Get More Clients Online

Case of Mistaken Identity

I guess you can say I have arrived at last -- to the land of mistaken identity.  I've gotten several calls from irate customers of a company out of Scottsdale, AZ called Online Biz Marketing demanding that I refund their credit cards for charges they didn't authorize.  The first email that I got kinda blew me out of the water, as it was pretty hostile, but the follow up voicemail that he left was much kinder. 

After speaking with him and clarifying that it wasn't my company that he was seeking, I did a bit of research online and discovered a host of other people with the same problem who were documenting their stories on a site called RipOffReport.com.

The third call I received about this issue led to my getting the offending business' phone number, and at that point I decided to place some info on my contact page to ward off future calls.  I decided to add my mailing address to my contact page, as well, as the first piece of documentation that I don't operate out of Scottsdale.

It must be working...I've had no other irate calls or emails now for over a week!

The Secret of Customer Appreciation

Typically during the months of November, December, and January, online business owners feel the urge to say "thank you" -- to their blog/ezine readers, to their clients and customers, and to their business colleagues.  In recent years, this often means sending a mass email card to an email mailing list, which, if you're on the receiving end of such a missive, feels about as personal as junk mail addressed to "Occupant."  Snail mail cards are not much better because the majority of those cards contain an imprinted greeting along with a business name and nothing else.

Using this strategy to recognize and thank your contacts can completely backfire, if you're not careful.  Rather than feeling recognized, your recipient may simply become jaded and wonder why you bothered, especially if they haven't heard from you in awhile, or if you didn't take the time to jot a personal note.

What should your rule of thumb be when saying thanks or giving recognition to your customers and contacts?  If you don't know someone well enough to pick up the phone and call them or to drop a letter in the mail to her, don't bother sending a thank you at all.  I realize that this flies in the face of common marketing strategy, which encourages small businesses owners to use the holiday season as an excuse to "reach out and touch" their contact database.  However, you must realize that if your business is doing this, so are 10 other businesses also used by your contact.

How can you make your business "thank you" stand out in the crowd?  Make it personal -- and unique.

I recently received a very unique postcard and enclosure from newsletter coach and designer Jessica Albon of TheWriteExposure.com.  What made this holiday greeting noteworthy?  It...

1.  was addressed to me in a unique, eye-catching font.
2.  had a rubber stamp image on the back of the envelope.
3.  made references to her dog, Izzy.
4.  provided me with a doggie treat recipe and a people recipe, as well.
5.  had a doggie treat enclosure in a hand-made envelope.
6.  contained a personal, handwritten message from Jessica that contained my name.

Amazingly enough, there was no mention of her business.  Why?  Because I know Jessica well enough that no reminder of what she does is necessary.  This was a brilliant marketing strategy on Jessica's part (even if she didn't plan it that way) because I felt noticed and special as the recipient of this mailing.  I never thought about whether she sent this to 20 people or 120 people -- it was unique and personalized enough that I felt I was the only recipient.

It's amazing the effect you can have when you personalize your appreciation. When I was living in Adams, MA, I was a regular subscriber to the local daily newspaper. The delivery service had always been iffy, at best, sometimes arriving early, sometimes late, sometimes not at all, and sometimes in places where I didn't find the paper until several days later. However, that all changed one month, and the service became impeccable. The paper was always placed on the arms of my mailbox where I could find it, was bagged if it were inclement weather so it wouldn't get wet, and was always promptly delivered.

I know that most of the time the paper hired junior high students to do the route, as the job was a good first job for them to have to give them a little income. Sometimes people who were a little down and out would take the job to help them make ends meet until they again found gainful employment. I really didn't know who was delivering my paper, but I decided that I wanted to thank the person for doing such a great job.

I called the newspaper office and asked for my carrier's name and contact info and then proceeded to call my carrier. When he picked up the phone, I told him who I was. He immediately wanted to know what problem there had been with my paper delivery. I told him that I didn't have a problem, but was simply calling him to thank him for doing such an awesome job and that my delivery was the best it had ever been in the entire time I'd subscribed to this newspaper.

