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A client approached me recently and asked me to get to the bottom of why they weren't converting more of the visitors to their site into either enquiries or orders.
They have a healthy amount of visitors to the site but have a really low conversion rate. Infact they were only converting 0.63% of visitors into enquiries and only 0.07% into orders. In certain instances this might be considered acceptable say for example in blanket marketing or cold calling but not I thought when the analytics show that most vistors to the site were finding it organically through the search engines i.e. people were searching for my clients service but there was still a really low uptake. I thought initiallly that maybe there was a problem with the SEO keywords chosen, so I looked more closely at the bounce rate and the time spent on the site and in actual fact the bounce rate was low and the average time spent on the site was comfortably over 4 minutes which I thought quite acceptable.
It appeared therefore that there was perhaps a usuability issue for visitors to the site and knowing that the site is very content rich this seemed to me to be the most likely source of the problems.
An initial problem I felt was the fact that one of the strongest if not the strongest calls-to-action on every page of the site was the telephone number in the top right hand corner of the page and this maybe giving us false readings as the site was designed to get people to interact online either by submitting an online enquiry form or an online order form but at every step of the way visitors are being invited to pick up the phone and call. This is fine in itself if your orgnisation is setup to receive telephone calls but unless you put in place a policy to track the original source of the enquiry this could in fact be giving you a very false reading as to how effective your website actually is.
On investigating further I found there were several issues which needed addressing some of which were very specific to this site and client but there were other more generic problems which I thought would be worth sharing based around the following areas:
1. Poor navigation If the navigation is not user-friendly and over complicated visitors will get lost and wont be able to find exactly what it is they are looking for if visitors do not know where or how to find what they are looking for they will either get frustrated and leave. In this instance there were three main points of navigation outside of the About Us and Contact Us pages which was just overkill and extremely confusing for a visitor. Two navigations, one for subject area and one for products and services would be more than sufficient, definitely no need for a third.
Both navigations were in a taxonomy format but one navigation route in particular required a primary, secondary and tertiary click before reaching the products, I also propose this could be combatted by introducing a drop-down filter instead. Despite the site being content rich I was reluctant to suggest introducing a free text search box at this stage to avoid users getting a negative return.
Also, if as visitors embark on their journey through the website content how easy is it for them to find their way back should they make a wrong turn or dont find what it is they are looking for; this can be another strong source of frustration and cause for visitors to leave the site. Here I advised to introduce breadcrumbs, a really simple but effective aid for people using the site to find their way back to a previous page.
2. Content overload too much content, drowning in information overload can be another source of frustration and result in visitors exiting the site particularly if there isnt a clear path of where to go next or indeed a strong call-to-action. Its always best to follow the KISS (Keep It Simple Stupid) approach and wherever possible avoid visitors having to scroll too much. I advised that the content should be shortened here if possible and sugested possible ways in which the text could be separated into more manageable chunks i.e. tables or boxes for example.
3. Content Quality the content needs to be sales led as well as being informative it needs to be punchy. This means that each product or service profile needs to be a sales pitch with clear cut benefits, (possible) objection handling and a strong close leading on to a strong call-to-action. Here I find the best approach to follow when writing sales content is the AICDA approach (Attention, Interest, Conviction, Desire and Action).
If the Pareto principle applies to your business and your products whereby 20% of your products or services are responsible for approximately 80% of your revenue then maybe you should consider dedicating at least 80% of your site to those 20% of products and services generating the most revenue.
4. Weak or multiple calls-to-action without clear and powerful calls-to-action it is very easy to lose potential clients at this point I do not believe that having multiple calls-to-action is a good thing as you are introducing an unnecessary thought process at which point if not clear you stand to lose the potential client. It is important to have just one call-to-action or to have an absolute minimum so that once youve generated the desire there is only ONE straightforward and very clear next step.
