The last week or so we’ve been talking about bad squeeze pages.
There’s CLEARLY no shortage of them online. Once you learn that step one of internet marketing is to build a list, you decide to build your first squeeze page.
I remember my first squeeze page. It was for a mattress website, of all things. I thought I could sell leads to local businesses — a good business, but at the time I had no idea what I was doing.
Having been a programmer in a past life, I thought I’d design the mailing list system myself (bad idea). It’s much better to use standard list-building tools. They’re ultimately cheaper and easier.
And although I had heard that the best way to build a squeeze page was with no menu choices, no links and no distractions on the page, I had plenty of them all.
It wasn’t pretty, and I don’t think I got a single lead.
Well, I’ve come a long way since then, and I’m sure over time I’ll travel even further. But at this point it’s time to give back a bit, and help others in the same situation.
A bit of advice: Don’t expect that just because you WANT someone to opt into your page, that they will. It’s an odd thing, but we tend to think that the things that we love, are in fact also loved by others, and that’s not always the case — in life and in marketing.
In my last post, I showed you the Worst Squeeze Page Runners Up.
Today, you get the winner (or loser, depending on how you look at it.)
WINNER: http://www.thecontractorsgroup.com/nwsltr/Subscribe.htm
This page, when you first look at it, seems at first glance to be pretty well put together. It’s for a contractors organization. A headline. The opt-in form in a box, clearly identified above the fold. Text on the left. It’s got simple, straight lines. Kind of no-nonsense, and what you’d expect from a guy who swings a hammer for a living.
But when you read the text — OH MY!
The reason this page is the winner is because it’s the page with the most promise and the biggest failure.
There are two bits of text that explain why someone might want to be at this page. The first bit is the headline, “Truly one of the most informative newsletters you will ever receive”
This headline, however, is not very compelling and says nothing about who the right person is to want this info. In other words, it doesn’t say “the most important contractor’s newsletter” or anything that makes the reader either say, “This is for ME!” or “I don’t need this” (both of which are desired responses).
The other bit of text that is designed to tell the reader what to do is the bit of red text at the top left of the page. “Important: California mechanic’s Lien Law is changing effective Jan 2011. Subscribe to my free newsletter and I’ll keep you up-to-date and let you know when the new legally compliant form is available.”
Okay, that’s a start. but on a page with 609 words, less than 50 of them are trying to tell the reader why he should opt-in!!! The remainder of the page is all about how to jump through hoops for the site’s list-management system.
In fact, there are seven steps required to opt in, and the first one tells you to leave this website!
This is ALL WRONG.
The page should be 90% about the reader, and why he should want what you’ve got to offer. A few lines about how to subscribe, like “Enter your email address here and click the “subscribe” button” and you’re good to go.
So, for the owner of this page, I’ll offer a free 15 minute consultation, during which time we can further review your page, or talk about any other internet marketing topic you’d rather discuss.
If you’re the owner of this page, go to my help desk and give me your contact info. We’ll set up a time together.
And for everyone else, we’re going to keep talking about how to improve your website so you can sell more — especially for the holiday season.
In fact, we’re going to talk about the single best way to improve your squeeze pages and sales pages, and a free tool I’m working on to help you do exactly that.
In fact, here’s a preview of my new Landing Page Optimization Tool. More about this tomorrow.
Sound good?
Great…for now, leave your comments below.
To your success,
–Mark Widawer