Beginner’s Guide to Creating a Powerful Squeeze Page
Table of Contents:
- What is a Squeeze page and how does it work?
- Importance of Squeeze page for your business
- Types of Squeeze page
- How to create one – Step by step
- Best Practices
- Create your own Squeeze page
What is a squeeze page and how does it work?
A squeeze page is a single-page website that is specifically designed to collect email addresses from visitors and potential customers so they can join your email list.
Typically, a squeeze page is a short page with bold headlines, minimal content, and a clear call to action (CTA) that informs the potential subscriber what to expect from the click-through. It consists of a headline, short supporting text, and a form including one or two fields — name and/or email address. On top of these, there should also be both a link to take the reader to the next step and an exit option if the visitor does not wish to give their email address.
The “squeeze” name was derived from the fact that the page provides limited options and uses incentives, scarcity, or other psychological tactics, to “squeeze” an email address out of its visitors. Its main goal is to convert a visitor to a subscriber by pointing their focus to the signup form or the call to action button.
Hence, a squeeze page is usually used as a lead generation tool for growing an email list or as part of a sales funnel. It is generally used in conjunction with other marketing channels such as social media, paid ads, and SEO to direct more people to a website. Therefore, growing your mailing list becomes easier.
A squeeze page is also sometimes referred to as a landing page, a lead page, a signup page, or an opt-in page. However, a squeeze page is actually just a type of landing page, hence, not all landing pages are a squeeze page. The sole objective of a squeeze page is to get a subscriber’s email address. In contrast, a landing page may have multiple conversion goals, such as offering a free trial.
Importance of Squeeze Page for your business
It is important to use squeeze pages to collect contact information from your readers, customers, and subscribers. This is vital for any online business or blog that wishes to keep in touch with its visitors and gain valuable information like customer feedback and consumer behavior.
Furthermore, squeeze pages are a great way to increase traffic, improve SEO, and build your brand. They can also be used in conjunction with PPC (pay-per-click) campaigns to generate prospects for conversion.
According to HubSpot, using landing pages like a squeeze page to obtain customer contact information delivers higher conversion rates. A 3-field form gives an average conversion rate of 10% with the most popular combinations using email address and name (7% conversion) and email address and birthdate (5.7% conversion).
Today, there are a number of digital marketing channels available, but email remains one of the most effective channels for online marketing. As a result, many online marketers collect email addresses from prospects as part of their sales funnels, so that they can market to them.
Once the prospect gives the email address, it is typically added to an email list in which marketing automation can be used to send targeted, autoresponder emails aimed at eventually converting them into a customer.
However, capturing emails is never an easy task. To convince visitors to give their email addresses, a lead magnet or enticing content offer is needed. It is worth the effort, though. HubSpot says email marketing is still an effective channel in digital marketing:
- Wide reach base with around 3.8 billion email users worldwide.
- On average, email generates $38 for every dollar spent, which is a 3,800% return on investment.
- Two-thirds of customers have made a purchase as a direct result of an email marketing message.
- Only 20% of leads that are sent directly to sales are qualified, meaning they need to be nurtured via email and great content.
- Email is 40X more effective than Facebook and Twitter combined when it comes to customer acquisition.
Types of Squeeze Page
The type of squeeze page you create will depend on how you want to capture your visitors’ information such as their email. To further help you, here are the 4 main types of a squeeze page.
The Regular Size Squeeze Page
- Main Features:
- A form where readers can know what they will get when they give their email address
- One of the most popular types of squeeze pages
- An even layout and design with easy-to-fill fields
- Size: Usually either 300×400 or 700×800 pixels.
- Pro: Allows for more content, such as video and photos, on the same screen to make visitors feel like they are getting more value in exchange
- Con: Not recommended for text-based information
The Large Squeeze Page
- Main Features:
- Content takes up most of the screen
- Useful for marketers who want to attract as much attention to their sites as possible in one go
- Size: Anywhere from 500×1000 to 700×1300 pixels.
