Look Big on the Web

by W. Lee Steele

Quickly establishing credibility and confidence with potential customers is the number one priority for a successful web site. Without credibility and confidence, prospective customers will be reluctant to buy from you. A significant factor in building this trust is the design and content of your web site. Here are a few tips to help you make your web site look like a BIG established, respectable company that prospects will want to do business with.

Do's

Emphasize your industry knowledge and years of experience
Provide a list of satisfied clients/customers
Include testimonials from satisfied clients/customers
Reference your membership in your local Chamber of Commerce, Better Business Bureau and/or other respected organizations
Emphasize your product or service warranties and/or guarantees of satisfaction
Provide your product return policy
Accept all major credit cards as method of payment
Provide a physical address and a phone number for prospects to call with their questions
Provide multiple email addresses for specific customer inquiries, e.g., info@, accounting@, custsupport@, techsupport@, returns@, sales@, etc. (even if all email addresses are forwarded to the same email account)
If you sell products, you'll want to provide online manuals and/or installation instructions or trouble-shooting tips
Spend the time and/or money to invest in a professional-looking site design

Don'ts

All of the following are dead giveaways that you're a small company with limited resources:

Spinning logos and dancing icons on your web site
Opening splash pages with no apparent purpose
Annoying background music
Membership in a web ring
Obvious affiliate program links
Your web site address is a sub domain (e.g., www.maindomain.com/user/mydomain.htm)
Your email address doesn't correlate with your web site address (e.g., your email address is myname@yahoo.com, but your web site address is www.mydomain.com)
You only accept PayPal as a form of payment or you require a personal check to clear the bank before you'll ship the products ordered
You take more than 48 hours to ship all orders

On the Internet, potential customers judge you and your company by how your web site looks. If you don't look like a professional, established, trustworthy company, then your odds of success are greatly limited. After all, you want people who have never met you to send you their money. That requires a great deal of confidence and trust on the part of the buyer. Your goal is to quickly establish that important confidence and credibility with potential buyers through the look and content of your only contact with them - your web site. Do it right, and you'll reap the rewards.

W. Lee Steele is the President of Strategic Insight, Inc., a marketing consulting firm based in Tempe, Arizona. Mr. Steele can be contacted at leesteele@strategicinsight.com.

03.05.2007. 00:15

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