How To Upgrade Your Site's Thank You Page

How to Upgrade Your Thank You Pages
Welcome to the Digital Media Branding Podcast Episode 16. 
6 Steps You Can Take To Upgrade Your Website Thank You Pages
Hello I am your host Carlos Quintero from MediaOnQ.com. I run a Full Service Digital Media Branding & Marketing Agency that is based out of Fargo, North Dakota.
MediaOnQ offers a wide range of services to include Web Design and E-commerce. Many of our clients have Thank You pages on their sites. Some have them to thank customers for shopping or placing an order with them others to thank them for feedback.
Near the end of 2013 - which is the time of this recording. I am still amazed by how many online sites and marketers simply say Thank You on the page and leave it at that.
Consider this.
The people who get to see your Thank You page have already gone through the Marketing Conversion. 
In other words, they have successfully become a customer or a visitor who’s taken action and engaged with your brand and website.
So why would anyone who has secured a customer allow the transaction to simply be?
This became the inspiration for today’s podcast.
We will cover 6 steps that we can take to upgrade the Thank You pages on our websites.
Keep in mind, these tips will apply to many types of websites to include online shopping sites as well as sites that collect leads or feedback from their site visitors.
So let’s get started.
#1 Cross-Sell
If someone has already purchased from you, why not share with them other items that they too might be interested in?  
One company that does this exceptionally well is Amazon. 
If you run a search for any item, Amazon makes sure that you are made aware of other items that people who purchased or were interested in also searched for.
This approach is simply brilliant and I have to say that even way back in the late 90’s I remember working with clients who admired that approach.
To get this totally out there - yes, I am 41 so I’ve been around from about the start of the internet…
Not quite the start since I started my company in 1996…but close enough I suppose.
OK.
Let’s get back on track here.
Cross-Selling
When the thank you page only offers a thank you message, you are really only giving your customer one option and that is to close the browser window and be done or simply go back to Google or YouTube to find something else to shop for or review
One of the best ways to increase your revenue is to re-sell your existing customer or close a sale on those people who already want to buy from you.
You do this by increasing the average sale or spend.
Chances are that you’ve been up-sold or cross-sold before. I know I have.
Think about it.
Remember that magazine or chocolate bar that you picked up at the checkout?
How about that pastry that you purchased with our morning coffee?
Or that camera or smartphone that may have cost you an extra few dollars but was totally worth it because of the added features.
These are all examples of up selling and or cross selling.
The best part of cross selling or up selling is that you are simply presenting additional offerings or alternatives to those customers who are ready to buy from you.
Cross selling is much easier than simply targeting prospects…
The key to cross-selling is to make sure that you introduce your website visitors to other relevant items or content that may benefit them or that they may find useful.
So keep that in mind as you think about how you might want to implement a cross-selling strategy on your own site.
Obviously, if you need help or would like advice simply email us at [email protected], I’d love to help.
Next on our list is…
#2 Newsletter Subscription
I need to be clear here. If your website has adequate newsletter subscription opportunities throughout, then this is not the place to once again try to hammer the message home in hopes of a new subscriber.
You don’t want to come across as desperate…I like to compare it to when you were dating…because after all it is a relationship that we are trying to build here.
I’ve had clients ask me why they would need a newsletter when they have Facebook and Twitter…
Unlike Facebook and Twitter - A newsletter allows you more room or space to articulate and share valuable information about your product or service or that special promotion that is going on through the end of the week.
A newsletter allows you enough ways to show people how they might be able to access that special promotion or what actions they will want to take to participate.
A newsletter allows your business to stay in touch with all of those website visitors who love what you have to offer.
It allows you to embrace your audience.
You have to remember, they sign up or opt-in because they want your content and information…
Another benefit of a newsletter is that it becomes a one-on-one touch point. 
The newsletter is delivered to the customer’s inbox - it is not easy to read more than one email message at the same time right?
The idea is to build or have multiple, customer touch points in your campaign. So, a newsletter allows you to be proactive. 
You can present actionable items or content that allows your customers to engage with your brand, product or service…
This makes it so that you are at the top of mind awareness. It helps you build competitive barriers and for you as a company it allows you to prospect without hoping that someone might stumble upon your content or service offering.