5. Inconsistency Building consistency and familiarity within the product/service pages is also very important so visitors dont have to waste time on re-orientation every time they look at a page, this is where the format can really help but overall all the product/service pages should be structured and look the same.
6. Lack of emotional response a website can be really well designed, be professional and well structured but fall short when it comes to invoking an emotional response which I believe is also really important in the sales process and is covered within the within the AICDA sales model which I touched on earlier. This is where photographs can play a really important part as people like to see people like them participating, joining in, looking happy and fulfilled but above all else looking successful. Its true photographs say a thousand words but also encourage viewers to build a rapport with you and the product or service thus invoking a positive emotional response, just what you need to encourage that sale.
Poor enquires/contact us there must clear direction as to what a user should do and what its actually for.
Include introduction text to the contact enquiries/form stating clearing what it is for and what will happen afterwards i.e. we will call you back within 24rs
Include a drop-down list of all products services and learning areas so that people can optionally chose which product/service they are interested in.
Make the subject a drop down with a request for action i.e I would like to discuss my needs in more depth / I would like to place an order / I would like to join your mailing list and so on. Include an opt-in to a newsletter so you have an audience for the future. Also it might be worth including optional boxes for industry sector and other information which if captured would enhance furture marketing efforts.
8. Unclear order process (not ecommerce) The order process MUST be crystal clear leaving no room for doubt or caution, this means again there must be clear direction again at the start of the process and it MUST NOT be over complicated or indeed look to daunting. It needs to be clear whether people are able to purchase online or not. At the moment anybody using the order form would more than likely think that they are going to go through a payment process there and then online but there is no ecommerce functionality and also possibly be wary that they are starting to enter their details in an unsecure environment i.e. the site isnt protected by an SSL certificate which may be another reason why people have dropped off.
I have based a lot of these comments on my own experiences and from looking more closely at what people are doing and where they are going when they visit the site. You may agree or disagree, I'd love to let you have a look at the site yourselves but I'm not sure the client would appreciate it. However if you have generic pointers you want to add then please feel free to do so.
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They have a healthy amount of visitors to the site but have a really low conversion rate. Infact they were only converting 0.63% of visitors into enquiries and only 0.07% into orders. In certain instances this might be considered acceptable say for example in blanket marketing or cold calling but not I thought when the analytics show that most vistors to the site were finding it organically through the search engines i.e. people were searching for my clients service but there was still a really low uptake. I thought initiallly that maybe there was a problem with the SEO keywords chosen, so I looked more closely at the bounce rate and the time spent on the site and in actual fact the bounce rate was low and the average time spent on the site was comfortably over 4 minutes which I thought quite acceptable.
It appeared therefore that there was perhaps a usuability issue for visitors to the site and knowing that the site is very content rich this seemed to me to be the most likely source of the problems.
An initial problem I felt was the fact that one of the strongest if not the strongest calls-to-action on every page of the site was the telephone number in the top right hand corner of the page and this maybe giving us false readings as the site was designed to get people to interact online either by submitting an online enquiry form or an online order form but at every step of the way visitors are being invited to pick up the phone and call. This is fine in itself if your orgnisation is setup to receive telephone calls but unless you put in place a policy to track the original source of the enquiry this could in fact be giving you a very false reading as to how effective your website actually is.
On investigating further I found there were several issues which needed addressing some of which were very specific to this site and client but there were other more generic problems which I thought would be worth sharing based around the following areas:
1. Poor navigation If the navigation is not user-friendly and over complicated visitors will get lost and wont be able to find exactly what it is they are looking for if visitors do not know where or how to find what they are looking for they will either get frustrated and leave. In this instance there were three main points of navigation outside of the About Us and Contact Us pages which was just overkill and extremely confusing for a visitor. Two navigations, one for subject area and one for products and services would be more than sufficient, definitely no need for a third.
