Convert more visitors when you reduce friction

We’ve been talking about this a lot at SWN lately. If you invest the time (and money!) in getting an online agency to create a website, why invest in getting as many customers as possible to convert?

It frustrates me that some businesses think all they have to do is get an online agency to build a website and people will convert. Build it and they will come – not quite!

It doesn’t matter how great your online agency or design is. The first seconds are vital to engaging customers. Thousands of pounds can be won or lost in these first few precious moments. This is where reducing friction comes in.

Some of our best website tests have addressed friction

From all the testing we’ve done at our online agency, we know that reducing friction can improve conversion massively.

Marketing Experiments (conversion gurus our online agency works closely with) defines friction as ‘psychological resistance to given elements in the sales process’.

Basically, this means visitors can’t find what they’re looking for, they don’t like your long forms or they don’t the big blocks of copy. Why? Find out, reduce the friction and reap the rewards.

Anything that reduces confusion, the more conversions you’ll get – and this is where reducing friction works wonders.

Friction can be good

A little confusing, yes. Friction can play a negative or a positive role. If adding friction provides you with more qualified leads (i.e. funneling ‘better’ customers through forms), added friction can be very effective. However if it’s sales you want, reducing friction is what you need to do.

Offer something great and communicate it clearly

To sum up, in the first few seconds, you must answer two very important questions: “Where am I?” and “What can I do here?” After this, every element must answer “Why should I buy this product from you?” If visitors are confused, they will leave. Reduce friction at each point.

Don’t overlook the need to reduce friction. As Abraham Lincoln said, “If I had eight hours to chop down a tree, I’d spend six hours sharpening my axe.”

Sharpen your website and reduce friction, with the help of an expert online agency, and you’ll convert more visitors in 2010 – guaranteed.