What Makes a Great “Thank you” Page?
So much time, energy, and money are spent on driving prospective students to your .edu, that some of the finer details of your website’s user experience can often fall by the wayside. If you’ve created a web experience that encourages a student to fill out an RFI (Request For Information) form, your work is done, right? Not so fast! Once that form is complete, users are sent to the often-neglected thank you page, a small, but significant tool for giving students an idea of what your university is like.
Why Thank You Pages Matter
Let’s assume your institution gets 100 leads (form fills, info requests) per month. If those leads convert (move from a lead or inquiry status to an applicant, accept, deposit, or enrolled status) at 20%, you might feel good about that—but 80% of those leads don’t move forward. An optimized thank you page improves the chances that those 80 remaining leads will convert. Even a 1-2% increase in conversion rate will result in more engaged prospects in your funnel.
Another important aspect of thank you pages is that they are often required to track form submissions accurately in Google Analytics. Even if your CRM doesn’t capture marketing information, you can still track successful RFI form fills by setting the thank you page’s URL as a goal.
Creating a thank you page that makes an impact on students doesn’t require overhauling your communication strategy, but more so an attention to detail that gives students the feeling of being valued. There are a variety of ways to convey that message; here are a few examples of things to include on your thank you page.
Confirmation of Submission
This may seem like an obvious inclusion, but it’s important to let the prospective student know that you received their request for information. The thank you page gets its name from the message most often used to let students know an institution received the request, so be sure to express gratitude for the student’s interest.
A Strong Call to Action
Submitting a request for further information is a great way for students to make contact with a university, but it doesn’t instantly give them complete knowledge of your institution. Having already completed an RFI, you know that this lead is interested, so why not give them further options to understand the values of your school? A call-to-action like “Learn More” (with links providing information about programs, campus, and more) can be the perfect next step for interested students. In the example below, Arizona State not only offers a virtual tour of campus, but a personality quiz to determine if you would be a good fit at the school.
Learning more isn’t the only option. Below are a list of potential calls-to-action that can entice students to take a closer look at your institution.
Schedule a visit
Take a virtual tour
Chat with admissions
Apply
Explore
Experience
Contact us
Giving the students the opportunity to discover what you offer at their pace and in the order of their choosing can help build value and foster a sense of a tailor-made education, suited perfectly to each student.
An Explanation of What’s Next
Once a student completes the RFI, they will begin to receive regular communications from the institution. Many students who complete RFIs aren’t aware of how much or what form of communication to expect. Giving students a proverbial “heads up” on what’s coming, whether it be an email, phone call, or text message. Take a look at a great example of this from the University of Phoenix:
Frequently Asked Questions
Another common theme among the better thank you pages was a section for frequently asked questions. Students can often feel overwhelmed during this process, inundated with information that isn’t relevant to them. Listing out topics of interest for all types of students (as shown in the example) is a great way to allow students to clear up some of the confusion that may have arisen.
Offer Further Connection and Engagement
Giving students the opportunity to connect with your institution on a more personal level is a great way to build a relationship before even making first contact. Provide links to your Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn. Use images from the school’s Instagram or Snapchat feeds with options for students to easily begin following your profiles. Consider linking a video of a campus tour from the school’s YouTube page. The thank you page marks the end of a form completion, but the beginning of what you hope to be a long and fruitful relationship.
What To Avoid
When creating a thank you page, success and failure is determined as much by what you don’t include as what you do. Schools that had the least compelling pages didn’t include any imagery, offered no further information, and didn’t even thank the student for their interest. Take for example, the following well-known institution. Upon form completion, the prospect is greeted only with this simple message:
This “thank you page” merely offers confirmation that the form was submitted. That is not an encouraging sign for a potential student. This can also be an indication that institution is not tracking form submissions or marketing sources with their leads.
Routinely Audit Your Experience
A general rule when making any improvements to your higher ed website is to consider the full site experience of your user. What information is important to them? Believe it or not, understanding and providing them with what they want is more important than getting them to do what you want.
Another way to approach this is to ask yourself, what do you like to experience when you complete an RFI on a website? Think outside of higher ed. If you request information on an automobile, a home service, a desirable product—which aspects make you feel confident that you made the right decision to provide your personal information to the company?
When I analyze a higher ed website, I first put on the persona for that institution’s target audience. I consider age, gender, location, psychographics, needs and desires. Then I view the site through that prospect’s eyes. Nearly every time I do this, I learn something valuable.
Unfortunately, thank you pages often fall victim to the ‘set it and forget it’ mentality. We recommend that you go through the full prospective student experience on your suite at least annually to identify areas of improvement.
Creating a well-made thank you page isn’t going to double admissions at your school, but it is a great way to passively build stronger relationships with potential students.