Tag: Exit Intent

What is the difference between exit rate and bounce rate?

When it comes to exit rates and bounce rates, it’s very easy to get confused.

However, they do have subtle differences that make both valuable metrics to use and better understand what’s happening on your website.

What’s the difference?

As far as definitions, exit rate is the percentage of exits on a page, while bounce rate is the percentage of single-engagement sessions on your website.

In other words, the exit rate reflects the number of people who exit your website after landing on a page and compares it to the total number of views the page generated.

On the flip side, the bounce rate is calculated from the number of “bounces” compared with the total number of pageviews on a page. “Bounces” happen when a visitor arrives on a page of your website and then exits without visiting another page on the website or interacting with any of the elements on that page.

A visitor can bounce in several ways, including (but not limited to):

  • Clicking the “back” button, navigating back to a previously visited website
  • Closing the browser window entirely
  • Typing another URL into the address bar of the browser

Exit rates and bounce rates still sound pretty similar? Here’s a key difference: The exit rate is tied to the visits that were the last in the session, while the bounce rate is tied to the visits that were the only one of the session.

So, exit rates are calculated regardless of what a visitor did previously on your website, whereas you can consider bounce rates more of a “one and done.” 

Simply put, all bounces are exits, but not all exits are bounces.

To dig deeper, check out Google’s definitions.

Which rate is more important?

Technically both.

But just as with every other type of metric, the context matters.

For instance, you might expect a high bounce rate on the contact information page of your website. It’s not a bad thing for someone to arrive on a page like that and then call or email you. (In other words, the preferred continued interaction with you is no longer measurable through your website.)

Of course, in general, a high average bounce rate on your website could signal visitor dissatisfaction (a possible reflection of your content, loading speed, website design and so on). A high exit rate, on the other hand, would generally reflect problems in your conversion funnel.

Consider an ecommerce website, for example. The visitor may arrive on the homepage, then navigate to a category of your products, ultimately clicking on a particular product and perhaps even adding it to the shopping cart. But, in the end, exits the website without making the purchase.

Therefore, while a visitor was originally interested in making a purchase from you, something happened along the way. Of course, what that might be could include (but is not limited to):

  • The price of the product
  • Your shipping options
  • The design of your shopping cart page itself

So, if one rate was going to be more important to you, it likely comes down to what your goals are. Plus, if one rate is significantly higher than the other, that should be a red flag for your attention.

How to reduce your exit and bounce rates

The following could be aspects of your website that could be addressed to help reduce your exit rate:

  • Poor website and/or page design that can confuse your visitors
  • Distracting content (such as music, obnoxious pop-ups and so on) can turn off your visitors
  • Slow loading speeds can especially cause mobile visitors to give up and leave after about 3 seconds
  • Difficult navigation can lose your visitors who have a reason for being on your website but can’t find what they’re looking for

Consider the user experience in every aspect of your website. You need to give them a reason to purchase and convert into a customer (usually the ultimate goal for most). However, you also want to give visitors a reason to stay on your website longer.

Remember that there is always room for improvement on every page of your website.

Dive deeper with our 18 exit-intent tips to convert website visitors before you lose them.

You also might want to consider these eight tips to drive more organic traffic to your website.

While you’re examining your bounce and exit rates, don’t miss out on the opportunity to level up your digital marketing process. Consider DailyStory, with such features as automation, dynamic audience segmentation and more. Schedule your free demo with us today.

12 strategies to capture more email leads without annoying everyone

The last thing any smart business wants to do is accidentally annoy or “chase off” website visitors in the pursuit of capturing email leads.

Why capture email addresses?

About 80 percent of business professionals say that email marketing increases customer retention, according to HubSpot. That and 59 percent of respondents say marketing emails influence their purchase decisions, according to SaleCycle.

The good news is that there are many ways to capture email leads without annoying people on your website, 12 to be exact. And you can pick any of our below recommendations that make sense for your company’s website. 

Spoiler alert: We offer suggestions beyond just less-intrusive pop-up ads.

Tip #1: Your pop-up doesn’t appear until the end of your content

A common practice is to have a pop-up ad appear within so many seconds of a visitor landing on your content. 

