Think You Can Throw Up Any Old Thank You Page? Think Again.

Hurrah! A visitor has come to your site and completed a conversion – whether it be a white paper download, a webinar signup, or a purchase order, you should be feeling pretty good.

Don’t pat yourself on the back yet though – you need a thank you page, and it can’t just be any hodgepodge mess that’s thrown up by the nearest website lackey. In order to get the most out of your coveted converted user, you need a stellar thank you page.

 

What is a thank you page?

Your website’s thank you page is where users are taken after completing a desired conversion. Often a website thank you page features – big surprise – a “thank you” message in response to a visitor’s order/download. A great thank you page has more than just that though…

Why do I even need a thank you page?

First of all, it’s the polite thing to do, and you don’t look like a scruffy rapscallion to me. But more importantly, the thank you page serves as a method to continue your interaction with a user.

A visitor who has just accepted an offer from you is incredibly valuable – suddenly you have a qualified lead on your hands that, with some gentle guidance, could become a devoted fan, maybe even a full-fledged customer. Don’t let this opportunity go to waste – instead, use your thank you page to goad the user into further engagement with your brand. Heck, you may even get an additional conversion out of the deal!

9 thank you page best practices

Learn how to make the most of your thank you page with these thank you page best practices.

1. Confirm the conversion

The first thing you should do on a thank you page is confirm the offer the visitor has taken advantage of.

For example, Thank you for signing up for our How to Hypnotize Your Dog 101 Webinar – you’re confirming that the user has been signed up for their specific, chosen webinar.

An appropriate Sylvia comic from Bad Girl Chats

If there’s a piece of content to download, put in the download button with bright, eye-catching colors. If you’re mailing a piece of content to the user, let them know that the offer is on its way. One clever strategy by LeadPages suggests following the conversion confirmation with a message that encourages the visitor to read more information about their offer, something along the lines of:

Your guide to dog hypnosis will be sent to your Inbox soon. In the mean time, we recommend reading the pages below to get the most out of your free guide.

The secret is… it’s a sales page! Ideally, a modified sales page that combines information about the guide with whatever you’re trying to up-sell. Pretty sneaky sis. You’re using the free offer thank you page to guide users towards a possible purchase.

2. Post related content

Based on what kind of whitepaper or guide your visitor has just requested, you should have a pretty good idea what kind of content interests them.

The best thank you pages work to get visitors excited about other offers or pages on their site, rather than let the lead drop off. So insert videos, infographics, blog posts – whatever your visitor will enjoy. This strategy is famously implemented by Amazon in their “you also might be interested in” pages following a purchase. Take a hint from the pro playbook!

3. Use social media buttons

Getting visitors to follow you on social media via your website thank you page is another smart strategy, and a great way to further build your relationship.

You could simply have social media buttons present, but instead why not go one step further and spell out for visitors why they should follow you. For example: Learn more insider advice about training your dog by following us on Twitter and Facebook.

4. Encourage referrals

Ask visitors to share the offer with friends and family. While these kinds of actions sometimes seem too obvious to iterate, visitors won’t take an action that you don’t request.

They’ve already shown that they consider your offer to be valuable, so there’s a good chance they’d be willing to email, tweet, or post your offer on Facebook via the thank you page. Ask them to share immediately on the thank you page while it’s still fresh in their minds and they’re excited about the offer.

5. Show off with some social proof

The visitor may have already completed a conversion, but there’s no reason you shouldn’t reassure them a bit with some social proof via customer testimonials or number dropping on your website thank you pages.

Testimonial from Social Sprout

Remember, this first action could lead to bigger things down the road (a visitor can start off downloading a white paper one day, signup for your free trial the next week, and become a paying customer in no time). You always want to be building your reputation and trust in the mind of potential clients.

6. Encourage them to create an account

This tip applies mostly to ecommerce thank you pages. As an ecommerce site, getting customers to create an account is huge goal. The problem is, forcing potential customers to create an account prior can cause 30% of users to abandon their cart! Instead, give the option to create an account after the sale – incentivize with promises of future promo codes, easy order tracking, etc.

7. Push a promotion

Did a customer just purchase a photo book? Why not offer a coupon for 50% off a custom calendar on the thank you page? Or remind them that your Summer Sale is here, and that for a limited time, all photo gifts come with free shipping!

Promo from Sierra Trading Post 

It doesn’t have to be Black Friday, but your promo offer should make the customer feel special in some way. Include a time limit so that users actually pay attention to your offer, rather than tossing it into the “maybe later” bin of the Memory Palace. Offer a limited time special offer for favorite friends or a free gift just for you. Make your customers feel like the delicate, beautiful snowflakes of unique perfection that they are.

