarantee of service, a secure check out, and an "about" page.
- A warranty policy – to me, too many warranty statements are bogus – they are written to protect the manufacturer rather than the consumer. If I have a problem, I want to feel that the company I bought from or dealt with will help me out.
- Professional pictures – not having a picture is better than showing a shoddy one. Bad pictures reflect an organization running on a shoestring.
- No typos or errors – recently I saw an article about the value of fish oil where several of the words were not separated by spaces. It was unfortunate because the article was of value.
- Testimonials and reviews – I take these with a grain of salt. But, I really do like the bad reviews – it reassures me about the integrity of the company I’m dealing with.
- Other – Spell check is good, but it doesn’t catch everything. Have at least one person proofread every single word you write. I’m really lucky – my wife proofreads all my copy and she was an English lit major.
My experience is that once a person finds what they are looking for on the internet, they will stop looking: and, if they trust that site, they will buy. If you follow the points above, you have an excellent chance of success.
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