This runs the risk of losing your visitor before he or she has had time to be won over by your content itself.

By waiting until the content is over, that patience can lead to a higher conversion rate of those who finish your content. It appears more like the call-to-action (CTA) that it is rather than a barrier to your content.

Dive deeper with our eight tips to get more leads out of your pop-up ads.

Tip #2: Embed a subscribe box at the end of your content

This is the same idea as the pop-up at the end of your content, except that when you embed a subscribe box, it’s not popping up at your visitor.

It’s an even less intrusive way to achieve the same thing.

You can design and embed the same subscribe box at the end of each of your blog posts, for example.

Tip #3: Slide in your request after so much of a page scroll

Not to be confused with “sliding into your DMs,” you can set up a slider pop-up at the bottom of your webpage that literally slides in on the bottom corner of the screen after a visitor scrolls through a chosen person of the webpage.

This is less intrusive and also appears at a time when your visitor is most engaged and more likely to want to subscribe to your newsletter for more content.

Tip #4: Your pop-up doesn’t appear until a user is about to exit

You may or may not be familiar with exit-intent technology since it’s relatively newer. 

If you haven’t, you’re in for a treat.

Exit-intent is behavioral technology that understands the movements of website visitors and detects when they’re going to leave your site without making a purchase or giving you their information, according to Omniconvert.

Therefore, exit-intent pop-ups appear at just the right time. Again, they’re not perceived as a barrier in any way. They’re intended to catch that visitor’s attention before they leave, and they can be very successful.

See our 18 exit-intent tips to convert your website visitors before you lose them.

Tip #5: Offer a content upgrade to engaged visitors

Smart content marketers know that they shouldn’t give everything up for “free.” 

One way to generate leads without annoying your website visitor is to offer enough content to engage and then deeper content in exchange for his or her email address.

For example, you’re reading our tips about capturing more email leads without chasing away your website visitors. We could offer you through a pop-up a more detailed email-capturing strategy guide that can be emailed to you. 

Upgrades can include, but are not limited to:

  • eBooks
  • Webinars
  • Free tools
  • Templates
  • Email courses
  • Checklists

It’s about the allure of upgraded content for the visitor. The promise of value is upfront.

But to be clear, this does not have to be a pop-up. This can be as simple as an in-line link within your content.

Of course, this can be expanded to any number of content offers.

Dive deeper into premium content and how you can leverage it in your digital marketing.

Tip #6: Feature a permanent sticky top bar

As an alternative to deciding on the timing of a pop-up, you can have a standing, permanent top bar at the top of your page the entire time the visitor is engaging with your content.

The pro is that it’s constantly in your visitor’s sight while also not disrupting his or her experience.

The top-of-the-page sticky bar itself can be simple. You don’t have to overdesign it. Just make sure that it’s a clear CTA.

Tip #7: Consider a feature box on your homepage

A feature box is similar to the top-of-the-page sticky bar. It can vary in design, but typically, it’s a call to action that is on top of everything at the bottom of your screen usually when on your homepage.

Just like any other form of opt-in, it needs to be clear and compelling.

Tip #8: Experiment with a welcome home gate on your website

What’s a “home gate,” you might be asking?

Consider it as a splash screen that’s part of the homepage of your website, which typically is the most visited page of any website. 

It’s an immediate CTA just below your navigation menu, designed to be eye-catching that you can still scroll past for more content on the homepage itself. Keep in mind that it’s not a pop-up. It’s basically the top portion of your homepage.

Tip #9: Create a dedicated landing page

What’s better than an entire webpage dedicated to the conversion of email subscriptions?

If designed well, the conversion rate can be high.

Key aspects that your landing page should have:

  • An appealing offer to drive subscriptions (the sky is the limit here, depending on your brand and what makes the most sense)
  • Clear call-to-action
  • Clean, bright design
  • Feature testimonials if applicable

Tip #10: Include a sidebar next to your content

Another less-intrusive way to capture email leads is to include a sidebar for subscribing next to your content.