There was a very long pause, as though he were at a loss for words. "Oh," he said, "I thought you were calling about a problem with me. That's why people usually call." Then he uttered a "thank you" and we ended the call.

Now, I don't know if I made his day or put him into shock. I hope I did a little of both. My newspaper service continued to be outstanding until he left the position to do something else. I felt really wonderful the rest of that day, because I chose to think I'd made a small difference in his life that day by just telling him "thanks for doing such a great job."

Never underestimate the power of a personal "thank you."  Spending your time to convey your personal thanks and appreciation in a personal fashion will pay off for you more in the long run than spending the same amount of time in conveying your thanks with some impersonal, automated gesture.

7 Golden Rules of Online Customer Service

How do you treat the people with whom you do business?  Many times what we forget in this online world where so much of our customer service is automated is that, in the end, we're still doing business with other people.  Do your customer service procedures create raving fans or send people away into the Internet black hole, never to be heard from again, except when you're bashed on some blog or disparaged in a discussion forum post?

What's the real price you pay as an online business owner for your customer service?  Usually, the "real price" boils down to one thing -- word-of-mouth-marketing.  If your customer likes the way you handle a situation, he will probably tell tell 3-5 others.  However, if he feels he was treated poorly or unfairly,  he'll tell 50 of his closest friends about the bad experience. Sad to say, we human beings love to complain much more than to praise. Why burn bridges with your customer when you don't have to?

Online business owners often create customer service rules that are based on fear -- fear of being taken advantage of, fear of someone getting the best of you, fear of someone not paying you for your time  What happens if the entire basis of your customer service standards is fear?  Well, then fear-based outcomes is what you'll get, because you tend to get what you choose to focus on.  So,  if you perceive that everyone in the world is out to get you and take advantage of you, then you're right..:)

Is there a good middle ground to choose that protects both your interests and gives your customer a great experience?  There is, and you'll find it in my simple, 10-second philosophy of customer service.  Ready?  Here it goes.....treat your customer how you want to be treated. That's it -- nothing high tech here. 

To help you evaluate your online customer service for my Golden Rule philosophy, here are 7 standards you should consider:

1.  Don't hide behind the legalese.  Don't expect your customer to page through a multi-page, small print document and read and understand all of your stipulations, especially if they're written in legalese rather than simpler English. If you put unfavorable or difficult terms in your Terms of Service agreement and your customer signs it, sure, you have legal protection to back up whatever terms they stipulated to with their signature.  But, will the wrangling over those terms be worth it in the end?  If you have terms that your customer might not find favorable at a later date, be sure and point those out to him in the beginning.  Don't expect him to figure it out on his own, and don't hide behind the cowardly excuse, "Well, you should have read the Terms of Service thoroughly  There's nothing I can do." 

2. Walk a mile in your customer's shoes.  Would you want to be treated the way you're treating them?  If what you're doing to your customers makes you queasy and uneasy, that's your instinct telling you that what you're doing isn't just and proper.  Moreover, how would you feel if you were treated in this fashion?

3.  Make it simple to do business with you.  Don't make your customer have to hire an attorney to understand your contract or to do business with you.  I'm not advocating that you completely ignore legal help and advice.  However, an attorney's job is to protect you from ALL liability, even those things that have a very small likelihood of actually occurring.  Consequently, this usually translates into a very long document that's very difficult to read and comprehend.  Work with your attorney to transform any contracts or Terms of Service agreements that you have into ones that are easily read and understood by the average person.

4.  Don't do customer support via email.  When you're first starting out, using email to answer service problems is ok, but as it becomes more and more difficult to send and receive legitimate business email, you'll find that you start to lose inquiries as your business grows larger and as your number of inquiries increase.  At that point, think about installing a virtual support desk. This is a website that contains common FAQs and answers, as well as offers your customers the ability to open a ticket to report a problem.  All correspondence occurs within the site, so you lessen the possibility of lost email.  One of the more popular programs is Kayako, www.kayako.com. 

