7 basic keys you need for optimising a website

Practical case: Better call Saul …. Or better call CXL?

In this article you will learn 7 basics for optimizing the home page of your website using Cialdini’s 7 principles of persuasion in design and copy. The 7 principles of Cialdini are: reciprocity, commitment, social proof, authority, liking, scarcity, and unity (the seventh was recently added). You can read more about these principles here: Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion

Based on the first modules of CXL Conversion Optimization Minidegree, this article will show you how to apply these principles in your own webpage using a real -and well known- case. You will see in the end of this post the after prototype of the Homepage we will be optimizing.

I’m sure you have watched Breaking Bad long ago -or maybe not so long ago- and you are familiar with the great criminal lawyer for criminals Saul Goodman. No? Maybe this rings a bell. “I know a man who knows a man who knows another man” …

Nothing? Well, this surely would do:

Now that I got your attention. Let’s get to the point: Saul Goodman had a webpage that appeared several times in the TV show, this was its layout:

Sexy, huh? Well, I think not quite. 

First of all, you need to check if the webpage you want to optimize has reached the local maxima already (local maxima is when you cannot make more changes to improve the page). If you didn’t reach it: please, keep on changing. If you have… Well, you better start from scratch. Another reason for starting from scratch is the elderness of the webpage: if it is too old to keep up with the new codes and Javascript, you better start from scratch. And… this is our case!

We are going to apply the seventh principles of Cialdini thorough all Saul’s Homepage copy and design. Before taking off, I want you to mind three notions: 

1. We will be working on persuasive copy, focused on getting the users excited (although Cialdini’s principles can be applied on attention-grabbing copy, transactional and post-conversion copy as well)
2. Given that we will be working on a Homepage we need not to lose track on what are the main goals of a homepage: #1 Give the users info clearly communicating our Value Proposition and #2 Provide top-level navigation towards additional info 
3. Mind the fold of the page. Remember the printed newspapers and how people fold them by half? Well, same applies to a webpage. The upper fold is the Walter White of the movie: focus there. 

Now we are ready to jump to the burning issue:

1.Reciprocity

I like to call it the symbiotic principle; if you give me something, I will -more likely- give you something back. Be the first to lend a hand and people will more likely be willing to give you their money or trust. 

Sounds nice, huh? 

• What could Saul Goodman give freely to the users in his page? I thought of a free case study of their situation, that could be a good option. 

2.Commitment

Remember that joke about the woman that goes to the doctor? He asks her what her age is, she says 25. The doctor replies “ma’am, you told me that 10 years ago”. And she pridefully explains: “well, I am woman of fixed ideas”

This is exactly what this principle means: we people are men and women of fixed ideas; we like to stick with what we decided to go at first. And if any of you know somebody that during their adult life changed the football team they supported, please let me know cause I want to meet that guy.

• So, we can make Saul set a tiny and smooth first step that will help people to finally convert. Maybe, for the free case study we offered based on the reciprocity principle, we could ask for the user email: that will give them a sense of commitment with the site and be more likely to hire its services.

3.Social Proof 

Remember when you were at school? One day, some student brings Indiana Jones exchange cards and his album, a week after, half the school is exchanging Indiana Jones cards. We like to do what people do. We like the things that people like. 

• Let's then give Saul’s users a good reason to trust him: we will set a ton of other people’s comments and feedback on Saul’s services. 

4.Authority 

Basic debate argument. When you want somebody to believe something you are saying, you come up with a known figure you know the other person will trust more than you “Well, you know, you may not believe me but even Obama said the sky is green and we all are colorblind” 

• Which authority figure would our target trust more than Saul? Are you with me? Let’s bring Mr. Heisenberg to the party. 

5.Liking 

If two people are arguing and one of them is your crush and the other one is somebody you barely know, and you have no clue on the matter they are discussing… Who would you position with? Easy cheesy, lemon squeezy. With your crush, no doubt. 

• This is because we tend to trust more people we like than those we don’t. So, Who would awake our target’s empathy and make them trust even more Saul’s offering? I’m thinking of a nice good guy with some addiction problems but an enormous heart… Let’s bring Jesse Pinkman in!

6.Scarcity 

Easy come, easy go. We develop special ties for the things that are hard for us to get. Hard can be described in terms of difficulty to get it, mountain hike difficulty, or in terms of exclusivity: “not everybody is allowed to have this because it is a limited edition/runs out)

• So… Let's see, what could Saul Goodman have in limited edition? Maybe the free case studies he is giving away? What do you think? Let’s make them only for the first 100 people signing in!

7.Unity 

The seventh of Cialdini’s principles is my absolute favourite, unity. We humans like to be part of something, feel that we are part of something. 

This is a very interesting principle and relates to our “individuality”, something psychologist Erich Fromm talks about in his two books The Fear of Freedom and The Art of Loving. I strongly recommend anyone interested in the matter to read these books, starting with The Art of Loving. You can find them here: 

The Art of Loving and The Fear of Freedom  

• We can address this bias by showing, in the comments and testimonials of people, the testimonials of people “like the users” and also using the users jargon. Having in mind that the persona we decided to target is a Skinny Pete persona, we will show comments and testimonials of people similar to him (in the drugs world, lose clothes, slang jargon …)

And here you have the after of Saul’s page with our major turnaround. Note that is my first touch with Figma but now you have an idea of what I meant. I also applied some other hints I will be showing you throughout the next few weeks -visual hierarchy, arrows, clarity, value proposition techniques,...

If you enjoyed the article, like and share and see you next week with more optimization hints!

Now THIS is sexier, right?