8. Provide an opt-in for your email newsletter

If users are taking you up on an offer, they clearly consider you a trustworthy, reliable source of information (at least some degree – you don’t hand out your email address to any old Tom, Dick, or Harry Potter on the street).

You know they like you, but do they like you like you? They might – and you don’t even need to pluck daisies to find out – just ask them to subscribe to your newsletter! With a powerful newsletter system in place, you’ll be turning those fresh-faced converters into quality customers before you know it. Don’t forget to include why your newsletter is awesome, aka the best tips and tricks for hypnotizing your dog, delivered to your inbox every week.

9. Send an auto-responder email

Sending out an auto-responder email following a conversion action is another great way to further capitalize on your new relationship with a user. Many businesses repurpose thank you pages for websites into email form for auto-responders. You’re dangling the same carrots, but delivering them directly to the Inbox!

Thank you page examples: live in the wild

What better way to learn about great thank you pages than to see them in action? We’re checking out the best thank you pages, and some not-so-stellar ones, below. (PS: When you’re done here, check out  these 16 thank you page examples, rated on a scale from 1-20. You’re welcome)

Punchbowl

Our first website thank you page example comes from Punchbowl. This thank you page follows a form which allows the visitor to download a free white paper.

Punchbowl is doing a great job here, especially with the images.

• The thank you page confirms the offer through both text and image, reassuring the visitor.
• While the page automatically begins the white paper download, there’s also a link in case the initial download fails.
• Punchbowl uses the thank you page to encourage visitors to follow them on social media via Twitter and LinkedIn, using images to hold the visitor’s attention. They also explicitly explain why you should follow them on social media, and provide an easy access link to follow.
• In addition to the social media pushes, Punchbowl suggests thank you page converters check out their blog to further demonstrate their industry knowledge.

Emergen-C

Next up is a thank you page from Emergen-C following the completion of a free sample offer.

This energy supplement provider has a pretty lackluster thank you page. Here’s why:

• Emergen-C offers “thanks” and confirms they’ve received my request, but they aren’t very specific. They’d be better off with something along the lines of “Thanks, your free sample is on its way!”
• They suggest liking them on Facebook, which is something at least. But why not link to multiple social media sites?
• There’s lots of wasted empty space here where we could be seeing photos of the most popular Emergen-C products, user testimonials, or promo codes.

4. HubSpot

Here, Hubspot shows us what great thank you pages look like.

• Hubspot confirms the specific offer I’m after, and even throws in some personalization.
• They’ve made it easy to share this resource through e-mail, Facebook, LinkedIn, and Twitter.
• Hubspot is using this extra space on the thank you page to encourage visitors to sign up for their free trial, with emphasis on the fact that no credit card is needed (pro tip for more sign-ups).
• Even better, the visitor doesn’t even have to go to another page – HubSpot provides the free trial form right on the free offer thank you page. They’ve also auto-inserted the information I already provided for the free offer, making it super easy to sign-up for their free trial without a second thought.

4. Cherishables

This Cherishables page is an example of an e-commerce thank you page (or in this case, also an order confirmation page), confirming the order I placed for a free custom Father’s Day card. It could be much better.

• Order is confirmed via text and image, which is good.
• There’s really nothing else happening on this page besides the order confirmation. There are buttons to Print, Shop More, or Feedback, but these are boring and un-enticing buttons.
• I’d suggest collapsing the order details and putting them behind a View Invoice or View Order Details button. After all, I just completed the order, I don’t need a detailed play-by-play reminder of what I bought.
• Instead, use this space to promote top selling cards. Or, since Cherishables already knows I like promo codes (I used one for this card order), why not offer me another code to encourage a second purchase? For example, “As a special gift, we’re offering you 50% off your next birthday card!” Someone always has a birthday – maybe this message reminds me that I need to order a card for a friend.

5. Yogi

Yogi goes with a thank you pop-up message rather than an all-out thank you page.

• The offer is confirmed, with the thank-you message telling me my tea sample will arrive within in a few weeks.
• I’m given a few other options, but neither link seems very enticing. I certainly don’t just want to go to the Yogi Homepage.
• The option to Send Your Own Well-Wish might work, but the button isn’t very clickable at the moment. We really need some bright colors or an image to get excited about.

An actual thank you page, as opposed to this thank you message, would provide much more space for additional offers or incentives. This pop-up just doesn’t do the trick.

How do you use space on your thank you pages? What seems to work? What doesn’t? Share your experience in the comments.