5.  Make it easy to contact you.  Nothing is more irritating than wanting to speak to a real, live person for help and all you find is a contact form or an email address.  Don't leave your customers out in the cold. Offer several options for contacting you, whether that's by email, phone, instant messaging system, live chat on your website, or a help desk/trouble ticket system.

6.  Make it easy to stop doing business with you. I learned a valuable lesson from the Director of Admissions when I worked as a student affairs administrator at a small college and was trying to change a student's mind about dropping out of school.  He told me, "Once they're already decided to leave, their minds are made up and there's no turning back.  Just let them go." This applies to your customers as well.  There may be a small percentage that you can salvage as a customer in this process, but the overwhelming majority have already made their final decision. Don't make them jump through hoops to cancel their business with you -- make it as easy and painless as possible.  However, do follow up with a phone call or email or survey to determine the reason for their departure, but don't force them to go through this process to exit.  Remember the AOL service cancellation call that was recorded and posted online that became a huge embarrassment for AOL?  Don't let your cancellation policy become the next big Internet joke.

7.  If in doubt, ask your customer what to do.  If you and your customer can't come to a resolution that feels equitable to both parties, ask your customer what he believes is the fair thing to do. I believe that generally people are good and fair and that most will treat you humanely if they've been humanely treated by you.  The final decision may not be everything that you want, but it's probably not everything that your customer wants, either.  You can use this strategy to end on a positive note, and while the customer may not return to you, he probably also won't tell everyone he meets that you're an ogre, either.

Figure out how you can implement this Golden Rule philosophy in your online business.  You'll find it to be a business asset that's priceless.

Dealing with Less Than Positive Feedback

So, what happens when you get a message that's not very positive?  It's a great blow to the ego, for sure, and sometimes takes me out of the game for a bit.  Alas, I do suffer from Oprah's "disease to please" syndrome from time to time.

As you may know, I offer a free gift on my website and blog in return for signing up for my email list.  Once someone requests that, I have a series of autoresponders that go out to keep in touch with each prospect.

Here's an email I received today in response to one of the autoresponders:

Hello,

I found the product to be informative and a valuable resource for the first half, but I must say I found many of the links from page 32 onwards to be useless. Rather than being an index of resources, a direction for where to go next, it seemed to be promoting a lot of businesses that were forced into relevance. My humble opinion is that it destroyed the trust I had placed in you as an independent advisor, I now feel that whatever information of yours I might read would be tainted by whomever's product/service you were promoting rather than unbiassed advice.

I hope you don't find this harsh, I thought you might appreciate some honest feedback. And please note, the first part of the document is pure gold!

It wasn't all negative, to be sure, but I have to admit that feedback like this still kicks me a bit in the gut to this day.  How should you react to something like this?  Ignore it?  Send a flaming email in response and tell them that they're crazy for thinking like they do?  Kindly thank them for their input and dismiss the comment?  Realize that there might be a grain of truth to the comment?

If I'm honest, I know that there's a grain of truth in this comment -- and that is that I need to update the resources section of the ebook, as well as give a clearer direction as to the next step someone should take.

Here's how I responded:

Thanks for your honesty for the latter portion of the doc.  I'll be the first to admit that section needs to be updated, as I have found some new resources that better serve my needs. That revision task is part of the marketing plan for a new website that is currently under development.

When the new doc is available, I'll email you and let you know how to download the updated copy.

In terms of my recommendations of resources, I stand behind those 100%.  These are all tools and resources I have used in my business.  I seldom make a recommendation for something with which I have no experience.  Since I get so many questions asking me how to do something or what I use, I created the list as a quick reference point for those kinds of questions.  So, yes, the list is biased -- by my experience..

I'm sorry that you've lost all trust in my advice and recommendations, but I do wish you well in your endeavor.

Warmly,

Donna

How did I do?  Would you have done something differently?   How do you handle this kind of feedback?  Inquiring minds want to know..;->

10 Steps to Researching Your Competition Online

Regardless of what business you're in, you have competition, or other businesses who are clamoring for the same consumer dollars as you.  The competition may or may not be in the same industry, e.g. if you own a movie theatre, your competition will be all venues providing entertainment, such as bowling alleys, theme parks, skating rinks, miniature golf courses, in addition to other movie theatres. Take a moment to determine what business you're in and determine if your type of business might also attract consumers from other industries.

