The Internet is a now a tangled web. There are many dark alleys and dangerous places. The average surfer is becoming more and more aware of "little nasties" such as web bugs, email taps, phishing, invasive web site monitoring -the list goes on.

It is getting more difficult to convince our visitors that we are not there to fleece them, rip them off or con them. I guess you can't blame people, there are many among us that will. We've found this out the hard way in recent times through dealings with some of our merchant advertisers. It doesn't seem to matter the size or stature of the dotcom, corruption is rife throughout the online world - just as it is in the physical world.

How can you reassure your visitors that you have good intentions?

Forget popular stock images

Not so long ago, a professional veneer on your site would convince many visitors that you are in fact professional. If you are in the process of developing a site for your business, don't take this as being the case any more. No longer can a designer take a Photoshop image CD and make a small operation look like a Fortune 500 company - people aren't that stupid. In fact, a seasoned surfer can spot a Photoshop image a mile away! Use some originality if you are going to use images - use photos of "real" humans; the staff in your business, tasteful shots of yourself etc (with clothes on). If you have a presentable bricks and mortar location, include a couple of shots of the building.

Show a commitment to visitor privacy

Another way to gain the trust of web visitors is with the introduction of a Privacy Statement. It is a declaration to your visitors about what your site contains. The privacy statement also declares what type of information you gather from your visitors and how you use it.

If you have read a Privacy Statement, you may feel that you need a team of Californian lawyers and a huge bank balance to draft one! Actually, you can make them up free of charge using a number of generators available on the web. The generators take you through the process, step by step, with explanations of the various sections that you should complete.

You will be asked to supply the following details:

• Type of data collected from hit counters and server logs (and why)
• The use of cookies on your site (why you use them)
• How you secure the information that you gather (is it stored on the server etc.)
• Public forums and discussion boards (warn visitors about revealing personal information)
• Advertising arrangements (do your advertisers use cookies with their banners?)
• Whether you have external linkages from your site (many visitors don't realise that they are clicking on an external link until they have been redirected)
• Options for visitors to unsubscribe from lists.
• How visitors can contact you

If you are able to collect the above information before beginning the statement generation, it will make the whole process a great deal more efficient.

It will take approximately 30 minutes to an hour to complete.

A privacy statement not only puts your visitors mind at ease, but also adds professionalism to your site. A reassured visitor is more likely to purchase something from you.

Please note, a privacy statement is a legal document - think carefully before implementing one.

The following are a couple of reputable sites where you can generate your own Privacy Statement, free of charge:

http://cs3-hq.oecd.org/scripts/pwv3/pwhome.htm
http://www.vt.edu/misc/publish/privacy/

Implement a Company Profile page

Whether you are a one person operation, totally reliant on cyberspace, or a traditional bricks and mortar organization, visitors have a natural curiosity of what goes on behind the scenes of your business - especially before they purchase. A company profile page will establish a great deal of credibility for your online representation.

A company profile or "about us" page shouldn't contain too much hype. It needs to give visitors a sense of who you are, where you have been and where you are heading as a business. "We're No.1" just doesn't cut it. Your company profile page should express your stand on customer service, product/service quality commitments and any important affiliations you have with other well known companies.

Contact us!

Before someone will purchase your offerings, they will want to be assured that their purchase will be supported with good after-sales service. It is very important that at every available opportunity, you encourage people to contact you with their questions. Often they will send you a question when they already have the answer just to test you out, so ensure you respond to them rapidly. If possible, include telephone (I'm told some people still use telephones) and fax numbers on your company profile page along with a map of your street location.

Satisfaction Guaranteed or 100% Money Back.

Refunds - the word that sends shivers down the back of any retailer. Nevertheless, the offer of a refund on goods and services will be the deciding factor in many purchases and also lends to your credibility. The offer of a refund tells a customer that you are confident in your product and that you have represented it properly. While the offer of a refund may not be viable in some cases, it should be a part of your business policies wherever possible. And if you use the strategy, flaunt it! Don't tuck it away in the fine print for fear that people will actually take advantage of the offer. Research carried out into refund offers shows that:

a) The offer increases business through increase in customer confidence.

b) People usually won't take up the offer, even if the product doesn't totally meet their expectations. They just want to know it's there.

Have you ever been in a busy marketplace in the physical world? People use all sort of tactics to get your attention and your dollars. In the virtual world it's much the same. We need to employ special coding tactics to attract search engines and to structure our pages to hold the interest of our visitors. Now take the eye candy one step further to increase your sales. Add another string to your marketing strategy bow.

Add honesty, integrity and transparent business processes to your arsenal - then flaunt it!

It will pay dividends.

Related learning resources:

Basic Ecommerce web site development

Communications and the Internet community

Email Etiquette

Michael Bloch
Taming the Beast
http://www.tamingthebeast.net
Tutorials, web content, tools and software.
Web Marketing, Internet Development & Ecommerce Resources

 

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