The Illusive Importance of The Squeeze Page
Squeeze pages are incredibly effective, so effective in fact that they are able to hide in plain site of the unsuspecting consumer. So, what is a squeeze page? How do you identify one? Why are they so important? The list is almost endless. This article looks at what makes a squeeze page a squeeze page and why they have become so important in today’s market and advertising industry.
What is a Squeeze Page?
In short, a squeeze page is a landing page with the intent to capture email sign-ups from potential viewers and/or subscribers. So, the ‘goal’ of the squeeze page is to persuade and convince – hence the term ‘squeeze’ – a visitor into gifting the website the one of the most important pieces of personal data: their email address.
What Makes a Good Squeeze Page
It’s name doesn’t exactly shy away from what it’s trying to achieve. The subtle, yet forcefully direct aim of a squeeze page is to leave the visitor wanting more, offering something that will ultimately benefit them and something they simply cannot refuse.
Imagine you’re in the middle lane of the M23, and two trucks are slowly edging ever closer towards you, looking to squeeze you into slowing, or speeding up. That’s sort of how a squeeze page works..
Sort of..
Basically, you don’t want to leave the gate to your golden hen farm open, you don’t want your beautiful golden chickens/potential clients to run away looking to lay their golden eggs on a happier farm. The page shouldn’t be too complicated, in fact, the simpler the better. The clients will either want to sign up immediately, or leave the page.
Keep Content Contained
Content on a squeeze page should simply address the bare essentials. Filling your page with informative articles and big long testimonials and reviews won’t work here, people don’t want to see that. You’re focusing on your offer, not a novel of your offer. Think of it as a logline, or a synopsis of sorts, you’re telling them all they need to know and that’s it. Remember, you’re essentially looking to gain the internet-equivalent to their soul here (an email address/subscription).
How to Make Your Squeeze Page Enticing
The beauty of a squeeze page is that you can place whatever content you like on it, the beast is knowing what will ultimately prove to be more valuable to your visitors than others. Here are some typical examples of the content they include:
- Templates
- Emails
- E-Book
- Social media sign-up
If you’re going to ask someone for something as personal as their email address, or any means of personal contact for that matter then it should be absolutely necessary for the offer. This is the rudimentary guideline you should follow, according to D. Bnonn Tennant of Kiss Metrics.
Most recently for example, I’ve witnessed Brighton’s local newspaper The Argus asking viewers to sign up just to read an article.
This is not going to entice your potential readers to sign up (no disrespect to The Argus, but that’s nowhere near enough to offer up my beloved email address). This sort of luring is used on many sites any with many mediums, such as videos, quizzes, songs etc., and it’s simply not worth signing up for. However, if you’re going to be sending you readers an E-Book or a month trial for Photoshop for example, then it’s much more plausible and a ‘fairer deal.’
Many of these squeeze pages that ask you to sign up to view a video don’t seem to be clued up on marketing, at all. Think of it this was, I myself refuse to click on ‘clickbait articles‘ because more often than not, the content is poor and the ‘reveal’ isn’t as interesting as the headline made out. So, my point is that why would I sign up to watch a video when I can just jump onto YouTube and view it myself?
Email Courses – Arguably Your Best Bet
Email courses are a popular option for many reasons:
- If the email course is genuinely going to be valuable to the user, then not only are they going to be encouraged to sign up, but the emails you’ll be sending out will further help them, therefore not ending up in their junk folder a few weeks down the line, which means they may share their experience/your promotion elsewhere.
- Sending bite-size information chunks via email makes it easier to read, and won’t bore the consumer.
- Adding multimedia (video, primarily) into the email course is a great way of further engaging your reader.
- Finally, an email course aligns perfectly with asking for an opt-in email address, which not only makes you look more respectable, but less spammy.
Creating a Squeeze Page
So, what goes into crafting these seductive, lustful pages? There are varying methods:
1. WordPress Plug-ins
- Everyone who knows and uses WordPress is aware of the broad functionality and endless plug-ins at our disposal. A few of which, will provide you with squeeze page templates and/or landing page templates for you:
- WordPress Easy Sign Up Plugin
- WordPress Landing Pages Plugin
- WordPress Lead Plus Free Squeeze Page Creator
2. Squeeze Page Generator
The internet is alive with several tools and functions that can help you create a captivating squeeze page. One of the prime examples is Wordstream’s new Landing Pages & Leads tool. It essentially serves as a very effective squeeze page creator, allowing you full range of squeeze page templates and themes. If you’re new to creating these pages, these tools will set you well on your way!
3. DIY
Or, forget all that and do it yourself! If you’re confident enough with coding and HTML, then there’s no reason why you can’t build one from scratch!
Squeeze Pages & Splash Pages?
I probably should have mentioned this before, but a squeeze page is essentially an umbrella term which encompasses any webpage with the main goal being to get users to sign up to something (email, for example).
Pop-up Squeeze Pages
Anything with the word ‘pop-up’ is bound to make you immediately exit the website, they’re annoying. So annoying. More often than not, these pages pop up just as you enter the site, or halfway down the page, midway through reading their article or something. The most annoying part is that sometimes you have to give up your email to continue reading – like I mentioned before regarding The Argus – or, you’re clever enough to spot the camouflaged ‘X’ button that will rid you of the advert altogether.
A survey conducted by Jakob Nielsen stated that 95% of users found their online experience hampered and generally negatively affected by constant pop-ups. In a similar survey, over 50% of people claimed that popups tarnished their opinion and views of the advertisers! The opposite of what they wanted!
Basically, if you’re doing a pop-up squeeze page, make sure you do it right.
Good Pop-up
Here is an example of a good pop-up:
This isn’t too bad, why? Because it’s clear, it knows what it’s offering, there isn’t a lot of text, colours are bold and conflicting (often good in colour marketing, more info here).
Bad Pop-Up
And here’s an example of a bad pop-up
One might argue that they’d be intrigued to find out how this illusive person makes £437 every day by seemingly doing nothing. Though, as the internet has aged, scams like these have become more obvious and people aren’t as gullible as they were 10 years ago. You might find that pop-ups like these often hide the ‘X’ or ‘exit’ button, which, if miss-clicked, can lead you onto another scamming page.
In short, they’re bad because they’re obvious and hook us without giving us any real information or believable statistics. These scams target the desperate and the naive.
Splash Pages
Splash pages are customised pages that appear before the website homepage loads, directing the attention of your consumer to your offer. You may have some across these before, and you may have accidentally clicked off the splash page and been misdirected off the site. This is one of the risks that come with implementing splash pages, avoiding this possibility, just ensure you place a big banner/message that simply reads ‘no thank you’, or ‘not right now’, just so they aren’t immediately put off your site.
The short of it is, users are trying to get to your homepage, so make it as easy as possible for them, whilst promoting your product/service in a user-friendly way.
Your design of the splash page is also essential, you don’t want to detract attention from the design of your homepage.
The image below highlights a good example of a splash page. It’s clear, concise and comes with a big ‘get me out of here’ button for users that aren’t keen on the promotion.
To clarify, you don’t have to use a splash page, but if you feel inclined, just be sure it doesn’t act as a hindrance to your audience and your site!
Are they Worth It?
The short answer, yes.
Squeeze pages – if done correctly – can obtain a direct and constant link from your audience, ultimately meaning that you have them hooked onto your site and therefore your offers. Due to many websites now utilising squeeze pages, you may find you’ll be the odd one out, and that’s something you seriously want to avoid in the social marketing rat race.
So make sure your squeeze pages offers the best golden eggs, and don’t let your chickens (readers/clients) run off to another farm!