Both navigations were in a taxonomy format but one navigation route in particular required a primary, secondary and tertiary click before reaching the products, I also propose this could be combatted by introducing a drop-down filter instead. Despite the site being content rich I was reluctant to suggest introducing a free text search box at this stage to avoid users getting a negative return.
Also, if as visitors embark on their journey through the website content how easy is it for them to find their way back should they make a wrong turn or dont find what it is they are looking for; this can be another strong source of frustration and cause for visitors to leave the site. Here I advised to introduce breadcrumbs, a really simple but effective aid for people using the site to find their way back to a previous page.
2. Content overload too much content, drowning in information overload can be another source of frustration and result in visitors exiting the site particularly if there isnt a clear path of where to go next or indeed a strong call-to-action. Its always best to follow the KISS (Keep It Simple Stupid) approach and wherever possible avoid visitors having to scroll too much. I advised that the content should be shortened here if possible and sugested possible ways in which the text could be separated into more manageable chunks i.e. tables or boxes for example.
3. Content Quality the content needs to be sales led as well as being informative it needs to be punchy. This means that each product or service profile needs to be a sales pitch with clear cut benefits, (possible) objection handling and a strong close leading on to a strong call-to-action. Here I find the best approach to follow when writing sales content is the AICDA approach (Attention, Interest, Conviction, Desire and Action).
If the Pareto principle applies to your business and your products whereby 20% of your products or services are responsible for approximately 80% of your revenue then maybe you should consider dedicating at least 80% of your site to those 20% of products and services generating the most revenue.
4. Weak or multiple calls-to-action without clear and powerful calls-to-action it is very easy to lose potential clients at this point I do not believe that having multiple calls-to-action is a good thing as you are introducing an unnecessary thought process at which point if not clear you stand to lose the potential client. It is important to have just one call-to-action or to have an absolute minimum so that once youve generated the desire there is only ONE straightforward and very clear next step.
5. Inconsistency Building consistency and familiarity within the product/service pages is also very important so visitors dont have to waste time on re-orientation every time they look at a page, this is where the format can really help but overall all the product/service pages should be structured and look the same.
6. Lack of emotional response a website can be really well designed, be professional and well structured but fall short when it comes to invoking an emotional response which I believe is also really important in the sales process and is covered within the within the AICDA sales model which I touched on earlier. This is where photographs can play a really important part as people like to see people like them participating, joining in, looking happy and fulfilled but above all else looking successful. Its true photographs say a thousand words but also encourage viewers to build a rapport with you and the product or service thus invoking a positive emotional response, just what you need to encourage that sale.
Poor enquires/contact us there must clear direction as to what a user should do and what its actually for.
Include introduction text to the contact enquiries/form stating clearing what it is for and what will happen afterwards i.e. we will call you back within 24rs
Include a drop-down list of all products services and learning areas so that people can optionally chose which product/service they are interested in.
Make the subject a drop down with a request for action i.e I would like to discuss my needs in more depth / I would like to place an order / I would like to join your mailing list and so on. Include an opt-in to a newsletter so you have an audience for the future. Also it might be worth including optional boxes for industry sector and other information which if captured would enhance furture marketing efforts.
8. Unclear order process (not ecommerce) The order process MUST be crystal clear leaving no room for doubt or caution, this means again there must be clear direction again at the start of the process and it MUST NOT be over complicated or indeed look to daunting. It needs to be clear whether people are able to purchase online or not. At the moment anybody using the order form would more than likely think that they are going to go through a payment process there and then online but there is no ecommerce functionality and also possibly be wary that they are starting to enter their details in an unsecure environment i.e. the site isnt protected by an SSL certificate which may be another reason why people have dropped off.
I have based a lot of these comments on my own experiences and from looking more closely at what people are doing and where they are going when they visit the site. You may agree or disagree, I'd love to let you have a look at the site yourselves but I'm not sure the client would appreciate it. However if you have generic pointers you want to add then please feel free to do so.
Top 10 >>> Read more...
