Keep Your Landing Pages Up-To-Date

I get emails from all kinds of people, businesses and organizations. I love the art of the email, so I subscribe to many lists. Of course, this list includes numerous candidates running for President in the 2016 cycle, both Democratic and Republican.

Amongst the list of people I get emails from is Hillary Clinton. Or at least, I try to get emails from her. I have subscribed to her list on several occasions, and for some reason, I continue to be excluded (maybe I should start to take it personally?!).

On Friday, February 5th, I signed up for her email list—AGAIN. I was immediately thanked for my support and taken to a landing page asking me to contribute to her campaign.

[For those of you not familiar with the term landing page, the idea is simple. It’s a single webpage that a user is taken to when clicking on a specific link. It can be from a Facebook post, a Google ad, an email, an online sign-up or the like.]

This is the obvious next step in the funnel for any candidate: The people who want to hear from a candidate — in their inboxes and on an ongoing basis — are by far going to be the most likely to give money to that candidate.

But here was the landing page to which I was redirected:

It thanks me, offers me a range of amounts to give, doesn’t confuse me with numerous asks or calls-to-action (Pro Tip: a sure-fire killer of any ask is to be surrounded with numerous other asks!). So what IS the problem with this landing page?

It’s February of 2016. Voting has already taken place in Iowa, and we are days away from the New Hampshire primary. Three of five democratic candidates have dropped out of the race and there have been countless debates, town halls, campaign events, tv appearances and so much more. And yet this landing page is asking me to “be one of the first people to support Hillary’s campaign.”

ONE OF THE FIRST?!?!

What is going on in the Hillary campaign that so few people have contributed, a year into her campaign?

Obviously, this isn’t true. Clinton has raised tens of millions of dollars over the last year, from big and small donors alike. But this landing page apparently hasn’t been updated in some time.

The lesson of this post is simple — a landing page needs to be updated as often as your ask. A year ago, this would have been a strong ask. Today, this makes the Clinton camp look weak, or at the very least disorganized.

The worst part is that nothing on this page even needs to be updated, save for the ask. The picture and the “select an amount” are still applicable, a year later. Change the text and this page is good to go.

A good habit to get into is to regularly go through any processes you expect your audience to go through, and to update them as necessary.

• If you work for a non-profit, contribute a few dollars every few months and see how you feel about the ‘Thank You’ process.
• If you sell a product through an e-commerce site, buy something straight from your site. Did the ship tracking work as is was supposed to? Did you have any issues submitting your credit card information?
• If you own a business where others answer the phone, call in every now and then from a strange number and see how you are greeted.

There is no better way to know how your audience engages with you, your business or your organization, than to go through the process yourself.

Not sure what your landing page should say? Or have another question about messaging or engaging your community? Drop me a line, let’s chat.