The goal is to make it easier for you to see their underlying persuasion principles, so you don't have to copy their copy.
Who would you like me to reverse engineer? It could be a leading competitor. Or a site that never fails to inspire you. There should be little doubt about their success.
Let me know, I'll pick half a dozen and publish them over the next few weeks.
They do a lot of things well, some of which are not immediately obvious.
- It's a really good balance between promoting fun electrical projects that will engage the maker mindset, but they aren't shying away from actually selling the components. Sales + Engineering. And those are often two mindsets that don't sit comfortably.
- It owns its nerdiness and goes all in on having a personality. 90% of websites I see have "professional and trustworthy" as their goal, but the result is generic, bland and boring.
- There's tons of learning resources.
- Uses video really well, I got sucked into a video about solar cells and the whole vibe reminded me of an old BBC tv show that helped you build a robot from a kit, decades ago. "It's hot and sunny outside, so I'm going to build a solar powered fan, here's how a solar cell it works" this is just a great way to learn, this is how we all wish science was taught in schools. There are 1000 other electrical component suppliers who would say it's not their job to do the teaching for the teachers, just to supply the components. But this is how you create a community that will keep coming back, because they just get so much value from the overall package.
- The founder is willing to promote her business. Magazine covers, interviews, videos. Most people don't want to face the scrutiny and judgement that comes with real publicity.
- There are only a few fundamental models for selling, one is the weekly marketplace, another is the travelling show. A merchant would travel from town to town and use some form of entertainment to draw a crowd, once they had the crowds attention, and they'd been warmed up (shifted their emotional state from the drudgery of everyday chores to something more exciting), then you introduce your product and its benefits. (Also the basic model of TV). And that's also the foundation of this type of business. A lot of effort is invested in the free "entertainment" side of the business. The regular fun and inspiring creative projects that the company puts out. (And I believe were the origin of the company, blog first, kids later.) Get people excited, create a crowd, then sell them a tool, amulet, map or weapon to help them move closer to their dreams. It sounds obvious, but most companies skip both the crowd and the excitement part.
- There's a nice segment from what looks like an external documentary about the company, on the about page. I thought it might be useful to roughly break down that documentary, so that people could make their own. If you look at it, there's really nothing technically difficult about it. Sit on a chair, looking slightly off camera and answer the follow types of question...
(Have anyone ask you the questions, one at a time, and edit them out)
What's your name and what's your company? When did you start your company? What does your company do? Where do you do it? How does your company make your customers lives better? Who uses your products and where are they? How successful is your company? How did you get into this business, what's your background? Step 1, Step 2, Step 3. Who are your heroes, who inspired you? What's your company culture like? What has been your biggest realization or lesson learned? What's your best piece of advice you have for your customers?
Then film a bunch of B roll of you working, interacting with people, and around your city, and splice it in behind your answers to break up the images. Then add upbeat background music. Your own documentary in a couple of days!
That's all I have for now. There's a lot more that could be modelled from this site though, I think they're doing a great job.
Or maybe, say, DuckDuckGo instead.
outsystems.com
even though you're likely not after a serious breakdown, our primary drives, to gain control and be able to predict the future (through resources, social status etc) are all so that we can stay alive and stay safe - so that we can procreate and continue gene replication, and raise our offspring.
Our unconscious is running the show, driven by those aims. Our conscious, cortex, tries to predict the future and make plans that will achieve those drives "what if..." and also tries to make sense of everything it notices (including our own unconscious behavior) "why did that happen?"
A LOT of what we consciously think is inaccurate or plain untrue. What we say and what we do are miles apart. When building a site to sell anything, ignore what people say, study only what they do. And have those core, unconscious drives in mind, not the bullshit of the day people are talking about.
we are currently in an age where there's an overload of sex, but very little sexiness. the 80's and 90's were waaay sexier. now it's all political correctness and sjw angriness or generic appeals to everyone. that won't last through the next decade. sex sells. sexiness sells more.
what was the question again? :)
they are lawyers in Ecuador
Lawyering (is that a word?) is a personal service, who you're working with matters, and first impressions matter. There are 8 large portraits of the key team on the main page, not hidden away. And I like that they aren't all sharing the same expression. At this point a customer will just be looking for anyone they can connect with, or relate to. We are constantly trying to simulate the future, "what will it be like to share my problems with these people?" And we tell ourselves a story, often based purely on how people look.
I've seen dozens of legal sites without a single human image, but no one wants to share their troubles with an unknown stranger. [That's the route to go even further down if you're competing. Would people want to share their troubles with you? And would they trust you to fight on their behalf. Empathy and Courage, two quite different traits.]
A single good image makes the future more predictable, and the lawyer less of a stranger.
The main hero shot is great. It's both formal and informal. These people are clearly here to work, and this is a prestigious location overlooking the city, but the scene is also reminiscent of a family gathering. This is a powerful family who could be on your side, and have your back.
similarly with pinterest, we know what it promises, its simple enough that they don't need to sell it, if you're visually minded you get to create vision boards on your favorite topics. For people into that, its reinforcing both their values and aspirations. The key thing that makes it usable is that you don't have to goto pinterest to use it. Once you have the plugin or extension every image on every website can be instantly plucked and collected.
The lesson to extract, or the question to ask is - how might I get people to benefit from using my site, in the context most useful to them, without them having to think about, or come find my site?
There's a lot of jargon, and stock photography, but they are doing some important things...
- focusing on social proof. they are highlighting being featured in credible 3rd party reports. they are highlighting how many fortune 500 co's they work with. and they have video case studies with credible clients.
If I were a startup trying to beat a site like this, I would focus on the appearance of more human connection to the community. I would create my site with the goal of having zero stock photos, but 10x more photos / videos of real people in the business.
I'd probably use interviews about security issues to justify those images/videos. And you could probably create enough photos/videos from a few days at a single security expo somewhere, maybe without even having to pay for a booth. Just take someone with a camera and interview as many people as possible about their hopes/fears in this space.
You end up with the ability to show and name a bunch of industry people, on your site, and talk to them about security, without them being clients. But you're still creating the perception of a deep connection and trust, in the community/industry. And of course, your get some contact with potential clients in the process.
I'm not sure the site has enough general appeal, or lessons for me to break it down any deeper.