As an online business owner, your competition may not be as easy to gauge, especially if you don't have a retail location for your business, or if you have a global virtual company where you can work with clients regardless of location, as many coaches, consultants, virtual assistants, graphic designers, speakers, and website designers do.  How do you begin to assess your competition when your business has no geographic limits?  It's very similar to the steps that a traditional business might take, but it's all done online.

Here are the ten steps I use to research my competition online:

1.  Brainstorm all known competitors.  If you've been in business for any length of time, you probably already have a good sense of which other companies offer what you offer.  Look up their websites and make a note of the website addresses.  You'll be using this information later.

2.  Compile a list of keywords your customer would use to find a business like yours online. How would your target market find you online?  Create a list of all keywords that they might use. If you have a business that serves a particular geographic region, you'll want to create a geographic keyword listing as well, like "cleaning business" + "Beaumont, Texas" or "cleaning business" + "Southeast Texas".

3.  Conduct a keyword search on the major search engines.  The major players in the search engine game today seem to be Google, Yahoo, and MSN.  It is the results from these search engine queries that will be the ones most commonly found by your target market. You should try your search with and without quotation marks, like "cleaning business" and cleaning business and conduct a search by location, as well, if that applies to your business.  Make a note of the top 10 listings from each search engine query and those will comprise your top competition, along with other local competitors that you know about.

4  Visit your competitors' websites and analyze their offerings. Create a summary of each competitor's services and/or products. Determine the strength and weaknesses of your competition from the perspective of your target market.  Assess how your offerings are better/worse/different from that of the competition. Are your prices higher or lower than theirs?  Why?  What makes you unique?  How can you capitalize on that uniqueness and set yourself apart from the competition? By following these steps, you'll discover your competitive advantage, or the reason(s) your target market does business with you instead of your competition. 

5.  Create a spreadsheet to track your results.  You'll want to track your research over time, so create a spreadsheet in which you keep track of all the information you discover about your competition.  Compare how both your company and the companies of your closest competition evolve throughout a year.

6.  See how your competition stacks up.  Determine how popular your competition is.  Download the Google Toolbar and determine their Google Page Rank and visit Alexa.com and determine your competitor's Alexa Traffic Ranking.  A higher Google Page Rank (on a scale of 1-10), indicates more relevance and higher traffic. In Alexa, the lower your ranking (under 500,000 means your site is fairly well visited; under 100,000 means your site is a big contender in your industry), the more relevant your site is deemed. In addition, with Alexa, you can see the other websites owned by this company, see related sites visited from this website, as well as other sites with inbound links to this site.  You can use this latter information to create a list for potential link exchanges or future strategic alliances. A tool you can use to get both rankings simultaneously is Rank Alert.

7.  Complete an analysis of their websites.  What meta tags are being used on your competitor's websites?  How are their websites optimized for keywords or keyword phrases?  How many inbound links do your competitors have?  From what other sites are the inbound links coming?  Two tools you can use to scope out this information on your competition are Keyword Density Analyzer and Link Popularity Checker.

8.  Track your competition with alerts.  The easiest way to stay on top of what your competition is doing is to track them with Google Alerts and Yahoo Alerts.  In my alerts notifications, I track both keywords relevant to my business, as well as the names and website names of my closest competition.  Google has recently added a feature to their alerts system to notify you of blog postings as well, in addition to website updates and news alerts.

9.  Shop your competition.  Become your competitor's customer.  Buy the products of your top 5 competitors and familiarize yourself with their sales process.  By doing so, you'll be able to sell your own product or service more effectively since you'll have a better understanding of what your competition offers. Becoming their customer also lets you discover their weaknesses, as well as your own.  In addition, you'll want to join their mailing list or email broadcast list to keep up-to-date on what they're doing.

