Silent Conversion Killers: Your peers share elements that are hurting your marketing performance right now

What are the most overlooked conversion killers … and how can marketers overcome them?

In Wednesday’s free Web clinic – Hidden Friction: The 6 silent killers of conversion – Dr. Flint McGlaughlin, Managing Director, MECLABS, will share some basic changes many marketers make to their site to improve conversion, as well as some commonly overlooked optimization opportunities.

But first, let’s take a look at some of the top optimization advice we received from some of your peers …

Things that get in the way of converting website visitors to customers

• Too many banners
• Irrelevant content

 –        Robyn Kahn Federman, Director of Communications, Catalyst

Four common mistakes

• Too many steps to access a content piece
• Too many qualifying questions and forms to fill out – those benefit the company, not the prospect
• Treating all prospects/returning customers equally or like first-time visitors – lead scoring should nullify that
• Overhyping the content pieces you’re hiding behind a registration or sign-up … after all the hassle to get to a piece that is merely a rehash of earlier content, that’s a real lunchbox let-down

– Hilton Barbour, Strategic Planning Director, Zulu Alpha Kilo

Significant friction that decreases conversion

Hilton Barbour’s point about over-hyping your content pieces and gating them behind a registration form introduces significant friction that decreases conversion.

I understand why organizations use these registration forms as part of their lead generation process. My organization uses content webinars and the related registration process to generate new leads.

But, organizations better ensure sure their content delivers on the stated value proposition to justify why a customer should hand over their contact information.

As a result of this phenomenon, I trust few organizations who gate their content. And, more importantly, I only go back to certain organizations who consistently delivered on their value proposition of that previously downloaded content (and I subsequently continue providing my contact information to those trusted organizations for newly published future content).

The two best examples of my behavior are how I always give HubSpot and Forbes Insights my contact information via registration forms because their content consistently delivers value.

In addition, I have a “trusted source” vet other organizations who produce content. If my “trusted source” says XYZ organization delivers great content in Subject X, I will go to that organization’s website and provide my contact information so I can receive that content.

For example, Lee Oden’s TopRank Online Marketing Blog is a “trusted source” who vetted five organizations and the reports they published (notice how HubSpot is one of these organizations).

Lee provided the PDF hyperlinks in four out of the five reports so his blog subscribers wouldn’t have to register and provide their contact information. But, when I’m looking for similar content in the future, I will go to the websites of these five organizations first (and I will gladly provide my contact information if required). Why? Because Lee says these folks can be trusted in delivering valuable content.

And, in this case, the conversion success goes up – but, only for these selected organizations.

– Tony Faustino, Account Manager, Commercial Development, Kantar Health

Related Resources:

Hidden Friction: The 6 silent killers of conversion– Wednesday, March 14, 4 p.m. EDT

Friction: 3 simple optimization tactics to get more customers from headline to call-to-action

Lead Generation Optimization: Finding the right amount of friction

Internet Marketing: Landing page optimization for beginners