A squeeze page is a dedicated page that entices someone to sign up for something. This could be a webinar, a free video or a gift such as a coupon, ebook or report. You can include any type of gift you like but it is best to offer something which is related to your business.
Before setting up your squeeze page you want to get your free offer or gift prepared. You can write this yourself, use a ghostwriter, or use a PLR product that you modify. Once you have this ready upload it to your website or deliver it through a service like Dropbox or Box.com.
Now it is time to work on your squeeze page. There are several ways to do this as well including:
- Creating an html page
- Using a free template
- Purchasing a Squeeze page software
- Using a plugin
What is a squeeze page? If you read my last post about what to do when you aren’t getting leads, you know that one of my recommendations is to use a page dedicated to collecting leads. In marketing parlance this is referred to as a “squeeze page.”
Your squeeze page should highlight what your offer is about. You need to list the main features and benefits of the product. It is best to highlight these by using a bulleted list.
A good squeeze page should always include the following elements:
- An attention-grabbing headline
- List of benefits
- A desire for your reader to want more info
- A strong call to action
By combining all of these elements you are creating a strong desire in your reader, one that they will act on. With the end action being that they subscribe to your list to get your free gift or offer.
Having a striking image or using a video are two other good tactics which you can use on your squeeze page. An image makes your page visually pleasing and a video is a great way to include additional information about your product. You could even pop in a couple of testimonials in there.
Once your squeeze page is finished you can upload it to your website and your page will be live. Don’t forget to add your autoresponder code into your form so that subscribers are added to your list. If you are using a squeeze page software there will be a place to add this in.
Your next step is now to promote the heck out of your new squeeze page. You can promote it on all your social sites, and you can use the link in your signature file in forums. Even when you leave blog comments you can use the URL as your website. Just look for every opportunity you can and leave your link.
Contents
- What is a Squeeze Page?
- Long copy vs. Short copy
- 4 Elements of A Squeeze Page that Converts
- How much information should you collect?
- What to Do When Opt-in Offers Fail
- Add This to Squeeze Pages for Peak Conversion Rates
- Ideas for your Opt-in page
- Plan your squeeze page
- How do I make a squeeze page?
- Creative List Building Tactics on Social Media
- Fishing for Customers?
What is a Squeeze Page?
Squeeze Page: a landing page designed to collect the email address (at a minimum) of the visitor, through an opt-in form.
Squeeze pages have one objective: getting the visitor to opt-in.
A squeeze page is NOT a Sales Page. The objective of a sales page is to make a sale. That is not the objective of a squeeze page.
In most cases, you will make more money by sending the majority of your traffic to a squeeze page instead of to a sales page. If that’s weird, the reason is because there is more money in long term connections than in a single one-off sale.
Long copy vs. Short copy
In most cases, shorter is better.
The best squeeze pages hit “hot buttons” of curiosity people “need to know.” These may be 3-7 bullet points about something they are keenly interested in. I’ve even had success with a single point, for example:
“Enter your email address below to find out the #1 reason why women have a hard time losing belly fat.”
The reason that squeeze page is successful is that it promised the answer to a very popular topic and the audience was highly targeted to women wanting to lose belly fat. Guess what? Men also opted-in to find out the answer too!
Now that you know what a squeeze page is and why it’s important to have a dedicated page, go create one for your list building purposes.
4 Elements of A Squeeze Page that Converts
Planning for a great squeeze page involves really honing in on the ideal customer. Now you’ll learn how to create a squeeze page that converts.
Essential ingredients of a squeeze page:
1) Headline: Attention-getter
2) Benefits: What they get and how it helps them
3) Call to action: Enter your name and email
4) Opt-in form
If you use bullet points, make sure you address how the response benefits the reader. Also – be sure to follow through on the information promised.
Keep things simple. Use a page builder such as Thrive Themes
Tip: People are getting more and more tentative giving away their email addresses. Autoresponders such as Aweber have forms that allows people to opt-in using their Facebook account. You can try this, but people who are Facebook savvy know that means you have access to the email address they use for Facebook. They are less likely to share that information.
Using a standard non-Facebook-type opt-in means you may end up with an email that they don’t use as much as the one attached to Facebook. But your chance of closing a lead is greater than depending on a Facebook opt-in. Reserve a Facebook connection for another time.
How much information should you collect?
The more information you collect, the smaller the percentage of visitors that will opt in.
The less information you collect, the greater the percentage of opt-ins.
Request only the information you need – minimally the email address.
The more information you collect, the more valuable the lead.
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What to Do When Opt-in Offers Fail
Got juicy bait, a lake full of fish but no fish? Here’s what you may be missing.
