• by Chad White , November 10, 2009

Imagine you're walking through a store and see signs for a demonstration of a product you're interested in. You follow the signs to the back of the store and through a door that leads into the back alley, where you see the product demonstration going on. It's not the best brand impression, so chances are you're not going to stick around.

It's the same thing when you reach a dead-end landing page without any branding, navigation or secondary content. I call this "back alley syndrome," and I've seen two glaring cases of it from major retailers in recent months.

Please Don't Do Anything But Watch This Video

The first was in an Aug. 1 Hallmark email that promoted video content, a commercial about encouraging kids on their first day of school. The landing page for the video was devoid of Hallmark branding and there were no navigation or product links. There was only the video console. Hallmark gave subscribers no indication of what to do next, which was bizarre because the email creative clearly associates the video with related greeting cards and gifts. But those related products were completely missing from the landing page. With no links to anywhere else, Hallmark's landing page screamed, "Get lost!"

Whether they're commercials, how-to videos or humorous clips, every video should be associated with products and additional content. There should always be a path forward for visitors to follow.

Not Listening to Poll Results

The second case involved a Nov. 8 Petco email that contained a poll asking pet owners what their pet would like for the holidays. While it was a secondary message in the email, it was called out in the subject line. When you clicked through and chose one of the four selections, the post-poll landing page only thanked subscribers for their "feedback." It didn't have the typical navigation of Petco.com and only included a link back to the homepage.

What a huge missed opportunity. It's like a customer walking up to a store rep and saying, "I could really use a new dog bed," and the rep saying, "Thanks for your feedback." It's hard to imagine such an exchange happening in a store, yet that's what happened here.

There are at least two ways the landing page could have been improved, besides using the company's standard Web site template for it: Petco could have shared the results of the poll so that subscribers could see what others were looking for. But more importantly, Petco could have included product promotions related to the poll selection made. For instance, if the subscriber had selected "A cozy bed to snooze in," the landing page could have included the company's most popular, highest-rated, newest and cheapest pet beds -- using preferences to display beds for the right kind of animal, of course.

Having blown the landing page opportunity, hopefully Petco will use what its strategists learned about individual subscribers to send triggered emails or include dynamic content in its promotional emails, highlighting products related to subscribers' answers.

Because they're not overtly promotional tools, interactive email elements like polls and videos will become increasingly vital engagement tools because of the use of engagement metrics by ISPs to determine inbox placement. However, that doesn't mean that these elements can't be used to convert subscribers on the landing page. Think of these elements as conversation starters.

Have you run into other marketers that also suffer from "back alley syndrome"?