Which website can I reverse engineer for you?

[PaulMontreal]

I'm creating a series of articles that reverse engineer your favorite websites. With a focus on fundamentals like messaging, sales copy, how they demonstrate the value of their product and build trust.

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.

[h2odragon]

https://adafruit.com/

They do a lot of things well, some of which are not immediately obvious.

[PaulMontreal]

This is a really interesting example, hadn't heard of her before but there's a ton of lessons to model from this one. Will look into it in more depth tomorrow and maybe turn this into a full post.

[PaulMontreal]

Positives, in no particular order: - The quotations on the bottom of each page help communicate the companies values and also create a sense of community, "people like us believe things like this".

- 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.

[h2odragon]

Impressive. Thanks much, I've been a fan of theirs for some time; you've illuminated things i hadn't seen.

[schappim]

I don't think I'd want to use open cart in 2019!

[falconim]

https://falconipuig.com/

they are lawyers in Ecuador

[PaulMontreal]

Positives: The main thing I think these guys are doing really well is communicating through their images.

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.

[muzani]

Google would be a nice challenge as they avoided paid advertising.

[PaulMontreal]

hasn't google been done to death already? especially back when they started?

[muzani]

I'd like to see a modern approach how someone would advertise something like Google. It seems like the usual - mailing list, ads, etc still won't work. Would the word of mouth approach be as effective today?

Or maybe, say, DuckDuckGo instead.

[PaulMontreal]

duckduckgo is riding the growing wave of concern over privacy. So they get to chip in on every press story about privacy issues and google.

google at the time was riding the wave of the web itself taking off, an also it was an order of magnitude better than the alternatives, which a new google would need to be to compete.

People don't change habits for a little benefit, when the existing solution is already good. the new benefit has to be 10x better.

they might change for ideological reasons, or social reasons. if you have a world view about privacy it's easy to buy into an alternative because of that. as we've seen, most people don't care about privacy. maybe that changes in 10 years, maybe not.

But any strategy for a new product needs a target, and a story before you think about which media to use.

For example, you target teens now, who over the next 10 years will be the ones showing their parents how to use, and what to use on the next set of devices.

Or, you focus on a new niche kind of search, image search and video search and social media search and map search all came after website text (and likely were invented by other companies google acquired) maybe the next kind of search with come out of the VR world or whatever.

Either way, you start with some niche of people who will be the ones naturally motivated to spread the message. You never try to directly convince the general public of something.

That usually means starting with the group who is suffering the most pain, and wants the most urgent solution.

One thing DDGo do well on their homepage is deliver their message in long meaningful headlines... - We don’t store your personal information. Ever. - We don’t follow you around with ads. - We don’t track you in or out of private browsing mode. - Switch to DuckDuckGo and take back your privacy!

They use 4 full screens to deliver 4 headlines, that's super easy to consume, but it feels like a full message. The rest of those screens get to tell a hero's journey story visually with friendly cartoons, and a likable color palette. This feels the opposite of corporate and tech.

If you want to compete with those two, with a search engine, find another wave to ride. Another big story that people feel strongly about.

Breakthrough Advertising is one of the best ad books ever written, it explains really well how society creates these waves of feeling, the conversation of the day, the worries of the day, the hopes of the day. And how to direct that energy into your product.

Dove soap is an obvious example, a wave of emotion about the number of perfect photoshopped women selling cosmetics in magazines. Dove rode it by creating campaigns around "real women". Its a story, riding a wave, but it has sold a lot of otherwise ordinary soap. (they don't even call it dove soap anymore its a beauty cream bar lol)

[buboard]

don't use them so i m curious how they did it:

pinterest

linkedin

[PaulMontreal]

pinterest is a little like modern google. I was thinking about the main benefit of the modern google (beyond the basic utility of the search function) and its the chrome browser. as in, you don't even need to goto google to search google any more. you just type into your browser bar.

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?

[m0ck]

news.ycombinator.com :)

[PaulMontreal]

hmmm, i'm not sure there's anything special about hacker news itself, it would have to be a breakdown of YC itself. yc has a strong story, it knows who it wants to appeal to. I do like the original yc site which lays out that story very clearly. waybackmachine it. Most sites would do better if they started off with a manifesto on a plain html page, rather than a design template with 50 features, but nothing to really say.

[a_lifters_life]

tenable.com

[PaulMontreal]

Corporate sites like this are interesting. I don't know these guys, but a lot of companies like this have a sales force that does all the heavy lifting, the website does nothing more than act like an old school brochure.

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.

[verdverm]

bubble.is

outsystems.com

[PaulMontreal]

i'm guessing these guys are competitors? their sites are non offensive but they aren't doing anything special (worth modelling) you have lots of opportunity to beat them on that front. tap into one set of values, and get more personal (less corporate). good way to start is think about which type of people you most like helping, then dig down until you understand their soul. we're all driven to achieve more control and predictability, all that differs is how we go about that. Pick a group you like and go all in on talking directly to them, in the language they use.

[PaulMontreal]

i might break down the other 2 sites a little more on here, later today.

[PaulMontreal]

bubble.io points of interest... - basic value proposition is clear. - level of simplicity is emphasized. if you're selling tech to a less technical audience, you want to make it clear this is easy ala "drag and drop, one click hosting, full control" - almost all consumer btw are attempting to gain more control in their life through a purchase. - Join 326,534 Bubblers today! enter email to get started. So not only are they providing social proof of their popularity, but they have a business model to make that possible, with multiple free or low priced options to build that number. - a lot of their other copy isn't that great and much of it won't be read beyond the headlines. people scan to see what they should read, when you write copy for scanning, they never read anything but the headlines. - they also lack any kind of humanity, people buy from people, that's your opportunity to compete with them. showcase real humans and real human projects way more upfront. - I think their pricing and ease of getting started is a key point, everyone is comfortable with the idea of starting free and paying more as you scale. - they also name the various groups their customers fall into, so people can think "yes, this is for me". - combine the above points, and its enough for someone to sign-up and start the process. How far they get depends on the app itself.

So your opportunity to compete is (as is often the case with tech sites) to lead with a more human approach. Show yourself, show your customers, show real projects. Just connect as humans, with the humans reading your page. You could also replace 90% of that copy with a dozen, longer, more carefully thought out headlines that deliver a more complete pitch. They are selling their tool - but they aren't selling themselves, and they aren't selling the dream. What is it that people wanting to build their own apps are really trying to achieve? I'd go all in on one of those groups - startups or education/students or businesses. Then you can really talk their language, develop a personality and a community around the pursuit.

[eanthy]

pornhub

[PaulMontreal]

pornhub is just youtube.

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? :)

[eanthy]

That was a good breakdown I give you that. Would be interesting to see how it changes in the next decade indeed.