How to Make Web Visitors Run for the Hills**
**Hills = your competitor's web site
What you're about to read is an open criticism of another web resource for insurance agents. So, on the surface, this make look like a pretty biased blog post. I assure you that it is not. Our goal here at the Agent Blog is to invoke dialogue and share best practices.
Let me start by saying that Leads4Insurance has improved their site since I last checked it out. The [audible...and creepy] 'important message' from Brian Kay no longer starts up upon arrival. But two of the site's staples remain unfortunately the same.
1. The market-y splash page. Yikes. Not only is this an unsightly [un]welcome, but it's pulling double duty. It's selling visitors just as hard as the site itself. Which is too much.
Fix it: Scale it back—remember, gimmicky doesn't equal new clients. And splash pages are really a barrier to entry, keeping visitors away from the important stuff on your site.
2. The totally annoying Don't Go! pop-up. More nerve-grating than the Brian's audible message, this pop-up hits visitors as they exit, feeling much like the screen door hitting them in the backside on the way out.
Fix it: If a visitor doesn't want to stay on your site, let them go. Don't try to drag them back by the hair. It's not appreciated. And, if you really can't let this one go (though I wouldn't see why not), at least give the visitor a way to navigate back to the main site.
Site features like splash pages and exit pop-ups oversell the message. And in the world of Web 2.0, people aren't looking to be browbeaten with your sales and marketing schtick. In essence, Leads4Insurance is the overzealous insurance salesperson from whom no one wants to buy a policy.
Take a good look at your web site and figure out where you can dial it down. Let the features of your service speak for themselves—don't let old web tactics dilute them.
Comments
I totally know this guy =) He's part of the Michael Johns Sales world... their marketing efforts and ploys are not pretty but they will tell you they are very effective. Im not sure they take much time with ease of use and beauty that will restore a sense of childlike wonder to our lives. Which is what I like to do with my clients =)
Posted by: Aaron Wallrich | May 21, 2007 01:53 PM
Yeah, actually we get some great comments from those guys on the Agent Blog. And poor web design certainly doesn't detract from what genial human beings they are—I just can't reconcile being innovative in sales/marketing while being anything but with your sales/marketing tactics.
I'd be interested to know how effective those efforts are now, compared to five years ago. I'd be more interested to know if those efforts are still working five years from now. Spammy-looking sites are becoming increasingly irrelevant, mostly because they're seen as untrustworthy and unknowledgeable. Those are two pretty serious demerits if you ask me.
Posted by: Megan Mahan | May 21, 2007 02:57 PM