Today, I’d like to get your opinion on splash pages on websites. Personally, I don’t like them. While they certainly add value to pornographic websites or websites that advertise alcohol and there is a need to prequalify people before they enter the corresponding site, I can’t think of many other instances where I find them to be helpful.
Frankly, I have very little time, and I’d imagine most consumers feel the same way. I certainly don’t have time to watch a flash animated screen play a marketing message while I wait for the “Click Here to Enter” button to appear. And I’m a marketer! If I feel that way, what must non-marketer consumers think?
If the goal of the website is to convert visitors to customers, then I don’t want to waste their time by making it take any longer to get to the information they want and need quickly and easily. I don’t want to give them the chance to leave, so I avoid splash pages. Companies spend millions of dollars conducting web usability studies and tracking click patterns and ROI, but then they block visitors from quickly and easily obtaining information by placing an obstacle in their way – a splash page. It doesn’t make sense.
So now I’d like to hear your opinion on splash pages. Do you love them or hate them? Take the poll below and share your opinion.
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Susan Gunelius is the author of 10 marketing, social media, branding, copywriting, and technology books, and she is President & CEO of KeySplash Creative, Inc., a marketing communications company. She also owns Women on Business, an award-wining blog for business women. She is a featured columnist for Entrepreneur.com and Forbes.com, and her marketing-related articles have appeared on websites such as MSNBC.com, BusinessWeek.com, TodayShow.com, and more.
She has over 20 years of experience in the marketing field having spent the first decade of her career directing marketing programs for some of the largest companies in the world, including divisions of AT&T and HSBC. Today, her clients include large and small companies around the world and household brands like Citigroup, Cox Communications, Intuit, and more. Susan is frequently interviewed about marketing and branding by television, radio, print, and online media organizations, and she speaks about these topics at events around the world. You can connect with her on Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, or Google+.
