Thank you pages.
Are you missing an opportunity? The no-nonsense guide to getting the most from your thank you page!
Thank you pages – one of the most overlooked eCommerce strategies for increasing client base, growing brand awareness, and increasing sales. Unsure if you’ve got it right? Or simply want to optimize your user experience? We will guide you through a clear process, which will give you the tools to make your thank page the envy of other eCommerce retailers, and we’ll do this by answering covering 4 topics:
- The importance of thank you (pages)
- What are you trying to achieve through your thank you page?
- What exactly should you include in your thank page?
- The definitely do’s and the definitely don’ts?
THE IMPORTANCE OF THANK YOU (PAGES)?
Thank you, two words that go along way – or so they say. From a young age these two words become a key component of an individual’s lexicon, and rightly so, it might mean the difference between securing another cookie from the cookie jar, or not.
Now let’s look at thank you from a business sense. Imagine you have saved your hard-earned money to take your spouse to the new, high-end restaurant downtown. The meal itself was exquisite, the service so far has been excellent, and as you agree with your spouse you are having a ‘fantastic’ time. Just then, as you go to leave the server forgets all common courtesy, and instead of ‘thank you’ leaves an empty void. Will you return to this restaurant, unlikely, are you likely to tell your friends, potentially, but mostly to tell them about the shocking service. Thank does indeed go along way, read on to find out.
Thank you pages can be a massively underutilized space for online retailers. Put it like this-you’ve done all the hard work, they’ve made it from simple web browsing all the way to purchasing one of your products (or potentially more than one – if you’re lucky). You have a captive audience, and then you forget to say thank you or do it in such a way that it completely misses the target and fails to cash in on this amazing opportunity to; increase client base, grow brand awareness, and ultimately increase sales.
Saying than you to existing customers is important because:
- The probability of selling to an existing customer is 60-70%, where as it is 5-20% for a new customer (Marketing Metrics)
- It costs 6-7 times more to acquire a new customer than retain a new customer (Bain and company)
- Dopamine and serotonin are both released when we say thank you to someone. This helps to build a feeling of trust, and develops relationship. (University of Sheffield)
What are you trying to achieve through your thank you page
Now before you start thinking about designing your award winning, all singing, all dancing thank you page, and the methods by which you wish to deepen that all important customer relationship, let us consider what are our objectives. As a business you want to grow sales, thank you pages can do this directly or indirectly. As stated at the start of this article the three main fruits you can gain from a successful thank you page:
- User experience.
- Increase in brand awareness
- Increase in client base
- Increase in sales, directly (also assisted by the first two).
What should you include in an Ecommerce thank you page?
- Related items to the purchase.
Amazon is a prime example of an eCommerce retailer who maximizes sales through their thank you page, by providing examples of accessories or similar products.
You’ve done the hard part, you’ve got the customer from simple web search to the end of the sales funnel, you’ve done the hard part, you have a captured audience, this is a great opportunity to gain more sales. Research by Amazon has shown that up to 35% of its revenue came from post purchase cross selling. Clear images and text, related to the purchased product on your thank you page makes it easy for the customer to consider further purchases.
- Sharing
Yes, leave your social media buttons visible, but asking customers to follow you is ask them for a favor. Instead, ask them to share with their friends, yes we’re asking them to do something, however this time they get to show off to others. Research by ‘The New York Times Customer Insight Group’ show’s people like to share as:
- 68 percent share to define themselves to others.
- 78 percent share to build relationships and connect with people they ordinarily wouldn’t.
When a customer shares you gain free advertising, you increase brand awareness and potentially grow your client client base. Word of mouth exposure is powerful, with 74% of customers saying it influences their purchasing decisions, so make use of this opportunity.
Here, nature box does a fantastic job of providing simple one click sharing. Whilst providing further reasons to share.
- Customer Feedback. A simple one-question survey can help your business gain vital understanding of your customers. As Max Rice of Jilt highlights ‘surveys are valuable because they let you tap into information that isn’t available through your web/store analytics, social media pages, or email marketing tool’. As an eCommerce retailer, we need to understand our customers’ behaviors, ‘surveys get into your customers’ minds. There’s no limit to what you can learn’. Understanding customers can help you refine the shopping experience and ultimately increase sales.
What kind of questions should you ask?
- What convinced you to make your purchase with us?
- What could we do to improve the shopping experience for you?
- Did they have any challenges making the purchase?
- Newsletter/ email sign up. Outdated? Think again. Yes clicking to follow your social media channels is far quicker than getting customers to sign up for your newsletter. However, your followers may or may not see your social media posts, whereas almost 100% of your customers will see your email. Remember for every $1 dollar spent on email marketing $38 dollars comes back.
Remember ‘thank you’ builds trust. Asking customers on the thank you page whether they want to sign up for your newsletter or not, shows the customer you want to build trust by seeking permission (rather than slyly signing people up).
Make the customer feel like they are now part of your club, only people who have purchased through this website are allowed in this club. Use inclusive language such as ‘join the movement’ ‘become part of the team’, and ‘gain exclusive access’ to insure customers sign up.
- Free things
Everyone likes free things, and shoppers are becoming accustomed to discounts. From discounts, coupons and exclusive offers, to ‘how-to videos’ and engaging information on the latest trends. They all serve their purpose, adding value to your eCommerce thank you page and ultimately making your customer feel valued.
Whatever method you choose, offering your customers free things helps your business in two ways:
- Building that all-important relationship with your customers. They’ve bought a product, you offer them a discounted price on future products. Brand awareness grows, word of mouth exposure increases, along with potential sales.
- Increased possibility your customer will follow requests. We’ve already seen how sharing and surveys can be used through thank you page. Using offers can be a great way of insuring customer follow your requests.
According to research Bizrate Insights, customers deemed discounts and offers ‘Very Important’ to overall purchasing decisions. Significantly, younger age groups found discounts more important.
And one last thing. Do’s and Dont’s
Don’t: With a plethora of different options for your thank you page, it would be easy to get carried away. Don’t! Remember to K.I.S.S-keep it simple, silly.
20% of online retailers don’t read a web page! If your thank you page is too busy, has too much writing, and doesn’t capture the customers attention, it doesn’t matter what your trying to achieve or what great offers you are willing to share-the customer will have already left.
Do: Choose one or two of the ‘5 things to include on your thank you page’ and focus your attention on those.
Do: Say thank you explicitly- as ridiculous as it sounds many online retailers don’t make it over the first hurdle-“Your order has been processed” or “Check your email for your receipt” just won’t cut it. Say ‘Thank You’, make it bold and start building that relationship!
Do: Make your eCommerce thank you page shine, with customers’ attention span so short you need to make get and maintain their attention.
Want to know how you can improve your eCommerce store and provide the best shopping experience for your customers? Contact us today and discuss your needs with our experts!