15 Ways of Using Exit Intent Technology Effectively

Introduction

Why use Exit Intent? There is no doubt about it that Exit Intent Technology works and it can make a huge difference to a company’s profits by increasing conversions. The whole raison d’etre of a website is supported by the number of visitors that it attracts each day. Ultimately, there is little point in having a nicely designed and user friendly website if no one visits the site to see what is there! However, the vast majority of visitors (as high as 95% in some cases) to a website do nothing and just migrate away from the site. Of the ones that leave, almost 75% never come back to the site.

It therefore stands to reason that anything that can be done to retain visitors and engage with them is a good thing. Research has shown that the use of Exit Intent Technology can assist ecommerce website owners and marketers to significantly increase website conversions, and ultimately increase profitability. By communicating with the visitor whilst they are still actually on the website, you stand a much better chance of pulling them back into the site. Exit Intent Technology is a powerful and proactive tool that eliminates the difficult task of trying to entice them back by using emails or sms methods. This tool has the potential to convert 10 to 15 percent of abandoning site visitors. If you have a high bounce rate or a large percentage of visitors to your site abandon without engaging, then Exit Intent Software could be a serious tool in your arsenal.

How Does Exit Intent Technology Work?

By monitoring how a visitor is interacting with the website, and tracking mouse moves or finger swipes, the software can detect when a visitor is about to leave the website. At the point of abandonment, the software displays an overlay to the visitor. This overlay can be in the form of a special offer, a sign up request, a survey or anything else of interest. The idea is to re-engage the traffic and convert the abandoning visitors into buyers or subscribers.

Mobile, Mobile, Mobile.

There are many different exit intent technology offerings in the market right now, but with the ever increasing proportion of traffic that comes from mobile devices, it makes sense to utilise a technology that works seamlessly across all three platforms: mobile, tablet and desktop. Most current platforms are based on old open source code that does not function properly on a mobile device. Sure there are ways to get around the problem, but that usually means interrupting the user whilst they are browsing as the software has to be triggered upon landing on the page and the pop-up occurs after a pre-determined length of time. This is actually known as ‘Middle Intent’ and is the reason that you get an annoying pop-up interrupting you whilst you are trying to read something on the site.

R3engage works perfectly across mobile, tablet and desktop ensuring that however a visitor arrives at your website, you have the ability to interact with them should they try to abandon your website.

How do you use Exit Intent Technology?

Employing Exit Intent Technology on a website is a fantastic way of holding back visitors when they are about to abandon your website. The whole concept of the technology is to detect the actual moment that the visitor is about to abandon the site. This not only assists in holding the visitor back, but also reduces the bounce rate.

There are many ways in which Exit Intent Technology can be employed on a website. Apart from its primary purpose of holding back abandoning visitors and enticing visitors back with special offers and discounts, it can also be used to perform other roles. For example, it can be used to carry out customer surveys, build email or subscriber lists, play videos, redirect traffic, cross sell additional products, educate and of course reduce cases of shopping cart abandonment.

15 Different Ways to Utilise Exit Intent Technology

By utilising R3engage Exit Intent Technology, you get a second chance to convert the visitor into a customer. This can be achieved in a number of different ways:

1. You can emphasise your original sales message, majoring on the USP’s or strong points.
2. Offer an incentive for them to buy now.
3. Revise the message.
4. Capture an email address or other contact information.
5. Offer an alternative product.

Using the first approach, you can reinforce the benefits that buying your product or service will give. The visitor may have missed a few important points, and reinforcing them may convince them to buy. By using the second approach, you can offer a discounted price or offer free shipping. This can have a dramatic effect on conversion. The third approach allows you to change the marketing message. Obviously, the original message failed to convert the visitor, so a different approach might prove to be more effective. Instead of focusing on the product’s price, focus on its features and benefits to the user.

A Second Chance to Convert

If a visitor to your ecommerce website is trying to leave, it fundamentally means that your attempt at converting them into a customer has failed. A harsh statement, but generally speaking, it is the truth. Although he or she might return at some point in the future, there is no guarantee that will happen. More likely, they are off to look elsewhere and therefore you run the risk of them buying elsewhere and you losing them forever.

6. Recover an Abandoned Shopping Cart: Shopping cart abandonment runs at an alarming rate. Recent statistics indicated somewhere in the region of 74.1% of all shopping carts in the retail sector are abandoned. This rises to 81.6% in the travel sector. By utilising R3engage Exit Intent Technology, conversion rates can be improved by instantly recovering a shopping cart where the visitor is about to abandon without completing the checkout process. The most successful way of doing this is by offering an incentive for the shopper to complete the checkout process. You could offer free shipping if you don’t already do this. 9 out of 10 customers surveyed in a recent study indicated that free shipping is the number 1 reason for making a purchase online.

7. Find Out What People Think of Your Site: Have you ever wondered why people are leaving your website without converting? What would it be worth to you to find out why a visitor decided that they were not going to buy from you? Asking a visitor for feedback has several benefits. Firstly, it instils confidence in the visitor showing that you are serious about business and prepared to satisfy the customer by all means. Secondly, it can give you valuable insights into areas that the company should pay attention to, particularly if the comments are criticisms. Using R3engage Exit Intent Technology, you could present a short survey to all the visitors about to leave the site without buying.

8. Build Your Subscriber List: It is a well-known fact that if done correctly, email marketing can be one of the most effective marketing strategies available to ecommerce website owners. Provided you get the correct permissions to email them, prospects that have opted-in to receive information and marketing messages are an extremely valuable resource.

9. Educate Your Visitors: If your site offers a product or service that is not completely straightforward or obvious, visitors may leave due to them not fully understanding what they need to do. Presenting additional educational information via an exit overlay at the moment the visitor leaves has proved to be an excellent way of converting more visitors into buyers.

10. Offer Free Quotes: People love a free quote, especially when it comes with little or no hassle. Someone looking for a particular product or service may browse dozens of websites, but if yours is the one that offers them a free quote, then you have an advantage over the others.

11. Limited Time Offers: Creating urgency can be a great way of enticing visitors back into your website. Using R3engage Exit Intent Technology to display an overlay to abandoning visitors with a limited time offer can create a sense of urgency, which often results in a quick response from the visitor.

12. Offer a Demo: One way to convince buyers why they should try your product or service over the ones offered by your rivals is by offering a demo of the service or product, or offer a free sample.

13. Promote App Downloads: The amount of visitors arriving at websites from smartphones is increasing all the time. By using R3engage Exit Intent Technology, a company can easily promote the download of its free App.

14. Request a Callback: Sometimes visitors to a website feel the need to speak to someone about their requirements. Not all websites make it obvious that a sales assistant is available.

15. Promote Additional Products and Services: If you are able to identify and track the preference of a visitor, you can display a range of related products and services that may well be of interest to them.

16. Personalise Your Offer with Dynamic Creatives: R3engage Exit Intent Technology offers the functionality to make your creatives include the customer’s name, gender, location, and more.

17. Offer a Discount for Their Next Purchase: A good way to entice customers to return is by offering a customer a discount off their next purchase.

18. Registering a New Customer: Using R3engage Exit Intent Technology is a good way of encouraging new customers to register.

19. Re-engage Visitors by Using Video: Displaying a video to a visitor that is about to abandon your website not only has a strong potential to engage them, but it will also retain them on the site a little longer, thus reducing bounce rate.