By now you should have a pretty good understanding of what a squeeze page is, but the keys to creating an effective squeeze page may still be a bit ill defined.  Let’s talk about what the core competent of an effective squeeze page are and how you can maximize your results.

When discussing the elements of a squeeze page, there are generally four primary elements:

• An Attention Getting Headline
• Text to list benefits, or create curiosity
• Social proof (some form of endorsement or testimonial)
• A very direct call to action

Each of these elements needs to really be looked at individually and each one needs to be maximized in order to improve your numbers.  The attention getting headline, for example, has several key points that you need to consider.  What is the best color?  What is the best font and font size?  What is the best style of headline that will motivate or intrigue your target audience?  You need to test all of these items individually, but many of them have some well established guidelines that you can use to at least get 70% of the way there.  The rest is up to you to test and refine.

Remember that every product and every niche is different.  So just because some “expert” says a squeeze page should have 22pt Bold Red Arial font on a white background for the headline, doesn’t mean that it will be best for your particular niche.  Don’t be afraid to experiment with different variations, but in general it’s easier if you start with some basic guidelines.

For the headline, a dark red font is generally best on a white background.  A common and easy to read font that is “familiar” to the user, such as Arial or Tahoma, is commonly recommended. The font size should be large, but not excessively so – 18pt to 22pt or thereabouts is a good starting point. If you have a long form squeeze page, multiple lines for the headline are okay, but if you’re doing a short form squeeze page then you want to keep the titles shorter so that everything fits “above the fold”.

For the bullet points, you want some text but not too much. Again you want easy to read fonts and black on white is the “norm”.  A graphic for the bullet is fine, but don’t distract from the Call to Action. Remember there can be only ONE primary objective and that objective is to get the user to put in his/her information and click submit.  So don’t let cute graphics or clever copy distract from the overall goal of the page – to get an opt-in.

The social proof can come in various forms.  It could come in the form of a user story or testimonial in the video, or it could come from an endorsement or logo of an endorser as an image that is subtle, yet convinced (the “As Seen On TV” red and white logo comes to mind).  Social proof is just anything that will lead the user to feeling comfortable about taking action – comfortable that someone else has had good results.  The better your social proof, the better your conversion rate will be – it’s that simple. If you have a new product and don’t yet have any social proof, consider doing an “open beta” or giving a 50% discount to anyone who will leave a thorough testimonial for your product.

The last and, by far, the most important element is the call to action. This is normally a big “Click Here” or “Submit” button.  The best color to start with (again, do your own testing) is PayPal orange. There has been extensive testing on this, but if you want to research it further go here: http://www.belcherbutton.com .  Bottom line is that there is a reason why you see some many call to action buttons being designed in orange – they convert better.

The last thing to remember about these four main elements is that you need to have multiple versions of all of them before you start as was pointed out earlier – TEST, TEST, TEST.

So, remember where above that it was pointed out that there would be one common theme of TEST, TEST, TEST?  Well, here’s where it comes into play.

The first fact that you must admit is that this is merely a numbers game – math.  Sorry, but you will have to have some basic math skills to be effective in business <grin>.  The purpose of a squeeze page is to……….. GET AN OPT-IN! That’s right.  Many people miss this very basic point.  Many people confuse a squeeze page with a sales page.  A squeeze page is not designed to close a sale, it is only designed to get the user to take that one step forward and get them to the sales page – that’s it. Once they arrive at the sales page, then it is the responsibility of the sales page to “close” the deal and make the sale.

So what are the numbers you are concerned with?  Here they are, plain and simple:

1. Optin Percentage
2. Conversion Rate

Really, it all comes down to those two items.  Now, you can have an extremely effective sales page, but if your squeeze page has a terrible optin percentage you’re not going to be effective.  Likewise, you can have a very effective squeeze page and a poor sales page.  But the purpose of this document is to discuss squeeze pages, so let’s just focus on that.

The optin percentage is straightforward and should be self-explanatory.  Simply put, it is the percentage of users that come to your squeeze page and submit their person information to continue.  As an example let’s say that you send 1000 visitors to your squeeze page and 100 of them opt in.  Well, you have a 10% opt-in rate, and that’s pretty darn good.  Anything above about a 5% opt-in rate is considered to be a successful squeeze page. However, true success is measured when you pay the bills, so if the numbers aren’t working for you then you will have to keep tweaking and improving them.

The conversion rate refers to how many sales are made for the traffic sent to your site.  So, using the same example above of a 1000 visitors, if 3 of them purchased your product from the sales page then you would have a 3% conversion rate – again, a very good rate.  Generally speaking 1% and above is a decent conversion rate and 3% and above is a “good” conversion rate. But, like mentioned earlier, that all depends on your product and your price point.

