You’ve optimized your landing page to convert like an electric car salesman in a world without oil, and your PPC campaign is pumping out a CPA lower than a spring break limbo pole.
Yet despite having a well targeted and relevant giveaway (an ebook or a webinar registration) on your page, you could be generating more paying customers from your prospects – and I’m going to show you how.
Keeping them in the mood
Following on from the saucy metaphor established in the intro photo, you need to start thinking more about what you want your new lead to do now that you have their attention. You want to take advantage of that magic moment directly after the customer says “Yes, I like you” to keep them in your sphere of influence while they’re “in the mood”. You can do this by focussing their attention on the first thing they see after submitting your lead gen form – the confirmation page.
Where the magic happens – The confirmation page
The lead generation confirmation page could be considered the digital equivalent of a supermarket candy shelf. Admit it, you’ve fallen victim to those shelves of sweet goodness stacked by the checkout as you wait in line – aimlessly throwing crap you don’t need into your basket.
Even better though is the retention based confirmation CTA. But asking someone to pause and listen to your message after they’ve paid is a lot more tricky. Staying with the supermarket analogy for a sec, imagine if the guy bagging your food said, “Hey, here’s a $5 voucher for next time” – chances are you’d pay attention. That’s a post-conversion conversion.
What you DON’T want to do on your confirmation page
Below I’ll explain a bunch of things you can add to your confirmation pages, but first I want to talk about distraction. Your confirmation page is just another landing page, so you want to keep it really focused on one objective (some objectives can have multiple actions, but they should be related) – don’t get greedy. If you try and stack everything on there you’ll overwhelm people and end up with what’s known as The Toothpaste Trance.
The Toothpaste Trance is a psychological phenomenon where there is so much choice for the same product that you end up just picking at things randomly. This is like a homepage vs. landing page. One (a landing page) has a distinct and obvious CTA and the other (a homepage) often has between 20 and 70 things to do. Make it easy for people and they’ll take advantage of your offer more often.
5 post-conversion marketing ideas for your confirmation page
At this stage it’s all about EXCEEDING expectations. You have a blank page to work with and a few precious seconds to direct your new lead. Here are 5 ideas that you can use:
1. Ask them to follow you via social media (Twitter, Facebook) – or share your page
This can be used as a secondary “safety net” call to action on your landing page, as long as it’s small and subtle. On your confirmation page, you can throw a great big icon out there to entice them into your social media world. It’s a fairly low risk action for a customer and can place their ears in front of your digital mouth for a long while to come. It also exposes them to the positive reactions you gather from others which adds some word of mouth reputation strength.
Social sharing
There are many ways to do this, but for maximum viral potential you can encourage people to share their experience on their favorite social network using a service like FriendBuy.
For example:
2. Invite them to a webinar
This is another low commitment value-add you can offer. But make sure the subject matter is closely related to the goals of the leads you’re capturing – and of the landing page they were just on. If you can get someone to attend a webinar you are effectively establishing a higher level of contact – they will get a chance to see or hear you and ask you questions. If you can establish yourself as a thought leader on your given subject, this can elevate the trust factor massively.
3. Give them a discount coupon (or code)
I once bought a Sony Playstation PS3 that had an open box. It was already marked down by $100 making it a great deal. Without asking for anything, the salesman offered up a free game and a further discount – with no catch. What was the result of this action? I told all of my friends about my great customer experience. If you give people a discount when they’re not asking for it and don’t have to give you anything in return (they already completed your lead gen form) – they’ll get that great service buzz and momentum feeling.
4. Send them to an important “What To Do Next” page
Many people enjoy a guided experience. Tell them what to do, and they’ll often do it. Use only a single link for this and send them to a “Greatest Hits” or “Top 10” list page that shows off the very best content and information you have to offer.
5. Ask them to subscribe to a newsletter
Newsletters (or a drip campaign if you want to push them through a progressive story arc) are a powerful permission marketing tool that keeps you in your leads stream of consciousness for an extended period of time. The confirmation page is a good time to ask if someone would like to participate if you can automatically transfer their details to the new list without asking for more data.
An example drip campaign would be the ProBlogger 31 Days to a Better Blog. The expectation and benefit is set right away – you will receive an email every day for a month and by the end of it you’re blog will be better! This type of campaign takes a lot of work to put together, but once it’s ready you can automatically “drip” the emails to your prospects as soon as they sign up.
Recap – 4 benefits of “In The Mood” engagement
By paying careful attention to your confirmation pages you add the opportunity for some powerful brand extension touchpoints:
- The opportunity for more subtle follow-up marketing: keeping people within the sphere of marketing influence if they follow you on social media
- The opportunity to exceed expectations: differentiate by being the best at every step
- The chance to offer info/advice etc. that would have crowded your landing page: if you wanted to convey a message that wasn’t appropriate for your landing page (as you were rightfully keeping it focused on a single message), you now have the opportunity to do so
- The chance to offer a guided experience: most people like direction. Offer a suggestion and even if some only 1 of your leads takes the bait, it’s still better than none…
What to do now?
Take a look at all of your confirmation pages and optimize them so that they are doing some extra marketing legwork on your behalf. And remember to try different (but relevant) things on different confirmation pages to see which performs the best.
Advanced tip
Try A/B testing your confirmation pages for the best possible insights directly from your customers.
