I wrote a few weeks ago about the effective use of those pesky 404 error pages because, while broken links aren’t any fun, they happen and there’s a better way to handle them when they do.

Today I want to talk about another often forgotten, and therefor underutilized, set of pages – the successful action page. A successful action page is one that a visitor is directed to after they’ve done something like subscribe to a newsletter, sign-up to get a free report or fill out a contact form.

In many cases this page offers a moment when a visitor is highly engaged and yet most settle for a “Thanks for filling out our contact us form” kind of default. I think this is a waste of some prime real estate. You don’t have to overdo it, but you should use these pages to offer something more.

For example:

• After someone fills out my contact form they are redirected to a page that offers my newsletter and a list of other places, like Facebook or YouTube, where they might want to connect or follow. (28% subscribe or follow)
• After someone requests my newsletter, I redirect them to a page that offers them bonus content if they purchase one of my books. (4% make a purchase)
• I use a form tool called Wufoo that also offers branching rules based on responses – so I could redirect a subscriber to a page that asks them to identify specific information they would like to know more about and based on their response could redirect them to a page filled with that information.

I believe that while this may seem like a trivial thing, it’s this kind of attention to detail and personalized experience that allows you to build trust much quicker from what may have been a one time visit.