Every online purchase starts with an order or payment form. In one of our previous blog posts we talked about setting up payment forms on your websites, landing pages, and social networks. This is the continuation of that story, but we’re now hoping that the sales have already started to drip and pour on you and you’re getting ready to optimize the next steps of your buyer’s journey to make it a pleasurable one.
Once the purchase is processed through your form, you have the option to provide a custom confirmation message or redirect your clients back to your site. EmailMeForm’s form builder has a basic confirmation page built in for any type of form, with a “Thank you! Your submission has been saved!” message shown on a white background. Boring, right?
This, however, is just the basic function of the confirmation message or page. In EmailMeForm reality, a confirmation page that is generated when your form gets submitted can have many interesting functions and shapes. In this article, we will show you how to play with your entry confirmation pages to make them more personal. More importantly, the page can carry branding imprint of your company, while at the same time helping you upsell and promote the products from your offer.
The principles of a good merchant
If you strive to stand out and be liked as we all do — every piece of customer-facing material that comes out of you company must be tailored and unique.
Brick and mortar retail business is still holding supremacy over online with 78% consumers expressing their preference towards in-store shopping. If we take closer look at the factors that make real-life retail so likeable, we’ll notice four basic principles that stand out:
- quality offer of products or services
- store design/feel and window decorations
- in-store discounts and promotional offers
- pleasant and helpful staff (service).
It’s a familiar old story and it goes like this… A customer passes by a store and looks into the displayed items for sale. A customer gets interested and feels enticed to enter. Once in, a customer is welcomed by friendly and dedicated staff to help him or her choose the best item(s) and make a purchase. After the purchase, the shop assistant thanks a customer and possibly offers a store loyalty card to keep them in the shopping loop.
Now transfer this model to online retail business and see how it needs to mimic these principles. On your ecommerce website or social media web shop you too are trying to be friendly, talkative, and welcoming even though there are no real people involved on your side. Your website is there alone to speak for your brand, to display a clear presentation of your offer, and to offer an easy and safe checkout.
Now what we want to discuss here is what happens after a successful online purchase.
We’re suggesting that you automate post-sale communications and use this last chance to engage your audience.
Add some style to the confirmation page
The first thing your customers see after they make a purchase through your payment form is a confirmation page. At this point, their mood is lifted from the shopping which brings instantaneous serotonin surge. Their attention is still with your brand. Why not expand on brand and product awareness?
Here are some ideas on what you can do…
1) Write a personal thank-you message
The effective way to make your message more personal is to add Dynamic Tokens which are pulling the information from the fields that your users fill in. So, for example, you can choose dynamic tokens to address your customers directly and mention the product they have purchased. While playing with your message, don’t forget its main purpose which is to confirm that the purchase/order was successful.
_Hi William {dynamic token: first name},
Thanks for signing up for our Social Media Marketing Beginner Course {dynamic token: product}!
We’re processing your purchase and will be in touch shortly.
Don’t miss our email with more information about the course, timetable, and studying materials that we just sent you.
See you soon in our virtual classroom! SocialGeeks_
2) Add a nice background and custom styles
Visual stimulation is the foundation of successful online communication.
Choosing an HTML editor option (as opposed to Plain Text) in Form Settings will allow you to upload a background image; choose font, style, and formatting for your text; as well as to add links, tables, objects, symbols, and emoticons.
3) Juice it up with discounts and related offers
Never miss a chance to upsell.
When creating your confirmation message, bear in mind that you are parting with your customers and this is your last chance for a farewell chit chat. Make it light, but informative.
Perhaps you have a valuable piece of content to offer for download? Or a special landing page where your new or discounted products are showcased? The trick is — this is your upsell opportunity, play it smart. Smart means to offer something related, of good value, and at affordable price. Discounts do magic in these situations because they feel like a reward and a privilege for those who already made a commitment buying from you in the first place.
4) Boost brand image with original content
Use quality content to boost your brand’s credibility.
Real fun starts with a full-flavored HTML code option. Knowing the basics of HTML puts you in full control over this page. What this means is that you can create truly fun and unique content to engage your customers and get the most out of this page.
Insert blog posts, videos, infographics, animations, product use tips, reviews, whatever interesting piece of content to add value to your checkout flow.
5) Stay in touch on social media
Stay friends for longer than a day.
Same HTML option can be used to add social media widgets and buttons. This is a must if you wish to expand customer relationships beyond one sale. Make your customers befriend your brand and pick up communications from there.
6) Ask for testimonials
To find out how satisfied your customers are after the purchase, link a simple Testimonial Form at the end of your message and ask them to rate your service and write a few words to describe their experience. This is an incredibly handsome way for tapping into the feedback you need to improve.
7) Perhaps they wish to be on your newsletter list?
Last but not least, in case you’re running regular promotions and newsletters, put up a Newsletter Subscription Form (our customizable free template) and explain what are the benefits of being on the list. People are reluctant to give out their emails unless you tell them what’s in there for them. Are they getting the hottest deals, discount codes, invitations for contests, exclusive or tasty new content every week?
To round up
Here are our knowledge base tutorials that provide essential instructions on DIY confirmation page customization: how to modify and how to have a different confirmation page based on a selected option.
Finally, if all these sound like too much to you and you need professional assistance with custom confirmation page design, coding, and other functionalities we just mentioned, our CustomWorks ProServices team can help. Pro and Premier plan are eligible for this hourly-billed service. Get in touch and get our quote, no strings attached.
May the sales rain on you!
Jovana Milankovic
Jovana is a content creator and marketing manager at EmailMeForm. Her job is to curate our software to the world and make it more human for our users.
