Hello Indiana, Like running an ad campaign, the secret to improving the conversion of any webpage is to monitor and iterate. This is especially true for nonprofit donation pages. Even small changes can greatly affect your fundraising.
So in this email, I want to share with you my approach once a donation page has been made live. This will recap what I covered in the forth email. But because it is so important, it is worth repeating. You can use this approach with any new donation page you create, or even with your existing one.
It begins by monitoring user behavior on the page.
Monitoring User Behavior
To identify opportunities for improvement we need to understand what's happening on the page. We can do this using apps like Crazy Egg,Microsoft Clarity or Hotjar. These tools provide useful insights into user interactions. They include heatmaps, scrollmaps, and session recordings. They let you find pain points and optimize the page.
In particular, you want to look out for:
A failure by users to scroll down the page.
Excessive scrolling, as if people are failing to find something.
Users clicking on elements that are not clickable.
Errors in completing the donation form.
Repeatedly clicking on elements out of frustration.
Slow load times.
Users hitting the donation page and then immediately clicking away.
These are all indications that something is not quite right with the page.
Diagnose The Exact Problem
If you're unsure what is wrong, watch a few session recordings of users showing the behavior. That should help find the issues.
Failing that, you might want to consider running the exit intent survey I covered previously. You only need to ask one question
If you decide not to donate today it would be helpful to know why.
You can then offer them options such as:
The donation form was too long or complicated.
I didn't trust the organization enough to donate.
The donation options didn't align with what I wanted to give.
I got distracted and needed to leave the page for another time.
I was concerned about how the organization would spend my donation.
Or anything else you consider relevant. Also, include an "other" option in case users have other reasons.
Gathering this type of feedback from users is invaluable. It helps pinpoint the exact areas to improve on your donation page.
Once you know the problem, you can start formulating possible solutions. But, avoid simply launching these without testing. If you do so, you could end up accidentally lowering the conversion rate.
Trialing Solutions
The best approach is to test any proposed changes. If the change you want to make is relatively simple, you can use A/B testing as we've discussed previously.
But, if you need to make big changes that need development support, you may want to prototype the solution. Then, run usability tests with an app like Maze.
Typically, I start with unfacilitated usability testing to see if my solution works. Unfacilitated testing involves participants navigating the prototype on their own without any guidance. This makes it quick and easy to run. Maze will even handle the recruitment of participants if you wish.
If I encounter problems, I will then switch to facilitated testing. I will guide people through the test and ask why they do what they do. This is more time-consuming to run, but it gives me better insights into what is going wrong.
Rinse and Repeat
Once I've found a solution that works, I launch it and continue to monitor the page looking for more friction points I can address.
You will rarely get a page 100% optimized on the first try, so expect to return to the page again and again, each time making tweaks. With a continuous cycle of monitoring, testing, and refining, you can improve the performance of your donation page. Doing so will maximize the impact of your fundraising efforts.
And so, there you have it. This provides you with a good starting point for improving the conversion rate of any donation page. But, we've not quite done yet. In the last email of this course, I want to talk about the future of donation pages and opportunities to innovate.
Until then, please feel free to email me any questions you have about this course. I would be delighted to help.
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