To start with, you should have goals going in and you need to make sure that they work financially.  So you need to figure the cost of your traffic, and then estimate a 1% conversion rate and see if the dollars make sense.  Let’s say you’re selling a $97 info product and that you are having to pay an average of 30 cents per visitor.  Well, for a 1000 visitors you would pay $300 and if you only converted at 1% you would only make one sale – or $97.  Thus that would be a losing campaign.

However, if you were able to get that same traffic for 10 cents you would have a “break even” campaign.  Depending upon your business goals that might be determined in and of itself to be a “success”.  Many marketing campaigns are not designed so much to make money on the front end but rather to fund themselves and add to the client list.  Or, perhaps to break even on the front end and make their profits on the upsell or long term email marketing campaign.

Now that you have the basic math figured out and have mapped out your plan, you need to put it into action and devise a strategy (before you start spending money) to improve your odds from the beginning.  This all comes down to tracking, making small changes and observing the impact.

Let’s just take a very small example.  Let’s go back to your insurance short form squeeze page.  Let’s assume that you have a Title, 3 bullet points and a video with a large opt-in button and form.  In order to properly test this squeeze page, you need to have several different variations of each element prepared in advance so that you can quickly evaluate one versus the other and monitor your results.  So, let’s take the title for example.  Before starting your campaign, have at least 10 or more titles created.  You never know which one is going to perform better, so have several ready to go and test.  The same is true with your “benefits” (the three bullet points) and the video (try several different presentation styles, formats, lengths, etc…).

Now, testing is really all about small changes that are tracked.  DO NOT every change more than one thing at a time. Please go back and reread that – yes, it’s that important.  If you make two changes to your form and it does worse (had a lower conversion rate), how do you know which change was responsible?  Was it the different video?  Or did the title cause the problem?  Bottom line is that you simply will not know unless you limit your changes to one at a time.

An advanced tracking technique called split testing will dramatically improve your testing routine.  A split test works like this.  You use a software program called a rotator (or URL rotator) to divide your incoming traffic and split it up – send 50% to one variation of your squeeze page and the other 50% to the other variation.  There are several very key points that need to be emphasized with split testing.  For one, you must have a way of tracking the results.  That is outside the scope of this document, but there are several ways of easily and freely tracking such as Google Analytics Conversion tracking, for one.  The second key point is that you can only test one and only one modification at a time and never have more than two variations.  In other words, let’s say you’re split testing the effectiveness of the title.

Here’s how you do it.

1. Setup a URL rotator to evenly distribute* the traffic to two different squeeze pages.
2. Make sure that the squeeze pages are IDENTICAL except the title variation.
3. Observe and track the results and pick a winner.

* “evenly distribute” – this is very important.  Some URL trackers or even Google Adwords will give you the option of sending the majority of the traffic to the ad or version performing the best – you do NOT want to do that.  If you do, how will you truly know what the real results are?  Leave it as a pure 50/50 distribution so that you can see that title variation one had a 1.3% conversion rate and title variation 2 had a 1.1% conversion rate.

Now, it may seem silly to think of the importance of such small differences in conversion rates, but do the math and you will see that it is *very* important to the success of your overall campaign.  In the example above of going from 1.1% to 1.3%, what does that really mean?  Well, let’s go back to our $97 product and 10 cent traffic cost.  At 1.1% that equates to just $9.70 of profit per 1000 visitors sent to the squeeze page.  But, at just 1.3%, you would be making $29.70 per 1000 visitors.  That .2% difference in conversion rate results in a big difference in net profits.

So, pay attention to the details and have a good set of variables in place and a strategy for how to test them *before* you roll out your site.  Then take a very scientific approach to it and through many iterations you will gradually keep improving your conversion rate as long as you are methodical and devoted.

One common misconception is that a landing page and a squeeze page are the same thing – but the reality is that they are very, very different.  A landing page is typically a topic page or sub-topic page for a site and is specifically designed around that topic or sub-topic.  Its purpose is to funnel traffic to the main page – whether that is the homepage, or perhaps a sales page or squeeze page.

Again, to illustrate this, let’s consider an example.  Assume that you have an insurance company and that you sell many different types of insurance – home owners, auto, motorcycle, etc.  You may have various different landing pages on your site, such as, yoursite.com/home-owners-insurance.html and yoursite.com/auto-insurance.html .  Each of these pages would be optimized for that particular topic or sub-topic and would serve to educate the visitor about your services and related products.  However, they would not likely have a squeeze page on them.  More than likely they would have a big call to action button, like, “Register Here for a Free Quote”.  This button would then take you to a simple short form squeeze page.

