404 pages — sounds like a nightmare, right? All the lost traffic and engagement is the last thing you want on a Monday. In fact, 73.72% of people who reach a 404 error page will leave your website and not return. But, no matter how much you try, you can’t escape 404 pages. One small glitch or a typo — and a potential customer can land on a 404 page. But what if you could turn that 404 pages into a gold mine for added interaction? You heard it right!
We at Outgrow did just that. We used interactive content to turn our 404 pages into a lead generating instrument. And well, we believe in sharing everything good. So we created an entire blog post around how you can customize your 404 page with Outgrow. Read on to find out!
How Can You Personalize Your 404 Page?
Creating the perfect 404 page isn’t easy. But we have a few tricks that might help you get on the right track.
1. Use attractive images and visuals to appeal to your audience
You can use images that resonate with your brand and communicate with your audience. Check out this 404 page by Disney to get a better idea of how you can use appealing images on your 404 page.
2. Tell a story
Your 404 page is a blank canvas. Use it to tell your audience a story and engage them with your content. For example, Red Bull designed its 404 page jam-packed with videos on the recent events, achievements, and awards. This could be a smart way to build brand image and trust on an error page where usually the opposite happens.
3. Interact with your audience
Use toggles, interactive content, and search bars on your 404 error pages to give your audience the space to speak to you. We’ll give you our 404 page example here. We designed a blog recommendation tool to offer different types of content a user would probably want to read on our blog.
4. Direct them to your showstopper
You can use your customized 404 page to direct your audience to the page of your choice. It could be a blog, your homepage, ebooks, courses, a campaign landing page, etc. Here’s an example of Sprout Social that showcases its demo trial on its 404 page. Smart, right?
5. Give them a reason to stay and fetch leads
You can use your 404 page to bring any discount, offers, courses, episodes, etc. to your audience’s attention. Take a look at this 404 page from Land’s End. They smartly use a pop-up to offer a 40% discount to users that would otherwise exit the page annoyed.
Now that we’ve given you some awesome ideas on custom 404 pages, let’s tell you how you can create one using Outgrow in some very simple steps.
How to Create Your Custom 404 Page With Outgrow
Outgrow is a platform that lets you create interactive content like calculators, quizzes, e-commerce recommendations, etc. without the need for coding. Now, interactive content is a great way of generating leads and engaging customers at the same time. And this is precisely what you can leverage to customize your 404 page.
Outgrow gives you multiple possibilities. For ourselves, we created a blog recommendation tool. Every time we get a user on one of our 404 pages, we ask them what kind of content they’d be interested in. And based on that input, we recommend them a bunch of our blogs from our resources. This helps us not only avoid a high bounce rate, but also increase traffic on our blogs.
What Should You Do?
Now you can create that for yourself too. Or, if you don’t have a blog, you can also create a plan recommendation tool. Based on the requirements of the user, you can use the Outgrow tool to suggest to them which of your service plans they should buy. Or, if not that either, you can create a calculator or quiz to demonstrate any of your services and direct them to the right page! The possibilities are endless with interactive content. Once you have decided on your idea, you can head over to the Outgrow builder to create your interactive tool. Here’s a step-by-step guide on how you can do that.
How to Build a Recommendation Tool Using the Outgrow Builder
- Before you can access your Outgrow builder, make sure you have logged on to the Outgrow dashboard using your account credentials.
- On your Outgrow dashboard, you will find the option for an ‘Outcome quiz’. Click on that and you’ll be guided to the Outgrow builder.
- Your Outgrow builder will be divided into three panels. The left panels will allow you to customize the number of questions you want to add to your quiz. You will also be able to change their order, duplicate them, etc. The middle panel is your workspace where you will see all your changes being made in real-time. And the right panel is where you can add and change your text, visuals, fonts, colors, backgrounds, and all other possible settings.
- Once you have created the questions you want to ask your user, head over to the ‘Outcome’ section on the left panel. Here, you can create all your possible outcomes and map your options to their respective outcomes. This is what will direct the user to the right answer based on their input.
- Optimize your interactive content for SEO, subscribe to social media feeds, and set up your email notifications. And guess what, once you hit ‘Live’, you’re done with your interactive quiz! Now, head over to the ‘Configure’ tab on top of the page. Move to ‘Embed on a webpage’. You will find multiple options for embedding your content on your webpage. Once you’ve chosen the one you want, copy the embed code and paste it into the HTML code of your 404 page. Viola! You have your recommendation quiz exactly the way you want it.
Benefits of Using Interactive Content on Your 404 Page
Now, you already know how you can use interactive content to customize your 404 page. But why should you even use it in the first place? Well, we’ve got you covered.
1. Lead Generation
Interactive content provides value to your users. This encourages them to divulge lead information that they normally would not. This makes interactive content a great lead magnet for your 404 error pages. Moreover, these leads are more qualified and thus more likely to convert into paying customers.
2. Customer Engagement & Retention
You can easily personalize your customers’ experiences using interactive content. It is specific to each user rather than generic common-to-all content. Moreover, it is dynamic and requires participation from the user. This engages them and gives them a voice to speak to you even on a dead-end spot like a 404 page. Statistically, interactive content offers twice the engagement that static content does. This also helps you cater their sales journey to their needs, which in turn helps retain them as customers. So instead of losing users due to 404 errors, you can rather nurture and retain them!
3. Traffic & Education
Interactive content is more appealing to users because it is personal. It has a high shareability (38% shareability rate as compared to 17% for static content) and gains more attention than static content. This can help you drive traffic not just on your interactive 404 page but also on your website.
Moreover, you can also use interactive content to educate your users about your brand and services in general. You can create assessments, quizzes, calculators, polls, etc. to help customers derive value from your 404 page.
4. Data Collection
The role of interactive content extends beyond lead collection. It’s also about getting to know the taste, preferences and choices of your users. Embedding interactive content on 404 pages can help you collect useful data, avoid guessing and save time and effort. And, what could be better than your 404 pages helping you improve your marketing strategy and overall user experience!
Conclusion
Are you ready to create that recommendation tool for your 404 page? Well, we’ve always got a lot more in store for you when it comes to the benefits of interactive content. And we sure set the right example for you! So take Outgrow’s free trial today and create that interactive tool your 404 page is longing for!
