41
Increase Sales by Building
Credibility
The Internet has opened a whole New World of
information and
opportunity for all of us. However, it has also
created a breeding
ground for scam artists. For this reason, many
Internet users are very
reluctant to share their personal information and
order products
online.
As an Internet entrepreneur, it is your personal
responsibility to
ensure that your visitors feel very comfortable with
you and your
website. In order to gain your visitor's trust and
confidence, you must
build your credibility.
Domain Name
In order to establish credibility, you must be willing
to invest in your
own domain name and professional web hosting. Websites
hosted on
free servers are not taken seriously and will suffer a
serious loss of
business. Your visitors may feel that if you don't
have your own
domain, you may not be a credible company. They'll
simply take their
business elsewhere.
Contact Information
Provide your visitors with your complete contact
information. This
information should include your "real"
postal address and not a Post
Office box number. A business that hides behind a PO
box loses
credibility. It's perfectly acceptable to use a PO box
as long as you also
include your postal address.
Create a page to add to your website called
"about" and include all of
the following:
• A personal or professional biography
• A photograph of yourself
• A complete description of you and/or your company
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• Your website and/or company objectives
• Your name, address, phone number and email address
It is very important that you include an
"about" page, especially if
you're selling a product or service. You must do
everything in your
power to put your visitor's mind at ease.
Privacy Statement
Internet users are becoming more and more concerned
with their
privacy. Create a page on your website called
"privacy" and let your
visitors know exactly how you will be using the
information you collect.
This page should include all of the following:
• How do you plan on using their information?
• Is their information sold or shared with a third
party?
• Why do you collect their email address and how will it
be used?
• Why do you track their IP address?
• Let your visitors know that you're not responsible for
the privacy
issues of any outside websites you may be linking to.
• Why do you use order forms and what do you do with the
information acquired?
• Do you run contests and what do you do with the
information?
• Do you have a discussion forum or message board? Let
your
visitors know that any information that is disclosed
in these
areas becomes public information and they should
exercise
caution.
• Do you have security measures in place to protect the
loss,
misuse and alteration of the information under your
control? If
so, let your visitors know.
• Let your visitors know how they can opt out of your
mailing lists.
• Provide your visitors with your contact information,
should they
have any questions in regard to your privacy
statement.
You can create your privacy statement right online
with this free
wizard: http://www.truste.org/wizard/
Testimonials
Another great way to build your credibility is to
display your customer
testimonials. Include your customer's name, email
address and web
address with each unsolicited testimonial to increase
believability.
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You can find a nice script that will rotate your
testimonials each day
here:
http://www.web-source.net/cgi-bin/web/jump.cgi?ID=762
Money Back Guarantee
To further increase your credibility, you must
completely remove your
potential customer's risk. Provide them with a solid,
no risk, money
back guarantee. This will put their mind at ease by
building their
confidence in you and your product. In addition, you
must honor ALL
refund requests in a timely manner with complete professionalism.
No matter what you're selling or how great your
product is you will
receive refund requests. It's just a part of doing
business. Don't take it
personally or try to argue the point with your
customers, simply give
them a refund. You may be surprised to learn that the
customers who
ask for a refund may purchase other products from you
in the future.
Feedback
Many times, potential customers will have questions in
regard to your
products and services. Create a page on your website
called
"feedback" and place a form on this page to
enable your visitors to
contact you. It is very important that you answer
these questions as
quickly as possible. Your personal response to your
potential
customers can literally determine whether or not
you're going to make
a sale.
A feedback form will also enable you to gather
testimonials and
receive suggestions to assist you in improving your
website, products
or services.
Secure Server
If you're processing your customer's orders online, you
must place
your order form on a secure server. This will protect
your customer's
personal information, while at the same time, provides
your customers
with added confidence in placing an order with you. In
addition, make
sure you let your visitors know that their information
will be processed
on a secure server.
By taking the time to build your credibility with your
visitors, you will
increase your Internet sales considerably.
44
Mini-Sites – Highly Targeted Sales
Generators
If you're looking for a highly effective method of
increasing your
Internet sales, then mini-sites may be your answer. Mini-sites
are one
of the most effective marketing tools online. Not only
are they
effective, but they're also very inexpensive and easy
to create.