10.  Regularly visit your competition.  Visit the websites of your top 5 competitors at least once a month to see what's new.  In this way you can spot trends in your industry, as well as determine what seems to be working well for them and determine how you can apply this information and knowledge in your own business.

Creating your competitive intelligence helps you stay one step ahead of your competitors. It's essential to have an up-to-date picture of your closest competitors and what they are doing so that your company is remaining competitive and a major player in your industry.

When is a Gift Not a Gift?

This morning I received an email from a coach whose email list I'm on.  In it, she requested that I participate in a quick survey, and that my "reward" would be a gift worth $20.  Since I'm a fan of her work, I assumed the gift would be a special report or ebook or audio program.

I completed the survey (it was only 7 questions or so), and discovered my "gift" was a $20 coupon off the regular price of one of her marketing programs. I have to tell you that I had a brief feeling of being ripped off. Granted, the survey was short, as she promised, but I don't consider it a "gift" to save $20 off something I still have to pay $77 to receive.  As I wrote to her, a $20 discount is a discount, not a gift, and it resembles a bait and switch when you promise one thing and deliver another.  In some circles this strategy might be considered smart Internet marketing, but I think the practice reeks of poor online relationship management.

It's just as important in the online world as it is in traditional marketing to deliver what you promise, with no strings attached. As an online business owner, you are developing relationships and a reputation online in everything that you do.  Don't let a brief lapse in judgment cause your online presence to be tarnished.

Birthday Celebrations

I was born into a family full of September birthdays.  My dad's birthday is Sept. 11, my mom's is Sept. 12, my sister's is Sept. 20, and my ex-husband's is Sept. 13, so at one time I was inundated with birthday celebrations this month.  And the fact that at one point three of them were three days in a row was an amazing coincidence..LOL.

With the passage of time, some of these birthdays have slipped off the radar.  My dad died in 1986, and I divorced my ex in 1999, so that leaves my mom's and sister's birthdays to celebrate.  Eric and I took my mom out for an early birthday celebration last Saturday.  One of my mom's favorite towns is Woodville, TX, so we went out for lunch at The Pickett House, part of the Heritage Village complex, a replica of an East Texas town's main street from the 1800's.

The cool thing about the Picket House is that it serves good ole' southern comfort food like fried chicken, chicken and dumplings, black-eyed peas, watermelon rind pickles, etc., family boarding house style.  What that means is that everyone is seated at a big table and they bring big bowls of food out to be passed around the table for an all-you-can-eat affair.  And, just like the boarding houses of 100 years ago, you bus your own table by taking all of your plates, bowls, and utensils to a deposit window at the kitchen.  Actually, that reminds me more of my college dining hall days than anything else..<g>.

We did a little shopping in downtown Woodville at Sullivan's Hardware, which has all kinds of cool stuff in addition to the hardware (I've never actually bought any hardware-related items here -- only the cool "non-hardware" stuff <g>).  Eric liked a unique wooden sculpture of a dogwood flower and butterfly that we found at the Tyler County Art League Gallery across the street, so I bought it for him for a birthday gift (his birthday is just around the corner in October).

Because downtown business is scarce in small East Texas towns these days, the shop owners/clerks killed us with kindness and were extraordinarily helpful in hopes of getting us to buy from them.  Eric said he's never been given as much attention as we had when we visited the shops around the Courthouse Square in Woodville. Salespeople who can help and want to help will definitely aid those stores in standing out among all the Wal-Mart's that dot the rural Texas landscape.  When's the last time you were offered assistance in a big box store??

How Returning a Phone Call Turned into $8,000.00

Recently, my sweetie, Eric, decided that he no longer wanted to have anything to do with our yard maintenance (like mowing, weed whacking, edging etc.).  Additionally, we had some pretty overgrown, ugly bushes in front of the house that we had been wanting to get rid of.  So, he asked me to make some calls to local companies to get some bids on landscaping and regular lawn maintenance. 

