Your Website Tells Your Story. Make it Win Trust – and Sales

Since the first cave dweller showed how she outwitted the local sabre-tooth, we’ve been hooked. We are hard-wired for stories.  It’s how we learn, remember, plot our future – and how we decide. It’s why the Bible is crammed with parables and kids still pick up life’s lessons from the fox and grapes in Aesop’s Fables.  When dealing with strangers in the non-real world of cyberspace, the story – your story – can be the deciding factor in winning trust for your web site.

You probably haven’t thought of your web site as a narrative, but it is.  Chances are, when checking out a new site, you so straight to the “About us” page to learn the actual circumstances behind the slick design and tempting images. So will your visitors.

Prove You Really Exist

The first thing a good story needs is a setting.  This means your address, phone, fax, e-mail and any other way  of reaching you.  Whether it’s a farm in Ohio, a warehouse in Red Deer or an office tower in LA, you acquire a location in the physical world.  You have a door with a brass handle and a welcome mat.  Your prospect feels he or she could knock and find you if so inclined.   Without this information, your visitor wonders what you are hiding.  Or concludes there might be empty air behind the grand facade.  

Character Is Key

The next thing a story needs is characters. Who are these people, your visitor wants to know.  Are they competent? Do I like them?  Can I trust them?  The more you reveal about yourself – how you started, how long you have been in business, what your skills, goals and achievements are, how much you care, the more crucial pieces are slotted into the character profile your visitor is mentally building.  If you are small and trying to look big, if you’ve struggled along the way and made mistakes, be honest about it. You’ll only be that much more convincing to your visitors. Your photo and smile add enormously and that also goes for pictures and bios of your crew.  Customers want to do business with a walking, talking responsive human being just like themselves, not some faceless cyberpresence.

Action!

The action, of course, is the story of your product or service – how it works and what thrilling improvements it creates for your customers.  This is the part you are really good at. You sell most strongly by creating vivid scenarios, starring your visitors, in which your widget delivers an irresistible benefit into their lives.  Your credibility is immensely reinforced by other stories, called testimonials. Disinterested third party characters recount their own encounters with your widget, giving a frank assessment of its  performance, letting your prospect to make a decision based on authentic, real life experience. It’s no different from our wily ancestor selling her proven strategy for surviving toothy predators.

Whiz Bang Conclusion

Once your visitor decides to buy, you must tell the story of how you intend to do business with that customer.  You supply a clear sequence of action from taking the order, collection of payment, means of delivery to the guarantee and support you provide afterward.

You make sure your website itself is a visual drama, flowing easily and logically from introduction to finish. If you tell your story well, making sure none of it is fiction,  it will lead to a very happy ending – satisfaction for your customers, sales and success for you.

Copyright Gail Hamilton 2009