Lucrative List Building: The Squeeze Page

Most internet marketing professionals agree that if you don't have a list, then you don't really have a business. Building a lucrative list is essential to your success. A customer list is the greatest asset of any business. In internet marketing, your customer list is your personal gold mine.

After you solve the problem of generating traffic to your website, it then becomes necessary to capture the name and email address of your visitor so you can build your own customer list. If you fail to do this, your business will fail.

It's amazing to me how many people spend a ton of effort and money on getting visitors to their site where they pitch a product in hopes of getting a sale and then fail to capture their visitor's name and email address.

You must focus your attention on building your list instead of on trying to make your initial sale. Remember, only 1 in a 100 people is going to buy your product after arriving at your website. You must capture the other 99 people's name and email address so that you can show your product(s) to them again in the future.

There are a few techniques you can use to capture your visitor's information and build a lucrative list. Here are the three "biggies" which are the most effective:

1. The Squeeze Page

2. The Pop-Up, and

3. A Simple Opt-in Form

The best method to use of the three ways to build a list is the squeeze page. A regular opt-in form might get a 10% to 20% opt-in rate, while a squeeze page is more likely to produce a 20% to 40% opt-in rate of the total number of visitors who arrive at your website.

A squeeze page is a web page with only one purpose: to capture the information details of your visitor. The squeeze page is different from using a pop-up or normal opt-in form because you don't allow your visitor access to your website unless they give you their name and email address, and/or other details.

Therefore, a squeeze page must "sell" the benefits of your website to your visitor. A good squeeze page must have a strong benefit driven headline to grab the reader's attention, some bullet points outlining the benefits of your website, and a call to action.

The best squeeze pages are not long. Do not make your visitor scroll down the page to opt-in. Other best practices include placing your photo on the page, make bold every other bullet point, and put a box around your "call to action" which is merely your opt-in form. Tell the visitor exactly what to do in no uncertain terms.

You must provide enough information to entice your visitors to leave their name and email address. Use good copywriting and sales techniques to "squeeze" your customers into joining your list. To ensure that people opt-in, you usually have to bribe them.

Offer some kind of free gift to bribe your visitor. A short report, a mini-course, a subscription to your newsletter, or an audio or video file is usually enough to get your visitor to join your list. In your call to action, be sure to let your visitors know that they will be given their free gift immediately after clicking the "submit" button located on your form.

Just a note here: You will not be sending your customers to your web page immediately after they enter their information details. Instead, you will send them to your "One Time Offer" page which is the subject of one of my other articles in this series of articles on list building.

Newbies are often afraid to use a squeeze page. They think that not enough people will choose to opt-in to their list. It's true that you will need to write convincing copy and you will have to offer a valuable gift to get your visitor to opt-in. But you need not worry about visitors who don't choose to opt-in. If your visitors are not even interested enough to give you their email address, then they probably won't be interested enough to buy from you either.

How to Easily Build A Mailing List from Selling a Book

I have tried everything from putting ads into my books, to having great links listed but the response from my readers has been minimal at best. Through experimentation, reading, attending talks and seminars, I gradually began putting together a system that gives me a larger opt-in response from my printed materials. This idea is not new but it does need to be done on a consistent basis.

For each book I write, I write for a specific audience and therefore want to have a unique URL. My books are laced with links to get free items that are related to the book material and hopefully what I write is so enticing, the reader will take the time to go to the website and enter their email information to get the gift.

But simply having links for free information is not enough, I add other goodies to the mix in the footer of the book such as a free 7 day course on writing skills, or marketing books. Since the footer appears on every page, the reader will eventually look at it and perhaps respond. But do not stop there, you are after that name on your list so you can continually market and upsell other products. Add third party offers throughout the book as well (you should be an affiliate of the third party offer so you make additional money). The third party offers should also be driven to your URL or to another one you have created specifically for that product. There is no harm in having multiple websites that each offer one specific product - you never know what people will decide is best for them.

There is one word of caution here, you have to make sure that what you are offering is beyond all expectations. If it is, then the upsell to additional higher priced products and services will become easier because the customer knows that you deliver on your promise and beyond and they know they will not be disappointed.

