Encouraging Clicks Without Shady Tricks

• Striking a balance in your key performance indicators
  • Usability metrics (eg. task success, percentage of users capable of completing critica task, time to complete task...)
  • Engagement metrics (eg. how long the user is paying attention to content such a video, first impressions, how often does the user like, comment, or share content, how likely a user would recommend the site to others, how many times does the user click...)
  • Conversion metrics (eg. leads, orders)
• It's still better to track something, even it's not 100% accurate, than track nothing.

• Identifying the right kind of people
  • It is important to present 1/4 action to users at the right time.
  • If you drive people to your website the wrong time in their purchasing journey, they're not going to act.
  • It is essential to understand the overall customers journey.

• By simplifying the question emphasizing the positive benefits
  • eg, let's say you sell sports equipment. If you ask people to sign up to their newsletter, then the have to wei h the pros and cons of that decision. But if you say sign up to get fitter, one can easily answer the question; would I like to get fitter?I
  • If we can't control how the question gets simplified, at least address that simplification or any objections. For example, after contraction to sign up to a newsletter, make it very clear that we won't be spamming people and how often they can expect to hear from us.

• By using shapes and perception
  • eg, a university that encourages overseas student recruitment. In interviews, many students are discouraged from attending some institutions because they didn't see photographs of people like them from their ethnic background on the website. They therefore concluded that this wasn't a place for people like them.
  • Another example, in experiments, supermarkets found that when they play French music in the store, they increase the likelihood of French wine being sold and reduced sells of wine from other countries.

• By using social proof to influence
  • Other people has a massive impact in one's decision making and we can use that to give people confidence in the decision they're making.

We want people to make a fast decision, not because we want to rush them into buying, but because the longer they take to make a decision, the less confidence they will have in it, and the lack of confidence will either lead them to believe they're making the wrong choice or that increases the likelihood of them being unhappy with the result of their decision.

• Consolidate what you know (get info from marketing, support, sales team)
• Delve in the data (google clicks, most checked pages)
• Search social media (check company's following/ers)

After this, you'll be aware that, first, some of the information you have is out of date and needs to be checked to see if it's still relevant. Second, your'll notice gaps in what you know about users.

• Every item that we add to an interface increases cognitive load and reduces the chance that users are going to see and process more essential elements.
• Also, websites that require us to think feel like hard work, and that makes us view the site negatively.

• That's why people love using sites like Amazon Facebook. It's not that they're interfaces are particularly well designed but it's just that they're familiar that using those services have become automatic. If they did do a big redesign, they would break the users mental model of how the site works and that would substantially increase their cognitive load.
• Influence of familiarity
  • Avoid site redesigns when possible. If we do a redesign, do so with care
  • Seek to ensure consistency and predictability
  • Use common reoccurring user interface patterns (experiments are great but we need to recognize that this kind of design increases cognitive load and so isn't always appropriate)

• Reduce the clutter
• Hide secondary content
• Shrink supporting elements
• Create an obvious hierarchy
• Organize related content

• Be honest and consistent with users
• Give users the option to change their minds
• Make the decision obvious
  • The clearer the choice, the less pressure that we feel from a site

• Consider ordering carefully
• Watch what anchors you set
• Frame your offering positively

• Understand common concerns
  • Privacy. It's not enough just to adhere to the letter of the law if you want to alleviate people's concerns. In fact, some compliance rules do nothing but worry people, such as those intimidating terms and conditions that nobody's got the time to read.
• Concerns over security
  • Irritations about spam
  • On the alert for hidden costs
  • What-if I want to change my mind?

• Why it works
  • For example, in a new or unfamiliar situation, we assume rightly or wrongly that the behavior of others is probably correct.
  • We learn by comparing our behavior with the actions of others. We don't just presume that the choices of others of the correct one, we also conclude that they're socially the right thing to do.
  • Or if somebody in authority tells us to take a particular action, were more likely to do so.
• How to use
  • Ratings and reviews
  • Testimonials - having somebody to actively endorse products for you
  • Certifications - creates credibility and trust
• Overcoming cynicism
  • Including comments that's less complimentary refinforces authenticity
  • Linking testinomials to source
  • Using video testimonial of real customers

• Be professional
  • They will presume that because you have demonstrated a lack of attention in one area, then you're likely that this is being reflected across the whole of the organization, and that's going to impact the conversion.
• Improve your communication
  • By keeping customers up today about the state of their order, we reassure them that everything is under control, and that builds trust.

