Internet Marketing | 71% of Internet Marketers Just Don’t Get It!

At Christmas time consumers are being repeatedly reminded to be very wary about shopping online. They are becoming more and more savvy regarding the things they should be looking out for before they part with their details, let alone a credit card!

Unfortunately, it seems a large proportion of Internet Marketers are not as aware as the people they are seeking to convert to customers.

A recent visit to the squeeze pages of some 93 Internet Marketers taking part in several of the various Christmas giveaways, showed a very disturbing trend…

Sixty six of the sites visited (that’s 71%) had absolutely NO contact details (not even a link to a contact page) displayed on the squeeze page.

Of the remaining 27 sites visited, 14 had an email contact address, and 13 displayed links to either a contact page, or a support desk.

I was pretty amazed, and the more sites I visited, the more disappointed I became.

Is that really good enough?

OK… these were “only” squeeze pages, and the products were freebies, so does it really matter?

Well… Yes it does!

People are still giving up their email address and name to get the freebie, so they might need some sort of reassurance that you are “real” before they part with that info.

It was quite funny to see that “I hate spam with a passion” line under a lot of opt-in forms… and yet as a consumer, I had no real idea of WHO this person was half the time. So why should I trust them NOT to misuse my email address? Simply because they were taking part in a Christmas giveaway? Or because the organizer of that giveaway can vouch for them?

A major element in establishing an online business presence is getting your visitors to “trust” you. They have no idea of whether you are an established name, or whether you just set up yesterday ready to rip them off!

And leaving out your contact details suggests that maybe you can’t be trusted! It’s certainly not professional.

So WHO do you do any sort of business with online?

Some unknown entity who doesn’t even have an email/contact address, or won’t display a link to a contact page? And I DON’T mean just a contact “form” on that page.

Or would you prefer to deal with someone who shows their full name, complete contact details, including email and street address, and phone numbers?

Our state government’s Department of Consumer Affairs developed a consumer brochure years ago advising them to avoid dealing with ANYONE online who couldn’t supply such basic details at least somewhere on their web site.

As consumers become more and more aware, leaving out these so simple, yet most obvious details is surely not going to work well for you in the future.

(Stephen Spry is the proprietor of Come On Aussie Internet Services, an Australian web design business. His Internet Marketing blog is the ‘Net Marketing Toolbox.
Postal Address: PO Box 362, Laurieton NSW Australia 2443)

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