Improving Conversions

March/April 2007 Issue: Page 102

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The first step is to make sure everyone understands what you are selling.

Kimberly Griffiths knows all too well what it feels like to be drowning in a sea of debt. Like many Americans, she's faced credit card charges totaling tens of thousands of dollars. The difference between Griffiths and the average credit-card-toting American is that she conquered the interestaccruing beasts.

Now Griffiths is passionate about helping others conquer it too. She figures she's got plenty of work to do, with over $1 trillion of consumer debt in America alone. That's why she invested her time and money into building a system designed to set others free from the bondage of minimum monthly payments that never seem to make a dent in the grand total. She dubbed her online reduction strategy "One Paycheck at a Time." It includes a book and online tools to help consumers reduce their debt, well, one paycheck at a time.

A debt-free Griffiths, though, still has one problem. Her own need to earn weekly paychecks to remain in the black keeps her from pursuing her passion to help others on a full-time basis. Her goal is to transform the lackluster OnePayCheckAtATime.com site into a revenue-generating machine that will allow her to quit her day job and focus all of her efforts on helping the millions of Americans who are stressed out over swelling credit card bills.

Meeting that goal means making some changes to her site. It seems despite her best efforts over the past 12 months to optimize her landing page, Griffiths still isn't getting a high rate of sales. She's tried just about everything she knows to do, from paying search engines for traffic to working with affiliates to arranging link agreements with partner sites. She has succeeded on one note – the traffic is fairly healthy. Unfortunately the conversion rate has never climbed above 1 percent. A frustrated Griffiths is left wondering what she is doing wrong. At first glance the site is pretty enough. The colors are eye-pleasing and the design is clean and up to date. Of course, anyone reading this column for any length of time knows that a pretty site with nice colors isn't what we're all about.

Going Beyond Pretty

Despite passing the "pretty" test, I identified a major problem before even completing the second glance. I couldn't figure out what the site was selling. I understood the idea. It's spelled out in the main image: "Create the life you want by becoming debt free." Great! I'm all for that. But how, exactly, does this site help me to become debt free? Moving on, I look to the tagline for some clarification. Apparently the site offers "a no-nonsense strategy for becoming debt free." Okay, so I am buying a strategy. But what does that mean exactly? I'm not sure.

Next I see a long form that's asking for all sorts of information – including my credit card number. Now I'm really getting uncomfortable. I'd like to know exactly what it is I'm buying before handing over this sensitive information. And on top of that, I don't even know how much this vaguely defined "strategy" is going to cost me. Finally my brain moves to all those words in the middle of the page – the "benefits" list. But like most users I'm just not going to take the time to read all those words. At this point, I would rather just click the "back" button on my browser and find another quick fix to my debt problem.

Here's my point. This site fails to answer a fundamental question: What is it selling? Also, since it's asking for credit card information: How much does it cost? The good news is that these two questions can be answered with some design tweaks, as opposed to a full visual overhaul. So let's get to work.

To more clearly illustrate what the site is selling, I took three steps. First I changed the message in the main graphic. I wanted to incorporate the words "online system" so that people could immediately see what the site is selling. Next I updated the tagline to read: "The online budgeting system for becoming debt free." Last I moved the screenshots above the fold so users would see them without having to scroll down, and added "View Larger" links so users could easily preview the interface for these tools without squinting.

I then brought in a highly targeted focus group to see if I had accomplished my goal. Enter Anthony Sostre, my 10-year-old son. I believe a good website should communicate its most basic message so plainly that even a preteen can figure it out. I showed him the original site and asked the million-dollar question: What is this site selling? After about 10 seconds of ums and uhs, he responded with an unsure, "Something about debt?" Next I showed him the redesigned site and asked the same question. Before I have time to start counting down the seconds, he boldly declared, "An online system for debt" and walked away. (Apparently I had used up enough of his short attention span.) The new design had passed the test. The new message is the main focal point and people should know immediately what the site sells.

Now to address the pricing issue… I have a theory: If you can avoid a problem, you should by all means do so. So in this case, I recommended that we shorten the form and not ask for credit card info right on the home page. Instead we made signing up for the program a twostep process and ask for payment in the second step. Additionally I added "Pricing" as a main navigation item so that anyone who's interested can find it easily. No last-minute surprises.

On a macro level, I took out all that text that no one reads. (We can save lengthy text for the "About" page or some other lower-level page.) This made the landing page much shorter. I also made the form a little wider. The idea was to clear out a little more real estate on the page to allow the form more prominent positioning. I also highlighted the free bonus materials, which were always there but nearly impossible to see in the original design. Oh, and I also put a photo of Griffiths at the bottom of the page with a link to her full story so those who are struggling with debt would know that Griffiths knows what she's talking about. She's been there. This adds the personal touch that will make a certain percentage of users more comfortable with the product. At the end of the day, Griffiths will increase her sales one conversion at a time, and with a redesigned home page, she is well-positioned to help many consumers understand how she can help them get out of debt.

Would you like your website to be the focus of a future edition of a By Design Makeover? Send your name, company, contact information (phone, email, etc.), a brief description of your business and its goals, and, of course, your URL to bydesign@sostreassoc.com. Please put "Revenue's By Design Makeover" in the subject line.

PEDRO SOSTRE is pioneering Conversion Design and its ability to turn online shoppers into online buyers. He serves as president of Sostre & Associates, an Internet consulting, design and development firm, which also promotes affiliate programs on its network of websites. Visit www.SostreAssoc.com to learn more.

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