squeeze pageIn the pre-launch phase of our Income Blogging Guide course (which is now closed for new members), Joel and I created a brand new squeeze page.

A squeeze page is a one-page website that is specifically designed to entice people to give you their email address in return for a free gift or “give away” product.

It’s a way to build a quality list, mainly for internet marketing purposes.

Depending upon the free give away you are offering, the design of the squeeze page, the niche you are in, will determine the conversion rate of your opt-ins.

The number of people who sign-up out of every 100 who visit the squeeze page is your conversion rate.

If 32 opt-in for every 100, your conversion rate is 32%.

Our specific squeeze page is getting a 64% conversion rate.

If you want to make this type of page, you need to keep two things in mind: simplicity and effectiveness.

You need to keep the content simple, yet at the same time, use words that will get the message across.

Now, you can’t publish a squeeze page and expect people to sign up for your list.  You need to make it look as attractive as possible with the right amount of content for it to be effective.

The 4 basic elements of the Squeeze page are:

  1. Create a strong headline
  2. Have a simple, clear design
  3. Provide the reader with a list of benefits they can expect if they join your list or gain from the free gift/give away
  4. Have a prominent opt-in form

These four elements are basically all you need (unless you want to add a video); however, you need to write everything in a way that will compel visitors to actually subscribe.

Here are some tips on how to create effective squeeze pages:

The Headline

The headline is probably the most important aspect of a squeeze page.  It needs to be compelling, as it will be the very first thing visitors will read.  Even if the rest of your page is perfect, not many people are going to bother signing up for your list if the headline is poorly written or displayed.

We use a headline of:

“The Ultimate Blogging Guide to Make a Blog Income”

and a sub-headline of:

“Get Your Free Income Blogging Guide Blueprint Now!”

The readers in our niche are interested in making a blog income and they love free guides.

The Freebie

You must offer something for free in return for the customers email address. You can offer an e-book, a video, audio, software…anything in order to get people to sign up.

Have a graphic of the free product. It can make a huge difference to your conversion rate.

Our freebie is a 95 page multi-media guide to setting up your blog and how to start making money from it. It took us many, many hours to create. Our view is give away some great content. You may entice people to opt-in but if the quality of the free guide is not good, they will quickly un-subscribe.

I came across an excellent squeeze page only recently. I signed-up only to receive a one page document. One page! It could have been brilliant but my first impression was not good. By the way it wasn’t brilliant, so I un-subscribed.

So make sure your free guide is of a high standard.

The Benefits

List as many benefits as you can squeeze onto the page without going below the fold. And when I say benefits I mean benefits not the features of your freebie.

I was on one of John Carlton’s courses a while back and I remember he said, “The fan is the feature the benefit is the cool wind. Remember that!”

And whenever I write bullet points I always remind myself of that slogan.

Your bullets have to mention the benefits. When writing your bullets, simply ask the question “So what?”

For example:

“You are getting a 10 inch fan made by hand in Spain”

That’s a feature.

Think, “Yeah so what?”

And come up with the benefits your customers would gain by having the “10 inch fan made by hand in Spain”

The Design

You don’t want too many distractions on your page.

You don’t really want flashing banners as it can make it look a little spammy.

Make it attractive and ensure the opt-in is in a prominent position and easy to opt into. Just ask for their name and email address only. Make it simple for the visitor to opt-in.

You should include a privacy policy. It helps build trust and people expect to see it. If they don’t most will not opt-in.

I would recommend you don’t link to anything else (other than your privacy policy), otherwise you can confuse your prospective subscribers and even lose then if they link to other pages.

We used the WordPress Squeeze Theme to create our squeeze page. It just makes things a little easier than having to play with loads of html, etc.

Videos

Some people use videos to get their message across.  Actually hearing a list of the benefits they’ll receive can entice some people into joining up.  A lot of people would rather watch a video than read a bunch of text.  If you choose to this, make sure the video loads quickly and smoothly in every web browser.

Domain Name

We purchased a separate domain name for our squeeze page. By having a separate domain name, the page can have it’s own SEO attributes and relevant plugins.

Then you can link to it via your main blog or website.

Hopefully, these tips will help you create a great squeeze page, so that you can build a huge of list of subscribers.

If you want to see our squeeze page, click here: blogging guide

What’s your view of squeeze pages? How do you design yours? Share your views in the comments below.

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