Why Traditional Squeeze Pages Don’t Work

Be Brave—Read On!

If you’re an affiliate marketer, and MLM guru, or active in any of the other hundred or so internet business that require you to recruit a constant flow of new users, members, or prospects to your lists, you’ve probably stopped reading this already. Why? Because, for you, the squeeze page is the ultimate income generating tool. You’ve heard so many good stories (and believed them all) about what a squeeze page can do. Maybe you’ve even had some good experience with them in the past.

Regardless, I’m here to tell you they just don’t work!

It may be a bit heretical, a bit hypocritical, and maybe even a bit crazy for me to say this—I’m a copywriter and a good portion of my income comes from creating squeeze pages for you folks—but it needs to be said. So here goes. . . .

Epically Flawed from the Start:

What is the point of a squeeze page—other than to take control of a prospect’s motor function and force them into inputting their name and email address into your opt-in box? It’s to create a personal relationship between you and your prospect.

You need for them to feel some sort of kinship to you or see you as an expert in your field in order for them to make the emotional commitment of handing over valuable information to you. To do that, they must overcome their ingrown fear of strangers, and their paranoia concerning what said strangers can do with their precious info on the Internet. Remember, for many the internet is still a dark, scary alley full of perverts, sickos, and scam artists who are looking to strip everything they can off anybody who stumbles down that alley and leave them sitting on cinder blocks.

So what do you do? You put “from the desk of” in your salutation and maybe slap a photo in there (half the time it’s not even really your photo, is it?) Well guess what—your name means nothing. And the fact you have a desk means even less. If you’re not famous, haven’t been on Oprah, or don’t hang out with Lindsey Lohan and the current Hollywood “Hot” crowd nobody cares who you are.

Does that mean you shouldn’t put your name on your page? Of course not. Then you’d have anonymous garbage that read like spam. The key is to insinuating yourself into the lives of your prospects without coming off as pompous, overbearing, and condescending—maybe the people you’re talking to don’t have desk or don’t like people who do.

How do you do that? Be open, friendly, and honest. Instead of opening your “letter” with “Dear Friend”—you are most certainly not their friend at this point (and they know it)—try something like:

Hi,

My name is . . . and I am (or was) just like you.

It’s simple and breeds familiarity and doesn’t make you a liar right off the bat.

Someone once said that the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results. By that definition, nearly everyone who uses a squeeze page must be certifiable. Let’s take a look at the “standard” squeeze page and see what’s wrong with it.

The picture above is supposedly an example of a high-converting squeeze page. Now here’s what’s wrong.

The Pre-Headline:

What? Why on Earth would you need a stunted version of your headline before your headline? Every writer knows that the headline is the single most important part of any piece of work whether it’s an article, press release, email, or squeeze page. People, on average 65% or more, only read the first seven words of a headline. The percentage of folks who will continue to read beyond that drops off exponentially. So why are you wasting your precious seven words on a pre-headline that tells them what’s in the headline, why they need to read the headline, or what they should get from the headline? It’s a waste and will turn off more readers than on.

The Headline:

Most of you have pages that start with “The Shocking This” or “The Amazing That” which all promises you are going to reveal some long lost secret that will instantly make your prospects millionaires, attractive to the opposite sex, thin as a toothpick, or some chimera of the three. What’s wrong with that?

1) If you’re headline is full of hype and no substance, nobody is going to finish reading it.

2) If you’re product doesn’t deliver exactly what your headline states, you’re going to have one angry camper to deal with. (But you don’t care about that after you’ve made the sale, right? You should if you want to have sustainable income and not just one-time sales.)

3) The seven words rule again: Don’t stuff your headline with fluff! Choose each word carefully. Plan its position in the headline precisely. Make the most of your extremely limited time with the prospect.

4) A headline should almost never exceed 14 words. There are a few cases where that rule can be stretched a little but you really have to have something important to say to warrant more than 14 words of anybody’s time.

Professional E-Cover:

This is actually a good tip, sort of. People respond extremely well to visual stimuli. Think about any of the blogs you visit and how simply slapping a photo at the upper left makes the blog look much more professional.

However, there are a few things to remember about your pictures. If your e-cover looks like crap (too bland, a bunch of words, some stock photo of a smiling guys holding fists-full of cash) don’t bother. It’s only going to make your product look like a cheap knock-off and people will be less inclined to give a hoot about what you have to say. Take some time to design a photo that’s eye-appealing without all of the flashy colors, ALL CAPS FONT, and ellipses . . . etc. If you need to, hire a professional graphic designer or photographer to do the work for you. The money you sink into a decent photo will pay itself back.

Personal Photo:

This follows the same rules as the E-cover. Make sure your ugly mug is worth looking at (just kidding.) Also, make sure your image fits the product. If you’re selling a hair rejuvenation product, make sure your bald spot isn’t visible; if you’re promoting a book on how to work from home and be successful, don’t wear a suit and tie (nobody sits at their computer at home in a suit and tie); if you’re promoting a Yoga relaxation program, smile and look relaxed.

Salutation/Personal Introduction:

Notice how the example “letter” starts off with the whole desk/friend theme. It’s dated and lacks sincerity and unless your target audience is a bunch of dopes they’re not going to fall for it. The first paragraph should be a little note to the reader about why they should trust you. Think of it similar to applying for a job. One of the first things you want a prospective employer to know about you is why they should entrust you with the position for which you are applying, right? The first thing a prospect wants to know is why they should entrust you with their email address.

