How to design an online order form
From: Jonathan Mizel
Publisher, The Online Marketing Letter
Dear Friend and Subscriber,
If you run a direct-response Web site, here’s an easy and often overlooked way to increase your conversion rate using simple order-form copy and design techniques.
Your order form is a massive response booster; one of the critical elements separating a site making a few bucks from one that can earn you a fortune!
Often neglected, but never overestimated
Paradoxically, professional direct response marketers work their butts off writing ad copy, creating headlines, and designing great pages, but fall apart when it comes to the ultimate call to action.
Think about it; if you are in a retail setting, the one thing that determines success above all else is the moment of truth when you pull out your wallet and hand over your cash.
You get the item, and the store gets your money!
Imagine you are in a tony NY boutique, located on the hottest block of 5th Avenue. You pick out your overpriced doodad, perhaps a $500 Hermes scarf, and walk to the register to pay. But instead of a welcoming sales clerk, you are confronted with a long staircase that descends into the basement.
After walking down, you find yourself in a dark, dank room, and rather than a smiling, comely salesgirl, you are asked to give your money to a mutant hunchback with hair coming out of his nose and a strange odor emanating from his backside. You decide you don’t actually need that doodad after all!
Of course, I’m exaggerating in the above example…
But the truth is, in our ten years of consulting, we have seen many Web sites that were beautifully created and carefully designed, however, when we got the order form, everything fell apart!
Therefore, in this article, we’ll reveal the key ingredients of a successful order form, and even give you some tips for integrating third-party systems (which you typically have little control over) into your sales process.
Seven must-haves for higher response
- Headline/title: The headline should clearly state the purpose of the page (to buy), as in Online Marketing Letter Order Form. Even better are phrases that do not use the words “order form.” Some great alternatives are; Reservation Certificate, Risk-free acceptance form, even Join the program here.
- Offer recap: In a long sales piece, copywriters often create complex offers with many different elements. Hypnotizing your audience is great, even encouraged. However, on the order form, the offer must be clear and succinct. Simply state what they get, when they get it, how it’s delivered, and make sure to include a benefit or two they can feel good about as they digest the details.
- Bonus list: If you offer bonuses, make sure they are spelled out clearly in the order form. Some times, people decide to buy, but when they get to the last step, they forget all the great things they learned in the sales piece. Since bonuses are often the final push people need to make up their minds, recapping out the bonuses will increase response.
- Price clarification: If there are any peculiarities with your pricing, like a discount, special deal that may expire, or recurring charge, spell them out specifically on the order form. Confusion leads to refunds, chargebacks, and loss of goodwill. Setting expectations properly makes for happy customers.
- Guarantee: Marketing master Gary Halbert says the number one reason people don’t buy from you is they don’t believe what you are telling them. BUT, they are often willing to take a chance if they know they can get their money back. Always include a guarantee on the order form since it’s important to let people know purchasing from you is safe and secure, and you stand behind the statements on your Web site.
- Testimonials: This is one of the least used, yet most critical aspects of an order form! Nothing stands out like a third-party endorsement right at the time of purchase, especially one that backs up the benefits you promise in your sales letter. Testimonials should be specific and short, located directly above the form itself. And the best part is, adding one can often increase conversion rate by 10% to 20% with no other changes to your sales process.
- Encryption/privacy statement: With all the worry about identity theft and credit card fraud, it’s vitally important to include a statement that confirms the order page is encrypted, even though few customers actually know what that means. Nonetheless, you want to make people feel safe when using their credit-card online. Additionally, you want to spell out how personally identifiable information will be used by including a conspicuous link to your privacy policy.
- Offline contact information: Even if you don’t accept offline orders, you should still include a physical address (and phone if possible) so people know you are a real business. For some reason, this really makes people feel more comfortable, even if it’s just a PO Box. And if you do accept offline orders, you’ll find a nice steady stream of checks and money orders will arrive!
