Sunday, October 15, 2006
Copywriting to build trust on your website
One of the biggest thrills of having a website is watching visitors land, sign up for an ezine and maybe even buy – sometimes on their very first visit! I always find myself purring when that happens. So I started asking, “How can we build trust through a website?” Of course you can build trust by sustaining performance. When your readers get your ezine week after week, with no interruption, they regard you as “reliable.” But what can visitors learn in the first five minutes? And after reading, studying and listening to my own results, I’ve come up with 7 trust-building factors. 1. Create accurate, realistic, credible promises. Surprisingly, one of the best ways to create realistic expectations is to follow principles of good copywriting. Review features and benefits, ruthlessly. Get specific. List specific topics you cover on each page and each class – and present them as benefits, not theoretical ideas.” 2. Go boldly into the jungle of the Internet. It’s no accident. The most successful website owners aren’t afraid to share success stories. They say confidently, “I can do this.” Timid websites actually scare their visitors. “What’s he trying to do?” “Why doesn’t she ask for my order?” “Maybe I’ll hurt their feelings if I ask a tough question.” 3. Appoint yourself a ghost-buster. Does your website resemble the Internet version of a ghost town? Do you display classes that closed six months ago and links that go nowhere? Okay, I know. When you have a humongous website (and I do), you will get glitches. You will forget a key link to a class (I just did – it’s fixed now). But most readers can tell a “live site” from a “haunted site.” Once I found the site of a high-profile marketing coach. Eagerly I followed the links to a promised teleclass, including requirements to fill out a zero-balance credit card form. And what did I get for my efforts? A notice, “Classes canceled until July 2006.” In September 2006, that’s not a good sign. 4. Get signed testimonials. Once we could get away with testimonials from “Betty A. in St. Louis.” Today we need Betty’s full name and perhaps her occupation. When you have sensitive topics, create a “success stories” page, where you can disguise the identifying features of your clients. Or you can create an information product and collect testimonials that attest to your knowledge and awareness. And yes, the content of testimonials adds to credibility. That’s another article. 5. Create lots and lots of content. Readers tell me they learn a lot about how I work when they read my articles and online book reviews. They get a sense of how I think. They can assess consistency from one web page to another and from one article to another. An added bonus: Content attracts traffic, too. Cathy Goodwin, Ph.D. offers strategic copywriting and communications consulting for small biz owners and solo professionals who want to sell themselves without sounding sales-y. Ask about her three-step Strategy-->Message-->Copy system. Begin with a visit to the Copy-Cat website. |
# posted by Cathy Goodwin @ 2:16 PM 
