Website Conversion Blog
I presented last week at a webinar focused on remarketing to abandoners. I was overwhelmed by the numbers of attendees and their kind words afterwards (thank you to all of you – a lot of effort goes in to making these things happen, and a few words of thanks go a long way!)
One of the topics was ‘three simple changes guaranteed to improve registrations.’ This is a fun topic, and it was difficult to limit it to only three – in fact we could have done a complete webinar on the subject.
(If you’re interested in a longer version then please let me know at press@seewhy.com).
Why registration matters
The first point we need to make about registrations, which is perhaps obvious to those in the B to B world in particular, is why we care about them at all? In simple terms registrations convert anonymous visitors to identifiable human beings.
Anyone who’s been around marketing in the offline world knows that this is important, but somehow the internet of today has forgotten this. In the physical world serving customers is a core value of most companies, and we know can’t do that if we don’t know who they are. The exact same is true in the online world, except of course that we can know much more about the individual, and therefore meet their needs better.
In my previous blog on the top ten converting websites, I commented on how Schwan’s, the top converting website, forces you to register before making a purchase. Clearly they know that they can’s sell or deliver their service to an anonymous buyer.
Boosting registrations
Here are the three simple fixes guaranteed to boost registrations
that I picked:
(1) Give visitors a reason to register
- Sell the benefits of registration like it’s a product
(2) Make it short
- Avoid the ‘wall of compulsory fields’ look
(3) Follow up on registration abandons
- A simple email to abandoners will net additional registrations
Of course we had a lot of ammunition to work with – there are SO many appalling registration pages and online forms out there that it’s easy to use some well known examples of how not to do it.
I used both Macy’s and Wells Fargo in the event as case studies to illustrate what can go wrong, but frankly you could pick almost any bank and retailer and tell the same story. For the record I think that the banks are absolutely the worst culprits, which is probably why online application and registration forms in Financial Services get a 53% abandonment rate on average. As a token, if any one from Macy’s or Wells Fargo wants to contact me I’d be happy to help them.
If you missed the webinar and would like to watch a replay, we’ve posted it up on Yahoo Video here.
If you’ve got your own top three ways to improve registrations, or any other registration war stories, I’d love to hear them.
