January 2015 - Hopping Mad Design

How To Create a Thankyou Page That Works

You have to be very clear about what you say. Thank them for making the inquiry and let them know the next steps that will be taken in the sales process. If it is an eCommerce site, tell them about delivery dates or timings, if your business offers a service let them know when you will be in touch. It’s these very small details that can make a huge difference to website conversion rates. Remember, these people have gone to the trouble of engaging with you, and buying from your site, so you have to be very aware of what you are send out to these users as a thank you. Effectively, the customer service and consumer nurturing role begins NOW! Make 110% sure that the consumer knows exactly where they stand – never leave them confused or wondering what the next steps are.

Whatever you do, it’s critical to make sure you leave them feeling satisfied and engaged, not confused. The following blog will outline some great tips in creating that perfect thankyou page. A page that will begin the sales process and start to convert what are just browsers and potential clients into full fledged brand loyalist. It’s not hard and doesn’t require too much effort BUT I do suggest that you speak with a graphic design and web agency like hopping mad that can design is up nicely for you and implement it into your website..

What do you want your Thank you Page to do?

People have come to your website and they have made that important inquiry. What’s next? Do you have any outcomes beyond this and what are the goals set for the Thank you page? Yes, you want to thank them for visiting the site and let them know you appreciate their business, but what else do you want? Just cause they have made the inquiry, do you want them to hang around your site, look for other products, do you want them to go to your blog for more information or click on your social media. Ideally, this is a good thing but in most cases they are going to exit the site. They have come for what they are looking for and their business is now concluded. I personally do not like to inundate with users as soon as they have completed the process with over ‘spammy’ emails as this looks way too sales focused – it will just irritate them. I say best to leave it alone once they have finished with a great thank you message.

6 Thank You Page Content Tips

1) This is a no brainer – you have to say ‘thank you’. A lot of businesses actually forget this. They might tell then that your email is received and that’s about all. This is really impersonal and gets things going on the wrong footing. A big thank you is what is needed here.

2) Be specific about the next steps. Keep it simple and let them know that you will be in touch in the next 24 hours or your delivery will be there within 3 days. If people have spent money on your website, you want them to feel reassured that they will get what they paid for. NEVER LEAVE THEM HANGING or expecting more information.

3) Make sure it’s legible and totally at the top of the page. If it’s a pop up then it’s fine, but if it goes to a separate page within the site, keep it so they do not have to scroll. Any hassles at this stage or extra time needed on the site, will only cause them to exit. Yes, they probably will but you want then to do it with a positive feeling.

4) I think a great idea is to have some links to your social media on this page. Give them 1 last opportunity to like your Facebook page or follow you on Instagram. It’s not too cheesy or over the top but just a gentle reminder for them to get updates on new products or services, they should follow or like you. Simple as that.

5) Don’t waffle on with the content, They have bought from you and do not need to be further sold to. It looks too try hard and may have an adverse affect.

6) Lastly, and this is not content driven BUT relates to the way the page looks – Having the page text heavy with little or no graphic elements will not do it justice. I think it’s much better to make it graphical with your logo or brand. You can take it one step further if you like and have a picture of your team or employees – make it more personal.

All of these are just ideas from my perspective. Obviously, you may like to try a few of your own and do it on a trail and error basis. Perhaps get some feedback from your clients and see what they think. Remember, this is the internet and your website is dynamic. You can change it when ever you like and customise your thankyou page based on you what ever you like. Never have a set and forget attitude as this may make your website a bit stale. Like all things online it needs to evolve and change depending on what it current and popular.

Conversion Rate Optimisation Tutorial

As a part of our internet marketing strategy, Hopping Mad Designs offers CRO services to help drive those customers who have landed on your website through the buying process. We design our clients websites so that they are sticky and funnel consumers down the buying / inquiry path till you make that sale. We constantly monitor this through A/B testing, analytics, small design amends and refine on a continual basis, so long as sales are climbing.

Our CRO specialist know that conversion rate optimization and SEO should be the two core foundations of your overall online marketing strategy. Without converting these customers, there is only browsers and this IS NOT GOOD BUSINESS. Think about a retail shop, it’s no point staying open if the foot traffic is not buying from you. They have to love the shop and enjoy the experience of being there. This is exactly the same as the online environment.

So What do We do for your CRO?

Lots of Research
CRO is the technique of looking at what your customers are doing online. Where are they browsing and what are they looking for. Who are your competitors, how well are they doing and what does their main landing pages look like. To be better than the next person and to get that online business you need to offer something different. Your site must give the browser and alternative experience if you are going to be competitive in this space. This is why research and lots of it are so vital and the first step in the CRO process.

