As any digital marketer should know by now, that landing pages are an absolute must for lead generation. In addition, a “thank you” message is just as equally needed. BUT, a common mistake that happens is we use inline thank you messages, rather than sending to a whole new page.
I’m going to cover why it is a great idea to stop using inline thank you messages and send new leads (people who have given you/your company their email address and other particular information about themselves) to a dedicated thank you page.
Why stop?
Inline thank you messages are the lazy person’s way of lead generation, and they hold almost zero benefit to the lead. Below is an example of the landing page pre-form filled submission and post submission.
Don’t see what the issue is yet? That is the point…upon filling out the form, there isn’t a change on the page except in the tiny section that used to host the form. There is no navigation to be able to explore other pages that could be useful to view and give additional *valuable* information. Additionally, there isn’t additional information on the page to help move the lead further along the funnel. They are stuck right where they are.
But good news is in store for you. This blog post will look at thank you page best practices, from the top down.
Now, before all the panties get in a bunch, navigation isn’t for the actual landing page, it’s for AFTER the lead has converted. You want to give your new lead, new opportunities to explore and find other products that they maybe want information on. The great thing about allowing further exploration is that they will need to fill out another form (which hopefully has form fields to grab additional information.) Keep it easy for the lead to stay on your site.
If we take the example from above, once the form is filled out, the lead has no new information, and doesn’t have a clear path on where to go next. Most likely, that person will exit off the page, and not visit the full site to explore more. They will bank on waiting for the salesperson to call and give more information, and if it does take a few days (2-3 generally) the lead might have gone to competitor and already signed up.
This is pretty self explanatory. Once the lead completes the form, and is taken to your lovely thank you page, they should see one of two things. Either the offer they asked for (a whitepaper, free trial, ebook, demo) whether it is a link for the direct download, or just next step instructions. Or they should see clear expectations as to what is going to happen next. Example: Thank you! We will give you a call within 1-2 business days to schedule a demo.
It is good to put in specific timeframes, “shortly” or “soon” mean different amounts of time to people. Doing this will make your lead feel better if they haven’t received information from you right away.
So your lead has made it to the thank you page (with navigation), found out if the offer will be available for direct download or if it will be emailed, so now what? They can navigate to other pages OR what is better, is to have additional offers directly on the page.
I know, this might sound like blasphemy…it’s not. If you’re a visitor, wouldn’t you LOVE to have content handed directly to you without having to search? If you’ve included links to a whitepaper, case studies, blog posts or products pages, it would make it easier to continue your lead down the pipeline. Rule of thumb though, make sure the content linked on the page, is closely related to the offer in which they just showed interest in.
I’ve touched on this briefly above, but grabbing the attention of the lead to continue onto another page, and having the chance to fill out another form. By doing this it continues the lead down the funnel. The opportunities are endless. Your sales team will love you because by doing this, you’re helping them, get to know the clients better, and in turn, making it an easier sell.
Example of this would be, if I came to your site, and downloaded an ebook, I’m most likely still in the “research” phase of the funnel, and not ready for a trial or to talk about contracts. You gotta act cool with this call to action, not too aggressive. Maybe offering a case study would be appropriate, 10 points if you can match the pain points too.
We all know we live in a social world, there seems to be a new social app everyday. The thank you page is a great place to allow social sharing and/or providing the lead to connect with your company on social channels . Social channels are just one more way to generate leads, and to show the lead what a great company you are.
This concludes the best practices of a thank you page. TL;DR version: be sure to deliver on expectations, giving clear instructions for next steps. Provide navigation to make it easier on your lead to explore. Serve additional content, and offer another offer that is relevant and will move the lead further down the funnel. Lastly, offer social sharing/adding, gain more leads from the current lead.
Here is a finished product that follows the rules stated above.
Ta-da! Now, take these tips, build your thank you pages, and gain more leads! Let me know how things turn out, or if you have further advice for the community, sharing is always accepted.