I found 2 companies in the local phone book who advertised that they did both and called both of them.  Only one company returned my call.  We went to meet with Mark Frey, owner of Frey's Nursery and Landscaping, and were really impressed with his proposal for landscaping and how well he offered to take care of the lawn.  Eric had long admired the yard that Mark's company maintained across the street from us, so we had solid evidence of the quality of service we'd be getting. So, Eric wrote Mark a check for the deposit on the landscaping and signed a year's contract for yard maintenance (total cost -- $5,040.00).

Frey's did an amazing landscaping job, so then Eric starting itching for a patio.  He'd (Eric) recently bought a grill and had finally put it together and used it over Labor Day weekend, so now he wanted a place for grilling. We'd asked Mark if he also did patios, and he did, so last Friday we met with him again about a patio design.  We still have to finalize the design, but Mark took care of our drainage challenges where we want to put the patio, and Eric wrote him another check for a deposit on the patio work (total estimated cost -- $2500).

So, because Mark chose to return a potential customer's phone call (my call), he has sold almost $8,000.00 worth of products and services to us.  See how much poor  customer service can cost you?  Wonder how much business that other company has lost...they still haven't returned my phone call..:)

The Key Ingredient in Client Satisfaction: Underpromise and Overdeliver

Like anyone else who operates a small service business, your word is your bond with your clients. A client might tolerate a broken promise here and there for a very good reason, but if the broken promises continue, the client's trust in you will be lost, and in very short order you will lose the client. Granted, things happen to you as a small business owner that are out of your locus of control--a family member becomes ill, you lose electrical power (I know about this one only too well!), or your computer crashes. So, on occasion, there will be times when you won't be able to honor your word and you'll have no control over that.

For all the other times, I employ a practice I learned about from the late Thomas Leonard, founder of Coach University and Coachville. It's the principle of underpromise and overdeliver. As a small service business owner, it can be challenging to juggle the needs and requests of 10, 20, 30 or more clients simultaneously. My experience has been that typically when the needs of one client slow down, the needs of another increase, and somehow it all manages to balance itself out in the end. On a rare occasion, though, it hits all at once, and that's when the beauty of this principle is demonstrated.

When in conversation with a client, instead of projecting the quickest time I might complete a consulting project, I give them a conservative estimate, taking into account the worst-case scenario. Many clients will push you for an earlier completion date; after all, they're excited about the project and want to see results.  Don't let them detract you from your underpromise and overdeliver strategy. Almost always I deliver on what I have promised earlier than the time projection I made to the client. When that happens, I emerge smelling like a rose....my client thinks I have accomplished a great feat and have completed her consulting job early!  When I'm not able to finish something earlier than projected and instead complete it by the date I initially gave my client, the client still loves me.  Why?  Because I've continued to honor my word and done what I said I would do in the time I said I would do it.

This is an incredibly powerful principle to use because it's tough for either you or your client to lose under these conditions. What you're creating for yourself is some wiggle room just in case things don't go according to plan for one reason or another. In most of my conversations with clients, I'm fairly certain that I'll finish before I say I will, but I don't want to paint myself in a corner---just in case.. If something happens, like the "worst-case-scenario", I'm still able to deliver at the time actually promised to the client because I've built in some extra time for myself.

In the process, if you're really good and always deliver ahead of schedule, your clients might wise up to your strategy and ask if you can finish something sooner because "you always do". Don't let them box you in--still give a conservative estimate and continue your practice of "underpromising and overdelivering".  You'll find it the quickest way of become a hero in the eyes of your clients.

Top 7 Strategies to Build Trust in Your Online Service Business

How do you know whom you can trust online?  Which businesses are legit, and which ones are primed to rip you off?  It can be tough these days determining which is which.  With the advent of phishing and other online threats, some days you just want to shut down your email program and Internet browser and wish for a face-to-face interaction with someone that you know, like it was in the "good ole' days" before the Internet took over our lives.

The ability to do business online is both a blessing and a curse, to paraphrase Tony Shalhoub's TV character, Adrian Monk, from the series "Monk". As a business owner, the Internet lets you expand your business to more potential customers than ever before.  However, as a small service business owner, you can't be everywhere at once, nor can you possibly have time for personal interactions with all of your potential clients.  So, what's an online business owner to do?

