As a Sith Lord, I use a variety of mind tricks to improve landing page performance.
It’s taken me years of training to learn how to get inside my audience’s head, but the conversion rates I get are simply out of this world.
Now, you may not be able to read your visitors’ minds (let’s face it, the Force isn’t strong in everyone’s family), but that doesn’t mean you can’t be an expert in psychological warfare.
The truth is, business empires aren’t built on logic.
People rely on a variety of emotional cognitive biases to make decisions—online or otherwise—and with a few simple tricks, even the Force-insensitive can influence people do their bidding (er, convert on their page).
So, join with me and experience the full power of conversion rate optimization!
1. Color Usage
While most people know that specific colors can create different emotional responses, they often don’t know how effective they can be.
The Sith know better…why do you think our lightsabers are red?
Red is the color of passion, anger, hate, power…but I digress.
Color has a powerful influence on your audience’s ability to connect with an idea visually and emotionally. In general, warm colors like red, orange and yellow are typically associated with happiness, optimism and urgency (and power…).
Neutral colors give your pages a clean and open feel to balance out the other hues that may be competing for attention.
For example, I have all of my stormtroopers wear white. This is a stupid color for an army—it’s hard to keep clean, creates so much glare that it’s impossible to shoot straight and makes you an easy target for the enemy.
But, believe me, the white armor is totally worth it, because when I step out of my shuttle with my legions, you know every eye is going to be on me and my sweet red lightsaber.
Make sense?
So, warm colors for power, neutrals to make sure you (or the most important thing on your page) get noticed. And then, we have the cool colors like blue, green and purple.
Sure, people find these colors calming and soothing, but who wants that? If you ask me, cool colors make you look like a wimp.
I mean, have you ever met a Jedi and thought, “Oh, that blue lightsaber is so scary!”
Okay…I take it back. That is scary.
In any case, depending on how you want to influence your audience, you can pick different colors to evoke specific emotions. For more information, check out this article.
2. Social Proof
Social proof is important. You may say that you have a world-killer weapon, but most people will think you are just posturing.
On the other hand, actually blow up a planet and social media will go nuts!
Once people start saying, hey, “the Empire blew up my planet!” you can use those sorts of testimonials to make your landing page more compelling.
Another great way to make your business seem more credible is to link your business to a bigger, better-known person or company.
For example, I do this with Darth Vader’s mask.
Contrary to popular belief, I don’t struggle with short man syndrome…no really, I don’t!
I parade Vader’s mask around because it makes me more credible. Darth Vader was a bad dude—he killed a lot of people.
Therefore, if I keep his mask in my bedroom and whisper sweet nothings to it, I must be a pretty bad dude too.
It’s just simple psychology…not short man syndrome.
Make Your Social Proof Compelling
Now, you might tempted to only include perfect, unbelievably wonderful reviews of your product or business, but people want to feel like your reviews are genuine.
Sure, I’ve got trillions of reviews and testimonials like this:
Oh my gosh, Kylo Ren is the absolute best! He’s so powerful and awesome. I love his mask and his lightsaber with the mind-blowing mini-crossguard.
Yes, that’s a real testimonial, but for some reason, people seem to resonate better with a testimonial like this:
I used to be part of the Rebellion, but then I realized that the Empire just wants to make the galaxy a better place for everyone. That’s a cause I really believe in.
Now you know why I keep the rebellion around. Nothing sells like a redemption story!
Putting “authentic” reviews (okay, I admit that getting that testimonial took a bit of Force persuasion) like that in a prominent spot on your landing page creates a natural trust between you and your customer. And, if they trust you, they are much more likely to convert.
3. Scarcity
Fear is a powerful motivator. In fact, I think we need to add that to the Sith code…
Anyways, to create fear, all you have to do is make people think they are about to lose something. For example, it’s a lot more effective to say, “Tell me what I want to know or I’ll kill you” than “Would you mind revealing the location of Luke Skywalker to me?”
In other words, answer me or you’ll soon have a scarcity of life…
See? Isn’t that motivating?
Using this tactic in selling a product or service can be a great way to get people off the fence and into action. Depending on your audience, though, you may not want to threaten them with death.
Instead, phrases like “limited time offer” or “act fast before they’re all gone!” can be a surprisingly effective way to get people to convert on your page. In addition to creating a sense of urgency, this can also increase the perceived value of your product or service.
The moral of the story? Whether you’re interrogating a prisoner or crafting a landing page, scarcity is your friend.
4. Visual Cues
Finally, people follow visual cues. Why else do you think we Sith gesture when we manipulate people’s minds?
Contrary to popular belief, you don’t have to make certain gestures to pull off a “Jedi mind trick.” However, waving your hand in front of someone’s face lets them know that you are about to manipulate their mind.
Since they are expecting to be psychically pushed into doing something, they are much more likely to do it (to be honest, half the time I don’t even use the Force…I just wave my hand and people think I’m using the Force, so they do what I tell them to).
See what I mean? People follow visual cues.
You can use the same “mind tricks” to get people to convert. For example, a hero shot of someone who is looking at your form or call-to-action directs your visitor to what they should be doing on your page—converting.
Don’t you feel a compelling urge to look at the form…this is the form you’ve been looking for, right?
In fact, you don’t even have to be that subtle about it—try using big arrows on your page to direct people to where you want them to be looking!
If you are clever, you can find a variety of ways to use this technique. For example, if you have an especially long landing page, try using navigational markers to break up the flow and keep the content interesting at the viewer scrolls down.
You may not be Force-sensitive, but that doesn’t mean you can’t play tricks on your audience’s minds.
Conclusion
With these 4 psychological tricks in hand, you might not be a Dark Lord of the Conversions, but you’re well on your way to building your own empire.
Remember, people don’t convert because of logic, they convert because you make it easy for them. And that, my young apprentice, is the secret to the Dark Side…
