Interesting study from Comscore that says that half the time, once an applicant fills out a financial form online, they don't have any intention of completing it.   According to the Comscore Press Release:

"..Of those who initiated an online financial application but did not submit it, 49 percent said that they had no intention of completing the application.  This percentage was higher for deposit product applicants (58 percent) and substantially lower for credit card applicants (32 percent).  The top reasons cited by those who did not intend to complete the application included:

• Wanted more product information (23 percent)
• Not ready to apply (19 percent)
• Wanted to see if they qualified for the product (14 percent)
  

 Based on this study, it looks to me like 37% of the 50% who did not plan to complete a form online, might have changed their mind if the site provided information that was more relevant, more targeted, more persuasive.  I don't think you can do much with the 19% who are not ready…. nor should you.  If someone is not ready for your offer, leave them alone.

But clearly there's a lot being left on the table because the website copy and presentation are not good enough; that's what www.GrokDotCom.com specializes in …so it makes sense to me if your going to invest in building a site - why leave all that money on the table that you could have had if you just wrote the copy a little better - or provided more information in the right places?

Also interesting, of those who wanted to complete a financial form online but didn't (34%), all could have been addressed by a better designed web site - meaning that of all the people that don't complete online financial forms, 81% could have been encouraged to the point of completion (conversion) had the site been better.

• Changed their mind about applying online (12 percent)
• Had privacy/security concerns (11 percent)
• Wanted to speak to a sales person regarding the product (11