This is a guest post by Jesus Ramirez from MarketingUnfolded.com.
A “squeeze page” (sometimes referred to as an “opt-in page”) is a one page website whose sole purpose in life is to capture the visitor’s contact information.
Capturing your visitor’s information is the best way to build your list. And the best way to make money online.
Increasing your conversion rates means to increase your revenue.
Unfortunately for you there is a lot of ways to easily screw the whole thing up, costing you money!
Here is a list of the top four things you can do to kill your conversion rates on your squeeze page:
1. Putting Your Opting Form Below The Fold
Most of your visitors spend most of their time above the fold (the viewable area in a page before the user has to scroll down).
This doesn’t mean that they won’t scroll down; it just means that most of their time is spent on the upper portion of your page.
So if this is where most people spend most of their time, and what ALL your visitors see, whether they scroll down or not, then why not have your opt-in form there?
Take advantage of this, and place your optin form and call to action above the fold, where all of your prospects are sure to see it. I can guarantee that it will increase the chances of getting them to take action.
2. Using a Sidebar on Your Squeeze Page
Most of bloggers and internet marketers use content management systems (CMS), such as WordPress to run their websites.
They also use a “page” on these CMS systems to create their squeeze pages. This usually means that they leave the side bar which appears on all their pages on their squeeze page. These sidebars often include advertisements, links to other pages, and even another optin form.
This can be very confusing and a distracting to your visitors. When it comes down to getting them to take action on your squeeze page, you must remove all distractions, and avoid confusion as much as possible.
This is why most landing pages (and sales letters) almost always have white backgrounds with black fonts, and not much else in terms of design, or distractions.
Always remember to disable your sidebars on squeeze pages, and to make them as “clean” and clutter free as possible.
3. Asking For Too Much
One of the best ways you can kill the conversion rates to your squeeze page is by asking for too much. If you are asking for an email, a name, a phone number, a Facebook like, and a tweet, then this will not only confuse your prospects but you are giving them more reasons to say “no” to you.
An effective squeeze page asks for one specific action, that is all. Squeeze pages that request multiple actions test very poorly, at least in my experience.
It is better to go for the email, and tell them about other ways they can communicate with you, or products they might be interested in, in follow up emails. After they have joined your list and after you’ve build some rapport with them.
Make sure that you’re call to action is very SPECIFIC and CLEAR.
If you want an email address, then you literally have to say “enter you email address below” or something to that effect.
Be over-specific, don’t assume that your visitor will know what you want them to do.
Trust me, they won’t.
4. Using Plain and Boring Headlines
Squeeze pages live or die by the quality of their headline. If you have a weak or unenticing headline, no one will read your page, no matter how great it is.
The copywriting legend Joseph Sugarman, in “The Adweek Copywriting Handbook
Every element must be so compelling that you find yourself falling down a slippery slide, unable to stop until you reach the end.
Your headline must be like the slipery slides copywriters use. It must make your readers want to read the first line. And your first line must want to make your readers read the second line. Right down your page, to your call to action.
Unlike some of the other things we’ve talked about, split-testing different headlines is extremely easy, fast, and requires no technical knowledge, just a bit of creativity.
All you have to do is keep testing different headlines until you find a winner.
Conclusion
The most important thing to remember is that you are only looking for one action; you need to make sure that there is nothing else getting in the way of your visitor and your desired action.
What other conversion rate killers can your think about? Use the comment form below to tell us that…
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Asking for too much will only showcase you as a desperate marketer and you have to avoid it any cost. So be sensible
Tushar,
“desperate marketer” – Great way of putting it.
Great tips for boosting conversions. Asking for too much information was the mistake I use to make and after I changed it to just “First Name” and “Email”, conversion almost doubled.
Richard,
I’m glad to see you have real word experience on the matter!
If a squeeze page is necessary, I try for a simple page with no distractions. It’s incredible how many pages I’ve been to recently that won’t adhere to this rule. I’d be curious to run an experiment of two squeeze pages that offer the same newsletter or whatever you’re trying to market where one has a simple page and the other has a few ads or some formatting error and what the drop off rate is for this page. Thanks for the article and getting me thinking about a well laid out squeeze page.
Corey,
it would be an interesting experiment, but I’m pretty sure of what the outcome would be!
Good point about keeping things clean and clutter free, people can be easily distracted , taking away from the purpose of the page
David,
Clean and clutter free is the way to go!
I think that big bold and red headlines may work best. Thanks for the tips!
Gina,
Love the big red headlines myself!
Excellent tips, Jesus. Ads and more than one optin form can cause a lot of confusion and really mess up your conversion rates. Thanks for sharing!
Ana,
no problem, and thanks for commenting!
Great article. I like the quote, very true to the idea of consumer psychology. The key goal i think you left out has to do with what the reader is actually after, and what you as a marketer need to incorporate behind, not only your landing page, but every aspect of your marketing. Which is Creating tension in the reader, which leads to stress, onto the need to alleviate that stress, and finally onto the action to satisfy desire.
Check out this page, if you want to read more.
http://landingpagedesignshop.com/landing-page-psychology/the-8-human-desires
Andrei,
The slippery slide quotes is one of my favorites in marketing.
Thanks for the info. I also notice that having too much on the sidebar can reduce ctr. Since most of the time visitors are distracted with what is moving on the sidebar.
Adam,
It just kills me to see squeeze pages with sidebars!
and there are plenty of free solutions to fix this!
I agree with all your points especially the last point which is asking for too much, I really hate when someone ask for my phone number, leaving the page is what i do usually..
Thanks a lot for the post.
Faissal,
I totally agree with you. I NEVER fill out an opt-in for that asks for a phone number.
keep it simple!
Thanks for the tips!
When I create my squeeze pages I use OptimizePress,it works like charm and I don’t have to worry about a lot of things.
BTW Nice image in the article(the dollar in slices)