That's almost always a mistake. Not every site visitor is ready to buy. Sometimes it takes more than one contact (some research indicates that it takes up to 6 or 7 contacts) until they are ready to move from being an interested prospect to a paying customer.



This means that even if you've successfully got them to your site and engaged them in your offer, if you're relying on them to buy from you on the first visit, you'll probably fail most of the time.

The key factor here is trust. How much does the site visitor trust you? If you're a well-known name with a well-established brand, then the trust level is probably high. Similarly, if you're dealing with existing customers rather than strangers (as I discussed in Mistake #1), then again you've probably established a high level of trust.

But if you're dealing with strangers - in other words, people who are visiting your Web site for the first time - and you don't already have credibility in the customer's eyes, chances are they don't trust you - yet. And if that's the case, it's very difficult to make the sale. In fact, it's virtually impossible.

How much is this hurting you?

Of course, trust is an abstract concept, so it's difficult to put a figure on exactly what is meant by a "high trust level". However, I can give you a method to determine this to some extent. It won't give you an exact figure, but it will give you a rough guideline.

Take the product or service that you're offering, and ask yourself "Who is the recognized leader in providing this product/service?"

For example, if you're selling books in Australia, then the leaders are Amazon.com, Barnes & Noble, eBay and others on the Internet; and local book chains like Angus & Robertson, Dymocks and Collins.

If you're selling accounting services, the leaders are Ernst & Young and other big firms.

If you're selling pet food, the leaders are probably the large supermarkets.

If you're selling sales training packages, the leaders are Zig Ziglar, Tom Hopkins, Brian Tracy and the like.

If you're selling accommodation, the leaders are the big hotel chains.

Now ask yourself, "Why will a site visitor buy from me rather than from (insert the leader here)?"

This is a crucial question, and I can't emphasize it enough.

You'd better be asking it yourself, because you can bet your bottom dollar that your site visitor is asking it in their own mind.

If your Web site doesn't answer this question, you won't get the sale. It's as simple as that.

And it's obvious, too. The leader in your field has the trust of the customer. You don't. Until you can establish that trust, forget about trying to sell them something.

Now look at the other side of the coin.

That's the bad news. Of course, the flip side of this argument is the good news: When you do establish trust with a visitor to your Web site, there's a good chance that you can keep marketing to them for a long, long time.

And if you believe the research that says that it takes up to 6 or 7 contacts until they are ready to buy, it means that you have to put some effort into establishing that trust.

Here's the key: Trust is about building relationships, not conducting transactions.

If all you do is attempt to sell, sell, sell, your customer will see you as just a salesperson, and eventually you will be an unwelcome pest.

On the other hand, if you build a trusted relationship with that person, they will see you as an advisor, an expert and a welcome guest. And so of course they will be more willing to buy from you.

There's nothing unethical about this approach. You're not establishing a relationship just to keep selling them stuff; you're establishing a relationship so that you can help them, and you're helping them by selling them your stuff.

There's a subtle difference, but it's important. In fact, it's less ethical to sell them stuff without first ensuring that it serves their needs.

Start this relationship on your Web site

Here's what this means for your Web site: You must, must, must capture their e-mail address before they leave your site.

This is crucial. Without it, you've got no way of keeping in touch with them in the future. Even if your Web site offers great value, you can't just assume that people will keep coming back to it regularly.

Here's an example that proves my point: Many major newspapers, which have high-value, ever-changing content, also have a free e-mail mailing list, so that they can e-mail the headlines to their subscribers every day, instead of relying on those subscribers to come back to the Web site.

It should go without saying, but I'll say it anyway: You must have somebody's permission to send them e-mail. Otherwise you will be an unwelcome pest. At best you'll be ignored, and at worst you might even be breaking the law.

Because of the ever-growing problem with spam (unsolicited e-mail), Internet users are very wary of giving out their e-mail address to strangers. So you have to offer them strong incentives, such as:

* A clear privacy policy that assures them that you will keep their e-mail address confidential;

* An assurance that they can unsubscribe from the mailing list at any time;

* A special offer - such as a free e-book or special report - if they join your mailing list;

* An indication of how often you will be e-mailing them, what you will be providing, and what benefits you are offering.

Despite the spam problem, e-mail is still the most powerful way of reaching your customers and potential customers.

Marketers are looking at newer technologies, such as RSS, but these haven't yet caught on with the general Internet community. So e-mail is still your best Internet marketing tool.

Keep separate mailing lists

E-mail is such an important tool that I recommend you manage separate mailing lists for different groups of people.

For example, people who visit your Web site would join a general mailing list. People who download a free report could also be on another mailing list, for specific follow-up. Your customer mailing list (for people who have bought from you in the past) could have special offers that are not available to non-customers. Customers who bought a particular product could have their own mailing list, so that you could send them updates about that product.

So ensure that your mailing list software allows you to create multiple mailing lists.