By Karon Thackston © 2008, All Rights Reserved
It’s got to be the most common presumption I hear from new clients: “My copy isn’t working.” That statement comes from a wide range of website owners in practically every industry. My reply initially is always the same: “Oh really? What makes you think that?”
Usually their reason for thinking the copy isn’t working is slow sales. I’ve also been told, however, that their search engine rankings have dropped as well as a variety of other circumstances. While all of these could be indicators that the copy on your website needs to be changed, they are not definitive signs. While you should regularly test your copy to make constant improvements, there are times when other elements of your website can be the culprit for lower conversions.
In fact, response rates can be altered due to navigation, forms, shopping carts, checkout protocols and many other factors. We’ll assume you do regular testing, but still haven’t found relief from sluggish sales or lower search engine rankings. With that in mind, let’s take a brief look at each factor mentioned above and see what effects they might have.
Illogical Navigation
Have you ever been to a site that made it virtually impossible for you to find what you were looking for? Perhaps the title and description that appeared on the search engine results page (SERP) sparked joy in your heart and made you think this was precisely what you were looking for. Once you got to the website, however, every click you made left you wondering who in the world laid out this site.
Category groupings were arranged awkwardly; the page names in the navigation bar were quirky, or perhaps some high-tech, low-usability gimmick was used with the links. Hard as you tried, you simply couldn’t buy from this site because you weren’t able to find what you were looking for. Frustrated, you gave up, went back to the SERP and chose another site.
You can have the best copy in the world, but if people can’t quickly find what they are looking for (within three clicks, according to most usability studies), they will leave.
Solution: Conduct your own usability test. Have a group of people – who are unfamiliar with your website – participate in a trial. Give them specific things to find on your site and have them write down every click they make until they find it. Also have them give you brutal, it-may-hurt-your-feelings-but-you-need-to-hear-it feedback on how the process of finding the products or services went. If all goes well and visitors are able to quickly find what they are looking for, your copy might need attention. If they are not able to complete the tasks quickly and easily, turn your focus to your navigation.
Forms
In the midst of an onslaught of identity thefts and privacy violations, most people have become exceptionally conservative about releasing their precious private information. That’s why many forms have become the enemy of Web surfers.
Whether it’s receiving free information, requesting that a sales agent call or ordering ink cartridges from eBay, nobody wants to give out any more information than is absolutely necessary. In order for forms to work for you rather than against you, they need to request the right information at the correct point of the process. I’ve seen far too many forms that absolutely butchered the conversion process.
For instance, one site that sells medical alert systems (you know… “I’ve fallen and I can’t get up!”) has powerful lead-generation copy that directs visitors to a form that just stops people in their tracks. Why? Because it asks for everything from name to credit card information before the visitor ever makes contact with a representative from the company. If all you need at the exact moment in the sales cycle is enough information to contact someone so you can answer his questions, only ask for what you need: name and email or name and phone number. Anything more and people will begin to feel uneasy about dealing with you.
Once you’ve set visitors on edge, it won’t matter what kind of copy you have: They won’t want to work with you because they won’t trust you.
Solution: Create forms that ask for the precise information you need at that particular moment. If you need more than the basics, explain why you’re asking for the additional details and what you plan to do with the information. It is also advisable to have a privacy policy prospects can read for added assurance. If your forms are already lean and mean, then the problem might lie with your copy.
In part 2, we’ll look at shopping carts and checkout protocols to see what hiccups they can cause in your conversion process and how to remedy them.
Copy not getting results? Rather have Karon write for you? Visit her online copywriting site at https://www.marketingwords.com.
