Building A Stronger Call To Action For Conversation Growth



Building A Stronger Call To Action For Conversation Growth

August 18th, 2010 by Anil Batra
Forms are everywhere on the internet, some convert great while other don’t. There are several factors such as call to action, images, copy etc. that all contribute to the success of a form. However, even a well designed form might not convert well if some fundamental things are not taken care of. In this post I am listing 5 fundamental things that could be preventing the visitors from converting.
  1. Consistency in Call to Actions – Consistency in call to action is critical for conversions. You cannot underline few links and not the other within the same context. Be consistent with your formatting. Making some links underlined while other not underlined makes user think harder than he/she should and increases the chances of bailout. See below; do you see the inconsistency in the links? I almost gave up on finding that “Register Now” link (yes it is obvious now because I have highlighted it).
  2. Captcha – Captcha is meant to stop automated computer programs (spiders) from filling the forms but do you know that a Captcha can also deter people who are genuinely trying to fill your form? I suggest doing a simple A/B test on your form with a captcha and without a captcha to see if you captcha is eating up your conversions. This will help you determine if the captcha is worth the loss in conversion.
  3. Confirmation Fields – Confirmation fields are the field that require users to fill in the same information again to ensure that user that has not mistyped the information e.g. password, email etc. However, confirmation adds one extra field that the user has to fill in, thus coming in the way of conversion. Take a close look at your confirmation fields and determine if you really need them. For example, is it really required to have the user confirm the password? If the user has mistyped the password during registration then won’t she be able to easily get it via “Forgot Password?” link? If yes, then do you really need to confirm the password during registration? Do you really need confirmation on sensitive information such as social security? It is scary (for most people) to provide social security number online and confirming it again just gives users another chance to bail out.
  4. Form Validations – Validations on form fields ensure that the data user is entering is in the correct format. However many validations are not really required and come in the way of user trying to complete a form. Check your validations to ensure they are absolutely required, e.g. @symbol in the email address field, or not, e.g. “-“ between area code and phone number. Do not force the users into unnecessary and annoying validations. Keep in mind that a lot of data formatting can be done via client side JavaScript or backend processing without putting the customer through a lot of pain.
  5. Data Fields – It appears to me that many companies like to collect the data just for the sake of collecting it without thinking how it will be used. Yes every piece of data you collect can eventually provide you more information about your customer but should it be really on your form at the expense of lost conversions? Your customers have limited time and adding more fields on your form might turn them away. Go through your form and remove any unwanted fields. If you don’t want to remove anything at this point, identify the fields and do a simple A/B test (one version as it is and the other one without those fields) to see how your conversions are getting affected.
About the Author: Anil has over 10 years of experience in Consulting, Business Intelligence, Web Analytics, Online Advertising and Behavioral Targeting. Anil helps companies use Web channel data to improve online business results (lead generation, conversion, retention and self-help metrics). Anil has helped several fortune 500 customers effectively use web analytics and increase their ROI on the web. Anil has worked with customers such as Microsoft, SmartMoney.com, ESPN, T-Mobile, Hoovers, Realnetworks, Starbucks, and TheStreet.com Anil holds a B. Tech in Electronics and Communication Engineering from India and an MBA from University of Washington, Seattle.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Email Marketing Statistics: Are you Using Email?

Image
July 30, 2013 2 minutes Is email marketing dead? I think not. Even though many are calling email marketing old fashioned and ineffective, it is still one of the top sources for lead nurturing and management. Consumers enjoy receiving emails. And  at least 91% of consumers check their email everyday . Which makes email the leading communication channel. Everything from the content within the body of the email to the length of your subject line to the ratio of pictures to text can effect the open and click through rates of your messages. Before you decrease your  email marketing  budget, we've highlighted 25 compelling statistics that will convince you to continue using email. The truth is email marketing is here to stay. Email Marketing Statistics: Are you Using Email? 1.  33% of email recipients open email based on subject line alone. (Source:  Convince and Convert )  Tweet this Stat! 2.  Emails that include social shar...
Read more

60 Steps for Your Content Writing Checklist3

Content Marketing by  Lesley Vos Lesley Vos is a content writer and blogger of  Bid4papers . Being an active social media user and current contributor to many websites, she is ready to share her writings and ideas with those people who need them. The first thing everyone finds out about me is that I love lists and checklists. Shopping lists, to-do lists, reading lists—I am always thrilled to make them. It’d be a shame if I didn’t have a detailed checklist for my #1 activity: content writing. For all my industry peers who face the daily challenge of keeping in mind all aspects of content creation, this list breaks down a content marketing process step-by-step. I bet you know all of them. But I bet my bottom dollar you forget some of them on an incredibly regular basis. And as we all know, repetition is the mother of skill, isn’t it? Idea Generation Stage Before implementation, idea generation comes. (As Yoda would phrase it...
Read more

11 Top-Notch Proofreading Tools for Content Marketers

 by  Mary Walton Content writing is often dismissed as merely filler for your website, but in fact, it is akin to an exact science. Get it right, and you’ll be able to bring in more readers and, with a little luck and persistence,  convert them  into customers. Get it wrong, and it’ll be noticed and held against you quicker than you’d think. If you want to get your content writing perfect, there are tools online that can help you . Here are eleven of the best tools online for polishing your content. 1.  Wordrake You have pages to fill, so you hammer at your keyboard and hope that what you’re writing makes sense. Often, though, when you’re racing to meet deadlines, you’ll write copy that really could use a second or even a third pass through. Wordrake helps you get that proofreading pass done quickly and easily. Install it in your text editor, and click the “rake” button to get started. It will go through the document and make sugge...
Read more