- Pros: Good for a lot of videos or images and not much text-based information
- Cons: A little more challenging for visitors to fill out fields
The Interactive Squeeze Page
- Main Feature:
- A form that pops up on the screen with multiple fields to fill in before visitors submit their email address
- Visitors enter other information like gender, age, first and last name before Giving out their email address
- Size: Small pop-up but can be 3 to 4 windows
- Pros:
- Seems easier than using an extra-large squeeze page because you collect one bite-sized information at a time
- Cons:
- Some visitors do not prefer to give personal details about them
How To Create One – Step By Step
Why doesn’t every business utilize landing pages if they are so important? Apparently, many people think they’re difficult to create and maintain. But that’s simply not true. Creating an effective landing page is less about dazzling consumers and more about making sure that they get what they want.
Here is a step-by-step process to guide you.
Write your headline.
Your headline is what people will notice first so it is important to be able to capture your visitors with an eye-catching and attention-grabbing headline. A good headline states clearly what visitors can get from signing up and convince them to fill in their email address to find out more!
Make a compelling offer.
The most important element of your squeeze page is the offer. This is the lead magnet or a signup incentive. It is a freebie that makes the visitor sign up so let them know exactly and honestly what they’re going to get.
A few examples you might be familiar with include content offers such as ebooks, spreadsheets, and email courses.
Write a convincing copy.
Sometimes a visitor may be interested because of your headline. But still, they don’t feel ready to sign up yet. So what should you do? Here comes your marketing copy.
The smart way to turn landing pages into conversion machines is to write supporting copy that convinces prospects the offer is what they need and that it’s in their best interest to fill out the form right away.
Use social proof.
Build your credibility and gain the trust of the visitor through social proof. The more social proof you generate, the better your page will convert. Customer quotes, testimonials, and case studies are samples of social proof.
Add a Call to Action.
Motivate people to subscribe NOW. Include a strong, clear CTA on your page. Remember that the best CTA for you depends a lot on what you’re offering. It can be: “Sign-up” or “Subscribe for more free courses”.
Build your squeeze page.
Now that you have your content and are ready to build your squeeze page, how do you create one? Here are a few different methods:
- DIY: Build a squeeze page manually through coding from scratch.
- Squeeze Page Generator: A tool that assists in generating squeeze pages. You can customize by choosing from different squeeze page templates, colors, and themes.
- WordPress Squeeze Page Plug-ins: Install a plugin or theme on your site that provides squeeze page templates for WordPress users. You can get your Squeeze Page immediately but you may not get your page to look exactly the way you want.
Use an exit-intent pop-up.
Using an exit-intent pop-up in your squeeze page may be a good idea if your squeeze page is on a website.
When someone leaves your website without subscribing, exit intent pop-ups will automatically show up. When creating and using an exit pop-up, keep one thing in mind. Do not repeat the same offer you made in your initial pop-up to your exit pop-up.
Optimize your squeeze page for SEO.
The purpose of squeeze pages is to entice visitors with an offer and a CTA. Hence, it is unlikely to rank for the keywords on it. However, you should still optimize the page for search engines. Try to research keywords with lower competition rates, so your squeeze page has a chance to rank.
Best Practices
Here are some tips for a better squeeze page that converts.
Tips
Find a unique offer. Try to look for something that your audience desires so much that they will give you their email address. All the better if they can only get it from you.
Keep it short. Get straight to the point and layout clearly what you want the visitors to do next.
Keep your design and layout simple and clean. Make the design friendly to the eyes and easy to read. Don’t overwhelm your visitors with too much information or elements.
Remove distractions. Check what may distract your visitors from signing up. It can be a link that will lead them away from your squeeze page, never to return again.
Stick to minimal form fields: Keep in mind the form fields that serve as major turn-offs for most users. The more information you want from a visitor, the less likely he is to take your offer. Just ask for the email address and you are good.
