The Mirroring Effect is the behavior in which one person subconsciously imitates the gesture, speech pattern, or attitude of another. Mirroring often occurs in social situations, particularly in the company of close friends or family. The concept often affects other individual’s notions about the individual that is exhibiting mirroring behaviors, which can lead to the individual building rapport with others.
Remember when Andy from show ‘The Office’ is talking about personality mirroring and he goes to annoying levels? That’s not what we’re talking about here. I don’t think intentionally mirroring someone else’s quirks is going to get you more business. But wielding their subconscious desire to mirror human behavior around them IS something we can utilize within a website design.
Show Unique Photographs of Positive Interactions on your Website
By giving them an idea of what an ideal interaction looks like with you and your company through high-quality photography, you can increase a subconscious desire to have that kind of positive interaction with you. You can see from my home page as I help people with web design in Minneapolis, I’ve actually filmed a positive interaction between me and a web design client. This is 100% authentic interaction here. Notice I didn’t use stock video or photograph but instead opted to include someone in the business (me,) and a real customer/client. That’s how it should be; this gives people a real view of the value you provide.
- Center it around a key value proposition.
- Make it something you can provide that’s generally different from a lot of your competitors.
- Don’t use stock photographs or video.
- Show close up smiling faces and communication to really get a visceral reaction/make the mirroring effect highly instinctual.
[bctt tweet=”Show close up smiling faces/positive engagement to provokeĀ a mirroring effect”]
Share Positive Stories of Previous Interactions with Ideal Clients/Customers
Don’t talk about the low-value clients or customers that you use to sell to if you can help it. Feature ideal customers/clients that will help get you the kinds of jobs or customers you want.
Your website is NOT a place to show everything. Show the kind of work you want to do more of. Do not show work you don’t want to do more of.
ā Sean McCabe (@seanwes) December 16, 2015
This draws people in and allows them to imagine working with you and how the engagement might go. Whether you’re a lawyer, a financial advisor, or a realtor, testimonials are no joke. And give the people you reach out to full permission to be 100% genuine with their feedback. Of course, if it isn’t all positive, you don’t have to share it on your site, but generally, this kind of unabashed description of working with you can do wonders for helping someone imagine they were in the person’s shoes – wrapping up a positive experience, or in the middle of a successful relationship with you.
- Ask for genuine feedback you’d like to share on your website.
- Build asking for a testimonial into your process once the engagement has been successful.
- Provide links to your Google +, Yelp, and Facebook page and ask them if they’d take 10 minutes and drop the feedback in there as well.
[bctt tweet=”āSharing feedback from past ideal clients is crucial to help visitors trust your site.ā”]
Overall, Display the Trappings of a Highly Successful Professional or Company within your Niche
Yes, I understand you might think you’re new or don’t want to overall over-sell yourself, but remove the “aspiring” from your Twitter profile and reach out and guest post on some blogs in your industry niche. Join professional organizations whose badges you’d be proud to display on your site, apply for awards within your industry, and do work that you’d be proud to enter, or be proud to tout as the best. If you’re new, you may think that big dogs have control over top spots, but with a bit of time and persistence, you – fellow hustler – can outwork, outsell, and out-hustle them.
[bctt tweet=”Hard work consistently beats talent when talent doesn’t work hard. – Web Design Psych hacks – ” via=”no”]
So anyways, just as the person coming to your site wants to be successful, they want you to be successful as well. So show them past successes so they can determine you are the right fit for the job. As a restaurant, this could mean showing your “Best of Minnesota” award on the site, prominently displaying raving reviews from Yelp or any write-ups you’ve had.
Prominently display any of the following at your disposal:
- Awards,
- Offsite reviews from raving fans
- Editorial mentions
- Blog post features on other sites
- Any other media mentions
Sell Products, Have a Book, Speak at a Events.
You’re an expert, right? What does an expert do? You’ve got that right… they speak at industry events and use that notoriety to sell products, many times books on the same subject matter that they are offering a service in. Don’t sell yourself short. If you aren’t writing a book in your niche right now, get at it. Start with a blog series in the arena of where you want to go, and then start mapping posts as if they are chapters. Maybe you don’t need to do the full book this way, but it’s a huge opportunity to start building the content.
- Write a book sharing your experience within the niche you want to be considered an expert in.
- Build a blog series to build up the content to include in a book.
- You can use this as an opportunity to write an “employee handbook” of sorts as well if the book is instructional.
- Start a podcast to learn and share everything you can in your niche.
- Speak at any events you can get first, then build up ideal speaking engagements to establish your expert status.
Feature as much of this as is tasteful on your site, showing your position as an expert within your industry. Don’t be overwhelmed if you’re not doing this. It’s about intentionally creating a strategy and moving towards it. No-one is instantly considered an expert. It takes hard work and time.
This is all about showing expertise so that other people who want to be, or are experts in their field, or who in general want success will feel drawn to you. Effective web design isĀ all about trust factors and creating a comfortable rapport with ideal customers and clients. One of the psychology hacks in web design is knowing how to wield theĀ mirroring effect.
[bctt tweet=”Psychology Hacks in Web Design – Mirroring Effect”]
Make the Customer a Champion on Your Website
Using images of the ideal customer and the ideal project that you’re creating for them is just part of psychologically capturing them in the design of your website. Another way that you can tackle mirroring psychology and use it to your advantage is throughout the copy on your website.
Copy can be a tool that’s used to your advantage in so many ways. With almost endless persuasive writing strategies that you can use to your advantage, why wouldn’t you also try to take advantage of using the copy on your website to convenience those reading it that they should be your customer?
Making potential customers the champion on your website is something that you should be doing with every chance you get. Whether you’re selling grass seed or a new home, there’s a way that it can be done. The key lies in your ability to make the reader a hero in every story. For example, “Your yard will be greener than ever before when you apply this grass seed.”
[bctt tweet=”Make the Customer a Champion on Your Website”]
