If you are asking yourself “What is a thank you page?”, then at its most basic level, the main function is to confirm the action that the user has just taken: “Thank you for subscribing!” or “Your order is confirmed!”
But is that all? No way! If you just use a simple: “Thank you for subscribing” you are missing a big opportunity to connect with your website user.
Your thank you page should engage, inspire, and evoke a response or action. It should give people a sense of satisfaction and invite further interaction with your brand. Achieve this and improved conversion rate optimisation is sure to follow.
Show the user other products that complement the purchase. They are in a buying mindset, so if you make a logical additional proposition to them you will often make an extra sale. It is a tried and tested marketing technique, but when you do it ensure you maintain a sense of proportion: keep the suggestions related to the initial purchase. If it looks like an unrelated, cheap sales tactic you may start to harm your brand.
To enhance your brand, why not give a new customer a discount if they go on to make a repeat purchase? Or even give them something extra for nothing (except their good favour). It doesn’t have to be expensive; the main thing here is the element of surprise. By breaking the pattern – offering a bonus after the purchase – you will exceed client expectations. And the positive effect will be much stronger!
On the thank you page, you can also ask the buyer to leave a review about the service or the purchase itself. Sending a message with a link to the thank you page can be configured with a delay to allow them time to use the product first, if necessary.
If, in addition to cool products, your site has quality content (reviews, insights etc.), offer links to these on the thank you page. It could be a collection of materials about related products, or helpful information about popular and hot offers. Whatever it is, it will be perceived as useful information by your customers, as well as keeping them engaged with your website and fuelling future purchases.
The thank you page is a great place to encourage visitors to subscribe to your company’s pages on social networks. Be persuasive: tell them that by subscribing they will hear of your latest innovations and the most generous promotions and discounts. They’ll love it, you can be sure!
Whether it is smart new clothes or the latest tech, tap into your customers’ positive feelings associated with their purchase. You can generate more sales by including refer to share purchases.
The mechanics should be as simple as possible. You want your buyer to be able to share news of their purchase within a couple of clicks. Even if the function is used by only five or ten percent of buyers, you are drumming up priceless advertising for your online store from the credible source of an existing customer.
The thank you page can also be used as a source of new data about your customers. Ask them three to five simple questions, advising them in advance that the response process will only take a couple of minutes. You could ask your customer about their preferences, the products that they would like to see on your online store, your service, the site, your company – whatever is useful information to you.
An enhanced referral programme can turbo charge your revenue. The idea is simple and you are sure to have come across it before. Rather than just encouraging an existing customer to talk about their purchases to friends, incentivise them and the recipient to engage. You could offer your customer and their friends additional value: a coupon, a discount code, free samples, additional usage time, credit or valuable content – whichever is right for your business. There is nothing like a freebie, or special offer to get people talking about a product.
As a performance marketing agency, we know that each of these eight thank you page design tips will help you get to know your audience better, drive more traffic to specific pages, or solve other targeted tasks.
Bear in mind, though, that it is not necessary to use all eight recommendations. Choose the ones that are most appropriate to your ecommerce store. Whichever ones you choose, you will notice the impact: more customers for your online business.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Nataliia Yuzhaninova is SEO manager of marketing agency Atomic Leap.
LinkedIn: Nataliia Yuzhaninova