There are many variations of this concept, but the above model is the most conventional.  Remember the definition of a squeeze page is that in order to proceed you must provide some personal data (many squeeze pages, in order to be as streamlined as possible, only require an email address and nothing more).  A landing page, in comparison, is more of an information topic or sub-topic page whose purpose is to act as a funnel to direct traffic towards your money page.

Landing pages are commonly designed around SEO (Search Engine Optimization) related keywords that are highly relevant to your site.  To explain this concept further, let’s go back to the insurance example.  You might have several landing pages that are all catered towards very specific SEO keywords that are relevant to your product or service and that you want to provide highly targeted and relevant information to.  For example:

• Yoursite.com/high-risk-car-insurance.html
• Yoursite.com/classic-car-insurance.html
• Yoursite.com/smokers-car-insurance.html
• Yoursite.com/teenager-car-insurance.html

These might all be highly relevant topics for your insurance site and so you may have a separate landing page with pertinent information about your products and services on all of those individual pages.  However, you would still not likely have a squeeze page there. If you missed part 01, read it here. Read Part 03 to learn more about Squeeze page goals and conversions…

A squeeze page is typically a single web page that has one and only one goal – to get you (the potential customer) to provide your personal contact information in exchange for something. Now, that is pretty vague, but that is the general principal.  The way it works is the page must build up intrigue and excitement about the product that lies “just on the other side” of that opt-in box and the only thing that stand between you and getting that information is simply putting your name and email address in the box and hitting submit.  Well, that’s the theory, but in practice it’s a bit more complex than that.

But first, let’s take a look a back at some history.  The term squeeze page comes from the very intent of the web page itself which is to “squeeze” information out of a potential client.  Generally that information is contact information that the owner of the site is soliciting.  Like any good salesman, the first step to closing a sale is knowing who you’re talking with.

Here’s a few examples of an offline version of the squeeze page.  Let’s say you go down to your local car dealership and decide to do some window shopping for that new family sedan you’re considering buying.  If you don’t buy today (which, in all reality is not very probably) he needs to be able to follow up with you.  To be able to give you a call in a week and offer you a discount on a new financing program that just came out, for example.  Any salesman worth his salt knows that by good follow up contact work he or she will close many more sales and so their first and foremost concern is getting that contact information from you. There are several ways that the salesman will “squeeze” contact information out of you – that’s his job.

For example, he may offer you a test drive of the vehicle you’re looking at, but require you to fill out their contact form in case there is an accident on the test drive.  Or, perhaps he will exchange business cards with you – a very common way to get your contact info.  As you look around the dealership you will likely see several examples of “squeeze pages”.  Another common example is a “free drawing” where you just have to “drop in” your business card or fill out a simple registration form.  All of these methods in the physical world have an equivalent in the virtual world online.

So, in summarizing, a squeeze page is simply a short form that requires you to enter your contact information before continuing on to the “real” information you want to see. Another name for a squeeze page is a “teaser” page.  Again, the name is pretty self-explanatory.  The purpose is to “tease” you with all of the great benefits you will get after you provide your contact information.  Yet another name for the traditional squeeze page is an “opt-in” page.

This terminology comes from the fact that you must opt in to the list explicitly by entering your contact information. (NOTE: You should be careful when opting into a squeeze page and look for the fine print, because some vendors will sell your information to various other lists.  You think you’ve only opted into one site, but your information may be distributed to a hundred others.  This is less common today than it was in the past, because of numerous consumer advocate groups, however, you should still make sure to read the fine print.)

The teasers may come in various forms – from promises of free gifts or reports, to discounts, or any other promotional item that might entice you to register.  For example, a “register now for your opportunity to win a free notebook” – these tactics are all very common and you have likely come across them many times over in your journey online.  Many times they are simply a free report or perhaps a free “chapter” of the ebook you are considering purchasing.

Over time many different versions and styles of squeeze pages have evolved.  The most common is the short form squeeze page.  It is typically very short and has very little information with an accentuated call to action, like a great big orange “Click Here” button.  Today the most common form of this squeeze page has a video that is set to autoplay so that as soon as you open the page the video starts “selling” you on why you should “opt in” or register.  Though not always the case, the typical short form squeeze page will usually occupy only the “above the fold” area of the browser.  This means that the entire page will usually be visible in the browser without having to scroll down.  The “above the fold” nomenclature is kind of outdated, but is still used online even though it really was a term that referred to newspaper media.  A story that was “above the fold” was one that was at the top of the page and didn’t require the reader to flip over the newspaper.