Just like the top-of-the-page sticky bar, it can stay in sight of the visitor throughout, depending on the layout of your webpage. 

Be sure that it’s eye-catching for the visitor and not an element that’s easy to overlook. It doesn’t have to be complicated to be effective.

Tip #11: Your pop-up can wait until the second pageview

Similar to waiting until the end of your content or when a website visitor is about to exit, you can wait until the second pageview for a pop-up to appear in order to capture email leads.

Doing so is an acknowledgment of the fact that a lot of your first-time visitors are likely arriving through a Google search in the hunt for an answer to a question that they have.

A pop-up immediately just gets in the way of their mission, but a pop-up on a second pageview on your website is a bet that this visitor is now more engaged with your content specifically. And therefore, now is the time to suggest subscribing to your email list.

The risk is that you will lose the opportunity to “catch” everyone who only appears on your website one time. 

Tip #12: Impress visitors with a full-screen pop-up

A full-screen pop-up can be risky when it comes to annoying your website visitors and effectively capturing email leads.

It has to be well-designed and a very compelling offer to truly “wow” your visitors instead of annoying them. 

A big giveaway could be enough to warrant a full-screen opt-in experience.

Just like with any other pop-up, keep the timing in mind. Avoid anything that is immediate.

It’s important to audit your website with fresh eyes. Where are the opportunities to capture email addresses from those arriving on your site? Remember that less can be more when first starting out, and you’ll want to start out simply, evaluate the performance and build from there.

A number of email lead acquisition tools are available through DailyStory. Schedule a free demo with one of our digital marketing experts today.

Plus, check out our 18 low-cost marketing ideas for your small business.

Top 10 Reasons to Use Exit Intent

Exit Intent is an offer shown in a popup when a visitor is about to leave your website. It is your last chance to convert the visitor before they leave.

Exit Intent

Exit Intent is a feature of the DailyStory Customer Engagement platform.

Below are 10 reasons to use Exit Intent. Plus an extra bonus reason!

We recommend targeting the type of exit intent based on rules driven by actions of the visitor – depending upon the rule they trigger you can personalize the Exit Intent they experience:

1. Decrease shopping cart abandonment

Business Insider found that there could be up to $4 trillion dollars waiting to be recovered in abandoned shopping carts. Shopping cart abandonment reflects a failure of the business to build trust, reinforce benefits and reduce fear.

 

Exit Intent provides a final opportunity, prior to abandonment, for you to:

  • Interrupt the buyers decision and build trust, reinforce benefits and reduce fear.
  • Offer a discount or promotion if the shopping cart is transacted.
  • Offer the ability for the buyer to get a reminder email (if they haven’t signed in)
Using WordPress? Want to use Exit Intent? We’ve Made it Easy.

2. Highlight relevant content

A large technology provider found that customers who participated in their online community spent 25 percent more than customers who did not participate in their online community. The online community provided relevant experiences, success stories and use cases that other customers could relate to and use to influence their purchasing behavior.

Exit Intent provides a final opportunity, prior to the visitor leaving your site, for you to:

  • Highlight the availability of relevant content or resources and then navigate people to those resources.
  • Use analytics to analyze the initial request made by the visitor: what keywords brought them to the site, did they click on a Search Engine Marketing (SEM) ad and redirect them to content similar visitors found relevant.

3. Growing your email subscription list

Email marketing remains the number 1 tool with the biggest positive impact on revenue. Organically building an email subscription list is one of the best ways to create an audience for you to market to. For most businesses adding subscribers to their monthly newsletter isn’t always obvious. They’ll add existing customers, but neglect to promote the availability of the newsletter on their website.

When a visitor is leaving your site it is a great opportunity to promote your newsletter or other mailing lists that may be of interest to the visitor:

  • Provide a simple sign-up form, typically just ask for an email address.
  • Reinforce that signing up for your email listing will be beneficial to the visitor.
  • Create trust by indicating that you will not share the email address.

4. Ask for word of mouth promotion

In a recent study, the American Marketing Association (AMA) found that 64 percent of marketing executives indicated that they believe word of mouth is the most effective form of marketing. However, only 6% say they have mastered it.