You know you need to build a list. To do that you need:
- an autoresponder tool
- something to offer potential customers (opt-in bait)
- a hook to capture the contact information in exchange for the offer (opt-in capture form)
Those are the core components of capturing leads. However, if you aren’t capturing any leads then you need to evaluate a few things.
- Where do you share links to your opt-in offer? Are you sharing them right? If not, then start. After all, people can’t read your mind. Put a teaser and link to a page with the opt-in offer on it in your email signature, on your business card, in your phone messages, in forum signatures, on your car window…
- Use a dedicated squeeze page. Yes, you can put an opt-in form on your home page and posts, but leverage a dedicated squeeze page for collecting email addresses.
- Your opt-in bait may be great, but are the people you attract hungry? Here’s an obvious example to get the point across. Let’s say you are building a list of people who want to know how to cook French cuisine. It’s probably not a good use of your time participating in a weight-loss forum. People there just aren’t “hungry” for your topic. You may get some leads from this activity from people who are curious, but you don’t build a business from curious shoppers. Your time is better spent participating in a “how to cook” forum or someplace
Add This to Squeeze Pages for Peak Conversion Rates
Have you ever landed on a page that was clearly a squeeze page and the audio or video started playing immediately?
Did you love that? Or hate it?
Most people respond they hate it, but adding audio or video to a squeeze page is proven to increase opt-in rates.
Why put the darn thing on auto-play?
Because you have only a second to stop your visitor from leaving the page.
Notice I said “stop them from leaving.”
Even if they click to turn off the sound or stop the video you have gotten them to click on your page. They are now engaged. Their next action may be to put on a headset so they can listen to the sales message without sharing it with the rest of the office/home.
Or they may leave the audio/video turned off and read the copy on the page.
Or they may hit the back button and leave the page. I promise you, if the introductory sound bytes are obnoxious, that will certainly be the response from your visitor.
Learning Points:
- Add audio or video to your squeeze pages.
- Remember to leave the audio/video at auto-play,
- Introduce your offer in a manner that doesn’t immediately turn off the audience.
Ideas for your Opt-in page
A squeeze page should be kept simple and direct. Something that entices the potential clients needs. Some people load up an opt-in page with gobs of freebies, but it really serves only to dilute the intent AND your list.
Make sure you know your market, your target and the ideal candidate for your list. Now provide them with something they value and not a bucket load of add-on bait.
- How will you know why they opted-in?
- Was it for your main promise or the additional goodies?
- Do you build a relationship based upon your main offer or the add-ons?
- Do you see how that complicates the message?
Here are some ideas for freebies or incentives to offer on your squeeze page.
Physical products
These are great for niches outside of internet marketing, but they work for digital marketing too. I love to get something that is autographed by a popular celebrity or author. If you are a coach send out a CD/DVD, book or report.
Are you in the pet niche? How about a free pet id-tag, collar, or toys. Offline businesses often give away magnets, calendars, pens/pencils, you name it.
Yes, there is an investment in the marketing collateral, BUT you also get the person’s REAL contact information including address and perhaps a phone number to go along with the email address. That is powerful!
More ideas…
Digital products
- articles
- video
- newsletter/ezine
- e-course
- report
- ebook
- membership
- software
Teleseminar or Webinar
Webinars are a way to introduce powerful techniques with just enough left out of the message to encourage the listener/viewer to buy a product. You can use a similar tactic in the other offers, but when someone takes time to attend an event, they are more inclined to purchase the offer at the end of the show.
Personalised Coaching/Tutoring/Initial consultation
This is more time consuming as you have to make it a 1-on-1 event, but it offers a great opportunity to start building a trust with your new subscriber. It’s also hard for someone to say ‘no’ to an offer at the end of a personalized session.
Take Away
- give away something of VALUE to your prospect that will…
- truly help them
- prove your credibility
- build their trust
- leave them thirsting for more (so you can sell your product)
Plan your squeeze page
If you haven’t yet signed up for a list service (aka autoresponder), there are quite a few such as Sales Master Hub.
Action steps:
1) Determine what your ideal prospect looks like.
2) Decide what you’re going to give away to get them on your list.
What kind of people do you want on your list?
In other words, who is your ideal prospect?
What you give away will affect who ends up on your list. Give away something that will attract your IDEAL prospect.
Once you’ve got those things figured out, it’s time to build your squeeze page. We’ll be doing that in the next lesson.
How do I make a squeeze page?
A squeeze page is a dedicated page that entices someone to sign up for something. This could be a webinar, a free video or a gift such as a coupon, ebook or report. You can include any type of gift you like but it is best to offer something which is related to your business.
Before setting up your squeeze page you want to get your free offer or gift prepared. You can write this yourself, use a ghostwriter, or use a PLR product which you modify. Once you have this ready upload it to your website or deliver it through a service like Dropbox or Box.com.
