What is a splash page? Definition, Importance, and Benefits with Tips and Examples

What is a splash page?

A splash page is defined as a web page that precedes your website or a landing page of your choice. These pages are used to either display disclaimers, push promotional activity or content, or display a warning to users depending on the nature of your business. Think of a splash page as a prologue to a book - a concise, brief, but concise introduction to the actual book. These pages enhance the customer experience and offer another critical avenue in engaging with website visitors.
The underlying theme of each website is to create a touchpoint for every customer transaction with your brand and help with lead generation and lead conversions. The splash page acts as the first step in this transaction of heightened customer delight.

A splash page typically consists of powerful graphics, minimal but powerful text copy, and a gateway into the website or a landing page when the user lands on the page through SERP, socials, or any other avenue. One thing these pages are devoid of is multiple CTA’s and way too much information. As mentioned above, these pages are only used as a gateway into your website. 

In the above example, Forbes showcases an excellent example of an effective splash page. Forbes and BlackBerry have tied up together for tailored promotions (which could last for a particular predefined time duration). When users land on the Forbes website through a search portal, they are first taken to this page. Users can then decide if they want to click on the ad to be taken into a conversion-driven landing page or be taken into the Forbes website as they intended to do. Thereby, splash pages are vital and essential in building enhanced customer relationships with users of your website.

Evolution of splash pages

Splash pages have been known as clunky, adding an extra step in the user experience and shoddy interface.

Typically marketers used splash only for the following:

• To select a country of your choice
• Provide your legal age
• Choose the website version based on internet bandwidth
• Ask users to install Flash or an external tool to view the website appropriately
• Act as a warning that the site contains pornographic or gambling-related content
• Inform users that the website includes audio elements and adjust the speaker settings.

These consisted of imperfect text copies, striking colors, and a terrible user experience (UX). Not just that, these pages were also known to increase website load times and had bad code and hence started getting penalized in search results. As a result, these websites began dropping off in website search results and were known to hamper marketing and lead conversion efforts instead of bettering them.
Over time though, brands and marketers alike have understood the importance of using these gateway pages into the website and have tweaked and optimized them to enhance the UX and conversion rate optimization (CRO).
Marketers have now turned splash pages into a robust brand optimization measure, such as informing users about offers or giving specialized information. They now provide valuable information to visitors and users and have very clearly defined entry and exit parameters.
It is essential to note, though, that splash pages aren’t for all brands and marketers. It is critical to identify the uses of such a page for your brand or your website and then make the best optimal use of them. To put it in easy terms, if there is some critical information that you think will benefit your users before they come on to your landing page, it makes sense to use a splash page. If there isn’t, you are adding an extra unnecessary step and reducing the scope of an enhanced customer experience.

What are the benefits, uses, and importance of using a splash page?

As seen above, splash pages could either make or break marketing campaigns and play a significant role in lead generation and lead conversion effects for a marketer and a brand. When implemented appropriately, however, they play an essential role in the delight factor of a brand and a website and enhance the scope of CRO. However, it is critical to note that a splash page should typically serve only one primary objective so avoid doing too much with it.
There are multiple use cases and benefits of using a splash page on your website. Let’s look at some of the vital, essential factors of an effective splash page as part of your digital marketing efforts. 

Display some leading information upfront
One of the most critical benefits of using a splash page is displaying any leading information into your website upfront. In a lot of cases, this could be a disclaimer or a warning of sorts. Some of the critical components you can display are how your information on the site is used or if you are comfortable providing information to the brand to be contacted later.
Another aspect of this information display upfront allows users to sneak peek into your brand or your website and better understand what is to follow when they enter the website or a specific post-click landing page. 

Display a website based on demographic characters
Another good use of a splash page is to display a variant of your website purely based on the demographic input made by the visitor on your page. Brands and marketers use this to show different website home pages or websites based on your selection, including age, country, or language. This allows you to consolidate traffic to one landing page and then have users move to different sites based on the selection they make.

Restrict site access
Splash pages are highly beneficial to meet regulatory and compliance metrics where users below a certain age or users in a particular location cannot have access to a website. This is used primarily in betting or gambling sites, adult content sites, alcohol and recreational drug sites, and more. It is imperative to restrict access to users not meant to be on your website to be regulatory compliant, limit yourself from lawsuits, and ethically conduct business.

Promote an event or provide specialized information
An essential use of a splash page is to provide specialized information or promote an event quickly but effectively snapshot before users even access the website. Websites can contain multiple details, but if you encourage communication to users through a splash page, you can pique curiosity and are an effective medium to increase your success with lead generation or lead conversion. Such pages are also an effective marketing technique to create a buzz around your brand.

Collect some personal information of the users
While splash pages differ from landing pages, in some cases, splash pages can be used to collect personal information from users and help boost CRO. With the right set of upfront information, these pages act as a medium to collect information that can help push users down your sales funnel or your marketing funnel. While this use case is not a widely used benefit of a splash page, some marketers have effectively used some marketers in their content marketing and branding strategies.

Provide a feel-good factor of your brand
One of the most significant uses and benefits of a splash page is that it provides users immediate insights into your brand. Providing a sneak peek into your brand or your most prominent USP upfront helps make a lasting, positive first impression. This provides users a vital sneak preview into what’s to come and what they could expect from your brand.

Tips for creating a good splash page 

Now that you know what splash pages are and their importance as part of your digital and brand strategy, how do you create an effective splash page that works the best for your brand? It is vital to note that these pages are a precursor to your website or landing pages. Hence, they need to be developed and curated appropriately to offer the best value while matching your brand objectives. 

