Know-How Exchange : Customer Behavior

The site is visually pleasing and I really like the concept and functionality.

Your marketing needs to tell the customers what goals of theirs [customers] this product will meet.

Example: if this were a site selling office supplies, the marketing message would be - "Office supplies with the lowest prices - show us an advertisement offering less to receive that price".

Don't always have 'we' in your marketing messages, it should be 'you' or 'our customers tell us that..."

Sites should always have customer quotes. It makes your site credible.

I didn't see a reason to create a free site for myself. Somehow you need to differentiate yourselves with other free website companies.

The template section needs a landing page, and before building the site with the clickable templates, do a short vid about how easy it is.

I didn't know what the icons ment in the template section, perhaps an insert describing what they are?

You've got a lot of copy. When browsing, most people skim the headlines and barely spend any amount of time on the copy unless they're pretty far along in the learning/buying process. Pictures tell a thousand words... show design examples, make the gallery of your customers' websites easier to find.

Also, don't bury the lead -- that is, if you want people to click on the trial offer, put it at the top and make it prominent.

The titles in the left navigation bar are kind of vague (the ones at the bottom of the homepage are better, but they're below the fold). I'd suggest replacing them with more customer-centric titles. E.g.:
- Free Trial
- See how it works
- Demonstration
- Social networking sites
- E-commerce sites

A demonstration in flash or something like a PowerPoint that the user can click through might help convert passive browsers -- they'll see how it works without having to register. I only give my name and info when I really want something, so you can sometimes lose people there.

The upcoming dates section is weird...what is it? Company events? I'd eliminate it. Also, you should link your logo (in the upper-left corner) to your homepage.

Have you done usability testing? That could really help you with any navigation issues. It's simple and can be done in-house.

Thanks for the comments so far. At the moment our focus is solely on what happens AFTER you click the 'Get a site' button. People take a trial site, then do nothing with it - Why?

I'm less worried about our corporate front page or getting initial conversion at this precise moment. We have a variety of landing pages and ways in (the link to the landing page https://www.notanant.com/tryit didn't seem to work in the first post).

My problem is that the journey is breaking down AFTER this point. We don't know why from usability testing. In a usability test environment people just get on and do what's asked of them apparently without problems, hence the question for the experts here.


Saul

Hello Saul,

The reason that “people just get on and do what's asked of them” during the usability testing is because that is what they are being paid for.
Outside the test lab, people are lazy! Why would they ‘exhaust’ themselves if they are just browsing or are doing light comparative shopping of services like yours? If they have not decided that your service is exactly what they are looking for (and that they need it right now) why spend the time learning the interface, writing even basic content or setting up the contacts and calendar?

Just by browsing your service, they make up their minds about available features, what content they will need to prepare, that it is a straightforward system etc.

Now they will move on, spend 5 minutes on your competitors’ websites, trying to see if they can get a better deal, better features, better looking designs etc.

To improve things, I would suggest that you provide a ‘wizard’ (with a voiceover would be best) that guides your users gradually through the site creation process.
The learning curve would be gone, and you are providing an interactive experience that builds up their comfort level and loyalty with your service. Help them build their site, if they invest even 10 -15 minutes into creating the site, they will more likely to back to continue in the future.

In addition, I might have not seen it, but there should be a “tell a friend” option as soon as they select to build the site.

Hope this helps,

Luke Zukowski

Thanks Luke,

I understand why a usability test is unrealistic, which is why I'm here looking for expert help as it's something I can't research directly.

There is a wizard - interesting that you didn't see it as we're not sure how 'in-your-face' it should be?

Saul

Thanks for the comments so far, they're a lot closer to the insights we're looking for and definitely giving us some ideas for thought.

We actually have several target markets and several landing pages for what we call 'DIY sites' which is why getting the initial post-click interaction is so important to get right. For instance I've believed that pre-registration is a barrier to take up, hence a no-register trial. But should we be putting barriers up so users need to put a bit more work in to start a site?

The comment on needing to see other sites is a very good one. We do have a selection https://www.notanant.com/community but probably haven't highlighted it enough as many of these sites are our full-service customers with custom designs. Do you think this would be an issue for someone trying a standard template?


Saul

It's interesting what people see and don't see. On the price, are the sites too cheap? It seems to be raising scepticism which suggests that prices need to be higher to be more credible.


Saul