Now I have to bring this up because a while back I was listening to a podcast by Ray Ortega aka @PodcastHelper on Twitter, where he mentioned newsletters and how they were a great way to stay in touch with your customer base should something horrible happen like your website crashes or some other tragedy.
Frankly, I’d never considered that prior to listening to the podcast but that is a very real world possibility and something that every business should consider in their security and disaster recovery plans and efforts.
Two more points that I want to make about a newsletter. First, a newsletter is less likely to get lost in the social media updates flood of messages and second, a newsletter is a friendly reminder that your company is still in business.
If you’d like more information about newsletters you should check out the Digital Media Branding Podcast Episode 8, which talks about how to optimize your email marketing campaign.
Moving along now to…
#3 Create a User Account
Many online vendors and storefronts offer a quick guest checkout option. 
This is sometimes convenient for those website visitors who may be accessing your store from a mobile device or simply don’t have time to go through the full registration process.
If that is the case, the thank you page is the ideal location to invite users to set up their account.
My wife Bert who is a senior media sales consultant always brings up the marketing phrase “business goes where it’s invited”…
So keep that in mind.
At MediaOnQ we’ve actually set up up specific incentives around those visitors who choose to take the express check-out options to help increase subscriptions. 
I will share that on average, we are able to increase subscriptions by 22%…so it does work.
So what is the key to increasing subscriptions? 
In a single word…Benefits. 
Offer some sort of benefit to the consumer and they will take it, thereby increasing your subscriptions.
OK, and now…
#4 Provide Useful Links
It may seem a little obvious or redundant but let’s say that you just purchased a new DSLR Camera.
You could share links to sample photos or video that this camera can produce as well as other people’s thoughts or even product reviews.
I’ll use myself as an example. Prior to purchasing my Canon C300 I read as many blog posts and product reviews as I could find and went through pretty much every YouTube and Vimeo video that was out there at the time.
I finally made the purchasing decision and today still find myself reading or watching any and all content that features the Canon C300.
I think that it would be fair to say that people always want more…
OK, next on the list.
#5 Social Media Sharing
There are some companies out there that are excellent at this like B&H and Amazon. When you go through their checkout process they give you the opportunity to share a comment about your activity on your social channels.
Make it easy for your customers and website visitors to brag and share across whatever social channel they prefer.
In other words, I am suggesting that you don’t simply limit them to share via Twitter and Facebook but rather open it up to allow them to share on Pinterests, SumbleUpon or whatever other channel your target audience may use.
This is also a great opportunity to invite your customer or website visitor to follow your company on your own social media channels.
If you’re running a non-profit or cause type of site, this could be a great way to spread the message about an upcoming event or theme-based month to increase the awareness.
Now for the last suggestion…
#6 Ask a Question
Take the opportunity to ask for feedback. Get creative, find ways of asking for feedback to help you improve the customer service, customer experience and improve the engagement with your brand’s products, service and information.
Keep this in mind.
You will want to keep it simple.
Don’t ask your visitors to type out an answer. Instead use a checkbox type of survey where the visitor can simply check a box to provide their feedback.
As of this recording there are several services out there that make it easy for you to create surveys like Survey Monkey. And if I am not mistaken Survey Monkey allows you to set up one survey completely free of charge so this would be my recommendation for you to try before you make a bigger commitment.
We’ve just covered my 6 suggestions for you to improve the Thank You pages on your websites.
Let’s go through this list one more time.
#1 Cross-Sell
#2 Newsletter Subscription
#3 Create a User Account
#4 Provide Useful Links
#5 Social Media Sharing
#6 Ask a Question
These ideas should help you enhance the user engagement with your brand.
We are dealing with people here so experiment with different combinations of those ideas and see how your customers respond.
Do you have any other suggestions or ideas as to what you might be able to do with your Thank You page? If you do, I’d like to hear about them. 
You can email me at [email protected].
I hope that you found this information helpful. 
If you did please subscribe on iTunes, Leave a Review and Share it with a friend.
Join me next time where we’ll continue to discuss digital media branding and marketing strategies to help you compete in today’s web economy.
Until next time, I’m Carlos Quintero from MediaOnQ. 
Thank you for listening.