Whether you’re an insurance comparison site, a broker or a direct policy provider, converting website visitors can be hard going in this sector. The user journey from the point of first landing on your website, to actually taking out a policy, can sometimes be a long and convoluted one. In this article, we highlight some of the most common conversion rate optimisation challenges that insurance firms face and offer our tips on how to overcome them.

Look into how your target audience use your website currently to pick up on CRO issues

Don’t assume that you already know what is stopping conversions. You might be right in some of your assumptions, but the best way to ensure your decisions are based on data, rather than a hunch, is to actually test, track and analyse how relevant people are using your site.

Along with the various surface-deep tools, such as heatmapping and funnel analysis, you can also opt for advanced CRO which includes biometric tests on real would-be customers. This type of CRO testing is ultra-valuable because physical reactions to stimuli cannot lie, so the technology picks up people’s real responses to what they see and do on your website, providing an incredible depth of useful data.

Once this data is expertly analysed, the major pain points on your website will become clear, and you can start to make changes that will remove the barriers to conversion.

Evaluate your website forms and test different formats

Every insurance firm website has forms for potential customers to fill out. It’s an inescapable part of the industry. The trick, when trying to optimise your forms to maximise conversions, is to find the right balance between the essential informational requirements and what the customer would really prefer, i.e. as few fields as possible.

If possible, pre-populate as many fields as you can to limit the time people need to spend filling forms out. Use dropdown options whenever appropriate to make things easier for site users too.

It can be a worthwhile test to try your forms in a couple of different formats. If you have a long quote form, try testing whether a huge scrolling form on a single page converts differently to the same fields spread over 5+ short pages. You can also try a happy medium; a short start page to the quote form, followed by a single long page containing the rest of the fields. You may find that users are more likely to complete a long form if it looks shorter, even if it actually isn’t.

Display an estimated time to fill out the form or get a quote

One thing that people hate when it comes to getting an insurance quote online is the idea that it’ll take ages to complete. Using language like ‘quick quote’ can help to encourage people to start the form but giving people a definitive timescale for how long it will take to fill in can be highly effective too. “Get a quote in five minutes” can be a great way to encourage people to fill in a form – as long as it’s an accurate estimate! If it takes most people five minutes to get past the few questions, expect a dramatic increase in your drop off rate.

Reinforce trust messages throughout the user journey

If you’re not one of the biggest and most well-known insurance brands, you generally have to work harder to get people to choose your quote form and your results over another firm’s website. One way to maximise the number of people staying on your site for longer, and hopefully converting, is to ramp up the trust signals throughout the entire process.

Customer reviews, testimonials, awards, accreditations and certifications are all great trust signals that help, mainly subconsciously, to reassure potential customers that your brand is above board and worthwhile using.

Pre-empt customer questions with comprehensive FAQ that is easy to navigate

When it comes to filling in forms on an insurance website, the last thing you want is for potential customers to click away to another page to find the answers to their questions. They need to find all the help they need without leaving that form.

However, in the earlier stages of the buyer journey, people will be looking for more information about you as a company, and how you can solve a problem they have, so having an extensive FAQ section can really pay off. Make sure people can skip to the questions and answers they want, rather than being faced with a huge wall of text.

For more information about our approach to improving conversion rate and overall user experience for insurance brands, CLICK HERE, or alternatively feel free to get in touch today on 0800 011 9715 or Enquire HERE!