Persuasive Website Design vs. Desperate Cries for Attention

Careful.

You sell online?

Consider this:

You remember that kid in high school that tried too hard?

If you were like me you felt bad for them… but… you also found yourself avoiding them. You didn’t want anything to do with them because they just seemed so… desperate.

The other day I had someone contact me to help them improve their website, and I had a similar experience that brought those feelings of “I need to get the hell out of here” flooding back. Within one second of opening this Shopify store I was hit with 4 notifications wanting my email, wanting to send push notifications and offering to chat about the products I hadn’t even been able to view yet.

Now, we all know that you want a strong call to action and great website content - that we want to get people’s attention within 3 - 5 seconds - but these alerts took place simultaneously on page load and it really bothered me.

Check this website out:

It’s desperate.
It’s moving too fast.
It hasn’t provided me with any value yet.
It makes me fear for my email inbox.
It’s pushy.
It’s yucky.
I left.

I like Homer Simpson as much as the next guy, but even he couldn’t get me to stick around. So the takeaway here is this: develop your positioning and messaging, and take the time to provide immediate value and a strong call to action that is focused on giving the user what they want as soon as they visit your site - NOT collecting as much personal info as fast as possible.

People are sensitive to these things nowadays, and you want to welcome them and make them feel like they are going to get something they want. It’s all about them. Never forget that.

You want to make them feel like… well, like a valued person - not a “sale”.

The crazy thing is that all of these alerts and tools could be very useful if they were used properly.

In fact if I were to book a consulting call with this fellow, the first thing I would do is suggest we simply adjust the timing and placement of these messages. I guarantee that alone would have a positive impact on his store and business.

Keep that in mind as you work on your site. You can’t strong-arm success through the use of Shopify apps, spinning prize wheels and push notifications - believe me, I get contacted by hundreds of Shopify store owners every week that try…

Focus on your customers and their needs - and ask people you trust to review your website so that you can make damn sure you don’t sound desperate.

Desperate is such a turn off.

🍻  Cheers, - AJ

Interested in working together? Sounds great!

I help website owners like you turn window shoppers & tire kickers into paying customers. I’m also a partner and Senior Design Lead at The Hauser Design Group where we focus exclusively on premium website development.