We also need to research your current date. We need to see what’s currently going on with your bounce rates, traffic numbers and metrics. We do all this through studying your Google analytics and from there we can start to implement changes based on the data provided. It does sound dry and boring but this is an essential component of any successful CRO strategy. That is, we need to know why it’s not working and use this as a base for moving forward. The more data we have at our disposal, the better our CRO professionals at Hopping Mad Designs can start to funnel traffic into actual customer conversions. In some cases it might be a very simple fix like making the phone number more prominent, pricing, images or placing the inquiry from higher up the page. In others, it may be a total web overhaul.

Web Design, Development and the User Experience.

The consumer process is a simple one when it comes to anything online. They do their research, the browse many different websites and then ultimately make the decision to buy. Again, like the retail shop in a centre. They park the car, look around and then they buy. The trick here is to make them stop at your site, take a look around and stay long enough so they buy from you. You DO NOT want them to leave your site and this is the core principle of CRO and only a web agency with significant conversion experience can facilitate this. It is not as easy as it looks and it takes years of trial and erroe to get it right – that’s why it’s paramount to the success of your online venture to use a experienced web agency that will look at all ( even the smallest details) to improve conversions. Website failures are common – just don't let it happen to you.

Colors – are there too many flashy colours – and do they clash with your branding. Your site must have harmony in everything and this includes the colours. Any variation will dilute your brand and will result in lower conversions.
Scope. Is your site too large? Is it confusing? Do people get easily lost? If so you may need to look at trimming the number of pages and focusing on those that matter. Never ending large sites are a turn off and your customer who may be tempted to buy will simply hit the exit button.

Did the site take longer than 3-4 seconds to load? Is each page a nightmare to open? Well this is one on the biggest killers of conversions and must be addresses immediately. slow laborious websites are not fun, so instead watch your customers desert you – do something about it.

Are there weird fonts on the home page? Do you have multiple fonts on the same page? If so, dlete these ASAP – the site MUST be easy to read – this is rule #1 – how are they going to buy from you if they can’t read anything?
What does the layout look like? is it all over the place? Complicated sites without any thought put into the layout are not going to funnel those important browsers into loyal, paying customers.
What do the ‘call to action’ buttons look like? Are they shaped differently, are they easy to find and do they make you want to click on them?

Proximity (grouping related elements on the page)
What types of questions are you asking when you make someone fill out a form? Are there too many questions requiring too much detail? And, do you make users sign up as a mandatory right before they are prepared to hit the buy now button. This will help improve sales buy reducing what is termed shopping cart abandonment. You know what I mean. How much do you hate it when they make you fill out a form to buy something. Customers need to be give the option of NOT having to sign up to anything. It looks dodgy and makes you look like you are going to use the information provided to bombard them with spam emails later on.

Where are the testimonials on the site? Make sure they are legitimate and not fake – they will be easy to spot and kill your credibility.

Are their any videos? If so what do they look like and what is the information presented and who is doing the presenting? I have seen some shockers in the past and poor home made videos can really zap consumer confidence.

The end game for any business is making the sale and in regards to your website it is the conversion. If you want Hopping Mad Designs handle your CRO we will be able to reduce web bounce rates and in turn give your bottom line a MASSIVE boost.

Keep on Trying and Testing

As firm believer in the benefits of CRO, we make sure that we are constantly looking at your website for ways of improvement. I tell all my client’s that the web and online landscape is forever shifting. It is constantly evolving and changing. Sure, you can make some changes and sit on them for a while but eventually you are going to have to look at that page and see if there are ways you can improve on it. It’s really important to note that some changes can have a negative impact so it’s wise to be on top of this by measuring bounce rates through your analytics on a weekly basis. If you see bounce rates go up – you need to take action.

It’s important to note here that we like to work with our client’s on a continual basis. Because testing and refining the designs for maximum conversions are done on a continual basis, we like to take things slowly and look at each main page 1 at a time. This means you are in a way in it for the long haul – like SEO, CRO should be part of the marketing mix, so there should be a plan and budget put in place for any business. It really depends on you. We may decide to spend say 5-10 hours per month tweaking your site or for larger sites we may look at more design and development hours. I am more than happy to discuss budgets and goals with you anytime.

