This isn't the first time I have written about the benefits of inserting a human voice or presence into your online communications. And I make no excuse for writing about this again.
Site visitors crave the sense that someone is there, within and behind your Web pages, your emails and newsletters.
Dealing with the bare technology of online interactions is a cold experience for many, or even most of us. It makes us feel anxious. Technology isn't warm. It has no heart. It neither understands us, nor cares for us.
For many Web sites, whether for businesses or organizations, we simply plug in and play the bare technology - the super-duper means of information delivery. All the site visitor sees and feels is the design, the interface, the links and the clicks. The experience is about as warm and human as banking with an ATM machine.
And then we sit in our expensive offices and wonder why it is that we get such terrible conversion rates on our sites, why so few people continue to open our emails or read our newsletters.
Well, perhaps it's because we're bringing an 'ATM' style to the most interactive, vibrant, networked, warm and essentially human communications space imaginable.
But what if you enabled your visitors to catch just a faint scent of humanity in your site? What if you did a few small things to show that your business is more than just a cold room, filled with servers? What if you showed that the heart of your business is about people, and not technology?
Would that be such a bad thing?
In fact, it would be a very good thing. Your readers, prospects and customers will feel relief, they will smile, feel reassured. And they are more likely to sign up, to register, to buy and come back.
Can I prove this? No, not with certified, verified figures, charts and signed affidavits. But I have corresponded with and listened to so many business people who know very well how 'being there' and 'being human' has helped them online. They have seen how conversion rates, sales and levels of customer loyalty can rise and fall in response to the level of 'humanity' expressed through their sites.
Here are a few, very simple examples of how different businesses have sneaked a little humanity into their sites and emails.
- A second level page at 1800Flowers.com features a photo of the CEO Jim McCann, and a personal message to his customers. (You might consider this to be an unoriginal and mundane idea. Well, do you have an equivalent page on your site? Would it harm you to give it a try?)
- At iQVC.com you can see how they have included images of and short messages from a variety of hosts and experts. (Are you too cynical to believe that visitors can really relate to paid 'hosts'?)
- At Foolmart.com they use simple words and phrases that tell you right away that a 'real' person wrote that content. Have a look at the text for their Customer Service Pledge. See how the word 'leap' and the phrase 'burning questions' transforms this from corporate-speak to something very human and a lot more credible.
It's not hard to take a few steps that will add a sense of humanity to your sites, emails and newsletters. You can do this with images, a few carefully chosen words or a combination of the two.
And if that works for you, take an audit of all your online communications. Take a look at all the places where you could add a more human voice.
Nick Usborne is a copywriter, author, speaker and advocat of good writing. You can access all his archived newsletter articles on copywriting and writing for the web at his Excess Voice site. You'll find more articles and resources on how to make money as a freelance writer at his Freelance Writing Success site.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|


A common frustration among merchants who sell online via a... Read More
Businesses, which are still sitting on sidelines and not doing... Read More
To increase sales on your website, you must accept credit... Read More
THE CURRENT WORRIES1. Content SuppliersThe Ethos of Free ContentContent Suppliers... Read More
An internet business is by far the best way to... Read More
Maybe no business requiring little or no capital pays as... Read More
When it comes to e-commerce everything is a little bit... Read More
The Internet is the fastest growing source of mail order... Read More
Deciding when to get your own merchant account for internet... Read More
It was reported in 'Marketing' magazine this month, that Britain... Read More
There are two major ways to accept credit cards on... Read More
What is an E-marketplace anyway?E-marketplace is a business to business... Read More
My previous article I wrote called "One Point Two Billion"... Read More
Businesses, which are still sitting on sidelines and not doing... Read More
I registered with a B2B site but what's next?This is... Read More
Paypal is one of the wonders of the web. Never... Read More
My Business is Afraid of the InternetBill Gates, CEO of... Read More
What a great idea! Start accepting credit cards and watch... Read More
In theory you could create a retail web site with... Read More
Greetings!Friends and relitives ask us all the time " How... Read More
The concept of this is for you to offer a... Read More
by Jamila White, "The E-Commerce Diva"In the rush to keep... Read More
While getting less public handwringing than during holiday season, the... Read More
Knowing which credit card merchant account to get can be... Read More
If you have been wrestling with the idea of applying... Read More
Have you ever had someone who owed your business money... Read More
Nothing has helped international brokerage business more than the internet:... Read More
Many surfers already know about Froogle, Google's shopping portal that... Read More
If you're a writer, researcher, subject matter expert, enthusiastic hobbyist,... Read More
If you're thinking of jumping on the bandwagon and going... Read More
In the last column we discussed the process of credit... Read More
You have probably heard many times how you should offer... Read More
The days of easy money are overIn these post-dot-com days... Read More


In addition to Google's Froogle shopping service (still in beta),... Read More
Nowadays, shopping online is a very common thing. Making your... Read More
This article will show small businesses how to get free... Read More
If you have little or no capital but you want... Read More
Choosing an online shopping cart is a big decision. Unlike... Read More
Recently I went looking for an online merchant account, with... Read More
In theory you could create a retail web site with... Read More
The concept of linking is that sites with common interests... Read More
In this surreal world of the internet, anyone, even you,... Read More
If you learn how other people make money online, I... Read More
Anyone with an online business, whether for auctions, services, or... Read More
Once your website has secured an order, you have to... Read More
E-commerce is gaining pace! Research firm eMarketer predicts that 2003... Read More
Too often we charge ahead and treat the web as... Read More
When your eCommerce business grows to the point where you... Read More
Simply put, business plans can make or break your business.... Read More
Global Insight, a leading economic and financial forecasting company, (formerly... Read More
Knowing which credit card merchant account to get can be... Read More
When it comes to e-commerce, the time-tested cliché is, "Content... Read More
The Internet is the fastest growing source of mail order... Read More
When it comes to e-commerce everything is a little bit... Read More
....there's much more to Google than you thought:With the wealth... Read More
Making profits with your existing website design or creating a... Read More
Did you know that 80% of all sales are made... Read More
ClickBank is the Internet's most popular payment processor for online... Read More
Greetings!Friends and relitives ask us all the time " How... Read More
Can you encounter the number of times where a Credit... Read More
You want to succeed at eCommerce? Welcome to a very... Read More
If you're thinking of jumping on the bandwagon and going... Read More
When I first got my web site built, I thought... Read More
Many people online today still believe that buying tobacco products... Read More
What does 'the can' mean? Well, its literal meaning relates... Read More
The first article of this series discussed page views per... Read More
E-commerce |