Creating a mirror effect between your website and visitors

Wed, 17/01/2018 - 09:23

So, what do we mean by a mirror effect between your website and your visitors? Basically, we’re saying that in order to achieve the conversions you want, you’re going to have to design your website to look like your visitors. 

Now, how and why does one do that? Isn’t the point of a website to serve as a means of interaction where people can experience and understand the brand of the company they’re visiting?

It’s not a case of opposites attract

When you look into a mirror, you’re looking at an exact representation of yourself in the reflection. So, for that reason, it’s not a case of “opposites attract” when it comes to visitors browsing on your website. They want to know, from the moment your webpage loads, that this page is a reflection of who they are and what they are looking for. 
You’re not going to be designing a website that has facial features, brown hair and blue eyes. You want to design a website that mirrors the internal desires of the visitor. According to research, “consumers consider the websites to be primary actors and develop social relationships with the websites.”

The goal you want to achieve

The goal you’re trying to achieve is having visitors on your website think, “this website (or company) is for me.” It’s an experience entirely based on what your landing page says about what you have to offer them and how you have everything they’re looking for. Your first impression could very well be the last impression you make if you don’t seem to meet the needs of a visitor. 
You may be more than qualified or perfect for the job, but if a visitor can’t see that when they first open your website (if you’re promoting another one of your business services), you won’t have a chance to show them. And they’ll continue to have a one-sided perception of you. 

A spanner in the works

It’s one thing to know what you need to do, it’s another to know how you’re supposed to it – especially when, in this case, there are so many different people in the online world. It’s not as simple as it would be in a face-to-face interaction where the sales consultant would filter their company’s entire product catalogue to directly cater answers to the customer’s questions. 
To be able to do something like that online is not only a completely different kind of artificial experience, it’s seemingly impossible. But there are a few ways you can simulate a mirror-effect and drive relevant content to the “individual” visitor.

Persona analysis

Before you can do anything though, you need to identify your audience. And one of the great ways to do that is through persona analysis based on user research. Use these findings as a way to optimise relevant content and provide users with what they’re looking for. 
The job of a marketer is to know what customers want before they do. And the idea isn’t to put all of your product or service offerings all over the homepage, hoping the visitor’s eye will catch a glimpse of what they’re looking for. It needs to be more personal and fine-tuned than that. 

Landings pages. Plural.

That’s where having multiple landing pages can help cater for more than one type of visitor. If you monitor your website analytics, you’ll be able to segment your visitors based on location, age, gender, occupation, preferences and even segments with more than one demographic. And these segments will help you design landing pages that cater to those specific audiences to which individual visitors can relate. 
When a business owner is searching for a location to hold an industry-related conference, they won’t want to come across a landing page of an estate that has conference rooms, but is displaying their wedding facilities because it’s where they receive more business. The owner will no longer be interested in the venue and isn’t likely to go through the effort of trying to find their conference venue because they assume the venue is only associated with weddings. 
In the same breath, when a bride-to-be is looking for a wedding venue, she won’t want to land on your conference room webpage. 
This is why having more than one landing page that takes visitors directly to the relevant page based on their web search is a way to mirror their desires and give them what they want. And we want what our visitors want because that’s where customers and conversions come from. 

Statistics

Keep these statistics in mind when it comes to designing landing pages. You don’t want to go through the whole process of personalisation and relevance, only to be ignored anyway because you’re missing the fundamentals. 

  • Image loading: 39% of users leave a webpage if the images take too long to load.
  • Contact information: 44% leave if there is no contact information available. 
  • Attractiveness: 38% leave if the overall webpage is not attractive to them (relevance in content and simplicity in design).
  • Research prior to conversion: 70-80% will visit a website for research prior to a conversion (either as a purchase or in-store visit). 
  • Mobile access: 51% of users use mobiles to access webpages, which means your website and landing pages need to be suitable for mobiles. 

Need Assistance with Digital Strategy?

Rogerwilco’s team of strategists, business analysts and data scientists is here to help.