If you’ve studied online marketing for any length of time you’ll have come across the phrase “squeeze page”, which sometimes goes by the name “opt-in page”. Whatever you call it, essentially the page has a simple purpose, and that’s to gather the contact details of prospective customers so you can follow-up with them.
As a subscriber to this newsletter you know follow-up is one of the most important — and profitable — things you can do, and the squeeze page is the first step in that profit producing strategy. No squeeze page, no prospective customer details, which means no follow up… which means the chance of making all those lovely profits is lost. Which, of course, is not a good thing.
So What Makes a Great Squeeze Page?
“Lots of things” is the answer, though one of the most important elements you need to consider is “relevancy”, which means when prospective customers land on your squeeze page they want to see stuff which matches what they’re looking for, and only what they’re looking for.
So the first thing to think about is what the prospect is looking for before they even land on your page. There should then be an unbroken flow between what the prospect wants, what they expect, and what they get. And this means your squeeze page should be as focussed as possible. It also means you should (depending on your market) have tens, scores, or even hundreds of squeeze pages, each one dedicated to a narrow subject. For instance, a travel agency could (and should) have opt-in pages dedicated to family holidays, honeymoons, holidays for stag parties, hen parties, senior citizens, and so on. A beauty clinic could (and should) have squeeze pages for tooth whitening, botox, eyebrow threading, and so on. You get the idea.
It goes without saying the incentive to opt-in should be tightly-focussed too, with each page having its own free report, video series, email course, whatever.
Getting Their Attention
The next thing to think about is the headline. Getting the headline right is crucial, because the headline is the thing that tells the prospect whether to read further. The good news is there’s no need to sweat over this, and on a web page you can try different headlines very easily. It isn’t as though you’re printing up a few hundred thousand direct mail letters with no way to change things without spending a fortune. Some of the best headlines can come from following simple formulas using words such as “How to…” “Discover…” and “The Essential Secrets…” Just taking our travel agent squeeze page example we can come up with the following:
“How to Plan Your Perfect Family Holiday”
“Discover the Secrets to the Perfect Romantic Honeymoon”
“The Seven Essential Secrets to a Fun-Packed Hen Party”
Length is Important
Next, the main copy on the page. One thing you will hear time and again is that nobody reads more than a few sentences, and putting several hundred words on a web page (or anywhere else) is a complete waste of time. Well, those people have obviously never tested, because tests prove “long copy” (anything more than a hundred words or so) almost always brings in more opt-ins or gets more of the intended response.
And even when long copy doesn’t get more opt-ins, you’ll often find the opt-ins are of a much higher quality. In other words, people more inclined to buy, which is exactly what you want. For instance, which is better — one hundred opt-ins and one buyer, or 50 opt-ins and ten buyers? The question answers itself.
Of course, test this, but do at least try a few long-copy versions and look at both the quantity and the quality of leads you get.
Bang, Bang
One of the best ways to make your copy punchy, easy to read and persuasive is to use bullets. They look like the line below
- This is a bullet…
And they’re called that because, you guessed it, they look like bullet holes. Placing your copy in short sentences with a description of what your free report (or other incentive) contains can be very powerful. Going back to our travel agent example once again, bullets for the free report on honeymoon planning could include:
- The three things you must do before you even begin to plan your honeymoon…
- The best way to find a honeymoon destination you’ll both love…
- The most popular romantic destinations of 2013…
Ask Them for More
Many squeeze pages ask for nothing more than an email address, which is fine as far as it goes. But test what kind of response you get if you ask for postal details as well, and even a phone number. You can even make submitting the email address a requirement, but make postal details and/or the phone number optional.
Another thing to test is using video on the page. You should test using video on its own, and test using video and copy. The great thing about video is it shows who you are as a real person, and helps the prospect “connect”.
The other great thing is video doesn’t need a lot of time spent on it. In fact, many tests prove the more “unsophisticated” the video is the better. It seems people relate much more to someone wearing normal, casual clothes in a video which looks like it was shot on a family holiday than they do to a flashy corporate video featuring a “salesman-in-a-suit”.
Why?
Well, salesmen — and saleswomen — are often seen as untrustworthy manipulators with the gift of the gab who belong to the “other side”, whereas the average Joe is seen as exactly the opposite, a plain-speaking, honest type who is on “this side” — the side of the consumer.
Finally, try different numbers and positions of opt-in boxes (data capture forms) on the page. Test having an opt-in box at the very top of the page and one at the bottom.
Test having an opt-in box at the top of a secondary column and one at the bottom of the page, and so on. And test which opt-in box gets the most opt-ins.
You’ll probably find one thing works better than the other.
CHRIS CARDELL’S KEY TAKEAWAYS
Of course, all this means work. But remember, even small increases in the opt-in rate can work wonders for your revenue and profit figures, and that makes the work it takes to achieve it more than worth it.
Please share here your thoughts on this article about Chris Cardell, share it on social media and express your views. To learn more about Chris Cardell visit his website chriscardell.com or Chris Cardell’s Media Company, Cardell Media Ltd. There is also an interesting video interview with Chris Cardell. His next life changing event is The Sovereignty Summit with Chris and Dan Kennedy on 29th – 30th of September 2015.
