What should your company do with landing pages created for a campaign after the campaign has ended?  Most internet experts will agree that a great landing page is an essential part of any internet campaign.  It is arguably, the most important element of a campaign, because from this page, the consumer decides if they are going to continue the relationship, make a purchase, sign up for additional emails, or “bounce-back” to the referring domain and look for additional information.

USPS Smart Business Magazine Ad

I collect magazine and newspaper clipping. I store these clippings in a file cabinet and refer back to them. I keep clippings because at one time, I thought the idea, product, or company was interesting enough to hold on to. Recently, I have begun to digitize these newspaper clippings and articles and that is how I stumbled on to this USPS ad.

USPS created a magazine campaign that referred consumers back to a specific landing page on their website. I’m not sure what was on the web page because when I finally decided to check the page out the USPS website returned a 404 error message (file not found).

I probably should have expected this. The ad was printed in 2006 and I finally decided to check out the web page in 2009, but I couldn’t help thinking there must have been a better alternative for USPS. Literally, the cost to host a web page is hundredths of a penny.

Alternatives:

• 404 page – the campaign is over and you no longer offer the service. What customers you had are long gone.
• Leave the page up – random customers may find the page through outdated magazines or search engines.
• Edit the page – if the service exists in some form or another (especially if you call it something as generic as “smart business”) editing the web page is the best idea.
• Redirecting the web page -another really great idea if you are still in business.  Direct consumers who were interested in an old service to a new service that they may find equally interesting.

USPS Landing Page