The concept is simple. Create a one or two page
website that
completely focuses on one specific topic. Everything
within that page
should have one purpose -- getting the visitor to take
action.
This page should be neatly designed in standard HTML
with no Flash or
fancy plug-ins and very few graphics. There
should be no banners or
outside
links of any kind and nothing that will distract your visitor's
attention.
The sole
purpose of a mini-site is to attract highly targeted traffic. The
more
targeted the better. For example, if you have a website that sells
a number
of products, a good mini-site would focus on one specific
product
instead of all of the products. You could create a mini-site for
each
product you offer.
Designing
Your Mini-Site
Each
mini-site you create should be optimized for that one specific
product.
Concentrate on just a few keyword phrases, as this will help
you to
tighten your targeting. Remember ... the tighter the targeting
the
better.
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• Title - Your
"Title" should contain your most important keywords.
You've
probably heard that before, but I've found a slightly different
method for
optimizing the title. Since mini-sites focus on just one
product,
place the "most" important "keyword phrase" first. Not just
your most
important phrase, but the keyword phrase that you think
people
will use when they do a search. Instead of capitalizing the
first
letter, type it in lowercase, as most people type in all lowercase
letters
when searching. This will assist you in ranking higher in the
Search
Engine for your targeted audience.
• Description
- Your description should focus on one specific product
and not
generalize. Make sure you include your most important
keywords
towards the beginning of your description. In addition,
make sure
your description describes your site in detail. You want
your
potential visitors to know exactly what you're offering. Your
description
should be less than 200 characters.
• Keywords -
Concentrate on just a few keyword phrases.
• Heading
tags - Search Engines pay close attention to the text
displayed
within the "Heading" tags. Place your most important
keyword
phrase within a "Heading" tag.
• Graphic
Alt tags - Place a readable keyword phrase within your
graphic
"Alt" tags.
• Text - All of
your text should focus on your product. There should
be no
filler text whatsoever. It should have one specific purpose --
getting
your visitor to take action. Make sure you include your
keyword
phrases throughout your text.
If you'd
like to set up your mini-site using tables, try to place your
"Heading"
text above your "Table" code. If this isn't possible, make
sure you
include your keyword phrases within your top left "Table cell"
to assist
you in ranking higher in the Search Engines.
Mini-sites
are not limited to just your products. They can also be used
with any
affiliate programs you may be promoting. You can include
extra
incentives such as a free bonus for purchasing the product or
even your
personal recommendation. This is a great way to pre-sell
the
product.
Hosting
Your Mini-Site
When
hosting a website, you normally must purchase a web-hosting
package
for each domain. However, there is a way that you can host
from one
to twenty-five domains with only one web-hosting package.
Your first
step will be to register your domain names with DirectNIC
http://www.directnic.com. If you
previously registered a domain name
somewhere
else, you can simply transfer it to DirectNIC.com. Your
next step
will be to sign up and host your main site with Host4Profit
http://www.Host4Profit.com/cgi-bin/home.cgi?1087.
This is a good
web host
that will provide you with 300mg of web space very
inexpensively.
Once
you've signed up, you'll need to create a subdirectory within your
new Host4Profit
account for each domain you wish to host. Your final
step will
be to visit DirectNIC to forward each Domain name to your
new
subdirectories. This technique is one of the little secrets used by
many of
the top Internet Marketers.
Drive Targeted Traffic to Your Site
Once you have tested the effectiveness of your site
and have a good
conversion rate, (the number of visitors compared to
the number of
sales) you can buy targeted traffic. Goto.com is the
number one payper-
click Search Engine and will most likely produce the
best results.
For additional options, visit:
http://www.payperclicksearchengines.com/
They provide information and reviews on a number of
pay-per-click
Search Engines.
The key to using this technique effectively is to bid
on "very" targeted
keywords. This will weed out the casual visitors and
only attract your
target audience. There's no sense in paying for
visitors who really
weren't interested to begin with.
In addition to bidding on keywords, you can also
advertise in targeted
ezines and even purchase some targeted banner
advertising. Be
creative and take the time to test all of your
promotions prior to
spending a lot of money.
If you really want to increase your sales, create some
mini-sites. They
are one of the cheapest and easiest to create profit
generators online.