Show Your Face!
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Increasing Your Conversion Rate with Personal "Stuff"

Ok - I admit it. I'm not exactly God's gift and I don't suppose I'll win any awards for my looks any time soon. But I DO have a picture of me on my website, near the call to action. And no, it's not supposed to scare people off!

Why do I do this?
Because people buy from people. Studies have shown that having an image on your website of the person or people that the visitor is likely to deal with can help with increasing the conversion rate.

Now, don't get me wrong, I don't get loads of women calling me and asking me out on a date but it has increased my conversion rate and so it's staying put - just like the 'annoying' hover ad.

I'm also playing around with Youtube as well although I have to admit it's more of a challenge to make me look anything human ;-)

What OTHER people do.
Back in the old days before I knew better, I simply had a generic looking website with library pictures and the usual "guff" about my business.

And yes, it looked great and professional - certainly much better than the current site.

But it didn't work.
Because my business isn't generic. And neither is yours. And neither are your customers.

Your business is made of people and it's the people that MAKE the business.

When people visit your website, do they see who they'll be dealing with or do they have to imagine what you're like?

All things being equal, who would you rather buy from...
Someone you "know" or someone you don't know?

Now I could always be wrong of course. If you really don't want pictures of yourself or your staff on your website or it's really not appropriate for whatever reason then that's entirely up to you.

And it may be that in some cases it doesn't actually benefit your conversion rate, although I think you should still test it and make sure.

But like I said, people buy from people. This is why I'm writing this email to you from me.

It's not generic. I haven't used silly language and tried to make it sound like I had a team of copywriters working on it. I have staff and could easily outsource this to them. But I want this email to come from ME to YOU - simple as that.

And yes, I make mistakes and typos and all sorts of mistakes and I probably could make it look more professional.

But then I'd never get around to it and you'd never get these tips.

So, what am I trying to say?
Make your website speak to people directly and not basically try and be a technical manual written for people in the third person. Show people who you are and who they're dealing with and let them know that your business is run by people.

I'm pretty confident that there will be a backlash soon against companies with telephone switchboards and "press 1 for this" or "press 7 for that".

Imagine this. Ringing up your bank or insurance company or broadband provider or whatever and knowing you'd speak directly to a person and not only that, you'd know their name and what they look like BEFORE you spoke to them.

Wouldn't YOU prefer that rather than getting automated or generic garbage service?

So that's what I'm suggesting you do for your website and internet marketing.
And more than likely, you'll get more people contacting you.

Test it and if I'm wrong and it doesn't work for your particular business then what have you lost?

If you'd like more information about anything, simply call 01454 852414 or try our internet marketing training system here at http://www.mklink.com/freetrial

'till next time,

Mike Knight. MKLINK Internet Marketing Tips