When doing Conversion Rate Optimization on your website, the first thing a lot of people are thinking of is changing the colours of some Call-To-Action buttons. After all, a lot of the focus of people working on growth is focusing on getting as many people as possible to take action on their landing pages.
Trying to get the visitors to click that CTA and buy, subscribe, or whatever kind of action you want them to take on your landing page. And after that happens, what’s next?
Most companies give a simple thank you page and hopefully move on to the next person that leaves their money or their email address.
Big mistake.
The “Thank You” page or “Confirmation” page is mostly one of the most overlooked and at the same time most valuable page on any website. They are an integral part of your conversion system that, when used correctly, can continue to boost your revenue.
Why would you leave money on the table like that? Don’t you believe us? Think about it for a second:
- The “Thank You” page or “Confirmation” page usually has high-valued traffic. After all, the visitor (now lead) has just shown that they trust you and your company by completing a conversion goal on your website
- Even if they are on that page for just a few seconds, that lead starts to wonder what to do next? If you’re just presenting them with a simple thank you message, you’re giving them no other choice but to leave your site. Why would you want to do that?
In this article, we will show you what you can do instead and how you can leverage them for even higher engagement, and higher conversions.
Goals you can accomplish on Thank You pages
So you’ve got the basics covered on your Thank You page. But nobody gets rich by doing the absolute minimum. You want to delight your leads; you want to wow them and have them take further action that will help them turn into loyal customers.
What are the things you can do on you that page that will help accomplish this?
Direct them to another page on your site
If you don’t do any of the other items below, at least consider adding the possibility to have your converted visitor go to related different parts of your website. Sure, it will not get you a lot of direct extra business credits, but at least you keep them engaged with your brand.
If the Thank You page is a result of a purchase, you might want to lead them to related products that other people bought. Or articles that could be interesting for someone who just made a purchase. Maybe, as a result, they decide to leave their email address on an opt-in or lead generation form so you not only can send their purchase, but you can keep contacting in the future.
Maybe they will join a webinar they previously missed, or find a piece of content that they will share with their friends. There are lots of different possibilities, but they first have to discover them. So sending them to related content on your website should be the one item you should always consider.
Ask for a social share
Someone just placed an order at your company, or someone just subscribed to your newsletter. Of course, they are still in a happy moment about your business and your services. Why not take advantage of that moment and ask them to share their experience?
Adding social shares button on your Thank You page is easy (depending on the infrastructure of your website, most of the times it is as easy as activating a plugin). Just pair the social share buttons with of course some copy encouraging them to take action and share their enthusiasm with the world. Make sure to change the URL on the share buttons, to not share the link of the Thank You page though, but the link to the offer they just took.
Maybe you want to take it up one level further and adding a little game mechanic in there. KickoffLabs uses leaderboard social scoring to tie social shares to product performance and help you generate even more leads:
KickoffLabs uses leaderboard social scoring.
Offer a coupon code for a future purchase
Why wait for your visitors to come back at a later stage for a repeat purchase? You can provide special offers or discounts for future purchases right after they just made their first order.
Offer a coupon code for a future purchase
Be sure to make use of scarcity and time sensitivity when writing the copy for these coupons though. You want to make it clear to the people receiving the offer that they’ll only get access to this deal once to help boost the conversions on your Thank You pages.
Invite them to an upcoming webinar
If you’re not selling goods or if upselling or cross-selling might seem that it is not something you can do for your business, you can still encourage to deepen the relationship by inviting them to the next webinar that you could be hosting.
This, of course, will take them down the rabbit hole to another Thank You page, where you can offer them an easy way to add the appointment to their calendar.
Encourage them to set an appointment
Sometimes your business relies heavily on human contact and deep personal connections. In this case, when someone arrives at your Thank You page (after they filled in a contact form for example), you could encourage them to book an appointment straight away with you or your business.
This strategy works best after someone made a low-level commitment like subscribing to your newsletter because they represent taking a step further into the funnel of engaging with your brand. Don’t forget to offer the options to add the appointment straight to their calendar again!
Provide an opt-in opportunity
Newsletter opt-ins are always a good idea. After all, email marketing is still one of the most important marketing channels for any business. And just because someone made a purchase on your website, doesn’t mean that you can automatically start to email them.
This means that you can use your Thank You page to encourage visitors to opt-in to future newsletters. Making sure you’ve got a direct way of contacting them!
Prompt an app download
The final goal you can try to achieve on your Thank, You page is to let the visitor download the app you created with your company (if you have one). Thank You, pages are a great place to make people aware of your app and encourage them to download it.
Things to do on your Thank You page
Now that we covered the basics and the upselling possibilities you might have on your Thank You pages it time to look at two final things. The do’s and don’t of what to do on your Thank You pages.
First of all, let us start with the Dos.
Somebody just trusted you and your company with their email address or even more important in some cases with their credit card for making a purchase. The least you can do is show some enthusiasm back to them. Show that you like “adding a new face to your wall of happy customers”, congratulate them on their new purchase, etc. Make sure to make them feel welcomed and special to be part of your client base.
Another that is great to do is adding a human touch on the Thank You page. Include a picture of the CEO (or a GIF if you’re up to it), the team or maybe a small video where a member of the company is talking. Dutch company Coolblue is great at this, showing a video of the CEO thanking you personally for your order (sorry in Dutch only, but you can understand what he does):
And finally make sure that your Thank You page, just like your Landing Page has a fast loading time and that whatever extra’s you’re trying to offer from the above list is visible above the fold. A lot of people are closing their browser tabs quickly after they completed a goal, so make sure they can view your extra incentives as quickly as possible.
Things to not to do on your Thank You page
The last thing you want to do on your Thank You pages, is bore someone to death though 😉 If you’re flooding your thank, you page with too much content you might scare people away faster than is good for your business. Especially if for whatever reason someone doesn’t take you up on all the great benefits we discussed throughout the article, you want them to remember that last interaction with you and your company as a happy memory. A great memory after a great interaction.
Next to that, your Thank You page can almost be considered as another Landing Page, and we all know that flooding people with content take them away from the real objective.
The other thing you don’t want to do on your Thank You pages is making promises you can’t keep. You don’t want to start a relationship with a customer of on disappointment, so if you’re not sure that you can’t respond to their request within 24 hours, say so. Tell them you get back to them shortly. While not being specific about these details may not be the best practice in the world, it is still better than having to disappoint a new customer at the start of your relationship.
For a lot of businesses, the Thank You page is one of the easiest overlooked pages in the entire process that is Conversion Rate Optimization (CRO). People are looking at improving their Call-To-Actions, or at improving their Landing Pages[URL=] but most of the times they forget about that last interaction with their new customers and leads.
But if making any of the above straightforward adaptations brings a smile on the face of your new customer and has the potential to bring value to your companies bottom line, why not take full advantage of it? Until you try, you will never know how powerful optimising your Thank You pages can be.
So now, its back to you. Have you optimised your Thank You pages? If not what are the things you’re thinking of right now that you can adapt to make them more successful? Leave a comment below and share your wisdom with the rest of our readers!
