Have you ever been looking at someone right in the eyes while they’re talking to you, nodding your head in agreement as they get more animated and deeper into the conversation, but yet, you don’t hear or retain a single word they’re saying?
Maybe it’s because you’re not into the conversation, or maybe it’s because your mind is simply somewhere else. This is the case for me probably 95% of the time and I’ll tell you why in a second.
I talk a lot about SEO and insurance websites, and insurance marketing, but there is one thing that keeps me up at night — something that literally consumes my mind on a daily basis:
Conversions.
There is nothing that fascinates me more than consumer buying psychology. I love figuring out what makes people tick, and why people do the things they do as it relates to purchasing decisions.
Unfortunately, I haven’t had quite as much time to dedicate to geeking-out on this lately, but the other night I jumped up out of bed and ran downstairs — not to use the bathroom, or get a drink of water. Not even to peruse my refrigerator which I’ve been known to do at 2am.
No, this time, I was fumbling to get downstairs to I could get a pen and a something to write on — an idea that struck me literally as I rolled over in my bed half asleep. It literally woke me up out of my sleep.
So what did I write down?
Dual option CTA’s
By the way, if you’re not familiar with marketing slang, CTA stands for call-to-action. A CTA is something that provokes users to take a certain action, usually a button or link on a website.
I’ve been racking my brain for weeks and months trying to find strategic ways to improve the conversion opportunities for our Advisor Evolved clients.
There have been many different ideas, many of which never see the light of day.
I think this might have some sticking power though…
The problem with “one-step” CTA’s
What is the traditional one-step CTA you see on most insurance agency websites?
It’s almost always: “Get a quote” or “Start your quote here” or “Request a proposal”.
Our websites serve many purposes as insurance agents, but one of our main goals as people who sell insurance is to get people to request a quote so we can earn a commission.
And so we go to our website, and we use the typical, “Get a Quote Today” CTA.
This isn’t the worst thing ever, in fact maybe it’s served us well,…………………..but:
The issue here is that with a one-step CTA, your initial chances of a conversion are 50/50 at best.
The consumer is initially presented with one decision, which means one possible outcome.
The answer is either yes, or no. Yes, I want a quote, or no I don’t.
Getting someone to complete a quote form depends on whether or not they are ready, or want to get a quote in that exact moment. And you know what, maybe they are because they were searching for a local agent and found you in Google.
If the answer is yes, great right? We were fortunate that the visitor was ready right then and there to get a quote. But at least 50% of the time it could be no. This is because of the phycological path we’re taking the website visitor down.
More on that in a second…
The other problem with the typical insurance agency website CTA
This is not necessarily tied to a conversion, but more so to the message behind the traditional “Get a quote” CTA.
We talk and preach all the time as independent agents about our worth as trusted advisors, problem solvers, and customer advocates, yet our main CTA is almost always about price.
As I mentioned earlier: “Get a quote”, “Shop and compare”, and so on…
What message is “get a quote” actually sending to a consumer who is unaware of need (a demographic that makes up a large percentage of insurance consumers)?
We know as agents what that phrase means, but to an un-educated insurance consumer who doesn’t know what they even need, it’s basically saying: “let’s see who we can find who is cheaper”.
What we’re doing is taking someone who is unaware of need, and asking asking them for a high-level commitment, while telling them that price is the most important element along the way.
Is that the message we should send? Is that how we should start the customer journey? This could very well be setting the tone for the entire lifetime of the customer relationship couldn’t it? And not in a good way.
Money, money, money…
Furthermore, with a “one-step” CTA, if you’re dumping money into SEO and SEM, you could be sending traffic back to a website and CTA that only speaks to one consumer persona (we’ll touch on this in a second), and doing that could be both a huge waste of money and resources, and it’s also sending a message that is the exact opposite of what we should be sending as independent agents.
We live in a very price-aware society as it is, but thanks to mainstream insurance brands who spend millions of dollars every year attempting to commoditize the products we offer, price is a major variable in the consumers mind even more so when it comes to insurance.
Psychologically, we could be setting the wrong precedent with them if our first message to them, and only CTA, is price-based.
2 Different Insurance Consumer Personas
People who might land on your website could be anywhere in the sales cycle, but at the end of the day, there are 2 main types of insurance consumers we deal with usually:
- People who only care about price, mostly because they are un-aware of need. They don’t know what they don’t know.
- People who value coverage, advice, personalized relationships who are shopping for a better agent and/or customer experience
With a one-step, price based CTA, we’re only speaking to the people who only care about price, which goes against everything we fight for every day in this industry as independent agents.
