Combatting Abandonment

I’d love to know how many people hear of a company and then IMMEDIATELY dismiss them after visiting their website? The data available doesn’t lie, and we’re looking at 94% of people attributing site abandonment to uneasiness in the website’s design.

As marketers we aren’t silly, and we know that this doesn’t just come down to the design that houses your content, but all of the copy and photos within the site. These are the elements that are easy to control, and sometimes it doesn’t take much to improve your site exponentially.

Here are some issues I come across frequently that are worth thinking about:

1. Poor quality imagery
Dodgy photos = dodgy products and services, right?

NO – but…

‘Perception is reality‘ and that’s the way a potential customer or client will view you. Invest in good quality photography – this is perhaps the best investment you could ever make in lifting the positioning of your organisation and building trust with your customers.

2. Too text heavy
There are ways within the design of a site to have a decent level of copy without it affecting the look and feel. Content can be great for SEO (Search Engine Optimisation), and there are some great guides out there which tell you how much copy is optimum.

Pages that are broken up into different text areas can help break up the feel of heavy text, and technologies such ‘accordions’ can be used so your information expands as the customer wishes to delve deeper into a particular content area.

3. Spelling errors
We recommend engaging a professional copywriter to connect with your audience via copy – there is nothing more unprofessional than spelling errors throughout your entire site. They are able to avoid dirty words, making the copy cleaner, clearer and more engaging. Many copywriters these days also have experience writing copy for SEO which may be beneficial depending on your product or service.

4. Developing the site for you, rather than a customer
Dismissing the way your customer will engage with your website is one of the biggest errors we see. When working with you to create a site, we like to strike a balance between helping you make things easier in your business, and allowing the customer to flow through your site and find the necessary information effectively. This is all about customer engagement and the customer journey which is a very deliberate, strategic part of the process we go through to design and develop a website.

5. Slow loading time
If your site is taking too long to load, chances are your potential customer has already left and found a competitor with a site that loads quickly. Load time is dependant on a few different factors, but an easy way to combat this is to ensure all photos are at optimum size and not too large, as this slows the site right down and doesn’t allow it to function as it should.

If you need some guidance on any of these points, please feel free to give us a call at Jack in the box.