A couple of days ago, I wrote a post on my blog called “Is this the worst squeeze page ever?”
Did you read it? If not, go take a look.
I showed you a squeeze page which I thought was pretty darn bad. It actually does have *two* redeeming qualities, but overall, it really looks like a stinker to me.
In response to that blog post, I got a comment from “Lyn”, who wrote…
“For me, the “worst” landing pages are those with video that starts playing automatically. I like to leave browser tabs open, those products that interest me, that I want to consider. And once you have several of the auto playing type opening the browser becomes a nightmare. But that’s from a consumer viewpoint.”
I wrote back to Lyn because I think that her observation was a good one. In fact, you probably agree with it. But that’s only part of the story.
One thing that’s important to keep in mind with respect to Landing Page conversions (or squeeze page conversions, or any website performance metric) is that just because someone doesn’t like something does not mean that they’ll react consistently with their dislike.
In other words, there are tons of people who don’t like videos that start automatically, and still buy from those pages.
There are lots of people who don’t like long form sales letters, but buy from them anyway.
And there are lots of people who don’t like squeeze pages, but they opt into them anyway.
You can take an ethical (?) stand and say you just won’t use that tactic on your site, but if your goal is to maximize your profits, then you’ll test it.
Just use Google’s Website Optimizer and show the same page with two different videos…one that starts automatically and one that starts only when clicked.
See which one Google tells you sells better (one will certainly beat the other).
That’s the one you go with.
…at least, that’s the one you go with IF you are interested in making as much money as possible.
By the way, in my previous post about the worst squeeze page ever, I asked you to send me YOUR worst squeeze page. To the “winner” (or “loser”, depending on your perspective) I’ll do a free Landing Page Review. Go check it out now. I’m closing the contest in a day or two.
–Mark
P.S. I realize that I just told you to go run a split test, and just now realized you may not know how to do that. Let me know if you would you be interested in a split testing course. I’ve done a bunch of split testing, with lots of different tools, but I’d show you how to split test using a free tool like Google’s Website Optimizer. Let me know in your comment below.