If you have studied a bit about online marketing strategies, you may have come across the term “squeeze page” or “landing page” (which are essentially the same thing), but you might not be totally clear on what a squeeze page is or what it is supposed to do for your business. If you haven’t heard of a squeeze page, this information will clue you in to how valuable this tool is for your online business.
A squeeze page is a very simply designed webpage, either as the entry to your main website, or on its own stand-alone domain. The goal with a squeeze page is to get your visitors to fill out a lead generation opt-in form. This is accomplished by presenting your visitors with a very limited number of options for progressing after viewing the short content present on the page.
A basic squeeze page design has some of your branding (in terms of a banner, logo, photo, and other design elements which might coordinate with your main website design. There is a small amount of content (about 1 screen-full of text, or a short (3 minutes or less) audio or video) that introduces you, and the opportunity you are presenting with your opt-in form.
The main component of a squeeze page is a prominent opt-in form. Generally, you will be offering something of value to your visitor in exchange for filling out the form with their name and email address. This is to gather information you can use to contact this person about your business.
Hard Squeeze vs. Soft Squeeze
There are two flavors of squeeze page – hard and soft. A hard squeeze page allows your visitor to have only one option – opt-in. It is the only way they can progress to getting further information. If they don’t want to opt-in, exiting your page is the only alternative.
Because in certain circumstances you might want to highly encourage opt-in, but not block access to the rest of your website, you may prefer to use a soft squeeze page, which is set up exactly the same as a hard squeeze page, with the addition of a single link at the very bottom of the page along the lines of “Enter Site” which would take them past your squeeze page and to your website homepage.
Web Action Steps
- If you don’t have something valuable to offer your visitors, create that item (generally an informational product of some sort)
- Get an account with an Email Service Provider, and generate the form code for your squeeze page
- Have your web developer create your squeeze page and add it to your domain
- Start sending traffic to your squeeze page to collect leads
Having a squeeze page is a proven way to obtain more – and more qualified leads for your business. There is a bit more that goes into what exactly your free offer should be, and what is the best way for you to use a squeeze page in your business, but these are the basic steps. If you need help figuring out how a squeeze page can fit into your online business plan, and how to set it up, contact me today.