If you ask any of the great internet marketers what the most important part of building a successful online business is, just about all of them will tell you the same thing: building a strong member list which you can market your products to for life. Therefore, as you are building and promoting your site one of the most important things you’ll ever do is build your squeeze page or opt in page for collecting your visitor’s names and emails. The problem is that there are a lot of misunderstandings about what constitutes an effective squeeze page. The following information will clear up a lot of these misunderstandings and help you to understand what it takes to build an effective squeeze page.

What Exactly Does a Squeeze Page Do?

The sole purpose of a squeeze page is to collect customer information so that you can build a relationship with them in the future. Most squeeze pages consist of a short message requesting that the visitor input their email address and name in exchange for free information, a free gift, or access to the rest of the site. The common misunderstanding about squeeze pages is that they ought to give the visitor only two options: input their email and name in order to access the rest of the site or leave the site. Therefore, many people build their squeeze pages with only these two options.

The problem with this approach is that even if your opt-in rate is 40% (which is far above average in the world of internet marketing) you’re left with 60% of your customers leaving your site. This means that you'll be left with at least a 60% bounce rate (which is very high and can also have a negative impact on your SEO). This also means that over half of the visitors who leave visit your site are most likely never going to return again.

What do the Experts Say?

Some of the top internet marketing experts such as Ali Brown, Mitch Meyerson, and Frank Rumbauskas claim that an effective squeeze page needs to give the visitor more options than to either opt-in or to leave your site. Having more options demonstrates trust to your customers because it shows that you are willing to give to them before asking them to give anything to you. According to these experts, this is because modern-day consumers are more informed than they have ever been in history and are making their purchase decisions based on information gathering than they are on clever advertising messages.

So what are some ways that you can begin to build or to rebuild your opt-in page based on the advice of these internet marketing experts?

What Information to Give

The reason why many online marketers don’t like to give out too much information right away is they are afraid that they are going to be “giving away the store” and that they will therefore have no other valuable information to offer to their customers. So how do you know what information to give out and what information to keep for future marketing efforts? Here are a few examples:

1. Start with the Most Relevant Information

Even if your site has a wide variety of products available, it’s a good idea to start with the information which is the most relevant to the main theme of your site. For instance, if your site is about dog training then the free information product you give out in return for customer contact information needs to be about basic dog training. On the other hand, if you have information about training for aggressive dogs and or for off-leash training, save it for marketing to your customers who are specifically interested in that type of information.

There are two reasons for this: the first is that the more specific your information is, the fewer visitors you’ll have who consider it to be valuable to their personal situation. The second reason is that all of the internet marketing experts claim that one of the biggest mistakes that the common internet marketers make is expecting a sale on the first visit.

Therefore, if you give away all of your most specific and information you’ll not only turn away all the people who do not consider it relevant to them, you’ll also miss out on a chance to sell that information to those who will consider it relevant.

2. Give Information to Build Credibility

The most important kind of information to give your visitors access to on your squeeze page is information that builds credibility in your brand. Here are a few examples of information that can use build credibility with your first-time visitors:

  • Organizations you belong to: Better Business Bureau, Certifications and Education.
  • Your company about use page: Who you are, your mission statement, etc.
  • Customer testimonials: Written testimonials are good but pictures and videos are best
  • Secure payment services which you use: PayPal, Verisign, etc.

What Information to Keep to Yourself

Knowing what information to give out should give you an idea of what information you should keep to yourself at first. The most specific information is what you have the greatest chance of selling for a profit or giving away as a free bonus when you sell another product to your list member in the future. If you keep the most specific information to yourself and give away the most relevant information, in the beginning, you’ll have a strong information offer which you can build your squeeze page around.

This specific information can be either sold to the members of your list, given away as bonus information when they purchase your products or services, kept in a “members only” area and made available to those who pay a monthly membership, or offered to customers who bring you more customer signups for your list.

So have a look at your squeeze page, make sure that you are giving away the right kind of information in exchange for their email and name. Give your visitors the option of clicking on links that give them access to the information which will build your credibility and give them confidence in doing business with you. This will ensure that they will want to give you their contact information instead of exiting your page immediately and that your online business will be a success.

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