Why the first 30 seconds at HypnosisNetwork.com is WAY BETTER than the first 30 seconds at YOUR website
BY Editweapon @ June 14, 2008
Watch the video and I’ll show you:
“Patrick, what’s the deal with Hypnosis?”
Good question. I’m not really into the stuff myself. Instead I like to focus on reverse psychology, as explained by my friend, Michael Scott:
“No Patrick, seriously, why review HypnosisNetwork.com?”
Ok, so the owner of HypnosisNetwork.com contacted me in February about some biz dev opportunities for Jigsaw Health, the other company I run besides Obedient Software. I was pretty skeptical about the hypnosis stuff, but Michael seemed like a decent dude. Ironically enough, skepticism is what got Michael into hypnosis in the first place.
He was really cynical about audio hypnosis for becoming a better person, being more confident, losing weight, quitting smoking, and all that bullsh!t. But he ended up diving headlong into it to figure out what stuff was any good.
I hooked up with him (yes, that kind of “hook up”, retard!) at a conference in March of this year, and then hooked up again for lunch when I was in Ft. Worth in May.
At lunch, he told me he really wanted my help to redesign his website. I told him I’d take a look and give him my first impression. Here’s the email I sent him:
> Redesign…
Candidly, I don’t think you need it. You might just be suffering from symptoms of “I’m sick of my own website-itis.” Very common.But you’re doing everything right.
1. Headline in question format that doesn’t make sense, but it fits.
2. Sub-head answers the question, makes you want to read more.
3. Eye jumps to hyper links next and sees benefits.
4. Conversion point above the fold (free trial, cool!)
5. Eye jumps to right nav, sees “National Institute of Whole Health”…cool, this has been approved by important people.
6. Hero shot of the product most likely to appeal, Enjoying Weight Loss.
7. Main/Top Nav is “hiding” in grey above the logo.It’s no wonder you’re doing $XMM. You’re getting good JV traffic — AND YOU’VE GOT YOUR CONVERSION FUNNEL BUILT AND WELL-TUNED.
For full-blown persuasion architecture redesign, I would do better handing you over to the FutureNow boys, which I’d be happy to do. But I wouldn’t re-architect the “information architecture” or “workflow interaction” of your site if I were you.
So just get over your “itis” dude!
Patrick
PS – I did a review like this on mint.com, mind if I do one for your site? http://editweapon.com/30-seconds-mint/
So check out HypnosisNetwork.com for yourself and let me know what you think.
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Hey Patrick,
I’m going to make a couple posts on this blog. I have a couple quick suggestions for your site so thats what this one will focus on. The second will be in response to this blog post.
First, I’m digging these videos, please keep doing them. But you may consider adding a link back to the blog above and below the video, if not during then definitely afterwards. To get back to the blog you have to use the “back” button and while lots of people do end up doing that, why make people think? I accidentally closed the window twice thinking the video link had opened a new window (and I just hadnt noticed) and wanting to get back to the blog. Most people would just carry on and not take the time to get back to the site like I did.
Second, I recommend adding some of the social media bookmarks to your blogs. Your creating some interesting and unique content. Give us an easy way to share it with others on Digg, Technorati, StumbleUpon, etc..
Third, open all your links to other sites in a new window. You are just begging people to leave by not using them. For example, the Hypnosis site you reference in this post uses Javascript to keep people from being able to use the back function on their browse to return back to your site. A feature by the way that I absolutely detest and cant fathom why someone would still be using it. Its so shifty.. but Ill get into that in my next post.
I loved the analysis on Mint.com and felt it was dead on. That’s why I was so surprised to feel almost 100% different about your analysis of HypnosisNetwork.com.
Multiple research projects have shown that users form a first impression about a website in as little as 1/20th of a second (literally in the blink of an eye). They make instantaneous judgments about a websites visual appeal. It’s also been proven that through the “halo effect” those first impressions can impact subsequent judgments on a site’s credibility, trustworthiness, and more.
And ultimately it influences their confidence in the product/service and their purchase decision. And what’s scary.. for many this is done subconsciously. Only professionals like you and I know to set aside those immediate and subconscious concerns and focus on the actual site content. The great majority will not. And yes, they do recognize good design from bad even if they couldn’t tell you exactly what that means.
So while headlines, benefit statements, web copy and call to action are VERY important if it’s not supported by a decent design that is all lost, especially in the first 30 seconds when immediate impressions will determine whether they leave the site or not… and especially for the spontaneous and competitive buying modalities.
Mint.com just happened to have a great design so that snap judgment supported your further analysis. In this particular case, it doesn’t.
He does use a couple best practices like running testimonials down the page but he drops the ball on a few others. For example, no one reads every word from top to bottom of a long copy sales letter at best they scan it. That means bolding key points, strong calls to actions, frequent and descriptive sub-heads (the best sub-heads are benefit statements in disguise), and don’t be afraid to mix in some highlighting and appropriate images. Something he does very poorly on this homepage.
Strangely enough, several of the product pages do a far better job of leveraging long copy sales letter best practices than the home page but he still needs to do a MUCH better job of bolding and highlighting key selling points in the paragraphs versus nice to know information. He also seems to do a better job of bolding at the top of pages but then nearly abandons it by the mid-point of most pages. If he wants I’ll give him some very detailed and specific examples and suggestions, this comment is already way to long so I won’t include them here. Throw him my email address if he is interested.
Of course, if his site is like that of many successful specialized publisher sites he gets only a very small amount of entry traffic to his homepage with most people going directly to product/content pages from information searches. So maybe the home page isn’t really all that important.. of course the visual elements encompass the entire site and you now know how I feel about that. =)
(this is not spelling or grammar proofed.. sorry)
James,
Great feedback, you nail many points. I’m actually working on a redesign right now. I’d love more feedback and to let you in on a small inner circle to help me make this iteration even better.
Thanks,
Jason M. Putorti
Lead Designer, mint.com