So how do we solve these problems and improve our opportunity for leads and commission?
Introducing the Dual-Option CTA (DOCTA)
A fancier name for this might already be floating around, and I can assure you that if this concept already exists, I was not aware of it, but this was the best I could do a 2 o’clock in the morning (ha!)
The raw purpose behind the DOCTA is to eliminate the 50/50, yes/no, single outcome response by altering the consumers thought path when they land on your website.
With a DOCTA, the response is no longer yes or no. It becomes which one. Here is a quick and dirty example of the logic I’m talking about with some example features and benefits:
Which one do I select? The possibility of a “no” outcome is no longer front and center and while the chances of a “no” might not be eliminated completely, the thought path is now different, and the journey that we’re now taking the consumer on has been altered — for the better in my opinion.
The goal is to drive people back to the desired result — your desired result, with some good old fashioned ethical sales persuasion.
You’re giving the consumer a clear cut choice, based on two different value propositions. You can’t control what they choose, but obviously the point is to make the offer such that they will want to only choose the more valuable offer. We’ll circle back to this in a second.
Now typically, when you’re talking about improving conversions, the popular advice is to actually eliminate decisions people have to make and steer them to a clear single choice. The truth is, it depends on what your offer is, but generally speaking this logic is true.
So why am I telling you to actually add a decision to the equation?
Here are a few benefits of using a DOCTA in no particular order:
1.) Lead Segmentation
In the example I laid out above, I gave the consumer two choices: get the quote bundle, which includes much more perceived value (including a tangible object that we can hand to them (free report)), or simply get a price comparison to see what is the cheaper option.
Not that you’re going to respond to a price shopper any sooner or later than anyone else (or heck maybe you would), but if they click the “price only” option, and you know ahead of time that the person is solely shopping for a lower price, you know that could be a different conversation, and could prepare yourself accordingly.
It could also give you a queue to delegate that lead/quote to an in-house producer or someone else on your team.
2.) Improved Conversions
If the consumers ultimate decision is to not get a quote from you, there might not be anything you can do about that in that moment, but we at least want to put another decision in front of that one, to potentially change their thought pattern and sway them towards getting a quote.
Now with all of this being said, the harsh reality of the internet is that about 90% of the people who visit your website will never return. There are some things you can do though to leave behind a trail to get people to come back and interact with your website and hopefully request a quote later.
In the paid traffic world, one thing you could do is what’s called re-targeting, which is essentially cookie-ing (is that a word?) the visitors browser with tracking code, that allows your ad to follow them around the internet for a couple weeks in hopes of driving them back to your site.
If you’re not into paid traffic yet though, the next best way, and maybe the absolute best way is to have a mechanism in place on your website to capture the visitors email so you can get them into your funnel and/or some kind of lead nurturing sequence.
2a.) Lead Magnets
Another layer of the DOCTA and one that I’m using in the example above, is offering what’s called in the marketing world as a lead magnet. This is a tangible, downloadable asset like an educational free report, cheatsheet, or guide, so you can get the visitors email address and get them into your funnel, regardless of whether or not they’re ready to get a quote in that moment or not.
This allows you to stay in communication with them even if they never come back to your website again.
2b.) More Value = More Conversions
Now based on the example above, most people would go with the quote bundle because there is much more value, and given the choice, people will usually take more value (or a more expensive item) if the price or commitment level is the same, which in this case it is. (even if they don’t really need the better product)
3.) Building Trust with Choice
By offering a choice, you’re establishing a value ladder with the consumer, while putting the conversation of price in the back seat. You’re showing them that they can have it however they want it. They can pick a more comprehensive service, or “stop in” for a fast and easy price comparison.
And because you’re offer is less aggressive, you’re planting the seed for a return visit to your website in the future because now there is an element of trust, albeit maybe a small one.
Conclusion
People reading this will probably think it’s either genius or the silliest thing they’ve heard all day, but little tweaks like this are always worth testing, especially when you’re in the business of marketing and sales.
If you’re an Advisor Evolved client and would like to give this a try, submit a support ticket with us and we’ll help you get it all configured, to see if it makes a noticeable difference in your leads.
I’m confident that it will.
Now it’s your turn
What other value-adds do you think could be added to the Quote Bundle in the example above? The more value that option has, the more likely people will be to request a quote.
Think of things that the consumer could take with them, such as a download, or maybe even something you want to mail them.
Drop us a comment below with your ideas! Thanks!
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