In this final part of our three part series on effective communication using your website, we will talk about Credibility of Communication. At the end of the day, no matter how detailed or how hard you try to convince your customers/readers on what you try to communicate, it is important that Credibility is clearly visible in your content.
The reader wants transparency and clarity: make him understand immediately who’s behind the website (use real first and last names, nicknames aren’t exactly synonymous with professionalism) and give him the possibility to quickly and easily contact you.
One way to do that is to not limit yourself to a simple form, but to provide, if possible, some valid alternatives. A telephone number, especially a land line or cell phone number, is always a sign of stability and instills a certain sense of trust in the reader or customer who would like to interact with you in more detail.
Lastly, whatever business is promoted on the website, dedicate a small section to testimonials: there’s nothing more reassuring than positive feedback, especially if it’s left by someone that can be traced. It’s important to add credibility to your testimonials by associating them with existing and verifiable e-mail addresses, telephone numbers, or websites wherever possible.
In Conclusion, using some of the above mentioned guidelines along with a strong sense of understanding of the customer/readers needs, one can utilize several simple, easily available and highly visible channels to communicate with the users of their website. What matters is the ability to apply them and always seek feedback from customers, peers, employees etc. to look for ways to enhance communication using one of the foremost mediums of communication in today’s technology savvy world. At GingerDomain, we will continue to provide simple, relevant and interesting views that will help enhance your experience with the Web.
Stay tuned for more interesting articles and blog posts in the upcoming months/weeks of 2012.