Now it is time to work on your squeeze page. There are several ways to do this as well including:
- Creating an html page
- Using a free template
- Using a plugin
- Purchasing a Squeeze page software
To keep this simple use something like An All in One Sales and Marketing CRM Such as SalesMasterHub.com
Your squeeze page should highlight what your offer is about. You need to list the main features and benefits of the product. It is best to highlight these by using a bulleted list.
A good squeeze page should always include the following elements:
- An attention grabbing headline
- List of benefits
- A desire for your reader to want more info
- A strong call to action
By combining all of these elements you are creating a strong desire in your reader, one that they will act on. With the end action being that they subscribe to your list to get your free gift or offer.
Having a striking image or using a video are two other good tactics which you can use on your squeeze page. An image makes your page visually pleasing and a video is a great way to include additional information about your product. You could even pop in a couple of testimonials in there.
Once your squeeze page is finished you can upload/connect it to your website and your page will be live. And remember to add your autoresponder code into your form so that subscribers are added to your list. If you are using a squeeze page software there will be a place to add this in.
Your next step is now to promote the heck out of your new squeeze page. You can promote it on all your social sites, and you can use the link in your signature file in forums. Even when you leave blog comments you can use the URL as your website. Just look for every opportunity you can and leave your link.
Creative List Building Tactics on Social Media
So just how do you get people to join your mailing list? This is such an important question for many new marketers. Today the face of marketing is changing and people are using social media sites for almost everything.
People use Facebook and Twitter to update their day with what they are doing and how they are feeling. So if people are spending so much time on these sites it makes sense for you to take advantage of this.
If you don’t currently use social media that much for your business you need to improve this. This isn’t hard to do and all you have to do is starting posting about what you are doing each day. This includes linking to blog posts you write or about a new discount you are offering. Even sharing things you like outside of your business is a good idea.
Let’s see how you can put using social sites together with building your list. Well, first you can post a link to your squeeze page on your wall or page. Plus you can leave informative posts about what you are offering.
Offering people access to a private group is often a great way to entice people onto your list. Of course you will want to offer them valuable information that you don’t give out to other people. You are offering them something special so make sure you keep to your word.
Adding new subscribers to your list doesn’t always happen overnight and you may need to spend time letting people get to know you first. Then when they are comfortable with you they will be ready to join your list.
If you enjoy using images and graphics don’t forget about including sites like Pinterest into your list building efforts. You can create a photo contest and run it via Pinterest, just have everyone post to a specific board. They will need to subscribe to your list in order to find out who the winner is.
Facebook provides you with the opportunity to run surveys and polls so why not take advantage of this? Ask questions and actively ask people to Like and Share your poll. This way you can potentially reach more people who are interested in what you have to offer.
Get into the habit of becoming a regular user of your social accounts and you will discover ways to build your list and to keep them entertained and happy.
Fishing for Customers?
Hmmmm the similarities between list building and fishing…
I realize many of you have never fished. So here’s how it works. From what I know you wrap some form of bait around a hook and then toss the bait into the fishing hole. When a fish bites the bait you “set-the-hook” by jerking up the pole which causes the hook to embed in the fish’s mouth. Then you reel in the fish.
The frustrating part is two-fold:
- Selecting bait the fish like
- Placing the bait where the fish are located
List building is the same idea. Think of your potential customers as the fish. You are the fisherman with bait and hook. The bait is something that people might find intriguing, but it isn’t your product. You place the “bait” on a web page with an invitation to try it out. Usually, this is offered for a simple non-monetary exchange.
The fish (potential client) bites the bait and exchanges his email address for the item. It’s a way of giving people an opportunity to taste your offerings.
As a business/marketer, you face the same challenges as the fisherman. Selecting the right bait and getting it in front of the fish.
This explains why you’ll hear marketers use the term “opt-in” and “opt-in bait” as a reference to an ethical bribe to attract people to your list.
Your list is the “fish keep” or database filled with email addresses. Okay, get the picture?
There are a few more critical components that make this a successful fishing trip. I’ll share that with you in my next tip.
Action Step
People often don’t buy what you have to offer because the timing isn’t right. Perhaps they are in a hurry and can’t check out your deal, maybe they don’t have money to spend that day, or perhaps they just don’t trust you yet.
So you capture their contact information to start up a dialogue and build a relationship with them.
Terms
Fish aka Potential clients, buyers, curious people
Bait aka Opt-in offer: Report, tips, picture, photo, recipe, audio recording, video…something potential clients find irresistible.
Hook: Opt-in form
Fish-keep: Your list stored in a database. This may be a spreadsheet, but a more powerful tool is an autoresponder service such as Aweber or Get Response.
Stay tuned for more tips to help you fill your fish keep, um, list.
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