There’s something of a trend in websites these days; and especially new small businesses looking to impress; to completely overdo the website side of things. Frequently, we find ourselves logging onto a site to find out what they’re all about, only to be put off because there’s video content shouting at us, or because we have to wait for an animation to load.
We have bad news for the people who do that. People don’t like it. Not only do they not like it, but extended loading times to load the video may put people off, or make the page look incomplete until the loading process finishes. That’s not good news. You have ten seconds for your homepage to make an impression on somebody before they get bored and decide to leave. If five of those seconds are taken up by loading time, you’re going to lose that battle against boredom.
When someone logs onto your website, you want them to choose you, and spend money with you. When you’re a sole trader, a new start-up or a small business, that’s even more important than it is for a major brand. Your website needs to be appealing, inviting, captivating and easy to understand. So, instead of all the slick technical stuff, let’s look at simplicity, and things that we know work.
And how do we know the things we’re about to discuss work? Because casino sites use them.
Casino websites are in one of the most competitive marketplaces on the internet. There are many of them, all of them exist to make money, and all of them have only one way to make that money; persuade you to stay on that site and spend money before you get distracted and shut that window. The ones that do it well are the ones that stay in business. For the purposes of this article, we’ll be looking at the Money Reels website, which launched in May 2018 and is thriving. When a gambling company launches a website, you can be sure that they have spent incredible amounts of time and money on researching what works, what doesn’t, and what should go where, all of which will be represented in the website design. What you see at Money Reels is a product based on literally years of that research. Here’s what it tells us.
1. Offer Your Customers Something Straight Away
The very first thing you see when you go to the Money Reels homepage is an offer for 500 free spins. That’s something for nothing. It’s a good hook. Rather than being asked to spend money, customers are given the chance to get something from the company, free of charge, as their very first interaction. That’s a good first impression within a microsecond of arriving on the site. You need to find an equivalent.
Now unless, by enormous coincidence, you’re also launching a casino website, you don’t have free spins to offer. So what can you give away free? An information leaflet as a PDF? A sample of something in the post? Even a quote is free; regardless of whether or not you always provide free quotes to your customers anyway, make it sound like it’s a feature. If people believe they’re getting something for nothing, they’re likely to be interested straight off the bat. So make a feature of it.
2. Make Them Give You Something To Get That Free Offer
If a customer on the Money Reels website wants to claim their free spins, they have to register with the website. It’s a straight A to B process. The customer sees the offer, decides whether they want to take the website up on the offer, and then proceeds. Because they’ve decided to proceed, they’re unlikely to have reservations about registering. As far as they’re concerned, this is all happening on their terms; they’ve decided they want something, and now they’re taking action to get it.
Let’s go back to that free item you’re going to offer. We’ll use the example of a quote again. The customer likes the idea of getting a free quote, and therefore accepts that to get the quote, they have to let you contact them. Therefore, as part of the registration process, you ask them for their email address and phone number. Most customers will provide at least one of those two pieces of data. Congratulations; someone who was only a casual browser ten seconds ago is now a brand new lead, and one you can directly communicate with.
3. Only Show The Headlines On The Homepage
We realize that you probably have fantastic services to offer people, and you want to tell them all about it straight away. Hold a little back. Go with the really eye catching information. See that range of games on the Money Reels homepage? That’s just a tiny fraction of all the games they actually host. They’re just there to give you an example, and get your attention. To see everything they actually offer, you need to visit the ‘all games’ tab at the top.
The majority of your products should be listed on a dedicated page on your website, not all on the homepage. Not only is this better for SEO, it also avoids clutter on the first page your customers see. Just show your best work there. No prices, no testimonies, just a visual representation of whatever it is you do best. That can include a picture of you, if you’re the main selling point for your business. Just don’t boggle people with detail as soon as they arrive.
4. Use The Tab To Grab People’s Attention
Here’s a clever trick; open up the Money Reels website in one tab. Now open another tab and go to it, without closing the Money Reels tab. If you’ve done that correctly, you’ll notice that the text on the tab is now flashing ‘Hey! Come Back!’ at you, thus drawing your eye. How great is that?
How many times have you opened a webpage, planning to do something on or with it later, and then forgotten about it and closed it, only remembering hours later whatever it is you were supposed to do? People will do that with your business. It’s human nature; we all get distracted sometimes. This tiny little trick solves that problem. It’s such an unusual effect that it grabs the attention straight back onto that tab, and brings the potential customer right back into the mood they were in when they first loaded the page. It’s a tiny little thing, but it can do wonders. Speak to whoever your coding person is – if it isn’t you – and get that implemented for your own site straight away.
Four basic tips, all with very sound logic, that could totally change the way customers interact with your website. Strip away the excess and go straight to the contact information, and then you can sell to the customer the easier way; directly. Remember; you’ve got ten seconds to get that browser onside. Use them wisely!
