HawkinzWeb Blog

It is a well known fact that on a traffic exchange it is better to use a splash page, preferably a personalised one, rather than an affiliate page, but a question I am often asked is how do I make a splash page?

This post is not going to talk about the design mechanics of building a splash page, but rather what you should be putting in, and leaving out, of your splash page.

Firstly you want to ask yourself
“what is unique or special or different about what I am promoting?”
ie, why should someone be looking at what you are offering? Related to this – if you are promoting an affiliate page – “why should they sign up under me rather than someone else?”

Once you have an idea of what it is that you can focus on, the next question is
“what is the purpose of my splash page?”
ie – Are you trying to make them sign up straight away? Go and get more information? Go and visit a different page? Collect their contact details?
This is important because it will affect what and how you present the information you include on the page.

You now should have a good idea of what you want to say, so how are you going to say it?

There has been a trend towards including video on splash pages as there is a school of thought that says videos are more effective than static pages. Whilst in general terms this may be true, there are a 2 points to bear in mind:

1. There has been an increase in people blocking videos and scripts, which means they may not be seeing your video.
2. The video needs to be very fast loading, and make its point in the first few seconds.

Because of the issue of people blocking videos / scripts, if your splash page is relying on just your video to make its point, then you will be unable to make any impact on the viewer, and so your page is worse than using an affiliate page.
The video needs to make its point fast, because most people will only be viewing your page for just 2 or 3 seconds – so if you can not grab their attention in that time then you have lost the opportunity.
Therefore you need to consider the video to be at best a supplement to the main message rather than replacing it.

Likewise, if your splash page relies too heavily on scripts – especially if you are using a script-driven signup form – then you will be excluding some potential respondants. Scripts generally are not recommended in a splash page as they will slow the loading time as the browser will take the time to load the script, and if the script is positioned before the sales pitch, then the content will load slower and may not even be seen! (remember the page only has a 2 -3 second viewing window for most surfers)

Try to avoid using an all-in-one graphic that contains all your message as:
1. they tend to load slower because the file size is bigger
2. if they graphic fails to load, then all your message is lost.
If possible, try to use a mixture of text and graphics so that your eggs are not all in 1 basket.

There is no ‘golden formula’ for making a winning splash page – despite what some marketers will tell you – remember you are marketing to people, not robots and individuals will respond differently to the same input. Some people will respond better to humour, some to facts/statistics, some to emotional factors. Therefore you need to test and adapt your content to see what works best. You will probably find that you end up with a variety of pages that are ‘targetted’ at different people.

Try and get a punchy, attention grabbing ‘headline’ – something near the top of the page to grab their attention away from whatever else it was they were doing when they saw your page – it does not have to be text, it could be a graphic.
Next, you want to get your primary message across in 2 or 3 short, concise statements – remember the idea of a splash page is that it is a quick taster of more, not a full 4 course meal
Finally, the call to action – this is what you want the viewer to do next eg click a link, enter contact details, etc

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Many people believe that I am against list building because of my general opposition to list builders. This is actually slightly inaccurate, what I have reservations about is specific aspects of list building, namely the way and why of list building.

Too often I see people being taught and sold List Building as though it is the end in itself – if you have a big list, you will have big sales. This sadly is a mis-conception that benefits only those selling the list building, not the person doing the building.

The list is nothing more than a means to acheiving an end, to think it is anything more than that is to be setting yourself up for disappointment. Once you understand this, you’ll understand why I distinguish between list building and list builders.

While it is true a bigger list will give potentially a bigger return, it is not guaranteed.

A list is an opportunity to get to know like-minded people better, it is not a short cut to instant profits.

A list can be created in a variety of ways, and the way you generate your list will influence the effectiveness of the list.  The most common methods are:

• By offering people a freebie to subscribe to your list
• By selling a product or service
• By joining an opt-in list program
• By buying a commercial list

All these methods have strengths and weaknesses, and this will affect how effective they are.

By offering people a freebie to subscribe to your list
You will often see this done where someone says “get xyz for free” and require you to send your name and/or email address to receive the gift.  This can seem a very effective way of building a list if the freebie has apparent value, but a lot of these people will only be after the freebie and have no interest in you or what else you may be offering, and so will either
a) unsubscribe
b) block your mail; or
c) report you for spamming because they do not believe that requesting the freebie was giving you permission to continue to email them.

By selling a product or service
This is a very common method where a person provides an ongoing service, eg traffic exchange, web hosting; or sells a product or service, eg web design, e-book.  This method of list building has been used for years by companies working off-line to develop massive mailing lists, although in recent years the trend has increasingly been for companies to offer an opt-out/opt-in option to customers.  It has the advantage that the members are more likely to be interested in what you are offering as they have demonstrated a proven interest in the past, but can still leave you vulnerable to claims of abuse if members feel you’re sending too many emails or that you did not make it clear that you were adding their details to a list.

By joining an opt-in list program
This is where I have the most concerns about the reasoning of people joining and using the list.  Many of these programs advertise themselves as offering you the chance to send your advert to 1000′s of people.  What they omit to mention is that you will be receiving counter-offers from 1000′s of people.  99% of the people on the list are there to sell you what they are offering and not to buy what you are offering – after all that is why you joined – to sell something!  As a result many members start to filter the list emails out, so your offer is being ignored by most of the membership, so the list has suddenly effectively shrunk in size.

By buying a commercial list
This is by no means cheap, but hopefully the members of the list will have been pre-screened and opted in to receiving emails.  The effectiveness of the list will be largely dependant on how well the screening process was carried out.  The closer the screening process is to matching list recipients to your target market, the greater the chance of getting a good response, but this comes at a price.

If you understand that the effectiveness of the list you build is directly related to how you built it, and how you interact with it, then you will be better able to make your list more responsive.  Every list will be different because the membership will be different from person to person, but if you start by remembering that the list is comprised of real people not gaping wallets, you will be starting on the path to building an effective, responsive list.
When addressing your list, start by asking yourself “what do the recipients want?” and then once you have identified their needs, then ask “how can I supply a solution to that need?”
If you are selling refrigeration equipment, and your list is eskimos – you will struggle to make sales.  If you believe that eskimos want a secure storage facility for fish they have caught, and you have a lockable fridge – now you have a selling point to your offer.  Don’t be afraid to ask your list what they want, even if you can not supply it, you have more information about what they are thinking – plus you build credibility, as you now give them the opportunity to enter into a dialogue with you and develop your relationship.

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