You can clone yourself online.  I'm not referring to some science fiction technology involving the creation of a "mini-me".  Rather, you want to create an experience of you that is available to prospective clients, without you having to actually be there.  Your "clone" creates a feeling of confidence in your prospective customer base -- a feeling that you're a real, live human being whom your prospective client can reach out and touch whenever needed.

Here are 7 strategies you can use to create your online business clone and increase customer confidence:

1.  Make contact easy.  Ensure your contact info clearly displayed on your website.  Make it easy for your visitors to find your mailing address, phone number, or email address. Nothing is more frustrating to me when I'm searching for info on a website than to find only an 800 number.  I want to know with whom I'm about to do business (a name) and where this business is located.

2.  Be responsive. Respond to all email inquiries and phone calls in a timely fashion.  Or, install a live chat feature on your site.  I've dropped an email to several well-known consultant-types after reading their new book or hearing about a project in which they're involved, and have been happily surprised to an email response from them, and even a phone call, in some cases.  Nothing satisfies that human need for connection than some personal attention, and promptly returning your phone calls and emails will provide that for your visitors.

3. Become a real person.  Use audio and video on your website and your photo.  No one likes to do business with a faceless corporate entity.  Come out of hiding and display your photo on your website, or photos of you in action in your business.  Create a visual image in the mind of your visitor.  Better yet, with the increasing popularity of online video and audio, let them hear and witness you in action.  A great tool to help you put audio and video on your website is AudioAcrobat.

4.  Provide client testimonials.  "Can she do what she says she can do?" is a common question asked of service business owners, and they want to read about others who've been happy consumers of your service.  Ask current and former clients for powerful testimonials and sprinkle them across your website. Keep in mind that the best testimonials give a synopsis of the client's problem prior to hiring you, and the happy outcome as a result of hiring you.  Those that just say, "Oh, Donna is wonderful!" is a great ego boost, but provide little credibility to your visitors.

A second powerful way to demonstrate your results is by providing case studies, or a synopsis of a problem that a client faced and your strategy that helped that client solve that problem.  People want to do business with people who have a proven track record, and testimonials and case studies provide that track record for you.

5.  Demonstrate your expertise.  One of the easiest ways to tell the world what you know is by writing articles. Article writing is an extremely personal experience for me, as I'm typically writing about a problem that a client has had, an issue that came up in conversation recently with a potential client, or something with which I'm struggling in my business or something I want to research and know more about.  The greatest compliment that I ever got about my articles (other than the fact that they contain useful info <g>) is that each article really sounds like me.  Don't worry about giving away your info -- those who may be able to implement your information without hiring you can also become your biggest champion and referral source because they know that you know what you're talking about. 

And, you never know where your articles might lead. I got a call today from a friend who was in an online chat for resellers of a product, and the topic of writing articles came up with another person in the chat room.  My friend went to my blog to provide a link to an article I had written on the topic of article submission, and when he published it on the chat, the person with whom he was chatting said, "Oh, I know Donna."  My friend was blown away by the coincidence.  There are no coincidences--just good marketing..:)

6.  Provide freebies.  Add value to your website visitors by giving something away -- an ebook, a report, an ecourse, an audio recording, or a a free teleclass.  The more you can demonstrate your expertise and the more ways that a visitor can begin to know, like, and respect you, the greater chance you have of building trust with that person and converting that person into a paying client.

7.  Stay in touch.  Once you've obtained someone's contact info, stay in touch with him on a regular basis, as the more someone sees and talks to you, the quicker the trust develops.  Regular communication is key, and you can stay in touch on a regular basis through the publication of an email newsletter, a free teleclass series that is open to all of your contacts, or by updating your website regularly with new content, like articles for your target market.

Giving your visitors confidence that they can trust what you do and say is one key to success in the online world.  Eliminate the barriers in doing business with you and set visitors on the path of getting to know, like, and respect you.  When you do, you'll discover that their trust isn't too far behind.