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Video Summary
I recently talked about 8 different types of irresistible content you could create for your business to help you get your audience to identify themselves, and give you their email address in exchange for your content. But, how do you get your audience to give you their email address before you give them the content they want? To do this, you use an opt-in page, sometimes it’s called a squeeze page.
Find out how a squeeze page works and how it can help you convert your leads to sales by watching this video.
Video Transcript
Hey, it’s Jeff here again. I’m glad you arrived!
I recently talked about 8 different types of irresistible content you could create for your business to help you get your audience to identify themselves, to give you their email address in exchange for your content. If you haven’t seen that video, and you’re interested, I’ve included the link here.
So how do you get your audience to give you their email address before you give them the content they want? To do this, you use an opt-in page, sometimes it’s called a squeeze page.
What is a Squeeze Page?
A squeeze page is a type of landing page you use to collect email addresses from visitors. Sometimes this act is called an ethical bribe. You persuade or “squeeze” your visitors to provide their contact info by giving them a special offer or valuable content that has restricted access. A squeeze page provides a clear path for what your users can do. They either enter their contact information or they don’t. There are no other choices, no links to other pages, and no distractions.
Typically, these opt-in pages are quite short, but they must include enough information for someone to take action. And there must be a form that allows the person to enter their contact info. Often that contact information is as simple as their email address or maybe it’s their name and email address. Short forms are more effective than longer ones.
Opt-in pages are used toward the beginning of the buyer’s journey with your business. Of course, you already had to get their attention, and then interest them in what you’re offering, in order to get their contact information. But now that you have their contact information, you can be more actively involved in their journey.
You can provide more information. You can send them links to bring them back. You can notify them of specials to help convert them into customers. Your options are wide open!
So now the question is, how do you get people to your squeeze page so you can get those valuable opt-ins? I’m going to give you 5 ways to send your website traffic to your squeeze page.
Ways to Send your Website Traffic to your Squeeze Page
Do you already have people visiting your website? The first way to get people to your squeeze page is to use your top navigation with a direct link to the opt-in page. Or you might have a link to a resources page which contains lists or descriptions of your free resources. Then that page would have links to individual opt-in pages making it easy for visitors to find and opt-in.
A second way is by using a sidebar link or banner. You can add a clickable small box or button on the right side of your content that leads to the opt-in page where the users can sign up and get access to your goodies. Adding sidebar links is quite simple if you have a WordPress site or any other website that already has a sidebar.
The third method is to have an in-post link where your squeeze page button or a simple link is in the blog post or article itself. This method gives you the opportunity to sell the reader on the idea before sending them to the squeeze page.
A fourth way to get visitors’ contact information is to use a pop-up window. You often see these when you enter a website for the first time. After 5 or 10 seconds a pop-up overlay appears which offers free content in exchange for their contact information. The benefit of this method is that you don’t even have to create a separate page. The pop-up itself is the distraction and the visitors either take action with the offer or they close the window.
And finally, option number 5, the bottom bar opt-in. In this case, you have a description box or a button at the bottom of your page. Sometimes I have seen these implemented where they stay visible at the bottom of the browser at all times.
Converting Leads into Buyers
Okay, now let’s say your opt-in, your squeeze, is working properly. You’re getting visitors to opt-in and they end up on your email list. Now what? How do you convert these leads into buyers? It’s time for more good content!
At this stage, you want to provide content that helps your prospects make an informed buying decision. And you want them to know, like, and trust your business. At the same time, your content should reassure them that if they do spend money with you, they are making a good decision, a worthwhile investment. Once someone is on your list, there are really a couple different goals you can pursue with your content relative to those buying decisions.
The first one is to go directly for converting them into buyers of your primary offer. You want to turn traffic into sales and these prospects have expressed interest in something, so you go for conversion right away. Well, there’s nothing wrong with that. The other approach is more subtle. If you have an expensive product or service, your sales cycle might be much longer. In this case, it would be foolish to try to sell too soon, but it’s also likely that you spent money getting these prospects in the first place.
Liquidating Traffic Costs
So another approach is to attempt to liquidate traffic costs or the amount of investment it took to obtain this lead. You pay to get someone to your squeeze page, they opt-in for the free thing, and then you offer something at a low price with the goal of recovering your lead generation expenses right away. If you do this successfully, then you can continue to buy more leads and manage your sales cycle as long as it takes without running into cash flow problems.
Just as important, if you get someone to purchase something, even at a low cost, he is more than a prospect, he becomes a customer. And getting that first purchase is really important because it’s the gateway to the next purchase. Make sense?
So, should we look at a couple examples? First, a general one, then more specific. Let’s say you use Facebook Ads to buy traffic and send that traffic to some content on your website. You incur expenses getting that traffic. Some percent of that traffic opts-in for the cheat sheet that you offer. In exchange, you have their name and email address. And now that you know they’re interested in the specific topic addressed by the cheat sheet, you offer them something related to that topic that they’ll have to pay for. Some percentage of your opt-in list will make that purchase.
Ideally the percentages work out so that your initial Facebook Ads expense is covered. Effectively, your ad costs are liquidated. From opt-in to the point of first purchase, all of this can be automated through an email sequence. You set it up once and it delivers emails with offers to your prospects. At this point, there’s no reason to stop. Can your email sequence offer something more expensive or something that moves the person further along into the buyer’s journey? Your goal at this point is to help that new customer ascend into buying more and more from your business.
What Might be Helpful to your Prospects?
Now let’s take a specific example. Pretend that your business is a law firm. You have expertise in guiding families through estate planning needs. What might be helpful to your prospects? Maybe some kind of cheat sheet or template that helps them organize information? Not only would they find this valuable, but if they get organized, it also helps when they meet with you later.
So, you put together a nice template they can use to organize their info. And you have an opt-in page. Now you buy some ads and send people from your local area directly to the opt-in page. You’re not worried about the costs of the ads, so you decide you’re not going to attempt to liquidate your ad expense. You just want to help these prospects with their estate plans. So, your email autoresponder sends out a series of emails.
Maybe there’s one about wills, another about living trusts, another about health care power of attorney, and so on. You use your email sequence to educate your prospects about a variety of different issues that may be important to them. And every email connects them closer and closer to your firm as they build trust and get to know you. By the time they are finally ready to do something, who are they going to call? No doubt, it’s your firm because they already know, like, and trust you.
The moment these people opted-in for your templates, they became your clients. They just didn’t realize it yet! Want to know more? Please subscribe to my channel. And consider joining me on an upcoming webinar.
Your business deserves to be seen online, and I will help you get there.
Thanks for watching and have a great day!
