here are approximately these important components?
four gazillion
1. Informational content.
(unofficially) web sites in Conventional wisdom in the online
the world. Every teenager, world tells you to get to the
mother, businessman, well pretty point, to make the sale, and
much everyone has a web site. eliminate the clutter and slew of
But you are different. You are links that were so prominent five
monetizing your site, not trying years ago. In the financial
to find a soul mate or post world, however, you need
pictures of your latest fishing informational content to help
expedition. Your site should be convert the less knowledgeable
clean, professional, and instill visitors that may find your
confidence in the buyer.
site.
In finance and insurance, more
The ability to educate your
than anything, you must gain the visitors serves a dual purpose on
customer's trust and confidence your web site. First, it is a
in your service. Unlike retail, great service to them and one
flashy sites with bright colors they will not likely forget or
and animation don't work. Most of fail to reward you for (read:
my suggestions below will apply convert into a lead). Secondly,
mostly to the finance and educational tips and articles are
insurance sectors, but lessons chock-full of keyword rich
can be learned by all affiliates. content.
A well-written article can
I have found that most vault your site to the top of the
affiliates (at least in the search engines for many long-tail
finance and insurance vertical) keywords and drive a substantial
tend to leave the following four amount of traffic, as it is
necessities off of their sites. likely to be linked to from other
Is your web site missing any of sites. Plus, it will help convert
the often confused customer into shown that online conversions go
a ready-to-buy machine. up almost 2% with the addition of
2. “Contact Us” Page. The a toll-free number. It shows the
hardest obstacle to overcome in customer you are not afraid to
the online world, especially in have them contact you (even if
finance/insurance is customer that “you” is your merchant's
trust. These people are about to call center).
give you (or your affiliated
3. Privacy Policy. Will my
company) some pretty serious information be protected? What
information: phone number, email, data are you collecting about me?
etc. You must do everything you Will I get spammed by you after
can to earn their trust!
this?
One of the easiest ways to
These are all questions that
gain their trust is to let them your site's visitors are asking
know you are real and legitimate, themselves as they decide whether
not just some information or not to trust you. Like the
gathering scheme. Granted, you above omissions, not having a
probably don't have a fancy clearly written privacy policy
windowed office with 90 that answers the important
employees, but you cannot afford questions a visitor has can cost
to look small-time or sketchy to you their business. In their
your customers. So make sure that eyes, you are hiding something
your site has a prominent and must be some sort of a scam,
“Contact Us” page, with at LEAST no matter how legitimate you
a contact form, phone number, and truly are.
street address or P.O. Box.
Your site should have a
If you can, get a dedicated well-written, easy to read
toll-free number from your privacy policy that lets
merchant that will track to your customers know about things such
affiliate ID. Our studies have as cookies, your anti-spam
policy, form encryption, etc. therefore their business) and
Like the above suggestions, this having them immediately click the
page should be linked to and from back button to go back to the
every single page on your search results.
site.
The first thing you should do
If you are doing nothing more is thank them and show genuine
than referring them to your joy that you were able to help
merchant's site, ask the them. Then ask them for their
affiliate manager if you can list permission to use their
their privacy policy on your site testimonial on your site. In our
and make it clear to the customer experience, about 50% of the
that you are sending them out of people will be more than happy to
your site.
let you do this. Two or three
4. Customer Testimonials. I well-crafted testimonials are
doubt that you get a flood of worth as much as anything else
emails each day thanking you for you will have on your site, so
your service. Heck, we barely get make sure you take advantage of
three or four a month out of a any and all thank you notes.
couple hundred thousand visitors. Place them on your home page,
But what happens when you DO get landing pages, and on each
a thank you message from one of internal page that you can, and
your visitors? Do you just file if you get enough of them (more
it away and think “that was nice than five or so), create a
of them” or do you make use of “Testimonials Page” and link to
this testimonial?
it from each page.
Testimonials are nearly
If you do not have any, the
priceless advertisements and, easiest way to get testimonials
like the three items above, can of course is to use merchant
make the difference between testimonials when you refer the
gaining a customer's trust (and customer to the merchant's site.
Ask your affiliate manager if you
can use these on your pages. Like
your own testimonials, these type="text/javascript">
type="text/javascript"
About the Author:
HometownQuotes, a Franklin, Tennessee company, provides a quick and easy way for consumers to compare multiple insurance quotes. To learn more, visit http://www.hometownquotes.com.
Article Tags: make, page, site
