Building Trust (Part 3 of 5):
Using your mailing list to build trust.
October 18, 2006
This is part three of a five part series on building trust in your visitors in order to convert them to customers.
Step 3. The visitor joins your mailing list.
If you’ve played your cards right, the visitor we've been talking about in the last two parts of this series has been given a small amount of trust by reading the article that led to your web site, and then your web site’s professional appearance boosted his or her trust in you and the information you provide.
Now it’s time to continue the reinforcement of that trust by getting the visitor on your mailing list. That is the third step in the journey toward a sale.
I've repeatedly encouraged people to build up a mailing list. Your mailing list is what's going to bring you the most customers. It does this because it gives you the most opportunities to build trust in your audience.
To that end, you should have an opt-in box on every single one of the pages of your web site. Be sure to give people an incentive to get on your mailing list. Don’t just tell them that they will be notified of new articles if they join the list, give them a free gift for signing up.
An ebook or a 5 day mini-course is great because it doesn't cost you anything but has a lot of value in the eyes of the visitor. Another great thing about informational gifts is that they further reinforce trust by demonstrating your expertise even more.
Once you have the visitor on the list, notify them each time you post new articles to your site (as long as you don't send them a notice more than once every other day or so). They will visit, read the article, and perhaps click on an ad or buy a product. But most importantly the trust they have in you will grow. Your advice will become more and more important to them as long as it remains of high quality.
Now that you have reinforced the list member's trust in you, it's time to have the visitor take the fourth step in the journey toward a sale.
Tomorrow's post will examine the fourth step that leads to converting a visitor into a sale by building trust: your product offer.
Comments
-
Jonathan Leger has been earning his living online full-time since the fall of 2004. He regularly posts advice about search engine optimization (his current passion), AdSense and Internet Marketing. He is the creator of a suite of popular software tools, including: Jonathan L Leger 
-