If you are not ready for this approach - start with a book, lace it with incentives to drive customers back to your website, and have a prominent way to collect email opt-in information. After the book, start productizing with audio programs, workbooks, DVDs etc. It is not difficult, you just need a system that works for you and a system that keeps you on track to complete the work.

Missing Ingredient to Building Your Own List

I am assuming you are here because you are an aspiring online marketer and are still looking for more success.

If you have been around the internet for very long, you have heard that "the money is in the list".

That sounds simple enough but the question is, "Okay, how do I get the list?" In fact, after awhile, you scream, "Tell me what button to push and I will push it!"

Before I reveal the missing ingredient, let's take inventory of what you might already have.

auto responder product or opportunity to sell a web page to direct people a way to collect payments

All the above are good and important. You need to understand how to properly use them... but none is the missing ingredient.

Maybe you have purchased lists, software or programs that promised to bring traffic. This traffic would help you build a productive, personal list. It didn't happen. You begin to realize there is no magic formula for you. In fact, you wonder is there anything that will work for you?

In summary, you can have all of these yet not have that elusive list. Why? Because you don't have the traffic you need to build the list! It's a mad cycle. You're mad. You become frustrated, very frustrated.

Time out!

So have you figured out what is missing? You might be thinking it is a certain method you have overlooked. No, not really.

Your head may be spinning from all the different methods successful people have shared for building their lists.

You have come to the conclusion these methods don't work. False! They are scams! False! In most cases they are probably legit. (Don't get me wrong, there are scams but sometimes people are too eager to call a good product a scam.) So what is missing? There are several things I have learned through this process of frustration and learning:

There is more than one way to build a list and get traffic - various effective methods Most methods you have heard about probably work to some degree.

The missing ingredient, I discovered was not the method but my Determination and Consistency to apply one method at a time. Wanting things to work quickly (perhaps false expectations because of the hype), I had given up too soon and become discouraged.

My next move was to jump to another method or plan and I would repeat the same downward cycle. This may sound simplistic but it truly is the key ingredient to building a wildly profitable list. Determination and consistency in my efforts.

Are you ready? You probably already have many of the tools. Let's go! Now that you are ready to apply yourself, where is the best place for you start?

I suggest a free seven part e-course that will have you on your way to creating the big, responsive list you have always dreamed of. This course will help keep you on track. Be determined and start today!

Surefire Ways to Boost Your List Using Article Marketing   Your First Giveaway Event   

An Email List Building Key: Creating A High Converting Squeeze Page

Building an effective responsive email list full of eager buyers for your product or service has more than just one step, however where it all starts is with a high converting squeeze page that entices your web site visitors to join your email subscribers list.

Having a list of this kind will enable you to directly send valuable relevant content to your subscribers from your target market, so you can develop a positive business relationship with them as well as establish yourself as an expert in your particular niche market. If you are someone who would like to know some of the basic elements for identifying or creating the most effective squeeze page you can, below is a quick description of what your page will need.

Headlines That Grab Attention And Compel

The squeeze page's headlines ought to be the primary thing that the web site visitor spots and so it must draw in their attention, while keeping them concentrated for enough time to allow them to become a validated subscriber of your email list.

The size of your headlines text needs to be bigger than all of the other text in your squeeze page, and then for enhanced visibility, you can add color to your headline font (red and blue is very effective).

You might like to think about highlighting your headline as well as any sub headline which you use. You may use the "h1" and "h2" tags to increase the size of your headline text, that won't just aid in getting the attention of your site visitors but will in addition notify search engine crawlers that this bigger text is different and significant.

Make every effort to make sure your headline is properly centered on the template and attempt to position your opt-in box so that it is nearby the headline. If you work with a CSS structured squeeze page, your opt-in box may be put in a right column, that includes a bullet-ed list of benefits presented in the primary body of your page.

The Body Or Content

It is important when creating your content to keep it down to only the most important information you need to give. Stay away from squeeze pages that contain to many paragraphs an words with worthless information. The main reason for your squeeze page is to convert your visitors into subscribers, stay focused on keeping your content straight to the point, clear, compelling and certainly understandable.

Split testing your squeeze pages to see which one does the best is a good idea for increasing your rates of conversion, but here is a brief description of how you could format your squeeze page content so that is more understandable, easy to read, and get you more sign-ups.