Monthly Reporting
Let’s say you engage Hopping Mad Designs to work on your CRO and you start to see immediate results. We will at the end of every month, tell you exactly what we have done and the methods used. If we are also doing your SEO, we will clearly outline the percentage increase in the number of site visits and the reduction in bounce rates. We will see in the reports how a combined strategy of SEO and CRO working together are drastically helping you improve sales and overall inquiries.

Cosmetic Surgery and Professional Web Design

The Cosmetic Surgery area is a competitive industry and the cosmetic surgeons website is the first place that a prospective patient will visit before making an inquiry – if the website doesn't look world class, if it doesn't have that wow factor with all the necessary information, then the user will simply exit the site and look elsewhere. This is why having a website designed for any cosmetic surgeon is such a critical step for their business to succeed.

All other medical specialties basically rely on a referral system, mainly stemming from the patient’s GP. And generally when it comes to finding a specialist to look after their health, whether it be a surgeon, or a physician, patient’s just instinctively trust the recommendations of the referrer.

However, when it comes to cosmetic surgery, patients are very scrutinising in choosing their surgeon. Since patients usually choose their cosmetic surgeons based on their own research, the website is usually the first encounter with the surgeon or their practice.

Everything from the general layout, ambience, design, to the presentation of before and after photos, can have a powerful impact on the patient’s choice. The positive first impression generated by a professionally built website. A cosmetic surgeon is a artist and the website design is a reflection on the artist.

In the rest of the medical specialties, the results of treatment depends largely on whether the illness was cured or not. However, in cosmetic surgery, the results are completely subjective. Rather than wanting to get back to their baseline or normal level, cosmetic surgery seeks to improve on the baseline. Such being the case, Website design is paramount in getting the patient’s attention when they are researching on their procedure online. Having a great website design, allows your practice to zone in on the particular cosmetic surgery the potential patient is seeking.

One area that cosmetic surgeons should focus on is their websites conversion rates. That is what is the potential patient doing once they get to the site – are they landing on the home page and exiting the site? Are they going through the site looking at a few pages and not making any inquiries? For a cosmetic surgeon who is focused on generating new sales, they need to be looking at ways of optimising their website for maximum conversions. That is when they land on your website, they make the inquiry. Simple as that!

One other area cosmetic surgoens should focus on is their SEO ro search engine optimisation. Is their website geared up for this and has it been fully audited so it's Google compliant? PLUS is the SEO campaign being handled by a professional web and SEO agency? All these factors will seriously impact the success of the website and in turn the revenue generated for the business.

All these factors are so closely ralated and so intertwined that you really need to be speaking with a specialist team that can handle this for you…call us today at HOPPING MAD DESIGNS on 02 9360 8514. We will take your cosmetic surgery website, optimise it so it ranks on Google, improve the look so it's fully conversion focused and turn it into a powerful sales platform for your practice.

How to Improve Website Conversion Rates

So What is Conversion Rate Optimisation?

Conversion rate optimisation is also known as (CRO) and is the process of looking at the way visitors interact with your website. Rather than simply focusing on driving visitors to your website in the hope that they will eventually buy from you, CRO looks at site visitors habits and addresses flaws in your web page design that might inhibit these potential customers from making an inquiry or buying from the website. Conversion Rate Optimisation affects all websites across all types of industries; including eCommerce sites. In short, if your website has not been optimised for the highest conversion rates, then you WILL be loosing customers.

Let me give you an example. Have you ever gone to a website and been totally confused about who they are or what they offer? Have you been to a eCommerce website looking to buy a product and been unable to proceed to the check out area? Have you ever landed on a web page and could not find out how to contact them? If you have answered yes to all of these scenarios then you have visited sites that are in desperate need on conversion rate optimisaton.

At Hopping Mad Designs we are experts at pinpointing and highlighting areas of your website that are hampering and hindering potential buyers and clients from contacting or buying from you. We have in house conversion experts that can conduct a full website audit and make the necessary design and interface recommendations that will make your website a more powerful sales and marketing tool. A site that is completely focused on driving those visitors into paying clients. CALL US TODAY ON 02 9360 8514.

What is a Good Conversion Rate?

Conversion rates can vary widely BUT if you look at the major brands and most commonly known websites such as eBay and Amazon, you will find that their conversion rates are around 10%. This means that 10% of the people who visit the site will actually engage with the site economically – that is, buy the product. Now before you think this is way too low, let’s look at the average conversion rates for most Australian websites. They are around 1% and can in some cases be around 0.5%. These figures are quite low and the best way to improve on these is buy addressing the issues surrounding your site and trying to lift these poor CRO percentages.

What Are Some of the Factors That will Affect your Conversion Rate?

