Let's talk landing pages

January 26, 2010 | Posted by Bill Hunter
I received a great email this morning that was stressing the importance of matching the message/expectation from your email to the "landing pages" that your visitor is directed to. If you see a road sign that said "This Way to Point A," you'd expect to find Point A at the end of the road, right? The same goes for the relationship between your email and landing experience.

The following was written by Darrah MacLean from MediaPost.com:
As buttoned-up as your email may be -- from design to copy to images -- all is lost if the click-through experience misses the boat. You set an expectation with your email creative, and it's a big bummer for your customer when the effort falls flat. Whether you send your subscriber to a customized landing page, a search result page or a single product page, it's extremely important to think strategically about what the customer is hoping to find and how you can best deliver that experience. Merchandising a landing page should follow the same organizing philosophy that you would apply to the selling floor in a brick-and-mortar store.

To show you what I'm talking about, let's take a look at this Kate Spade email. My high expectations started with the subject line: "i resolve to sing in the rain..." Given the fact that it's been pouring for what seems like weeks in San Francisco, this gem of a subject line couldn't have been more relevant to my little corner of the world. The expectation continued to build with the CTA (call to action) to "shop the collection." In my mind, I was going to land on a page packed with rain boots, jackets and umbrellas in fun, colorful Kate Spade patterns. Instead, I landed here. While I love Kate Spade's fun and clean email creative, ultimately I was left hoping for more when I chose to click. And try as I may, I just couldn't make the connection between the one pair of pink rain boots and the gold necklace.

In contrast, Bloomingdale's rainy day email delivers on the promise of product assortment with its three links: raincoats, umbrellas and rain boots. But the click-through experiences didn't live up to the targeted theme of the email. (Here are the rain boots and raincoats landing pages to give you a visual.) The rain-specific products were buried amidst the cold-weather winter styles, which meant I had to scroll through to find what I was looking for. A customized rain gear shop where I could easily find a matching raincoat, boot and umbrella would have been ideal. Instead, I was left to wander the site on my own.

If you saw a road sign that said "This Way to Point A," you'd expect to find Point A at the end of the road, right? The same goes for the relationship between your email and landing experience. If you tell your customer you're taking them to a specific place, make sure that place fulfills the promise. For your viewing pleasure, here are a few emails and click-through experiences that truly deliver on the initial expectation. Even the single product pages include suggested items to "complete the look."

Another good example:
REI Email and Landing Page

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Here is the orginial article.