The Anatomy of Successful Insurance Sites: Part Two
You're about to embark on part two of The Anatomy of Successful Web Sites: Building Trust to Earn Business, as published in the March issue of the TAAR Report. To read part one, just click here.
Critical moments are those at which your visitors get stuck. And when visitors get stuck on your site, they bail and move on to the next site. Maybe to your competitor’s.
Common critical moments include:
- Trying to figure out your web site menu
- Filling out a quote, registration, or contact form
- Wondering whether it’s safe to provide personal information
- Finding information or an answer to their question
- Trying to contact a human
According to Hot Text, “If users fail in these tasks, your site fails.” By assessing the critical moments of your site, you can better anticipate a visitor’s needs as they navigate through it.
If you’re unsure where your site’s critical moments occur, free software is available to help you track users’ movements on your page—where they spend the most time and at which points of the site they drop off. Downloadable products like Google Analytics (free) and CrazyEgg.com (free with trial version only) will even compile reports and graphs so you can easily identify where your best customers came from and which obstacles are preventing you from achieving your targeted site conversion.
The ROI of a Trustworthy Site
Unfortunately, many agencies still underestimate the impact a web site can have on the bottom line. To help prove this point, Forrester Research conducted a study, “The ROI of Web Redesigns Made Simple”.The study looked at larger companies like Dell, Fidelity and Staples, all of which are famous for doing business via the internet. Of 145 respondents with annual revenues of $200 million or more, 95 worked on a significant site redesign in 2005.
The top business goals for these designs included:
- Improving online information
- Building brand loyalty
- Improving customer service
- Increasing online sales
- Generating more leads from better qualified channels
Sure, we’re talking about major players in the business world, but these goals are not unlike those of the small independent agency. Furthermore, when it came to site improvements in the financial services industry, certain Forrester models showed a 10% improvement in conversion rates for secure sites selling mortgage and investment products. The same sites also saw a 5% reduction in call center volume.
Conversion and call center reduction are just two elements of site ROI typically improved by a redesign, according to Forrester.
Others included:
Number of site visitors: Increased satisfaction boosted repeat visits. Beefier content also drove new visitors to the site from natural search.
Higher sales and more leads: Ease of use improved conversion and more forms are completed with full, accurate information.
Lower cost of sales: Upgraded sites become the “ordering channel of choice” for more shoppers, thus lowering the necessity for call centers and customer service.
If those aren’t encouraging highlights, Forrester also found that it took these colossal companies under a year to redesign a site. This is great news for independent insurance sites, which typically carry more limited site capabilities than traditional shopping sites. Start now and you could be sitting pretty on prospects heading into Q4 this year.
Join the Revolution
While the internet has shaped the way consumers find information and shop for goods and services, the independent insurance agency still has to find a way to earn the trust of prospects before capturing their personal information and pushing them through the sales funnel.
You can appeal to customers by creating a site that’s friendly, easy to use, and clearly displays that you’ve got your privacy and security bases covered. Address your site’s usability pain points and you’ll ensure that visitors—all of which are prospects—have a good experience. And that means more prospects and more sales…with less effort.
The customer revolution is here. Are you ready?
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