These heat maps are hot!

I came across this handy web analytics tool recently which looks particularly helpful in identifying website insights without spending a small fortune in website usability research. Clicktale is essentially an online tracking tool which is able to record and play back all the visitor actions including mouse movements, keystrokes and interactions with controls such as drop down lists, check boxes  etc.  Clicktale aggregates this data to provide link analytics, conversion reports and heat map analysis.  You can watch a simple demonstration on their website here.

This can be a cost-effective way to help you determine why your website is generating high bounce rates or why you’re not quite getting the click throughs you anticipated.  But the application which has really caught my eye is their Form Analytics tool.  Ok, I admit, it’s not the most sexy area of insight generation but in terms of identifying behavioural insights which can have a demonstrable impact on conversion rates, it’s not something to be scoffed at!

The Conversion Report they produce can identify how many visitors:

• Landed on the online form page
• Left without even touching the form
• Started filling out the form
• Left midway through completing the form
• Attempted to submit form
• Left after failing to submit form
• Successful completions

These sorts of insights are gold-dust to any online marketer and can have a significant impact on the business, not just in optimising conversions but also shedding insights on KPI reporting.  For example,  I read that one company conducted this analysis only to find the reason why they were getting such low conversions on the website was because users were arriving on the form page only to cut and paste the telephone number and phone the company directly.  So whilst on paper it looked like the website was underperfoming as a lead generation tool, the reality was somewhat different.