Competitive analysis is in the heart of online marketing. So when I saw Reputation.com advertising on our brand name Ignite Visibility (thanks by the way guys, I’ll take it as a compliment :)), I had to take a look at what they were doing. In this post, we will walk through a very cool new landing page / lead generation form by Reputation.com. The main purpose of this post is to explore what they are doing here. They have taken what is usually a one page form by industry standards and turned it into multiple steps. In addition, they have taken out a large amount of the information generally associated with high conversion rates. Let’s jump into it!
Here we see the ad they’re running. They have it all in here with a trademarked name, a URL specific to the reputation, Google+ followers and site links.
Once you click on the ad, you are taken to another page. Here we see that landing page with a bright blue call to action. Notice how simple it is, from the text to the design, it is about as basic as it can get. In addition, blue is a very calming color. A great color to lead with when considering most of these people have major online issues.
In the next step, they ask you to enter your first name.
They then ask you your last name.
Next, they capture your email.
Following this, they ask you what your issue is.
And then they ask further information on this.
Next, they go for the phone number.
They then add with a call to action and additional contact information.
It is interesting to see that Reputation.com has moved away from many of the things you often see on a landing page. Things like information about the company, an image, security logos, awards, etc. Instead, they have focused on simplicity. In addition, instead of creating a basic form, they have created a process that requires 8 clicks to complete, four different items that need to be typed in and one selection. This makes the checkout process much more labor intensive and does not answer any questions the consumer may have about the product or service.
On the flip side, this lead generation process is very clean and simple. Generally, in the online space most companies are moving towards these type of design and usability trends. Consumers want things quickly, they want them simple and they don’t have time to spare.
Another thing that is interesting about this form is there is no qualification. Sure they do have items A through E to choose from, however, they don’t learn anything about the person in the form. My guess is that once the lead comes in, the sales rep Google’s the name. If they have a reputation management issue it is generally easy to see that online.
At the end of the day, you can have a form like the one above, or a more traditional form like Reputationmanagement.com. Here you can see the form is very clean, simple and has only the important information that is needed. In addition, it only takes one click to fill out.
At the end of the day, it would be really interesting to see which one converts better. The good thing about not having a multiple step form like this one is that people do not abandon the checkout process. In most cases, when creating a conversion funnel, we try to reduce the amount of steps. Reputation.com has done the opposite here.
What do you think of their form?