The key to word of mouth marketing is asking for it! And what better opportunity than when a shopper who recently completed a product purchase is exiting your site?

  • Use social channels, Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and more, to make it easy for your visitor to share their experience. For example, with a single click of a button, they can share a status on Twitter or Facebook.

5. Promote new offers or features

For some companies, especially those with a “house of brands”, it can be hard to promote new offers, features or capabilities. The information may be there but could be buried in press releases, blogs or other site content. Keep in mind that most visitors to your website don’t come through the home page, but come through search engines. Therefore you can’t expect them to find new offers on their own.

When a visitor is leaving your site, you can use Exit Intent like an advertisement to promote offers:

  • An ad or offer can be presented if the visitor is idle for a period of minutes. This can be a great way to refocus the visitor if they stepped away for a few minutes or were interrupted by something else.

6. Offer personalized recommendations

Personalization is the concept of matching the visitor’s experience with what they were expecting to find. This can be promoting products that were previously looked at, recommending content based on related content, or tailoring the visitor’s experience based on what visitors similar to them have found useful.

Exit Intent presents a final opportunity for you to interact with your visitor before they leave. Just as you would personalize their browsing experience, you can personalize the Exit Intent experience as well:

  • Recommend products or content that other visitors may have found useful or relevant. This creates a way to change the exit into a deeper visit of your site (or even purchases).

7. Request ratings and reviews

According to a survey by BrightLocal, 88 percent of consumers trust online reviews as much as a personal recommendation. Similar to word of mouth promotion, sometimes you just need to ask for a rating or review. A great example of this is the Apple experience on iOS devices – if you’ve ever installed an App from Apple’s App Store you’ll occasionally get an in-App request to provide a review. This is because the App publishers know just how important ratings and reviews are!

When a visitor or customer is leaving the site this is a great opportunity quickly ask them for a review:

  • Most likely they are already authenticated and asking for a review can be a simple as requesting a rating and comment on a product they have already purchased.

While ratings and reviews are typically thought of as B2C capabilities more and more businesses recognize the value of rating and reviews for their services and products too!

8. Request feedback on experience

A visitor is leaving your site. Do you know why they are leaving? Did they find what they are looking for? Do they need more help?

Exit Intent provides the perfect opportunity for you to quickly ask the visitor why they are leaving:

  • This could be as simple as a Net Promoter Score with a comment box or it could be a request to complete a more in-depth survey.

9. Cross sell and up sell

If you have ever purchased a product from Amazon, you know they do a very good job at cross selling and up selling related products. Similar to personalization, the moment a visitor is leaving your site is your last opportunity to help them find products and resources that they may be interested in, but were unaware of.

Exit Intent cross sell and up sell should focus on:

  • What products (or content) did other consumers select that this visitor did not select.
  • What products are highly related to this product that the buyer may also find beneficial?

While Exit Intent does not provide the capabilities to determine the answers to those questions, it does create the opportunity to help promote them.

10. Learn about customer behavior

The overriding goal of Exit Intent, along with other interrupt driven marketing tools like Welcome Mat, is to increase your Conversion Rate Optimization. All of these tools help you understand your customers better. This can include metrics around Exit Intent such as:

  • Impressions – the number of times the Exit Intent is shown to users.
  • Navigate Away – the number of times no interaction with the Exit Intent takes place.
  • Call to Action (CTA) click – the number of times the CTA is clicked.
  • Dismiss click – the number of times – and type, e.g. ‘Maybe Later’ – the dismiss button is clicked.

Bonus Tip – Decrease Bounce Rates

In Google Analytics, bounce rate is the percentage of single interaction visits to a website. A bounce rate of greater than 70 percent for a blog or article isn’t unusual.

Visitors bounce because:

  • They finished reading your blog post or other content they were interested in
  • They didn’t find what they were looking for
  • They are price or comparison shopping
  • They got distracted and forgot what they were looking for
  • They were researching information

An Exit Intent on these pages creates an opportunity to convert a visitor to your newsletter or another offer that entices them to stay.

 

Learn more about DailyStory’s Exit Intent capabilities.