• Make sure clients get significant conversion
• Why you need to avoid periodic redesign 
  • redesign cycle is damaging
  • wasteful and expensive
• Solution: Incremental improvement based on data
  • saves money
  • having data to inform decision speed up the data as well
  • promoting more engagement
• Although some redesigns are necessary as it suit organization's business model 

• You dont have to redesign often - the difference is the scale of changes
• Digital discovery phase are significantly shorter
• Assess what actually is success for clients
• Proof of concept
• use of prototypes - essential during conversion
• then you could refine prototype by adding fidelity

• Call to action button psychology
  • Make use of cookies - Powerful tool for remembering essential information when user visit the site, 
  • Could use wide variety of information of user behaviour such as but not limited to:
    • How many times the users visited the site?
    • Which pages they viewed?
    • How long they spent on the page?
    • Details they might have shared

It helps picking the right moment to display appropriate CTA

• Example: if a user returned to the site for the 2nd time, a call to action can be provided for the product they spen the most time. Looking out on their previous visit
• Example: A user has donated once in a charity site, you may want to encourage them a regular donation the next time they visit the site.

Track what users are reading

• Example: When users are hesitating to add an item to the cart, a pop up of discount code may be the nudge they need
• Example: if user is spending time on reading the blog post, it might be the perfect moment to ask the user to sign up in the newsletter

Consider the Referral source

• Example: a user arrived in your website from a review site, user might be down to purchase process

Factor in Date and Time

• Seasonal: 
  • Example: Showing CTA for Christmas
• Daily (Time of Day):
  • Example: Showing meals on a food delivery app at different times of the day (ex. Breakfast, lunch, dinner)
  • Example: Flight booking site might not business booking  flights during the days and holiday flights during evening

Note: That’s not to say people do not book during that time of the day but you might find it favoring business bookings in business hours increases conversion.

Take Into Account The Device 

• Users tend to avoid Data entry on phones.
• Solution might be to provide a customized CTA that reminds people to complete the form later by asking their email address.

Optimise Positioning

• How users scan a page (left to right then top to bottom) - knowing this may help where CTA could be effectively positioned on the page which is on the left side rather than the right side of the page even if it is positioned lower on the page.

Contrast with Color

• Create CTA with contrasting color from other elements to help CTA stand out and it will have more visual impact.
  Apply Subtle use of animation

Movement draws attention.

• Avoid Looping animations that can cause distractions to users preventing them to focus on your message.

Put credibility before hype

• It comes with a cost if the headlines are unable to deliver on their claims (Example: clickbait)

Balance Benefits with Features

Be Concise, But Favor Clarity

• People tend to scan copy the key phrases that answer their questions.
• The copy should be as long as they need to be, make use of the following:
  • Headlines
  • Subheadings
  • Lists
  • Pull out quotes
  • And other typographic aids

This can help break up large block of texts and allow users to identify the parts of copy that might be relevant to them.

Focus on Objection Handling

• addressing any questions or concerns that user might have

Associate objection handling with CTA

• Dont go make people searching for it.

Use Emotion to Encourage Action

• use of “Click now” or “Act Today” it creates a little sense of urgency without spraying manipulative techniques
• Make use of emotional phrases (ex. Challenging, delighting)

Provide Positive Feedback

• Thanking users after finishing a CTA for example, a user finished a checkout process.
• It helps acknowledging users
• It reassures the user that they made a good decision, reinforcing that they’ve done the right thing

Provide a safety net

• Be able to know that users can unsubscribe easily from newsletter
• Be able to contact you in case they get in trouble (ex. Financial sites, trouble with checkout process)
• Live chat: Reassures users and guide them to trickier aspects of the site (avoid using live chat if it is unmanned)

Maintain Momentum

• Users are more likely to complete a conversion process if they feel a sense of momentum
• If they think they are making a positive progress towards the end goal, it invites them to be reassured in every step of the way. Don’t wait the user to submit the form before you validate it.
• Speed up the process by filling in the data you can.

Optimise you Form Design

• Defaults - If more users buy on a specific country make the country default in the dropdown list.
• Forgiving - reducing to a minimum that a user needs to enter data Be flexible and accommodate any formatting and then reformat to have a clean database. Do not be strict on format ex. Rejecting after not following a specific format ex. entering a telephone number or zipcode.
• Avoid using multiple columns
• Don’t forget to distinguish between optional and required fields
• Validate your forms by placing any error messages next to the field
• Explain what the problem is and how to fix it