Adding friction INCREASES conversions?! ????

Nathan Hill was down in Jacksonville, FL a few weeks ago filming a brand-new course on donation page optimization (more on that soon!). And one critical concept he discussed in the course is friction.

Reducing the number of steps in the giving process and removing other barriers and obstacles can often lead to an increase in giving.

But there are some cases where adding a step can actually help improve results.

In the experiment below, you’ll see how adding an extra step to receive a content offer increased email acquisition for this organization??

Hypothesis

Using a slide-out to direct users to a landing page with a stronger value proposition about an email acquisition offer will lead to more sign-ups than asking someone to fill out a form in the slide-out itself.

Why might this work?

Two factors may be at play here:

1. When a user’s motivation to take a specific call-to-action is low, adding a small “micro-decision” can sometimes help more people make the initial click. And once they’ve made an initial click, it’s often easier to get them to say yes to the larger offer. (You might call this “Foot-in-the-door” technique).
2. If you get a motivated user to click to a landing page, you have a greater opportunity to show them a strong value proposition about why they should say yes to the offer.

Control

Treatment

Results

The treatment with the link to the landing page resulted in a 55.2% increase in emails acquired for all traffic.

Some tips for testing this (and other) ideas

1. Another iteration of this test could be to rework the copy in a way that better articulates the offer and clearly defines the value to the user.?
2. Test the button CTA — rather than creating a perception of “work,” try user-centric copy like “Get my free guide.”
3. Test the triggers for the slide-out or pop-up — is it more effective after a set delay, exit intent, or page scroll?

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