Most startups spend all their time on optimizing the experience for registered and logged in users.  But what about those who come to a site through a link?  Or right to the home page by either typing the company’s URL or more likely searching for the company name. Most companies spend very little time on this which is a mistake because it is the top of the user acquisition funnel.

Companies that get the logged out experience right can get a lot of mileage from that.  In particular showing immediate content and only then driving users into either registration or app download seems to work well.  Pinterest did a great job with this both for deep links and for the homepage.  Instagram’s deep link pages are fantastic – you see the photograph but the second you want to take an action (e.g. heart) you are driven into registration.

I was thrilled to see foursquare earlier this week launch a logged out version of “explore” giving immediate utility to anyone coming to the home page.  Venue pages, such as the one for Union Square Ventures, also have a strong calls to action now for users who are not logged in.  This is a great way of activating the top of the funnel.

Most startups spend all their time on optimizing the experience for registered and logged in users.  But what about those who come to a site through a link?  Or right to the home page by either typing the company’s URL or more likely searching for the company name. Most companies spend very little time on this which is a mistake because it is the top of the user acquisition funnel.

Companies that get the logged out experience right can get a lot of mileage from that.  In particular showing immediate content and only then driving users into either registration or app download seems to work well.  Pinterest did a great job with this both for deep links and for the homepage.  Instagram’s deep link pages are fantastic – you see the photograph but the second you want to take an action (e.g. heart) you are driven into registration.

I was thrilled to see foursquare earlier this week launch a logged out version of “explore” giving immediate utility to anyone coming to the home page.  Venue pages, such as the one for Union Square Ventures, also have a strong calls to action now for users who are not logged in.  This is a great way of activating the top of the funnel.