Day 8: Trust Comes From Transparency
03 May 2010
Outside your local grocery store, there is a man selling food from the trunk of his car. The food looks good, the car is nice, and the price is right, but the man is hiding his identity with a ski mask. Would you trust him? Would you buy his goods? Probably not.
It is hard to trust someone that is hiding. This is equally true on a website. We may wish to remain anonymous, but not if we expect to sell anything. People buy from people.
Steps to Website Transparency (and also Trust)
- Provide a phone number and street address
- List the leaders or owners of your business
- Provide a photo of your building and employees
- Connect your website to your Linkedin profiles
- Provide a company history and list core competencies
- Take responsibility for your products and actions
- Don't try to be something you are not
- Write about what you know with details
- Encourage comments or feedback and respond to all
- Avoid surprises in the sales process
The popularity of Linkedin, Facebook, and Twitter are examples of a trend in business and society toward open, straight-forward communication. This openness comes as a pendulum swing (or backlash) to the overly-valued anonymity that once ruled the web.
If you want more visitors to your website and more buyers for your products or service, add more transparency to your website. Transparency is a Best Practice for website success.
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