Page 87 - 100 Great Copywriting Ideas: From Leading Companies Around the World (100 Great Ideas)

37 REASSURING YOUR
ONLINE CUSTOMERS

We know that people often abandon an online purchase through
fear. It’s true. I’ve done it. Maybe you have, too. And millions of
potential online customers continue to do it, every single day.

I don’t mean the fear that they haven’t understood the point of the
animated pile of leaves in a Flash banner ad. Or the terror that
comes from trying, unsuccessfully, to read pale gray type on a light
blue ground. Or, indeed, the anxiety that arises when they can’t find
the log-in button.

No, I’m talking about the good old-fashioned fear of making a
mistake. They’re suffering from what-ifitis.

The idea

From a wide variety of online retailers
Here’s a little guide to online buyer psychology. At the point of
purchase, many online shoppers are thinking something along the
lines of . . .

• What if I click this link and I can’t go back?
• What if I give them my credit card details and they pass them on

to the Russian mafia?
• What if I don’t like what I’ve bought?
• What if they go out of business tomorrow and I lose everything?
• What if the widow of country X’s former energy minister doesn’t

send me my huge commission after I hand over my bank details?
(OK, I made that one up.)

78 • 100 GREAT COPYWRITING IDEAS