Some time back we introduced our basic Fact Find Report form. Unlike the typical industry experience employed by many brokers, our Fact Find report will immediately return results back to a user based on lenders for which you're qualified, it'll send a PDF report to the user based on their report responses, and an integrated (optional) calendar booking form will enable easy contact. The standard third-party plugins that are used by the broader industry often claim to 'Qualify' a user, when the sole purpose of the exercise is to bait a user into the subscription experience with no intention of returning any information of value back to them. Completely contrary to the very basic and core funnel attribute stating that the customer journey is used to qualify you and not the client, the typical experience is one has no place in the industry. Leads converted via a dead-end leadgen form are delivered by accident - not on purpose.
Highlights: If you choose to read no further, the primary points of differentiation of the stepped fact find is that completion of the report returns results back to the user after submitting, a featured PDF report is manufactured based on responses with a trackable link sent via email, and the form itself includes an Outlook-integrated calendar option. We understand that many brokers don't know what sort of advertising their business is using, but it is most likely a system resembling something we're describing below.
This article introduces an alternate means to return a Fact Find into your website, although the form itself is virtually identical to that of the original, with the exception of revised formatting and the stepped nature of the questions. The form emulates a form that you might be familiar with; each question is answered, and on the basis of the former question a new question is presented. This conditional stepped method is the basis of our primary report, except our primary report takes a top-to-bottom approach - a method used that'll objectively improve your conversions.
Why provide an alternate Fact Find format? The alternate stepped Fact Find is included in our free mortgage broker plugin, so we're hoping that in providing an experience with value that exceeds the value provided by a leadgen group we'll come a little close to eradicating their non-compliance from the industry (the standard Fact Find is already shipped by default in the free broker plugin - the stepped version is a new inclusion). The client version obviously includes far more features, and the tool seamlessly integrates with Yabber and your conditional experience.
The previous article on the Fact Find should be referenced for a better understanding of the reporting methodology and creation, and an article on Conditional concepts might be useful for understanding how the report plays a part in shaping the customer journey. Another article on a basic Facebook conversion funnel is useful in understanding how the report might be used in the top-of-funnel contact. This article will focus on the differences between this form and the linear form.
If you're familiar with our ideology you'll appreciate that we don't like the quiz shown off the tail end of paid promotion. For a user to engage with a form that provides an expectation of value, that value must be delivered, and the quizzes out there in the marketplace don't do that. In fact, most of them use terminology and methods that make them blatantly illegal, and the leadgen crowd - with their fake websites and awful customer experience - will stoop to any level in order to improve upon their ROI... and by association, every broker that engages with their product is inviting clear non-compliance into their operation.
Ask yourself, do I need to ask a question of a potential lead if that information doesn't directly contribute towards the follow-on experience? Are you using the question to qualify the client, or qualify you? With the exception of online applications, a general interruption-based form used in transient - often visited in between funny cat videos and bikini-clad dancing girls - isn't the place to try and qualify anybody - this is always best left to a phone call. We know that presenting more questions objectively decreases conversions, so it stands to reason we'll only ask what's entirely necessary to improve the experience (there are cases where asking more questions has actually increased conversions, but this applies when they're value based questions, and never when it relates to personal financial information).
The Result
If we must used a stepped form, the idea is to garnish as much relevant information as we can in as few pages as possible. You can introduce your form as 3-pages, because that's as many panels that will ever be shown, and in those three pages (two of which ask for information) we accomplish more than what others do in 15 pages. For example, we've seen forms where the value of a property is shown on one panel, and the borrow amount is shown on another. Knowing what we do about behavioural psychology, and the drop-off of engagement, why would we intentionally add more pages than needed?
Note that in the example below we've used website-agnostic colours, and we've applied a small dashed border with a background colour. The form scales nicely to a mobile device. Note that all styling, text, and other elements are fully customisable. In our example, we'll use a Refinance pathway.
Custom Text & Style: In all screenshots below, the text shown and style applied is fully customisable. The text shown is the default applied when no profile is created, so your experience will be created in your own voice and branding.
Pictured: Details shortly, the entry option may be bypassed. In doing so, the first of just two panels is shown (asking for property value and outstanding balance).
Pictured: The sliders are used to select the various property values. The last question, asking for a current interest rate, will trigger the final panel (an option is presented for 'Unknown').
