Ways to make people use Your Website
I’m going to list down what I believe are the best ways to get people to use websites. Its great having a website which looks really awesome and all that, but what’s its actually doing for you? We deal with some clients who want websites to display company information, and for them that works. Websites looking to become really popular need to embrace methods of making the websites not only look super but also feel super! By this I mean giving the user something to do other than simply absorb information. In my opinion the very basic form a website can take is that of pure information. What I’m trying to say is its designed to give information out, and that’s it. Pretty basic stuff from a design point of view.
So lets look at what I think are the best ways to take that basic information website to the next level.
Show user generated ratings and reviews
Allow people who visit your website to rate things. Post views on your services, products or pages. You can really extend this to anything on a website. People love to rate things, they love the idea of being able to give their personal view point on things. The key here is to make this process as fast as possible. Blogs are really great for this as people can comments on every post made. A fancy term for this is ‘Social Validation‘. People tend to look to other people when deciding on what to do, especially when they are unsure of what to do. Take advantage of this!
Immediatly, instantly or fast
People love getting something fast. Studies have shown that when you are presented with something being instant (it may not be the best offer) you tend to go for it. It has something to do with the way the mid brain works according to some fancy pants scientist man. This area of the brain is concerned with raw emotion, so people will make impulse based decisions. I know from personal experience I always go for the next day delivery option when ordering stuff online, even when the longer or ‘normal’ options are more cost effective.
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Show what’s most important first
When people are shown lists of products or options on the same thing they tend to more often go for the very first option. This again is to do with impulse type reactions. Psychologists refer to this as ‘unconscious preference’. the idea behind this is pretty simple. Whatever comes first is the best subconscious option. to take advantage of this you could place more expensive items in your product catalogue near the beginning. This also applies to raw information. I want people to know the prices of our services, so I tell them first off. I don’t lead them down a maze of explanation.
Limited offer!
Making things appear as if they are limited in some respect increases the assumed value of said product or service. This means we want whatever it is, even more. For example if a company decides it can only take on X amount of work before it closes down on new contracts it has the ability to sell its service for more than the normal amount. Bit of a long winded sentence I know, but this is so true. People will fight out for the ‘exclusivity’ of working with said company and in doing so they way pay more for the service. This same effect can be seen on e bay where people will fall into bidding wars paying well over the odds just to be the one who ends up owning whatever they are bidding on!
Its free, all of it, take it! Its FREE
Give something away for free. People love free stuff! This can create a feeling of being in debt. Use this to your advantage. if you give something away for free people are more inclined to look at what services or products you are selling. They are also more inclined to buy. As if to repay the debt. Giving free stuff away will also help with SEO, creating a buzz around the Internet.
Limit choice
People fear choice. If given to much of it they are in danger of becoming paralised by all that choice. the best way around this is not to reduce your inventroy or service list. But instead to group them into certain batches. So for example you could grouping things up into special packages such as:
- Most reccommended
- Top 10
- Products of the week
- Editors choice
The list goes on and on, but at least that gives you an idea.
We want YOU!
Appeal to the old brain. This area of the brain is concerned with self preservation and survival. Take this for an example:
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The ‘you’ example is part of the advertising method known as ‘personalisation‘. Make it personal and people will feel obliged to read on. Also don’t shy away from using slang, its another great way of connecting with people.
Visitor commitment
Make people commit to something and they automatically feel connected. Small things work best. Try not to scare people away with length forms demanding all kinds of information. Try simple tactics such as getting people to enter their email to gain access to certain information. Why not use newsletters? The goal is to make people connected to your website, which makes them come back time and time again. A direct example we can give is waranvil which uses email newsletter subscription.
In my opinion these are some of the best methods of grabbing peoples attention and increasing the quality of your website. With the ultimate goal to get people buying your services or products. Sure there are more, just take the idea of appealing to the primal brain. Sex, violence and all that really does capture attention and can be used to your advantage. just ask yourself how many beer companies, credit card companies etc use half naked bikini models in their ads!
