Following on from my recent GoCompare Link Building post, and the Conversion Rate Optimisation project I’m running here’s a quick post about an Irish insurance site I happened upon recently.

Irish Insurance Niche

The Irish insurance niche is no where near as competitive as the UK. That said, there obviously is value to the competitors in that niche, and I was recently doing some competitive research for a project. Here are the top 10 sites ranked for [insurance] on Google.ie:

Top 10 sites on Google.ie for [insurance]

PageRank Sculpting

In the above table figures in brackets (“(NF)”) represent the nofollow links a page. Both fbd.ei and quinn-direct.com are NoFollowing internal links, but a quick browse shows that FBD are far more aggressive. I believe FBD do their SEO in-house, and I have to say that their online marketing activities seem to be very impressive (check out their use of SM, twitter and responses to bloggers etc.). But this post isn’t about SEO, or about NoFollow.

Negative Point of Action Assurances

I work a lot now with conversion measurement and optimisation. I’m seriously fascinated by what people do and why they do it, and in an online context this area is truly mesmerising. (Should I worry about myself?)

Here’s a page that is an excellent example of what is likely a highly negative Point of Action reassurance:

Axa.ie Homepage

Now I quite like this page. It’s strong and instantly draws my attention to the main promo area (although I’m not convinced the hero should look directly at the viewer):

Axa Main Promo Area

There’s a good headline and strap:

Axa Promo Headline and Strap

The main CTA is a bit weak in my opinion, and likely a great candidate for testing:

Axa Promo Call To Action (CTA)

But here’s where it really falls down:

Axa Conditions Error

In order to get to the quote page you have to accept the Terms and Conditions:

Axa Negative Point Of Action Assurance

Point of Action Assurances

POA assurances are usually published in order to assure users and induce desired behaviour. Good examples would be customer testimonials, satisfaction guarantees or free shipping details placed close to order or action buttons. In the Axa case I think the T&Cs are a negative POA assurance – they make me want to bail rather than go further.

A Question of Commitment

This really boils down to commitment. Right after I’ve landed on the Axa site I have limited commitment to this funnel. I have not spent any time filling forms or entering details. Think about it – if you’ve filled in all your car details you’ve committed time and energy. So why would Axa require me to agree to the following (which opens in the same window BTW):

Axa Terms & Conditions

I’ve shrunk that down to fit better on the page, and I’ve also cheated somewhat – the actual T&C text is hidden behind a show/hide JS function. But aside from this consider the following:

1. T&Cs page opens in same window
2. There is no obvious scent returning me to the homepage promo
3. There’s no obvious path to continue along the funnel (this is part of the funnel IMO)

After viewing the T&Cs I’m honestly afraid. I think most people do not read terms and conditions, but I also understand that companies have legal obligations to ensure that customers agree to terms. So, as with most things in life, the solution is to find a good balance.

Possible Solutions?

I think this would make an excellent test. There are quite obvious page elements to test in the main promo. One element that could have a very large impact on conversions in my opinion is the T&Cs checkbox. Site analytics will give good insight to allow proper analysis of my hypothesis: Obligation to accept T&Cs with little or no commitment yet made will have a large negative impact on overall conversion rate of this promo.

To test this I’d consider a multi-page A/B test:

1. Control Homepage (with T&C) and Control Form leading to Conversion Goal
2. Test Homepage (no T&C) and Test Form (with T&C) leading to Conversion Goal

Then users can tell which version works best for them, and is therefore worth more to Axa. Quite an easy test to set up and run, and given this is likely the highest value online promo run by Axa quite likely to have high value to their lead pipeline.

If you agree or disagree with my hypothesis I’d be very interested to hear why in the comments.