Pictured: At this stage we've asked for all we need to know. The option is presented for income (but do we need to know it?), and a user is far more willing to surrender details because we'll be sending them a PDF report. Never ever force a phone number. Contact is a customer choice - not yours.
There is one field, in particular, that elevates your experience in a way that relegates any other to the scrap-heap. You have an option for 'Would you like a no-obligation discussion?'. If selected, a calendar option is shown with available dates and times. If selected, the phone number is a forced form option, and the appointment is sent directly to your Outlook calendar. As with all our calendar options, availability is sourced from your Microsoft Outlook calendar.
Pictured: Selecting a booking slot. For those that want to contact you now, we must presented them with that option. Note that the calendar is linked to the conditional components of your website. On a mobile device, the dates are stacked rather than shown side-by-side.
The results are sent to Yabber and the user will be sent a a trackable link to their downloadable PDF (so triggers may be applied), and the escalation cycle starts. Based on the type of borrowing declared by our lead we can potentially shown conditional elements on our conditional website. If a booking was made, the lead will make its way into your calendar.
The Second Page
We shouldn't ever purport to provide an experience of value if the second page doesn't return valuable results. Your report will return a page full of text, graphs, and videos (via Ajax, meaning that the content replaces the form without refreshing the page), with graphs determined by the supplied data, and other assets resolved by way of the borrowing objective. As an alternative, you may redirect to a second page entirely.
The purpose of a funnel is orientated around the concept of escalation of commitment (or what comes next), so the returned information should provide alternate pathways to other information that'll assist with their understanding.
Pictured: The data returned to your user is resolved from their declared borrowing objective, so first home buyers, those looking to refinance, and investors, will all be shown unique results, with those results based on supplied data. We know video converts, so use of an assigned video is recommended. The page here is shown in a green style (the default is blue).
Never ever return a screen that says "Congratulations, You Qualify" - especially when you haven't evaluated the user input against a comparison engine. It's an unethical, misleading practice that is akin to baiting (this is what your leadgen company does). Make use of the second page and further qualify you and your services.
The Disclaimer Message
You may optionally include a panel before the FF starts that shows a general disclaimer. The purpose of the general warning is to draw attention to the nature of the results, and the need for a general consolation for a true understanding of borrowing power or savings.
Elementor Widget
Like any asset on your website, it needs to be basic to use. We've created an Elementor widget for the quiz that permits you to include it on a page in about a second. Assuming the Yabber settings are all defined, the form will work immediately as advertised.
Pictured: To include the FF 'Quiz' on any page, simply drag and drop the 'Fact Find Quiz' block wherever you would like it to be shown. Various options apply that alter the style and fields shown when rendered. The result looks quite naked; it'd be normal to apply your own styles to the buttons (with padding), alter the text, and update any other attributes to match your own branding.
Used in Paid Promotion
A short ago we shared an article that looked at a basic Facebook conversion funnel, and we discussed the value of the fact find as as second page funnel asset. While not ideal, the fact find as we've just described can be used as the entry to paid promotion (used carefully and with appropriate consideration to advertising). You are returning immediate results, and the user is sent a PDF report... so the experience provides genuine value,. If the advertising uses appropriate messaging, the form can be used, with the second and further pages should be used to refine client understanding and shape the ongoing customer journey.
Note to Clients
The feature we've just described is updated in Version 0.8.4.4 of the Yabber plugin. In the minutes before publishing this article we identified a bug that allowed 'Green Loan' rates to be included in the comparison engine, so this will be rectified before the next plugin release.
We'll look at ways of including the reporting into one-click landing pages and Solis over the next week or so.
Conclusion
What we've described is nothing new to your website or Yabber - it's just a different way of wrapping the same features.
The free plugin Funnels plugin is currently undergoing an update. We've got a number of free broker plugins, and what we'll be doing is wrapping them into a single plugin, and calling it BeliefMedia Finance. This new free plugin introduces a 'scaled' version of the Fact Find features described above (if we decide to enable the PDF reporting in the free version, an email will be sent from a generic address). The existing free fact find doesn't calendar bookings, but it does return relevant results based on your existing panel of accredited lenders (as defined in the plugin), and it does return a second page. The purpose of the free finance plugin is clear: eliminate bad leadgen services.
For those that do choose to introduce the fact find as the first page (top-of-funnel subscription) asset, please ensure that your advertising clearly states the purpose of the report, its limitations, and the need to for an individual consultation.