There are many factors that affect websites conversion rates. Some are no brainers and some are a little bit more involved but following will give you a guide as to what to look for when examining your low CRO rates:

Website design – Without doubt this is the first factor that will have a MASSIVE impact on your conversion rates. In many cases businesses have gone down the cheap web design path or even tried to have a crack at doing the website themselves and in return have a site that is underperforming and not really working that well. I have seen and spoken to many people who have wanted to save a few marketing dollars when getting their website designed and are now paying the heavy price with really low and terrible conversion rates. It’s a common mishap as the desire to go with web agencies that offer really cheap prices is often far too hard to refuse. The best thing to do now is speak with a professional web studio like Hopping Mad Designs that can turn these abysmal CRO figures around for you. This is the very first and most important step – without proper web design your CRO percentage rates will ALWAYS BE VERY VERY LOW no matter what you do.

Eliminate Flashing Images and Confusing Messages– Flashing signs all over the web page are a massive distraction. People don’t know where to look or where to go on the page. My advice is to keep things as simple as possible, with clear calls to action. Remember, you audience is on your website to find something, so PLEASE try to NOT put any road blocks or hurdles in their path of discovery. If you are the type of person who wants a flashy website with all the bling then please note the affect this will have on your conversion rates.

Inquiry Form Above the Fold – put an inquiry form with no more than 5 fields at the top of the page – perhaps even next to the top banner. People will be more inclined to make that inquiry if there is a form right in front of them. Don’t forget to ask your web agency to add a ‘Captcha’ text box to avoid those spammy emails. More and more companies are adopting this inquiry form box as it does work really well.

Offer Something Free on the Website – People love freebies. It doesn’t matter what it is. It could be anything as simple as: free shipping, free giveaway or first consultation free. It doesn’t matter as long as it’s clear, visible and in their face. Having this scream out at the user will help reduce web bounce rates and in turn improve site conversions. Make sure in some cases you cap the time limit to give a sense of urgency about it. Anything to make them stay on your site, fill out the inquiry form or make that call – give it a go and see the type of results you are getting. If they don’t work, try refining, modifying these offers till you hit on the right formula.

Work on your Social Media and Build your Brand – People will be more inclined to buy from someone they trust online. Constantly adding to your social media and attracting a loyal customer base is a great way of brand building, generating loyalty and increasing conversion rates. Keep up your postings on Facebook, Instagram, Google + and Twitter. This may seem like a hassle and a lot of hard work but these social media platforms are there for you to use at your discretion.The more your post the more followers you are going to eventually get and this will give your brand so much more authority, trust and power. Got a new product you want to promote or an upcoming sale you want to tell people about – then put it on your social media and direct them to your site. If they like what they see and are not put off by shoddy designs then they will be more likely to buy from you.

What is your website copy like? – Was it written a long time ago by someone in your company with no skills or was it put together quickly just for the sake of having something up there? Web copy is an area that is often over looked BUT and I really want to hammer the point home here, IS NOW CRITICAL to the success of your website and conversion rates. You MUST get a professional copywriter to have a look at your web content and make sure it’s geared up and written for the consumer. Unless you are a skilled wordsmith then you better forget about writing the copy….spend some money at this stage of your web strategy and you will receive huge dividends. There is nothing more off putting than BAD copy. It’s a real sales killer and will put potential customers in a negative mind set. On top of this Google will reward websites with unique, well crafted copy and push these higher up on the search results. Essentially my point here is that for a website to work you need to combination of great copy, awesome graphics and a user interface that is very consumer friendly. These are the 3 pillars of increasing customer conversion rates and if you follow them religiously you will see fantastic results quickly.

So, How Can I Improve My Websites Conversion Rates?

If you are realistic then you should know that a 10% conversion rate is near or next to impossible UNLESS you are a big well known brand. But let’s put a positive spin on this. You can look to double or even triple your conversion rates in the short to near term by following my 3 pillars. For some businesses this is huge. Imaging being able to double your CRO from 1% to 2% and increasing sales by 100% – this is the power of CRO and this is why all businesses should now be taking this very seriously. Cause if you don’t, your competition will!

Once you have established a formula you can then look at a long term strategy till some day you do reach the pinnacle of a 10% conversion rate. It can be done, it just takes some will effort from your side of things and a willingness to get this started. A will to invest in a web, graphic and CRO specialist agency like Hopping Mad Designs is the very first step. We will take a very strategic approach to your CRO and look at ways to make a few simple improvements to start with that will have an immediate impact. So what are you waiting for call us today and start turning your sales slump around now!