Comments on: In Defense of Splash Pages

By: Internet Marketing, Strategy & Technology Links - May 6, 2009 « Sazbean

Internet Marketing, Strategy & Technology Links - May 6, 2009 « Sazbean — Wed, 06 May 2009 12:29:32 +0000

[...] In Defense of Splash Pages (The Bivings Report) [...]

By: Splash Pages - Thumbs Up or Down? « Sazbean

Splash Pages - Thumbs Up or Down? « Sazbean — Tue, 05 May 2009 14:44:58 +0000

[...] May 5, 2009 by Sarah Worsham Now, I have to agree with Todd Zeigler over at The Bivings Group – normally I hate splash pages, especially as a user. But as Todd said, they seem to be extremely [...]

By: Todd Zeigler

Todd Zeigler — Tue, 05 May 2009 13:27:15 +0000

Josh – I would set it to show up for each visitor once every month. That way they see it at least somewhat frequently, but not so often that it gets super annoying.

By: Josh D

Josh D — Tue, 05 May 2009 05:21:35 +0000

Hey Todd – How often (frequency) do you recommend using a splash page intended on driving memberships on a website?

I’m specifically referring to a social network with pro account upgrades . . . we’re interested in adding a splash page to drive people to upgrade to the pro accounts, but we’re not sure how often to present it.

Thoughts?

By: Rick Maynard

Rick Maynard — Tue, 05 May 2009 02:11:39 +0000

Thank you for the advice, Todd. Your Pickens splash page looks terrific. My hat is off to you.

By: Todd Zeigler

Todd Zeigler — Tue, 05 May 2009 01:41:57 +0000

Rick,

I’d ask them to validate once more. You might also provide them the option to say they’ve already signed up so you can write a permanent cookie (as opposed to a temp cookie you might use for someone just skipping). We did this on Pickens and it works pretty well:

http://www.pickensplan.com/act/

In my experience, people are with splash pages as long as they don’t see them that often.

Thanks for reading.

Todd

By: Rick Maynard

Rick Maynard — Mon, 04 May 2009 23:35:19 +0000

I just wanted to let you guys know that you’ve turned around my thinking on this.

When I did a redesign for a congressman last year, I did a splash page. Right before I took it live, I kept hearing from all my friends “You’re not doing a landing page are you? Those things are annoying.”

But if you guys are getting a good yield, count me in. And I really like Todd’s idea regarding the judicious use of cookies.

I do have one question, though— While I get the idea of using the cookies to make sure that those who sign up never see it again, how do you recommend handling the users who have already signed up? If I had to hazard a guess, I would say that my email address database would overlap pretty neatly with a list of my most frequent visitors. In my shoes, would you guys ask them to validate one more time?

By: Todd Zeigler

Todd Zeigler — Mon, 04 May 2009 20:31:08 +0000

Clay – thanks for the kind words and good post.

I posted a quick follow up note to post, as I think it is important to note that you can deploy a splash page in a way that isn’t anti-user. Be sure to use cookies or other methods so that you are not presenting users with the same splash page every time they visit the site. That way you can ask for the email, and not agitate your users too much.

By: Clay S

Clay S — Mon, 04 May 2009 20:06:19 +0000

Hey Todd,

Good post, totally agree. We resisted equipping our sites with splash pages for a good while, because we thought they were just a short fad and a usability nightmare.

However, it soon became apparent that they were a successful strategy and visitors were getting acclimated to dealing with and filling them out.

A little over a month ago, I actually wrote a similar post about our experience and thoughts on splash pages. Looks like we’re on the same page: http://www.newmediacampaigns.c.....ding-pages

Thanks for the interesting post,

Clay