Trust Us!

Send credible messages with newsletters

by Meryl K. Evans, Editor

A company must earn and keep trust or sales don’t happen. Imagine while you were reading the paper last Sunday, you saw an ad for a great deal on a digital camera. You’d been considering buying one for a while, and this ad sealed the deal. You went to buy the camera, and the salesperson told you the store was sold out. You weren’t offered a rain check, and instead, the salesperson substituted a different model for a “similar” price.

In this classic case of “bait and switch,” you felt like you’d been had.

After that, do you trust these people? Will you return to buy from that store? Were you aggravated at the paper for running a less-than-honest ad?

In a similar fashion, maintaining customers’ trust through e-newsletters, especially for businesses that serve other businesses, requires honesty, along with a commitment to provide readers with a positive experience.

Valued visitors return

If people don’t regularly click through to your Web site, a newsletter may help build the relationship to the point where readers will visit your site. However, the Web site and your newsletter must work in tandem to help readers make the transition from reader to prospect.

If a visitor comes to your site from the newsletter and doesn’t like it, all credibility disappears and a return visit is unlikely. And vice versa. No matter how good a newsletter is, visitors arriving at a Web site and receiving a lousy first impression won’t sign up for more issues. Your product or service may be fabulous or unique, but that doesn’t do any good if the site promoting it doesn’t give needed support.

Customers buy only when they can:

• See value in a product or service

• Feel trust

• Believe in the stability of the company

This mantra especially applies to people involved with B2B transactions because few sales are impulsive. Newsletters can communicate stability. Present a newsletter focused on business problems as opposed to products/services and features/benefits and you’ll be considered an industry resource. Trust builds when the newsletter engages readers while addressing their needs, as opposed to focusing on the sponsoring company’s needs.

Characteristics of credible Web sites

Consumer WebWatch has created guidelines for Web sites to use to help improve credibility. Of those who responded to their poll, 88 percent said keeping personal information secure is the most important feature on a Web site. A close 81 percent said being able to trust the information on a Web site is very important.

When arriving at a site for the first time, we quickly judge how we feel about it. Forming first impressions takes little effort, just like in a job interview. Sites that sell something have an extra challenge — proving their credibility so customers can trust and buy.

How many times have we been guilty of commenting, “Look at that person! Can you believe she is wearing that?” We get so involved in what the person’s wearing that we don’t begin to venture forth and learn about that person. Unlike our dealings with people, Web sites are much easier to leave — after a bad first impression.

A credible Web site welcomes visitors because it:

• Demonstrates professionalism through design and structure

• Shows real organization behind the site

• Lets the facts and information do the talking

• Identifies clearly advertising and sponsorship versus news and information

• Ensures visitors can easily make contact

• Respects visitor privacy

Use design and structure that puts customers first and gets their attention: The site loads fast and features easy, intuitive navigation. Web sites loaded with ads, low-quality text and design, and sloppy navigation lose credit fast.

Reveal the organization behind the site by having a mailing address and not a P.O. box; providing phone numbers; and providing an “About” section that includes photos, names and bios of people involved with the company. These are just a few of the ways a company can demonstrate people helping its customers.

Allow facts and information to do the talking through testimonials and unbiased newspaper clippings (not press releases), and give the facts without superlatives and opinions by using words like fabulous, wonderful and fast. Words like these sound like a late-hour TV commercial produced cheaply. Ads splattered all over the page or popping up faster than popcorn send people running as fast as you can say “click me out of here.”

Differentiate advertising and sponsorship vs. news and information by using labels or other visual aids. When companies have relationships with other businesses and link to them, they need to disclose their relationships.

Make certain visitors can easily make contact by providing phone numbers, email addresses, email contact forms and mailing addresses in visible locations on the site. This builds credibility. Customers that have a hard time finding contact information think the company has something to hide or must not really exist, like those charity scams.

Ask for limited information to respect visitor privacy. Do not request prospects to immediately “sign up” to get the details; instead, take time to establish trust. Offer a clearly and simply stated privacy policy that explains how the company won’t share information with third parties to seal the deal.

Developing trust through your newsletter

These tips to build Web site credibility also apply to your newsletter. By keeping your messages consistent and clear on your Web site and in your newsletter, your company will be on its way to becoming a trusted source.

Success doesn’t happen instantly, and it’s better to cultivate customer relationships over time. Once the customers enter the sales cycle, the company still has work to do. The next step is to follow up through emails and newsletters, keep every promise and start with small offers. Then build up to the big offer. Do this, and you’ll successfully complete the sales cycle.

Meryl K. Evans is the Content Maven behind this newsletter. She has written for The Dallas Morning News, PC Today, InformIT and others. You can contact her at Meryl@InternetVIZ.com or stop by her blog.