What exactly does it take to trigger someone’s desire to contact you?
This is one of the first questions I ask myself when we take on a new client. What one thing can I do that will convince a homeowner with a leaky faucet or a business owner in need of a new accountant to pick up the phone or fill out that form?
It’s different for every website, so I tend to spend a lot of time addressing this question, and even when we think we know the answer, I will go back and check again and again, fine tuning our strategy until we get it just right.
But despite the fact that every website and every website visitor are different, there are a couple of things that remain consistent.
These three things are so consistent in fact, that if you don’t have them on your website, visitors are MUCH less likely to contact you. Today I want to show you what they are and how you can implement them right away.
- Trust Trigger – My basement could be under two feet of water and I’ll still hesitate before calling a plumber who has a barebones website, no testimonials and no reviews in Google. There needs to be some trigger on the website or connected to it that tells me I can trust that business owner. When you get that social proof, display it prominently. Get customers to review you in Google Places. Put their testimonials on your home page. Take photos of them after a job well done. Leverage your success to show what you’ve accomplished.
- A Person – If you walked into an empty store front with a sign on the counter that said to “leave money” would you do it? It sounds strange, but that’s what most websites do. They want visitors to instantly trust the company whose site it is but there is no “person” there to greet them. Every page of your site should have a face on it – yours, your team’s, your customers, or even a model you hire. Someone should be greeting them physically to alleviate the disconnect that shopping or hiring online can bring.
- Clear Instructions – Have you ever visited a website and had no idea what to do next. You want to order a product or hire someone to perform a service and for the life of you, you can’t find a phone number, address, or contact form. How long do you stick around looking for one? Your website should be loaded with as many contact options as possible. Make it easy, no matter how someone surfs (on their phone or on a computer) to reach you the moment they decide to order. If you sell products directly from the site, make the instructions clear and the ordering process as seamless as possible.
These might seem like small things, but the vast majority of new websites fail on one of the three. Simply having a website is not enough to generate trust, interest and follow through. You need to guide your visitors through these steps.
If you do, you’re near instantly among the top 10% in your industry – and that’s a good place to be, especially when brand new.
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