Jesse Willms Says “Disclose Everything: It’s The Ethical Way To Do Business”

Full disclosure: I’m a good businessman and I like making money.

Now that I’ve gotten your attention, I want to talk about today’s topic: the importance of good disclosures on your website. And, by that I mean that any and all disclosures on your site should be transparent, written in plain English and easy to find on your site.

Your disclosures should include everything your customers need to know about your product and about any and all fees and charges associated with your business. It’s the right thing to do, it’ll save you a lot of headaches, and over time it will generate the kind of customers you want to do business with and help grow your reputation.

Here are some tips to keep handy when you’re looking to include a disclosure on your sales website:

1. The disclosure should be available from a link on your home page. The link should be easy to find, and the font should be large enough that your grandmother could read it.

2. The disclosure should also be on any page where you’re going to close a sale. That means, wherever a customer is about to enter their credit card information, the disclosure should be instantly available to them on that page. That ensures the rules have been read, and the customer knows what they’ll be charged and when.

3. My rule of thumb is this: When in doubt, make a disclosure graphic. People respond to images more than they do a lot of text. If you and your designer can find a way to combine the information you need to get across with helpful pictures or graphically designed prices, it’s more likely the customer will be put at ease.

4. Make the disclosure high on your list of website priorities during the design phase, and get it up on the site as soon as possible. You want to make sure that customers know you take full disclosure seriously – and if they stumble upon your website in a beta phase and don’t see the disclaimer, they may be wary.

5. Keep it simple! There are several legal-eagle phrases you need to put in a standard disclosure, but for the most part, it can be written in plain old English. If they’re going to be charged a monthly membership fee automatically, say so – don’t shy away from it.

These are my top five hard and fast rules for ethical disclosures on websites – what tips can you share with my readers?

Jesse Willms