Another Engaging Example

A few days ago I wrote the post, Half Way to a Sale. It was about how a background check company quickly got visitors to engage in their site, and how it leads them half way down the sale process by filling out a two field form. The screening company really has it easy, and only is one step left for a visitor to make a sale. They just had to pay.

Not every service or product is that easy of a sell though. More information is often required. Using an example from this cheap auto insurance site, you can see how the engagement technique is used again. The auto insurance site needs to start the visitor engagement process somehow, and the way they do this is by simply asking for a zip code.

What’s More Engaging?

If you are trying to sell auto insurance, for example, you could start out with a drawn out explanation with benefits and value. You could then throw in a few call to actions within it all, linking to some insanely long form. Hope they buy! Good reasoning isn’t everything though. Sometimes you simply need an overpowering call to action that pushes reasoning to the side. To do that, you need something that creates immediate engagement.

Getting a visitor to even remotely take the first step toward a sale is going to take some sort of engagement. So looking at the two forms below I got from this auto insurance site, which form do you think has a better chance of initiating the sales process, and getting immediate engagement?

What form do you think will get filled out first?

A form asking just for your zip code,

or a form asking for almost everything like below.

I think it’s pretty much a slam dunk on which one to use to start the engagement process. The one asking for only a zip code. Simply asking for the zip code really does not do much for the user, but it has accomplished something for the site owner. It has started visitor engagement, the first step toward making a sale.

The insurance site does still need that form to be filled out, and there is still more action required by the user beyond that. The process has been put into motion though, and this is often half the battle. It’s impossible to make a sale if the visitor simply leaves with zero engagement.

Is you call to action engaging, or is it just a link?