What is a thank you page?
A thank you page is a single website page that your visitor sees after signing up to receive something from your website.
For example: I arrive at a website about travel. On their homepage they have a free guide to exploring their location with tips to getting the most out of your visit. It looks interesting to me so I want to download it. I click the download button enter my information on the landing page and I get redirected to a thank you page. This thank you page has the free guide that I want to download.
The main objective of the thank you page is to give the visitor what you promised. This can be a free guide or checklist, free consultation or graphic item. Anything that you believe your visitor will find valuable.
Why is a thank you page important?
The main objective of a thank you page is to provide the website visitor what you promised them but if used strategically it can do so much more.
Once your thank you page has completed it’s primary objective there is room for so much more.
Typically a thank you page has a download button on the top part of the website page. This download button is to download the offer. But after that small section, there is an entire bottom half you can put more information on.
There are many things you can add to your thank you page, really your imagination is your real limitation.
These are just 6 things you can do to enhance your thank you page.
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Use a thank you page to connect with your audience (social): After the download button place icons to your social networks below. Ask your visitor to follow you on Facebook, Twitter and Google +. Intro the social buttons with a statement as to why they should follow you. Don’t assume that they will just do it, you need to ask them to and give them the reason why they should.
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Use a thank you page to increase your email subscribers: If the visitor already opted in by providing an email address the barrier for them to subscribe is very low. Most of the time all you need to add after the download button is a checkbox and a statement something along the lines of this; “Want to subscribe to our weekly newsletter? We only send out valuable content that helps you in your life and business.” If they want to they just click the button. There is not much for them to do. If you want to increase your amount of email subscribers this is a great option.
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Use a thank you page to offer more information related to what they are downloading: If being helpful is your number one concern then use this space to offer more valuable content that is related to the offer. If you’re offering a guide on inbound marketing then you could reference the top 5 posts they need to read about inbound marketing. If you’re a destination and you’re offering visitors a guide to your city you could reference blog posts on your website about the others items they would be interested in; such as top restaurants, must see museums or happening hangouts. If you have more content that is related to what they are looking for why not provide it to them.
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Use a thank you page to gather more information about them by providing a secondary offer: If you have another pdf that you believe they would find valuable you could place it here. Transition to this second offer with a header and small paragraph about the offer with an attention grabbing call to action button. When the visitor clicks on the second call to action button they are taken to another landing page with more information about the offer and another form for them to fill out. This form would ask for different information than the first form. If you already have their name, email then you might ask for their website, company name or position.
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Get the visitor to refer others to your product (viral marketing): This is what DropBox did so well. After a user signed-up DropBox made is super easy for users to invite their friends. They even gave them incentives! Refer a friend and get 500MD more of storage. This is the perfect location to take advantage of the friend trust factor. 92 % of people trust a friends referral over all other advertising. You could include a link that they could share with a friend that refers them to the free download. Or you could include an email button to forward to a friend. The key is that you need to make it super easy for them to act on.
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Using a thank you page to increase sales: This is highly dependent on what you’re offering but this is an optimal place to introduce some sales copy. Optimizing a thank you page to include long copy about your products or services that leads them strategically down the page. You can convert them to purchase a free trial, to sign up for a consultation or purchase your services. A lot is dependent on your product or service so optimize to what suits your company best.
Things to Keep in Mind
Pick only one additional action you would like your visitor to take, don’t overwhelm the visitor. For example you don’t want a call to action, and a form to subscribe to your email list and more information about your company. Stick to only one additional action to add under the download button.
Keep your business goals in mind. Always remember what the main goal of the offer is. You always want to increase sales but if the campaign’s goal is to increase social following you would direct the visitor to your follow you on your social networks.
Make it flow. Connect your thank you page copy from the free offer to the content below it. For example: Let’s say you’re offering a free guide to increasing your Facebook engagement.
The thank you page would be something like this:
“Here is your Ultimate Guide to Increasing Facebook Engagement. Click the button below to download the PDF! [Button] Since you’re looking to increase your Facebook engagement I know you’re on Facebook. Why not click the like button and connect with us on Facebook. We offer daily tips not only about Facebook but all social networks and how to track your efforts to a return. ”
The secondary action should flow from the offer they are downloading. If it’s a logical progression you’re visitor will most likely act on it.
Conclusion
There is a lot that you can do with a thank you page and it can be very successful as long as you keep the visitor and your business goals in mind.
Use a thank you page strategically and remember the persona you’re trying to target. Use the content, headlines, offers and secondary strategically to target your personas.
