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“Convert with your leg behind your back” © bloghack.pt
The worst thing that can happen to an entrepreneur is to do germany email list everything possible to get traffic to their website, but as soon as it arrives, it disappears in the blink of an eye. Even worse is when the visitor leaves without even knowing what you have to offer. What happened?
According to Google, if a user's session on a website lasts less than 30 seconds then it has a very high bounce rate.
Why improve your bounce rate?
Let’s be honest, no matter how good you are, if you don’t know how to persuade your traffic to stay on your site, even for 30 seconds, you’re out of business. One of the first ideas that comes to mind to solve the problem is to lower our prices or improve the quality of our services, but as we’ve seen, the visitor didn’t even have time to look at them, they just left straight away…
There was something that didn't persuade him to stay.
Have you heard of the psychology of persuasion?
Fortunately, nothing is lost, as there is a “bible” of persuasion, the book Influence – The Psychology of Persuasion by Robert B. Cialdini .
This book was published in 1984 and has been a reference for marketers ever since. The book summarizes 15 years of Cialdini 's research on the mechanisms and techniques of persuasion ( you can listen to a summary of Influence – The Psychology of Persuasion here .)
Renowned American psychologist Robert Cialdini has always been a bit of a fool. For as long as he can remember, he has been an easy target for salesmen, fundraisers and manipulators of all kinds.
That's why Cialdini sought to understand the mechanisms that motivate people to do what they don't want to do. What are the most effective techniques for persuading? How does a well-defined structure allow for better persuasion than another?
Although the persuasion mechanisms discovered by Cialdini remain valid, the examples in the book are outdated, as the Internet did not exist at that time .
That's why in this article I'll summarize for you in detail a persuasion mechanism discovered by Cialdini and I'll show you through examples how to implement it on your website so that you never again let your traffic slip away in the blink of an eye. Let's get to it!
What influences our decision making?
Let's imagine that you want to buy some headphones. Which one will you choose? (See the images below).
Most of us would choose the second pair of headphones because they have better reviews. But why this choice?
Convert with one leg behind your back thanks to social proof
When we analyze what happened to choose the second pair of headphones, we realize that the number of reviews and the overall rating had a lot of influence on our decision.
Note that we didn't even look at the technical or aesthetic characteristics of each product, we just compared the reviews and made our choice.
Let’s look at another example that illustrates very well the power of social proof .
Which restaurant will you choose between these 2 presented below?
In this example, we once again have social proof working wonders.
Cialdini discovered that when in doubt, people trust other people's choices. We think that if many people have made a choice, it must be a good one.
Returning to the restaurant case, let's imagine that you are on holiday in the Algarve and are looking for a restaurant to have lunch in. You don't know the restaurants in the city, so you look to the left and see an empty restaurant, then you look to the right and see a restaurant full of people queuing to get in. Which one will you go to for lunch?
In the restaurant on the right, without a doubt, because you trust the people who are queuing. You look from side to side and make your choice based on social proof .
Now that you have discovered the power of this persuasion mechanism, let’s see how to use it on your website.
How to Use Social Proof on Your Website
I have listed 6 ways to use social proof on a website.
1. Convince your traffic with case studies
Use case studies on your website to showcase your expertise and the benefits of your products and services. Case studies give your readers a clear idea of what they can gain from working with you.
An excellent example of this is what Roberto Cortez did with this case study . Thanks to him, his traffic immediately realizes what kind of services Roberto has to offer.
By the way, if you want to read an interesting article about success stories in digital marketing, I recommend you read this article by Eduardo Aranha .
2. Use the power of testimonies
Using testimonials on your website is nothing new, but there are ways to really make a difference. I’ve identified 3 components to a good testimonial that will convince a potential customer:
1 – The testimony must not leave the slightest doubt about its veracity
2 – The testimony must be about a very specific problem
3 – The testimony offers the visitor the possibility of verifying who the author of the testimony is.
Typically the testimonials we find on the Internet look like this:
What's the problem here?
1 – It is not possible to know if the testimony is true
2 – The customer does not mention a specific problem that was solved with this service
3 – There is no photo and link to the website of the client who testifies
These types of testimonials are abundant on the Internet , but everyone is suspicious of their veracity because of the problems mentioned above.
Even worse is that using testimonials like this can have the opposite effect to the desired one and become something negative for us, as the target customer may think that we are trying to deceive them.
Fortunately, it is possible to do much better. Let's look at an excellent example of a testimonial to convince a potential client:
Here on Ricardo Teixeira 's website you can see 3 excellent customer testimonials on video.
Why are these good testimonials?
1 – Customers nominate Ricardo Teixeira in the video
2 – Each client’s website is mentioned in the video
3 – Everyone talks about a specific problem that Ricardo helped them solve
Note the importance of this last point. Instead of giving compliments like “it was fun”, “I really liked it”, “I recommend it”, customers talk about a specific case that Ricardo solved. This way, the visitor sees what he really has to offer.
You might be thinking that it is difficult to get these types of testimonials. I can only agree with you. But I believe that is also why they are so effective, as they leave no room for doubt about their veracity.
3. Good reviews = good conversions
As we saw at the beginning of this article, reviews help us a lot in our decision-making. It would be a crime not to use them on your website, especially if you sell on an e-commerce site.
To use reviews on an e-commerce site, I recommend that you use the full potential of Google Rich Snippets .
Let's look at the difference between a site that doesn't use Google Rich Snippets above and a site that does.
Notice that in the Google search result above we don't have those stars that we see in the search result below. These reviews are excellent social proof .
To learn how to use Google Rich Snippets I recommend you read this article .
4. Social: likes, comments, shares, views
As Cialdini says in the book, we tend to trust other people's choices. An excellent way to take advantage of this mental trigger is to show your traffic some relevant metrics, as in the following example:
When we saw that 154 thousand people liked Ricardo Teixeira's Facebook page, we immediately thought that he must be someone very capable in his communication. It is undoubtedly an excellent way to persuade your traffic to stay on your site for a few more seconds.
5. Logos of companies that trust us
Another great way to persuade people to stay on your site is to use social proof elements like the one below:
Here, as you can see on the main page of Edi Ladeira 's website , he uses logos where he and his clients were referenced.
Anyone who visits Edi's website will immediately think that if these well-known media outlets talk about Edi, it must be because he is a trustworthy person.
If you haven’t already, think about the companies or media outlets where you’ve been mentioned and place their logos like Edi did on his website. It will be a great social proof for your traffic.
6. The powerful magic of numbers
One of the best ways to use social proof on your website is by using numbers. Everyone is amazed when they see numbers like this:
We immediately think that Gonçalo Sousa, founder of the Beat Digital agency, must have excellent services. A visitor who lands on his website and sees these numbers will feel more confident in the quality of Gonçalo's services.
So look for numbers that you can use to show your traffic that they can trust you and your work.
Next step?
There are 3 things to do to go further:
1 – Read the book Influence – The Psychology of Persuasion by Robert B. Cialdini
2 – Listen to my summary of the book Influence – The Psychology of Persuasion
3 – Receive my free video training where I show you concrete examples of how to use the persuasion mechanisms discovered by Cialdini
