Establishing Credibility

"There's one born every minute." - P.T. Barnum

There is a tremendous amount of fraud in the world and the internet makes it easier. This is a problem for those of us who want to market a legitimate product or service at a fair price.

A few years ago people were willing to plunk down serious cash for information in electronic form. The situation has changed so there needs to be a way to corroborate claims made on a sales offer. This is easy enough to to if you are selling something in your neighborhood, since all someone has to do is drop by to check it out for themselves. It is another matter if someone is halfway across the country.

Sometimes trust can be established by carefully crafting the look and feel of a website, but since phishers are honing their skills daily, this practice is falling by the wayside.

There are basically three ways to establish trust on the internet:

1. Verifiable Assertions (Credentials and real people's testimonials listed onsite with a contact option)
   
2. Customer delight (Consistently exceeding customer expectations resulting in word-of-mouth referrals)
3. Reputation building (Affiliates, radio and television appearances, cross-listing in yellow pages, space ads, podcasting, etc.)
   

These three methods build on one another. Let's take a look at how the first step is accomplished.

Next installment: The 12-Part Sales Letter

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