How do you word your Squeeze pages?

Hi

I use two different types of headlines

1) "Secret" Headline
2) "Results" Headline

Here's an example:

FREE VIDEO REVEALS THE NUMBER 1 SECRET TO LOSING WEIGHT 90 DAYS BEFORE YOUR WEDDING

FREE REPORT REVEALS HOW A UNIVERSITY DROPOUT BUILT A $50K INTERNET MARKETING BUSINESS IN 12 MONTHS

Hope this helps

Amandeep

Like you, I've never been in the IM-advice niche at all, so far, and I tend to assume that my potential customers aren't familiar with squeeze pages. So I do five things with them:-

(i) I make it all about what I'm offering them in exchange for their email address (the "free report" or whatever it is, the "bribe", anyway) and do a headline typically asking them a relevant question, with the obvious inference of it being a problem that the "free report" will help them with;

(ii) I don't do the headline so that it looks anything like a sales-page headline: no bright red, no capital letters, nothing "salesy";

(iii) Under the headline, I put about 4 or 5 "bullet points" setting out, in as few words as possible, the main benefits of the "free report";

(iv) I make it really clear "how the opt-in works" on the assumption that they're nervous about providing their email address, so I explain (in small lettering, near the opt-in box) that I'll never divulge it to anyone, that I'll never send them "spam", that they can opt out any time they like, and so on;

(v) I don't ask for their name (this is "the big one").

You'll build a much bigger list if you don't ask for their name.

You don't need their name.

The people who say "But you need their name so that you can start off the emails to them with "Hi John" or "Hi Fred" or whatever" are completely missing the point, in my opinion. Doing this is a negative, not a positive. Many people don't like it: they think it makes you sound like someone selling something.

(Having said all that, it may be that the next squeeze-page I do will be for the IM niche, in which case possibly very little of the above will apply!).

In 4 of my "other niches", I split-tested using squeeze-pages against using "my normal sort of sites" (which all have an opt-in anyway). And in all 4, I built a bigger list with the squeeze-page but made more income long-term without it. So I don't actually use them, now. Don't let people tell you that "because the money's in the list, it follows that the bigger the list you build, the more income you'll make". It's not necessarily true. In fact, I think it's pretty often not true.

The other people I don't listen to are people telling me that the entire squeeze-page has to be "above the fold", i.e. entirely visible on one screen without the need to scroll down. There's a theory about, among marketers, that more people will opt in, that way. Call me a skepchick but I don't believe a word of it. I think it's one of those "urban myths of internet marketing" that everyone believes and nobody actually tests.

Don't do anything unless you know why you are doing it. Two men were out fishing one day. One was an amateur. The other was a professional.

The professional as you would expect, knew exactly where to go to catch the most fish. He knew when the fish were biting, as a result he came home with a string of fish everyday.

The amateur, on the other hand wasn't very successful. He'd drop his line in the water, drop it again without any planning. And seldom he would catch any fish.

Most of the time he would lose his bait. As you can imagine fishing was not much fun to him. But the professional could never get enough of it.

The professional had observed the amateur on this particular day, and after filling his basket, he struck up a conversation with the neophyte.

"Looks like you are not having such a good day, said the pro"

"You're right. As a matter of fact" responded the amateur, " I can't seem to hook anything, even when I get a nibble"

"Well, maybe you are working too hard. Let's see what you're doing"

What causes you to pull your line up in the first place?

"I get a nibble," said the amateur, a bit sarcastically.

"Okay, you get a nibble, Then what?" pursed the pro.

"I pull up my line and there's nothing on it. Most of the time the bait is gone"

The pro hesitated for a moment and then continued. "When you feel the tug on the fishing line, do you have any idea what's really happening?

"Why no, I never thought about it."

"The fish is killing the bait" the pro explained.

He has yet to take a bite out of it, he's just killing it. He might whack it with his tail. If you pull up the line at this point, all you'll have is dead bait, if anything. Make sense?

You've got to have respect for the fish and he his eating habits. The fish is going to kill the bait before he bites.

So when he kill the bait, he's got nothing to do but eat it, asked the amateur, now paying complete attention. Well, you're close.

You see it take the fish a couple of seconds to kill the bait, and by this time, all the fish in the neighborhood swim over to the action. They gather around and they want some of that bait, too Why do you think that's so?

" I guess because they are hungry" (The Herd)

"You're right says the pro. Would you like to eat your meal in the midst of a bunch of hungry people"

"No"

"Neither does the fish. So what would you do?"

"I'd take it and find a place where I could eat alone" answered the amateur".

"And that is exactly what the fish is planning to do, given the chance"

"So the next time you get a nibble on your line, instead of yanking that rod, I suggest you strip a little line off your reel.

Give the line a little slack. Let the fish take it.

Think about the fish looking for a place to eat his catch. Then as soon as the line tightens up, that's when you set your hook. Got it?

The next time the amateur felt a nibble on his line, he did just what he was told. He gave the fish a little extra. And just like the old pro predicted, he caught the fish.

What can you learn from the story? Well you could catch more fish for one thing. The amateur set the hook to quick.

But there is a better payoff for Marketers. Sales people who have been trained in the traditionally manner set the hook to soon. They can't help but lose the sale.

Old traditionally trained Marketers easily confuse the nibble with a buying signal, and move in for the kill. But today's prospects are too sophisticated to get hooked by these old selling techniques.

Thanks for reading, and good selling.

Jimmy.