The thank you page is oftentimes the afterthought of most B2B website owners, but it’s a conversion gem in disguise. 

The thank you page is such an interesting place because it has already proven that the potential customer has shown interest in one of your products or services. It’s therefore the perfect place to nurture the lead further down the funnel and convert him or her into a customer. 

Before we dive into the thank you page itself, it’s important to note that a meeting with your sales team will help a lot in creating content or up-sell elements to smooth out the closing stage. They know what possible hurdles customers face or which type of leads gets them to close the deal the fastest. 

A good thank you page can be used for the following conversions:

• On boarding
• Storytelling
• Gated Content
• Remarketing

Onboarding 

Onboarding is the bread and butter of a happy customer. The onboarding tutorial is especially relevant when the previous conversion is a trial. You want to make sure the trial is used to its full potential and therefore gives as much information necessary for proper usage before potential negative experiences arise due to unclear product environments. 

A product demo can make or break a potential lead and has to be carefully choreographed with the sales team.

On boarding can be done through written content, videos or screencasts that demo the product and event based onboarding. I’ve written a whole piece about onboarding techniques for SaaS-products. You can for example insert a ‘give me a tour’-form and let one of your sales representatives guide the potential customer through the product. 

But beware that a product demo can make or break a potential lead and has to be carefully choreographed with the sales team. The information needs to be aligned with the previous messages or else the information in the product demo will be an unwelcoming surprise. As an online marketer it’s easy to forget the onboarding phase as we are very acquisition focussed. 

Storytelling 

Storytelling helps your brand stick out from your competition. Your thank you page can include a company video explaining how the product came to be and who is working on the product everyday to make it just that extra special. E-commerce companies use it to explain the packaging process and all other workings that go into a safe delivery. 

According to a survey conducted by HBR in 2019, revealing business operations gives more value to the product. In the survey people said they perceived that there was more effort given to service or product. The people also believed the company had a lot of expertise and worked thoroughly to ensure the best product would be delivered. In a retail case, sales for a wallet manufacturer went up by 26% by showing the hidden costs that went into the creation of the product. Integrating transparency into your storytelling increases trust and product satisfaction with your customers. 

Another interesting case came with an airline ticketing website who revealed the search process and different steps during the loading screen when acquiring the ticket prices from multiple airlines. Visitors of the page considered the business to be more valuable and had a higher willingness to pay afterwards. Just like with the wallet, they appreciated the extra effort that was put into finding the best prices. People were also less sensitive to waiting times during the process. The survey found that visitors who either waited 25 seconds or 55 seconds didn’t show different behavior. This came as a surprise to the surveyors as our society has become fixated on instant results. 

You can mix up the different aspects of your business. Your development team working on the product, having brainstorm sessions. The customer service team who is helping your customers. Factory workers who work the product with great details and effort. Refrain from talking about all the market share you’ve gathered. Skip the sales person talking about the product as if it’s the best thing ever. Be humble and value the effort your customer has taken to sign-up. 

Gated Content 

Content can be used after every conversion or used in combination with different onboarding techniques such as storytelling and onboarding. Content such as whitepapers that dive into the product and its capabilities are great ways to explain how the product can contribute within an organization. A whitepaper is a neutral piece though, so be careful to not turn it into a sales pitch.  A product brochure can also be a valuable addition on the thank you page to compare the different pricing packages.

The other following scenarios are possible on a thank you page:

• Request quote – request a demo
• Get a trial – request a demo
• Get a trial – get the guide start guide
• Invite to webinar – get a code for login
• Request demo – request an appointment
• Request an appointment – download brochure
• Download brochure – download whitepaper 
• Download whitepaper – request quote 

A ton of variations are possible and you might want to cycle or combine them to test which one suits you best. Each step belongs on another level of the funnel, a whitepaper might be further down the funnel than a demo in some cases. 

For all this to work, it’s important you automate these steps through automation in your email marketing application. A whitepaper should be a simple download, just like a product brochure or trial access. Tools such as Mailchimp are easy to set up for automation. 

Remarketing

Most product purchases done in B2B-marketing aren’t completed within one day. They are extensively reviewed, compared and tested. The monthly or annual pricing is often very high for most small companies. Even at first glance minor purchases such as $100 a month can really put a dent in the monthly (marketing) budget of a small company.  It’s therefore important to stay on the radar during the comparison phase and this is where you can reclaim traffic back to your website instead of a competitor. 

Remarketing can be set up through a multitude of platforms such as LinkedIn, Facebook or Google Ads. Note that each requires you to install a piece of code on your website to track users on your website. Depending on your target audience you’ll have to pick the right one for you. If you’re selling consultancy services, LinkedIn will be your platform of choice. Selling specialized camera gear? Facebook or Instagram is where your target audience will be spending their time, exploring new ideas. Selling insurance, remarket your users through search ads in Google.