Some vital tips to creating a good splash page are:

Define the objective of the splash page
While creating a splash page, make sure you define the objective of the page. Don’t create an arbitrary page that can mess up your brand value, offer a terrible customer experience, and affect your search engine ranking scores. Defining your page's objective will help monitor your success ratio and check if you are on track for your digital marketing and brand goals.

Keep it simple
One of the essential tips while creating a splash page is to keep it simple. Make sure to avoid adding unnecessary components and aspects to the page that will cause clutter, increase confusion and contribute to high bounce and drop-off rates - the more simple the splash page, the higher the chances of conversion rate optimization.

Offer a unique value proposition (UVP)
Your splash page is the first thing users notice on your website. Make sure to showcase your unique value proposition (UVP) and benefit upfront. This will help to move users down your sales and marketing funnels effectively and faster and boost your brand's confidence.

Effective headline
Write an effective and impactful headline for your splash pages so users know the exact objective of the page, get a deeper insight into your brand, and understand what’s the action expected of them on the page. Avoid convoluted or confusing headlines.

Use powerful images or rich-media
Another vital component of an effective splash page is powerful images or rich media used on the page. Pictures are highly expressive and resonate better with users. Dull-looking splash pages provide a negative precursor into your brand and brand experience.

Write benefit-oriented copy
Make sure to write benefit-oriented copy on your splash page. This will provide a far more compelling insight into your brand and allow users to see what you as a brand want to showcase easily.

A clear CTA
Having a clear CTA is one of the most important aspects of a good splash page. Make sure the CTA defines the value proposition exactly and also shows an insight into the user journey. Another essential tip to keep in mind is to avoid multiple CTA’s or CTA buttons that have conflicting text, which has a high scope to confuse users and increase bounce rates.

Provide trust indicators
Providing trust indicators such as badges, testimonials, certificates, etc., are an excellent precursor to users visiting your website. These components help in increasing the level of comfortableness with your brand and also aid with better lead conversions.

A straightforward entry and exit buttons
Make sure your splash page has clearly defined entry and exit buttons so that users know what they are getting into and can navigate away if required. Boxing users increases the risk of bounce and is one of the most substantial vectors of giving off the impression that the page is spam. Besides, when users land on the splash page, make sure to take them to where they want to go rather than taking them to your home page if they expected to go to your blog. This increases frustration and immediately leads to high bounce rates.

Create a responsive design
Lastly, one of the most critical tips for a good splash page is to create a responsive and non-intrusive design. Account for users coming in from different platforms and different native ecosystems, browsers, and devices. A consistently positive experience will increase the effectiveness of your splash page and contribute to better brand and marketing objectives.

Most importantly, when you have done all this, keep an eye on analytics to monitor bounce rate, page metrics, success ratios that you have defined, and more. Splash pages can help solve problems if done right, but you need to constantly monitor them to ensure they provide the value that your users want and don’t affect your customer experience journey. Feel free to A/B test different splash page variations to see what suits your brand the most and gives you the highest success metrics you have defined. 

Eight examples of effective splash pages to help you make your own

Now that you are familiar with the finer nuances of splash pages, below are Eight examples of effective splash pages to help you create your own. Each of these offers various value propositions and attributes that can help you make better splash pages for your brand, increase your digital marketing strategy's effectiveness, optimize your lead generation, and aid with conversion rate optimization.

Schmoll Creative

This splash page is a perfect example of minimalistic but powerful text copy and a single CTA that talks about hiring. When a user lands on this page, it is immediately known that this agency is looking to hire and offers the highest possible success metric for the brand.

Resn

This New Zealand-based brand uses a Splash page to showcase the design work that the studio has done immediately and very prominently. With the https://canadianpharmacy365.net help of an interactive design and one CTA that showcases all projects, it shows an immediate and powerful impact on the brand.

Betfred Sports

The Betfred Sports splash page upfront allows users to pick a location or state of their choice and navigate out to that website. Since the brand is into gambling and betting, different locations have different policies and hence being mindful of regulatory and compliance policies allows users to navigate to local-specific sites.

Tito’s Vodka

Since Tito’s Vodka is an alcohol brand, they are collecting information upfront if visitors getting on to the site are of legal drinking age in the location that they are visiting from. This is not just for legal and compliance reasons but also showcases a commitment to good business ethics.

Marc Thomas

Marc Thomas, a design systems engineer and takes on projects through his website, uses a Splash Page to let users see a snapshot view of his abilities and uses social media as a trust indicator to know immediately who they are reaching out to.

Urban Influence

Urban Influence, a creative agency, uses powerful text with rotational background imagery to provide instant insight into their offerings and service line. This splash page provides users essential information on the brand even before visiting the website and seeing their past work.

Bombay Sapphire Gin

Bombay Sapphire, an alcohol brand that deals with pure gins, allows users to navigate to the website of the country they are in, while also capturing the legal drinking rate in that country. As seen above, this is purely for regulatory and compliance reasons and showcases the commitment to being an ethical business.

ZARA

Zara, a global merchandise and retail behemoth, operates across different continents and countries. Allowing users to pick the country of their choice and the language they want to see, the website provides a native and more personalized shopping experience to users. 

Splash pages are now one of the most effective tools of brands and digital marketers alike. When done right, they offer great value and increased success to brands and aid with lead conversions and moving users down the sales and marketing funnels. 

Create your splash page today and watch your brand value soar.