Loading ...Here’s an article published today in “The Portable Business™.” If you’d like to subscribe, go here:
When your business is virtual, your website becomes the public office and face of your business. But because you are virtual, visitors can’t walk into your office and get any sense about the personality of the business or its professionalism and legitimacy… Or can they?
Just because you may run an online-based business doesn’t mean you can’t create the same feelings of trust and credibility in your site visitors that a physical brick-and-mortar office does for its visitors. There are little details you can provide on your website that will have a powerful impact in establishing rapport and building trust with your prospective clients and customers.
1. Your Name. People do business with people, not anonymous, impersonal machines. They want to know who it is they will actually be dealing with. Clearly display your name, if not on all the pages of your site, at least on your Contact page. Lead your business loud and proud and just see what a difference it makes.
2. Address. It doesn’t matter if you use a physical address (although be cautious about this if you run a home-based business) or a post office box—just have an address of some kind or another. There isn’t a logical reason for this and it may not be relevant since your customers or clients don’t come to your office, but this one doesn’t have to do with logic or reason. It’s an emotional thing. People just feel safer about a business if they can clearly see there is an address attached to it.
3. Contact Info. Don’t make it difficult for folks to figure out how to contact you (although in some part, it’s not even about the ability to contact you, it’s just simply knowing it is easy to do so if they ever need to). The more clearly you display contact info, the better visitors feel about your site. The best sites not only display at least their basic contact info on all pages of their site, but also consolidate their full information (including hours of operation and other helpful data) on a Contact page of some sort.
4. Photo. Nothing does more to instil rapport than providing a photo of yourself on your website. It’s a great idea to have your image right there on your Home page to immediately greet your site visitors. But if not there, at least provide a photo of yourself on your About or Contact page. You don’t have to be the most beautiful or sharpest dresser. Forget the cheesy glamour shots and unnecessary Photoshopping. Don’t use any photo that is more than five years old–better to take a fresh, current photo of the real you. Wearing something simple and professionally modest is perfectly fine. The most important, stylish thing you should be wearing in your photo is your smile.
5. Your Office. If you have a separate office area that is presentable (such as a dedicated room or space in your home that you have turned into your office), take a photo and put that on your site. Prospective clients like to see these glimpses into your operations. It makes it more real to them and they get a sense of who you are as a person at the same time.
6. Don’t be a robot. Long gone are the days of impersonal corporate-speak and the royal “we.” Talk with your site visitors like you would a real living, breathing person. Have a conversation with them in your copy. One technique for doing this is to imagine your ideal client in full detail, clearly picture their face and personality before you, and then write your content as if they were sitting right next to you asking questions (with your answers serving as your content).
7. It’s not about you. Never forget that your site is for your visitors, not an indulgence for your ego. I don’t know how to put this more delicately, but when folks are shopping for solutions, they don’t care about you. They are looking with a “what’s in it for me” mentality. They want to know what you do and how you do it as it applies to their interests, their needs. They want that information provided from their perspective, not yours. That means using lots of “you” in your writing rather than “I” and “we.” If you have lots of “I” and “we” in your copy now, go through and do a more personalized rewrite with a “you” perspective. It will really transform the whole personality of your content–you’ll see.
RESOURCE: Julia Hyde offers some further great tips for effective contant writing on your business website: “10 Tips for Writing Effective Web Copy.”
About the Author: Danielle Keister is a business advisor and innovator in the Virtual Assistance profession. An administrative professional of 20+ years and veteran Virtual Assistant of 12+ years, her logical, no-nonsense approach to business development has gained her recognition as one of the leaders in the field. She loves what she does and is passionate about sharing her knowledge and know-how with the world. She’s all about inspiring others to reach for their highest excellence. When not taking care of clients in her own Virtual Assistant practice, she is busy leading the Virtual Assistance Chamber of Commerce and helping Virtual Assistants create six figure businesses.
© Copyright 2009, The Portable Business™. All U.S. and International rights reserved. You may print this article for personal use or republish it online only if it is left unaltered and used in its entirety, including bylines, links, copyright notice, resource and author information. Contact the author for any other permission.
