Yes, most of the things I cover here are serious. But can you BE serious about everything? For example, let's look at today's topic: cursor tracking. It is a very important thing, but it need not be used seriously.
Tracking visitor's mouse movement is a very simple thing to do. But should you track your website visitor's mouse movements? In a word; yes. It is cheap, and highly informative.
The article above is by ClickTale... great stuff for studying usability. The thing I wanted to ponder more is the visitors that leave.
How we can monetize exit traffic without bugging people? It depends. Most of us would like to think a visitor comes and goes several times and holds our site dear to them.... and we can't remember which sites we were on yesterday that we liked. The facts are cold. The super majority of people who leave a sales site without buying will never be back. Now, if you have a site where you help people decide which type of retirement account they need, that'd be a different story. (And you can see my solution for that type of site at said link.) The solution for most online stores is to track movement toward the top of the page, particularly at a rapid rate.
By using a script that monitors if the cursor is heading up, you can use a 'hover-pop' (the kind that closes with the webpage) to get their attention in a hurry, and offer them something of value before they go. No grief from Google, no grief for them. Extra sales for you.
What to give varies depending on the nature of your site; and I'll be happy to give ideas to anyone who wants them. The basics are a coupon code, a free gift/album/report/whatever if they put their email on your list.
I've only used a custom in-house model so I can't (yet) speak about which to use. Either way it should take you (or your web person) all of 15 min. to get a script installed and working.
Enjoy the day, please leave your own ideas and comments, and don't forward that eel thing to my wife.
She thinks it's really gross.
Joshua
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I personally can't stand those windows that pop up when I try to navigate away from a page. I feel like it's that over-pushy Mormon who puts his foot in your door when you try to close it.
ReplyDeleteI feel that if your site isn't compelling, you deserve people to leave. Don't you believe in your product?
Mouse-tracking is totally cool, though. You're in my house. Why shouldn't I keep track of the drawers you opened and closed? Just don't stop somebody from leaving your house. That's just harassment.
Right. To be sure, we're on the same page with those "don't go!" things you have to click on to get rid of. The issue is they DO work... so how do we get the same effect (or as close as we can) without bugging people?
ReplyDeleteHover-pops triggered by cursor movement. (As they close with the webpage should the person still click the X despite your oh-so-great last minute offer.