How desperate is too desperate? What is the right amount of in your face?
I got a note from a company. I went to their site. The home page did not explain clearly what they did, so, five seconds later, exactly equal to the amount of patience anyone on the internet has, I clicked on the helpful How It Works link on the top nav.
Five seconds after landing on the page I got these two popups.
I barely got a chance to read what the company does. These pop-ups are now covering all the content I`m there to read, content the company desperately wants me to read.
There is a gorgeous top of the page, valueless to me because I`m trying to learn what they do.
The thought immediately crosses my mind: "This is so stupid. All you are doing is pissing off someone actually interested in your product."
Then I realize that I`m sure someone tested this. I`m sure some "conversion rate optimization guru" was brought in to do this. I`m sure they got 10% more leads. I`m sure their lead conversion rate went from 1.67% to 1.84%. I`m sure to them this looks awesome.
But what about the other 98.16%? People who did not convert, many of whom, like me, might have thought this was distasteful? Some of the 98.16% surely thought "This is not the type of company I want to do business with?"
Is your company structured to consider those questions? Do you have a process to think beyond landing page last iota optimization of the bottom of the funnel local maxima optimization? Do you have people who can apply common sense and good taste?
It is not easy to do. But it is important.
And in case you were curious... No, the right answer is not: "It won`t piss people off because all they have to do is find their mouse, move it to to x boxes and then go read our incredible content."
(I`ve done my best to hide the name of this company. They are not the only people in the world doing this, they are hardly the worst example. If you know the name of the company, please don`t mention it in comment. Thanks!)
#optimizebeyondconversionrate #worryaboutyourbrandexperience
