How to Build ROI With the Most Under-Utilized Internet Marketing Tool
By Gregory Smyth
Ninety-nine per cent of the process of internet marketing and search engine optimization is to build sales and is focused on the pre-conversion process of stating your message clearly and attractively, so that qualified prospects decide to buy from you rather than a competitor. However, not much is said about designing pages for after conversion - we look at the potential these pages have for building sales.
Marketing to repeat customers is much easier and less costly than converting a new customer and yet there is not more information on designing after-conversion pages. Up to 40% of prospects say that they are willing to share additional information after they convert, making this a golden opportunity to pitch other products, but to gain additional demographic information about your target audience - in other words, free market research. This information is an invaluable part of your web marketing strategy and is designed not only for getting SEO numbers and statistics, but for achieving what really matters - customer loyalty and a great relationship.
If you have ever bought anything from Amazon, you will know the incredible extent to which they utilize after conversion pages in their internet marketing and sales processes. Amazon stores information about what logged-in customers have searched for (as well as any searches and product views made in the same session, but before logging in), and integrates this with sales data, and the sales data of millions of other users, to give people personalized product offers after they have converted (made a purchase). Many web analytics packages can start you on the road to gathering and utilizing this information. Webtrends is a good package to start you off, and your internet consulting agency or website designer can give you excellent advice about how to automatically integrate this information into the after-conversion process.
Even if your conversion is not product or purchase related, the after-conversion page still offers excellent opportunities for internet marketing. After the conversion, people are in prime engagement mode with your website; studies have proven that people really pay attention to the thank-you page. If one of your conversion points is downloading a white paper, this is the prime opportunity to offer people more 'information'. You could promote your newsletter or your webinar on the after-conversion page. You could point to a specific case study or an interview on your site that is related to the paper. For white paper customers, sending them back to the home page is unlikely to work, and product-focused marketing is unlikely to work either. Keeps your internet marketing activities close to the conversion action (information or purchase).
These after conversion pages, regardless of the conversion action, are also a great place to obtain feedback or better engage with the user. You could ask for feedback on the site, the product or the process. This is also a great opportunity to ask for information that even the most powerful web analytics packages can't get for you - the opinions of people that visited your site. Ask them to vote on a poll that will be published on your site or your newsletter, or give them an interesting game or activity. Make the most of your customer’s attention and your site will stick in people’s minds. A dollar spent on the after-conversion process is worth a hundred spent on search engine ranking optimization or link building.