Encouraging customers to share information

Effective web marketing happens when you have an in-depth understanding of your target audience – however gaining insights into your customer’s lifestyles and buying behaviour can be tricky as many people are reluctant to part with personal information. If you are looking to build a well-rounded internet marketing strategy there is a need to extract key information such as lifestyle preferences and demographics.

There are steps you can take to make it more attractive for customers to leave their data:

1. Use short and simple conversion forms. A long winded conversion form will put people off so use the minimum amount of field needed as this will reduce people’s perception of risk. Only request a telephone number if it is really necessary or you need to follow leads up. If you make this a required field without it being necessary you could lose people at the first hurdle.

Think about what the customer is getting back from you for giving all this information. Web users will quickly weigh up how long it will take to fill in a form and the type of information you are asking for against what they get in return. If it doesn’t balance they will quickly bounce.

2. Put important information fields at the top. The golden rule is to put headlines, call to actions and form at the top third of the webpage. This ensures it is seen. By prioritising areas of a webpage you can guide users to take the right action.

3. Keep any communications clear and simple. Again customers will only part with information if they are clear about the return. No matter what the incentive is be direct about what it is otherwise people will fail to leave information.
At www.clickconsult.com we offer expert advice on website marketing developing winning campaigns and initiatives.