Tools
The tools you need will depend on your method of building the squeeze page.
WordPress Squeeze Page Plug-ins: If your squeeze page is on WordPress, you can check WordPress plugins and themes for templates. One example is this WordPress Easy Sign Up Plugin for newsletters, offers, etc. Another popular option is Thrive Themes.
Squeeze Page Generator: There are tools that can give you a good head start because they integrate with tons of different content management systems. Check these 3 examples below:
- Unbounce: The first and original landing page builder software. You can use it to create coming soon pages, capture email addresses on your website, and describe those hard-to-explain elements of your product offering.
- Leadpages: With built-in conversion guidance, Leadpages guide you into creating a landing page that will convert visitors into subscribers, and eventually into loyal customers.
- HubSpot: an all-in-one solution platform for digital marketers and salespeople to manage your landing pages, CRM, email marketing, and a whole lot more. It will help you create beautiful squeeze pages that generate leads!
Examples
Ready to create your own squeeze page? Be inspired by the examples below:
Regular Squeeze Page
Visitors can download a free guide on achieving sales goals with this squeeze page example. Free guides are a great way to generate leads. Your free resource must, however, be aligned with your audience’s interests in order to be successful.
- Headline: Bold, eye-catching, and clearly explains the benefits of signing up.
- Description: Gives a good idea of what’s included in the guide.
- Sign up Form: Only asks for an email address
- CTA: Stands out from the rest of the page
LandingFolio
The page is structured in a persuasive way with simple and digestible copy. Lastly, the page itself looks trustworthy and easy to navigate.
- Headline: Targets a pain point
- Description: Clearly conveys the benefits
- Social Proof: Used logos to gain trust
- CTA: Button stands out on the page
Noah Kogan
With a clear messaging, minimalist design, and an easy-to-understand CTA, this squeeze page is easy to pick up on.
- Headline: Captures attention through numbers
- Description: Tells visitors exactly what to expect
- Social Proof: Good use of statistics
- CTA: Button stands out on the page
Create your own Squeeze Page
For your business, you should really consider having a squeeze page. It’s not nearly as difficult as it seems to create one. Squeeze pages are useful for any business, whether it’s to collect email addresses or generate visitors to their website. It will help you get higher conversion rates and give you more opportunities to interact with your customers!
Having mastered the fundamentals, you should be fully prepared to develop spectacular squeeze pages that will generate leads. Keep in mind though that it is impossible to perfect it on your first attempts.
But don’t give up! Mix and match your elements, revise the headlines and copies, research your target audience and the pain points you want to address, and do split tests. Monitor and evaluate which strategy works best for you.
If you want to learn more on how you can maximize your squeeze and landing pages, visit https://growmyads.com/.
References:
- Marketing Automation. (n.d.) Optimizely. Retrieved March 24, 2022, from https://www.optimizely.com/optimization-glossary/marketing-automation/
- Needle, F. (2021, January 6). 11 Stats That Make a Case for Landing Pages. HubSpot. https://blog.hubspot.com/marketing/landing-page-stats
- Perricone, C. (2022, March 23). The Ultimate Guide to Email Marketing. HubSpot. https://blog.hubspot.com/marketing/email-marketing-guide
- Doyle, J. (2011, September 29). Funnel Optimization: Why marketers must embrace change. MarketingSherpa. https://sherpablog.marketingsherpa.com/b2b-marketing/lead-gen/b2b-funnel-optimization/
- Aufreiter, J., Boudet, J., Weng, V. (2013, November 1). Email marketing: Think inside the new inbox. McKinsey. https://www.mckinsey.com/business-functions/marketing-and-sales/our-insights/email-marketing-think-inside-the-new-inbox
- McConvill, M. (2019, October 29). Email Marketing: The Do-It-Yourself Guide to Sending Better Emails. Top Rope Media. https://topropemedia.com/blog/2019/10/29/diy-email-marketing-campaigns/