However, don’t oversell yourself and don’t say that you know exactly what they are going through. I know that’s counterintuitive to most of you but here’s why that just doesn’t work. Nobody knows exactly what anybody else is going through. Even if you and your neighbor live in the same exact house, drive the same cars, work at the same jobs, watch the same sports, you may have tons of cash from an inheritance, your children may have sports scholarships to the university of their choosing, and your wife (or spouse for the sake of political correctness—which should have died out years ago) may be great in the sack. Meanwhile, your neighbor is living paycheck to paycheck because he’s paying alimony to his first wife, having to take from his kid’s college funds to put groceries on the table, and his wife is giving him the cold shoulder because he has back hair.

Don’t ever presume to be exactly like your audience. If you’re not, they will spot it and they will resent you for trying to insinuate that you are. Resentment is not the emotional connection you’re gunning for.

And above all, DO NOT LIE. It’s tempting to make up a character that fits you’re potential prospect’s demographic but don’t! Honesty is always the best policy. That said, a certain amount of exaggeration or embellishment is acceptable. We do it every day in every conversation we have. We even exaggerate our own deeds within our own minds. Just don’t cross the line into insincerity because it’s impossible to cross back.

Bullet Points:

· Bullet points are great.

· They allow you to quickly draw attention to your product’s/service’s benefits and are very visual (that’s a good thing)

· But makes sure they have continuity and read well.

· Don’t preface your talking points with “And you will learn:” and then start your bullet points with “Learn to make millions while you sleep” or “You’re child’s happiness is only one click away!” (See how it doesn’t logically flow?)

· And don’t overuse bullet points.

· 5-6 should be more than enough.

· Anymore is just overkill.

· Weed out the unnecessary points by looking for redundancies or overlapping benefits.

That’s enough about bullet points, ya?

Call to Action:

This is the second most important part of your entire squeeze page (next to your headline of course.) Here is where you must give them the final “push” that sends them reeling over the edge in ecstatic delight and convinces them that filling in your form is the only logical course of action. If you’ve done your job correctly on the rest of your page, this part should actually be pretty easy.

Don’t fall prey to the desire to inform your prospects about all the “secrets” they’ll learn or how clicking the button below can “change your life forever.” It will be hard, I know, but those types of claims smack of insincerity, deceit, and hyperbole. Be level headed and tell your prospect that by clicking below you will, undoubtedly, give them what they want in a timely fashion (preferably instantly.) Show them that you can be trusted and that you’re working in their best interest.

For example, replace “Put your name in the box and the secrets of the universe will be revealed to you, life will be nothing but happiness from thence forth, and you will thank me over and over again” with something a little less egotistical. I suggest “Drop your info into the box and my newsletter containing everything I mentioned above will instantly appear in your inbox.”

If you’ve actually demonstrated that what you have to offer is what they want to receive (in the body of your page above the call to action) then they won’t need to do much more than make it easy for them to receive it.

Attention-grabbing Opt-in Form:

I don’t know how “attention-grabbing” it needs to be. Your prospects need to recognize it as the spot in which they should put their information, it needs to be mildly attractive, and it needs to be functional. That’s about it. You don’t need garish colors, flashing arrows, starbursts, fireworks, or glitter cursors. Also, avoid button text like “Click now to change your life” or “Push here to make billions in your PJs.” Simple to use, sweet, and simple to use (I mentioned that twice for a reason) will give you the best results.

Opt-in Instructions:

This section is mislabeled. You don’t need to put instructions on your opt-in page. Your opt-in form should be self-explanatory. What you do need to put on your page is a disclaimer. If that makes you nervous than you’re probably not following the old “honesty is the best policy” mantra I keep repeating.

What should be in that disclaimer?

1) Tell them that you will never spam them. (A little weird because they are opting to receive your emails but it is reassuring and makes clicking the button easier)

2) Ensure their privacy (don’t give out or sell your lists. It’s rude, considered bad form, and will get into trouble if you ever choose to use a web-based emailing service such as IContact.com)

3) If you plan on sending the occasional marketing mail, tell them ahead of time.

4) Thank them. It sounds weird but it builds that emotional connection a little bit stronger.

Sign-off with your name to create massive responsiveness!!!!!!!!!!

Yeah, I added the exclamation points on purpose. I don’t know how massive your “responsiveness” will be because of your name. That goes back to the whole “if you’re not famous” spiel I had a little earlier. You should sign your name though. It shows your prospects that this squeeze page “letter” is actually coming from a person and not some crazy corporate entity, a self-aware computer system, or some insanely talented 12 year old hackers from China.

Colors:

Just a quick note about color choices: Forget the bland white background, beige callout boxes, yellow highlights, red title text, and multicolored opt-in boxes. One of the biggest mistakes any creator of a squeeze page can make is building a page that “looks” exactly like every other squeeze page. Don’t be afraid to use photo backgrounds, muted colors, and eye-appealing fonts. You don’t have to beat your prospects over the head (in fact, it’s better if you don’t) however, you need to create that special emotional bond between the two of you. One of the easiest ways to allow that to happen is to build a page that doesn’t set the panic alarm bells off inside their heads before your photos even load. “Oh no! A red headline! This guy wants my email address!”

So know you know what’s wrong with those cookie cutter squeeze pages. What are you going to do about it?

Stay tuned for part two of this riveting look how to correctly mine the internet for prospective customers in “How to Build a Squeeze Page that Works!” by yours truly.