Website Landing Page – Format

If the reader clicks on the link in your e-mail, he/she should be taken directly to a landing page on your site that is specific to your offer, not the home page. Sending them to the home page is the same as giving them "the run-around," since they have to click around some more to find where the online order form is. The other problem with sending them to your home page is that there are too many distractions: the customer will see items of interest, click around, read, click some more, etc. and quite possibly forget about why he/she came to your site in the first place.
In a direct e-mail campaign, your sole goal is to get the customer to take the action you want (purchase a product, download a white paper - whatever) and you should allow no distractions. After the customer has taken the action you desire, then you can serve up a page that says "Thank you for your order, click here to go to our home page..." Until the desired action is taken, allow nothing to distract your customer.

If you're testing different offers, lists or creative approaches in your e-mails, you'll want to track them separately. This can be done by using different URLs in your offer.

Scan the landing page visually and see if the layout "flows" so that the reader's eye knows where to go and does not get distracted. A good rule of thumb is that the rules for creating good, clear order forms in a direct mail piece can be applied to making good, clear order forms online.