The other type of squeeze page can also be called a sales page.  Now there is a gray area here of the difference between a long sales letter and a squeeze page – there are differing opinions.  For purposes of this document, we will call it a squeeze page if it requires you to put in user information before proceeding.  Now, some will disagree with that requirement.  Some people consider “optional” user data to still constitute a squeeze page.  But as the user has a different path and can still get what he wants without providing any personal information, this is not generally thought of as a true squeeze page in the purest sense.

So, a long form squeeze page is a combination of a sales letter with a required opt-in. A sales letter is generally 3 or more pages long – sometimes as long as 20 pages – and usually will have various pieces of convincing copy, testimonials and benefits of the product to entice you to purchase it.  However, if you can abstract the concept of purchasing for a minute and just think of it as “taking an action” then you will understand the long form squeeze page.  Think of it as a sales page where the “sale” is merely the action of opting into the list.

Long form squeeze pages are not generally as effective as the shorter variety and, as such, are not as widely used.  There are, however, certain situations where a long form squeeze page is absolutely necessary.  Generally this is when much more user information is required.  For example, a full address, phone number and various bits of contact information necessary for an online quote, for example.  In order to show the user the benefits of what he or she is going to get, you may not have very good results getting someone to provide all of that information.  Therefore, you might have to go to a long form squeeze page in order show the value to the potential customer.  In the end, it’s just a trade.  You are trading “something” (a freebie, a promotion, information – something) for personal data.  If you ask for a lot of personal data, you may have to give a lot more information first.

As you read further about squeeze pages, one theme will repeat itself over and over again – TEST, TEST and TEST again.  Marketing is really all about emotions and numbers.  Emotions motivate people to buy or “take action” (that action may not be to buy anything, the action may simply be to fill in the squeeze page and hit submit).  Skilled marketers use emotions and advanced marketing techniques to improve the numbers.  But in the end it all comes down to the numbers.

This is a good example of someone who is getting Paid to Play. Jaysen is a friend of mine and has a passion for videography. In this video, he shows you how to make a little side money with your video camera.

As many of you know. I am pretty passionate about Mixed Martial Arts, and I think that mixed martial artists are some of the best athletes in the world. This past weeks main event was interesting because it was a boxer vs. a mixed martial artist. And James Toney saw that boxing alone is not enough. What do you think?

AnimotoNow.com is one of my favorite tools for creating high quality internet videos. These videos can be used for video marketing, intro videos, slideshows from events, portfolio videos and much more. It is a tool we have been using for over a year to quickly create videos for our video marketing campaigns.

I have been thinking a lot about life and the things that bring true abundance and happiness to me in my life.

Here are a few of the things I can think of:

Family – Family is something that many people take for granted. Think for a second about this. If you were given two options, give up all of your money or give up your family, which would it be. Hopefully, your money. What about family vs. property, cars, etc. For me the answer is I would not give up my family for anything.

Friends – Friends are such an important part of life. The friends you choose will hlep determine where you end up. Are you choosing friends who uplift and inspire, or friends who drag you down. I have know both types of “friends.” Take a look at the people you associate with every day. If they are not building you up and helping you become a better person, take a more careful look at the relationship and see if you can figure out what to do.

Service – People are the only “things” with intrinsic value. Without people, nothing else has value or even matters. I have found that by focusing on serving others and looking for opportunities to help someone out (no matter how petty or small it may seem) has made my life better.

Inspiring Work – I just finished reading Dr. Wayne Dyers book “Inspiration: Your Ultimate Calling.” As I have been reading, I have been trying to not only find the things that inspire me, but be inspiring to others, and use inspiration in what I do each day. It doesn’t matter so much what you do, you can always find a way to live a life of inspiration. I have been inspired by a person working at a fast food place. It is about loving people, and loving what you do.

I challenge you to take a look at your life and ask yourself a few questions:

• What matters most to me in my life, and are those things truly the most important things?
• What do I focus my attention on? Are these the most important things in my life?
• What can I do today to serve someone else? or What can I do to make someones day better today?
• How can I live an inspired life?

These are questions that I try to continually ask myself, and when I do, I find that my life is happier and I feel much more abundant in all areas of my life.

Just a quick video to say congratulations to Marci Lock of Marci90.com. She is an amazing health and fitness expert. Check out her show on ABC 4.

This is awesome!

A friend and client of mine, Marci Lock, just landed a regular spot on ABC 4′s Daily Dish and Good Things Utah. Her first segment was a few weeks ago. They loved her and she will now be a regular. If you want to check it out, watch tomorrow 08/20/10 on Channel 4 here in Utah or online.

Congratulations! Marci is definitely “Getting Paid to Play.” Check out her site at Marci90.com.

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