Three order form variations
Based on your offer and sales process, there are at least three additional twists you can use when designing your order form:
- Two-part order forms: Some marketers use a two-part order form, where they collect initial shipping and customer information in part one, and payment information in part two. That way, if the purchase is abandoned mid-stream, they can follow up by phone or email and try to save the sale. Declan Dunn used this type method and reported as many as 30% of prospects who were re-contacted completed the purchase. However, this process requires diligent testing since having a two-part order form has been shown to decrease response, probably because of the additional extra step.
- Delayed payment option: If you plan to allow people to try your product on a risk-free basis, and pay at a later date, it’s very important to collect all their information beforehand. That way, you won’t have to re-contact them down the line, which gives them a reason to cancel the sale or balk at making payment. Some e-commerce systems, like EasyOnlineSales.com, include this feature, but you should also contact your merchant provider and find out how to “approve” the purchase without actually charging it since your merchant account may have restrictions on pre-authorizations.
- Take away (negative qualifiers): One of the most powerful marketing techniques you can use is to get someone all hot and bothered about your product, then “take it away” by placing restrictions, conditions, or an air of scarcity on the sale. We use this tactic in our newsletter order form, including humorous wording to the effect of “No whiners or complainers,” which has actually reduced the number of, well, whiners and complainers;) This is also a great place to spell out refund or usage conditions you want people to agree to.
Third-party order forms
There are times when for one reason or another, you’ll need to use an order form you don’t have complete control over. For example, with ClickBank, PayPal, CCBill, and other third party billing systems, you send your customers to their site to pay rather than your own.
Because they are the ones accepting the money, Visa and MC rules specifically state they must host the page where the credit-card information is being collected. Unfortunately, most of these order forms do a very poor job of selling, if they sell at all. But don’t worry, because there’s an easy way to re-engineer the sales process so you don’t lose [too many] sales.
Just create a pre-order form with all the elements listed above, which sets the expectations and links to the third-party system.
Data integration
Check with your third party provider to see if you can enhance the user experience through programming enhancement. For example…
- Pre-population: This is where you collect some of the data on your order form (name, address, and e-mail, for example). Then you pre-populate the third-party form [with that data] so the user doesn’t have to fill it in again. This is especially useful in a situation where you don’t get all the data from the provider, and want to follow up with your customer via e-mail or direct-mail.
- Data pass-back: This is where the provider passes back the customer information to you after the sale in real time so you can add it to your database, immediately subscribe them to a “buyers” autoresponder list, or pre-populate a different form, like an upsell or back-end offer.
- Custom thank you pages: Along with the problems created by poor order forms, a difficult-to-understand thank you page will create problems. Make sure to spell out, step by step, what the user is supposed to do in the pre-order page. Once they order, if necessary, you can use a redirected link in order to effectively thank the customer after they have purchased.
Four order form examples
In this section, we’ll look at four order forms, two that sell directly, and two that use a third-party payment system:
Direct sales form examples:
1) Yanik Silver’s Instant Internet Profits
- Order form link
- Comments: This is an awesome order form, incorporating nearly every element we mention above. Notice the testimonial right up on top, and the list of bonuses. Also, a nice take away at the very end, which clarifies both the conditions placed on the user, and the non-disclosure statement.
2) Nitro Marketing’s Hypnotic Selling Course
- Order form link
- Comments: Another great example. We like the title they used, “No Risk Acceptance Form,” and combining the offer and bonuses into a bulleted list. Nice Guarantee graphic, and the Sugarman testimonial is a great touch. Take note of how they incorporate an upsell into the main offer, which substantially increases visitor value.
Third Party “pre-order” form examples:
3) Brad Callen’s SEO Elite course
- Order form link
- Comments: Clear and concise, and chock full of benefit-oriented bullets. Nice value proposition with regard to bonuses, and an unbelievably powerful testimonial, that offers specific end results a real user achieved.
Conclusion
By now, you have realized the importance of using strong direct response copy on your order form. It’s the final touch point prior to purchase, and the place where you are most likely to lose an interested prospect.
Follow the guidelines above, and we guarantee you’ll discover an easy way to make more money with your Web site!
Respectfully Submitted,
Jonathan Mizel
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