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Today, more than ever before, there is an enormous gulf between successful websites and those that are…well, a complete failure.
There are a number of reasons why one website will fail and another will succeed — even when they are of a similar design and functionality. But one of the single biggest obstacles today to online sales is trust. Or lack of it.
This is an important issue that web owners face every single day: How to convince people that they’re not going to get ripped off.
Most sites fall down here simply because they aren’t credible in the eyes of their visitors. They give the wrong impression. They hide their identity. Or they simply have far too many hurdles and distractions to doing business. The end result is always a lack of trust.
Trust on the internet can really be a tough thing to earn.
Here’s an analogy: Let’s say you visited your favourite café this morning to get a cup of coffee. You possibly went to a place that is familiar to you. Somewhere that had a real human being and hopefully a very friendly face behind the counter. So you felt fine about handing over your money in return for your coffee there. Or perhaps you bought a holiday off Thomson Holidays last year. Bank manager being on your case aside, you would have felt comfortable about giving out your credit card details because everyone in the UK pretty much knows about Thomson Holidays. They seem to have been around for ever…
Playing Roulette With an Assumed Identity
What I’m getting at here is that people generally buy from people they know, like and trust. But, of course, on any one website there aren’t any real human beings. That is, your potential shoppers don’t get to meet or talk to you in person. They can’t really get to know anyone behind the counter, so to speak. That all-important ‘gut feeling’ is lost in cyberspace. And let’s face it; while shopping online can be a very safe experience, there are more and more con artists moving into this lucrative venue. I’ve had my fair share of stings from ‘fly-by-night’ operations.
So how, as a website owner, do you get around that?
Well, it means giving them facts and other data on how your products or your services fit their desires…their needs…their wants. And it means presenting that information in such a way that it actively helps them make the sale. It means giving the reader what they want — i.e., what they expect to find by coming to your site in the first place. Get it wrong, and at best you will confuse your visitors or turn them off. Worse, they’ll fee they aren’t able to trust you, and so will promptly leave your site…perhaps to go onto that of a competitor.
Learn from Big-Business Brands
Big online brands such as Apple and Amazon have obviously worked hard to gain that all-important trust. But what if you’re a solopreneur or a small business-owner? Well, the good news is, you don’t necessarily have to be a big player. But you absolutely must earn the trust of your prospective customers, regardless of the size of your business.
You can learn a lot from big business brands. One way they effectively instil trust in their prospects is to have a solid money-back guarantee. Pay attention to how they word it, and what sort of promise they make.
By making sure you place a guarantee of some kind on every single page, especially your order form, will help to lessen any perceived risk involved in buying from you. It essentially puts your reader’s mind at ease and so opens them up the idea of buying from you, which is what we want.
Other methods of building trust with your reader include:
- putting a short synopsis that clearly describes who you are and what you have to offer on your home page
- including an “About Us” section or “About Me” page or “Who’s Behind the Website,” that kind of thing
- operating a strict privacy policy
- placing a photo of every person behind the organisation
- making sure your visitors are aware that they can buy safely from you (you do offer a secure online transaction assurance, don’t you?
- including an address and telephone number or at least an email address on your site, ideally on every page.
All these measures are seemingly simplistic. Yet it amazes me how many websites today are lacking in the most basic of ‘trust’ elements. Which goes a long way in creating a gulf between the potential buyer and the company. The result? A lost sale.
The bottom line is people don’t buy from those they don’t:
- know
- like
- and, most importantly, trust.
You have to make your readers feel that there is very much a real and decent person behind that online presence. And by actively taking steps to build and develop trustworthiness, you’ll make it easier for prospects to buy from you.
It all boils down to this: The more believable your proof, the more you will establish that all-important trust among prospective customers.
Excerpt from Website Copywriting Secrets that Convert Web Readers into BUYERS.
By Susie Smith, Copywriter | Creative Consultant
This is just one of the many business-building techniques you’ll discover with ‘Website Copywriting Secrets that Convert Web Readers into BUYERS. It helps you avoid all the mistakes that most websites make, thereby detracting from your online growth, and instead gives you what you need to know to effortlessly attract customers from your website. It’s all step-by-step, not a big mishmash of things. So easy-peasy. All the time-tested ideas, tools, and examples are handed to you on a silver platter (well, minus the platter!). You can get it at:www./products.htm#Webcopy.
(Why struggle needlessly when you can get expert affordable mentoring and have fun attracting clients easily?)
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