I love it when a business gets their website right.
An example I came across recently of a business who is cleverly drawing on behavioural influence is Naked Wines. Let’s look at some of the techniques they are using so effectively.
1. Clear and prioritised giant green Call To Action (CTA) button on home page (“Get started now”), positioned above the fold and in white space. It is the most prominent element on the page and leaves no doubt in the visitor’s mind about what is the most important thing to do here.
2. Non stock-image-y picture of people enjoying themselves that engages without pulling attention from the value proposition. None of the images on the site are automatically animated, allowing the visitor engage with the site as and when they want.
3. Customer-centric language (“your new favourite…”) in the value proposition signals that it is about the customer first, not the business. Imagine the change in tone, for instance, if they’d reversed the first two sentences and the header had been “Naked Wines is a crowd-funded wine business”?
4. Social media and other distractions (like a phone number for what is an online business) are down the bottom of the site, away from the key call to action.
5. An animation for social media activity on the main site is tucked down the bottom under the heading “what’s happening right now?”, signalling that it is live and therefore appropriate to be being updated before your eyes.
6. Social norms are used throughout the site, from images of the real winemakers, to the reference to “thousands of Australians” who have made the switch, to their live social media activity showcasing who has liked or connected. And most powerfully, their waiting list for potential investors (aka angels) that shows how popular they are. You have to wait to be accepted as an angel, creating demand through scarcity.
7. They put something on the line to encourage customers to sign up to the angels program by giving them a $40 voucher. Thanks to loss aversion it becomes hard for the customer to walk away from ‘free’ money. Note the message comes from the winemakers rather than site owners, increasing the sense of community and inter-dependence, and again uses call to action buttons effectively to help the customer choose their path.
A couple of things they could improve? When you first go to the site a pop-over asks for your state but they don’t tell you why it’s actually a benefit for you (explained elsewhere as how they determine whether they can deliver to you), and on some pages the primary green call to action colour is used by a range of actions, from placing an order to following a winemaker on Facebook, which undermines the hierarchy.
But that’s nitpicking. What a great website, and what a smart business.
If you want to learn more about behavioural techniques for your website, join my upcoming webinar, “Websites that Work” and learn the five things every website needs to get people to take action.
Bri Williams runs People Patterns, a consultancy specialising in the application of behavioural economics to everyday business issues.
Never miss a story: Sign up to SmartCompany’s free daily newsletter
Bri Williams is an authority on behavioural economics applied to everyday business and personal effectiveness.
