How do you get people to like you? Unless you’re a cantankerous, scrooge-like character you will have made a few friends in life.
But how did they become your friends? What inclines us to like someone? And how will knowing this help with your website sales?
Well, it’s all about positive connections:
- Similarities – we like those that are like us. The first thing we do when we meet someone is search for some common ground; ‘Oh, you play golf? …so do I’.
- Compliments – we are suckers for flattery. We like people who say nice things about us (even if the praise is false).
- Cooperative Efforts – we like those who share a common goal with us.
- Pleasant Associations – if someone is good-looking, funny or intelligent we tend to like them more.
So in the final part of our series on how to make your website more persuasive, we’re looking at the liking principle.
It’s a simple and intuitive idea: we’re more likely to say yes to those people that we know and like.
If you like your local butcher (maybe he is always genuinely interested in how you are), then you’re more likely to shop with him even if another butcher over the road (who you have no rapport with) is offering cheaper deals.
Put another way, being liked is good for business. As any salesperson will testify.
But how do you use the liking principle on your website? How do you get visitors to your site to like you, when they may never get to meet you?
- Identify with your readers – You need to empathise with your customers. Think about the problem that your service is solving and then talk about that problem (and your solution) in an understanding way. Try to put yourself in your customer’s shoes: if you were them, what questions would you have and how would you like to be spoken to?
- Be good to your audience – we care about the people we like, in fact we go the extra mile for the people we like. Show them that you like them and they will like you more. How do you show your website visitors that you like them? Give them information that is valuable, engage in conversation with them using social media tools and listen. Most importantly, make it clear you’re trying to help and are not just about the profit.
These are just a couple of ways to make your website visitors like you more. Make as many positive connections as you can with the people who visit your website and they’re more likely to do business with you.
And that’s something you should like.
And so ends our online marketing guide to mind control
We’ve looked at a range of ethical and scientifically proven techniques to make your website content more persuasive.
Here’s a quick recap of the 6 lessons:
- Social Proof – people follow other people’s lead, so show new customers that other people already trust you and love what you do.
- Authority – build trust by demonstrating your credentials and experience.
- Consistency – gain commitment from your visitors by engaging them with your content. Small acts of commitment (e.g. downloading a pdf) lead to bigger acts i.e. a purchase.
- Reciprocation – do your customers a favour (by giving them great content) and they’ll feel obliged to return that favour i.e. buy from you and not your competitors.
- Scarcity – we want what we think we’re going to lose more than what we could have. So build a sense of urgency into your online offers.
- Liking – being liked is good for business. Identify with your visitors, genuinely help them, and they will like you more.
Consider how you can use each of these persuasion techniques on your website and you will have a website that is not just another lame attempt to gain business. It will become a persuasive sales tool that will pay back your efforts more than you can imagine.