1. Highlight Your Benefits By Using Bullet Points

To point out the important features and bring out the specific benefits of signing up to your email list make use of bullet points. For directing your visitors to the benefits and what you have in store for them in exchange for them joining this is an awesome and effective technique.

2. At All Times Be Sure To Maintain Focus

Stay focused on converting your visitor, don't add any external links in your squeeze page. This may act as a distraction and direct your potential email list subscriber to leaving your page before they sign-up. The only thing your visitors should be directed to is opting in to your list. Be sure to keep your purpose clear and to the point, and that's to get that sign-up.

You don't want any widgets, plug-ins, or menus to act as distractions so don't use them. Your squeeze page should only consist of headlines, opt-in box, bulleted list, and a privacy policy all on one page. If any information is not designed to getting subscribers leave it out!

3. Make Your Call To Action Loud And Clear

This is one of the most important elements of an effective squeeze page, you need to make sure your visitor knows what you want them to do. So tell them exactly and specifically to fill out your opt-in form then confirm if you want to successfully gain new subscribers.

Keep in mind, you have to make it clear what you want your squeeze page visitor to do, everyone will not be familiar with this sign-up process, you have to let them know.

The information mentioned above will certainly aid anyone in creating a squeeze page that is sure to convert visitors into email list subscribers. The information will also help you recognize an effective squeeze page template when you see one.

Surefire Ways to Boost Your List Using Article Marketing   Your First Giveaway Event   

How to Build an Opt-In Email List

If you own a website or blog, you might want to consider building an opt-in email list on it. While this is not a necessity for every website or blog, it still can be beneficial to have it.

Given that this is the age of spam, building an opt-in list may not always seem easy to do; nevertheless, it can be done. Thus, you should give it a try for the sake of building followers.

Building an Opt-in List

The first step to building an opt-in list is having an area on your website that allows people to sign up. There are differences of opinion as to where you should place this subscription button on your site.

However, a good rule of thumb is to give visitors a chance to sign up from your home page. After all, this is where their search will likely begin. Therefore, having a sign up option at this particular location gives you a chance to capture their attention firsthand.

When designing your opt-in list subscribe button, make sure you do not go overboard. If you do, people will be turned off by it instantly. Additionally, add a disclosure. This states that you will not spam or sell any email addresses. Believe or not, this one step can grow your opt-in list more than you can imagine.

People like to feel they can trust whomever they're giving their private information to, and with a disclosure, you're assuring them that they can trust you.

Reasons to Build an Opt-in List

People often wonder why they should build an opt-in email list in the first place. Here are the reasons why you need to:

· You'll have vital information such as the names and email addresses of people interested in your site and any future offers from it.

· You can use this same email opt-in list to make sales in the future.

If your website or blog represents a store front business, then having an email opt-in list is much better than cold calling. With cold calling, you are taking a risk on whether people even want to be bothered with you.

On the other hand, an opt-in list provides interested parties with the opportunity to sign up and follow your site for more information, including future offers.

Building an opt-in list is a grand opportunity for your business to thrive. So take full advantage of it. It's well worth it in the end.

Surefire Ways to Boost Your List Using Article Marketing   Your First Giveaway Event   

Why Writing Good Copy Can Save Your Business Today

There are a lot of posts out there about marketing strategies, lead generation and brand building but what I've noticed is that there aren't a whole lot of posts about how to write good copy.

In my opinion, I think being able to write good copy is the most important skill in online marketing.

Why?

It's what enables you to turn leads into buyers and business partners.

What's the point in having hundreds or thousands of leads if you can't convert any of them into sales or new recruits?

So I'm going to take some time here to share with you some really good copy techniques that I've learned from buying courses and attending copy writing webinars so you can take your business to the next level.

Some Principles You Must Take Into Consideration When Writing Good Copy

Now before I share with you my little nuggets I'll define what copy writing is so you fully understand what I'm about to tell you.

Copy writing can be defined as "the act of writing copy for the purpose of marketing, and advertising a person, business, opinion or idea".

So just to set things straight, copy means words or text.

Now the purpose of writing good copy is to persuade the reader, listener or viewer to take a certain action.

Now this could be asking them to subscribe to you, buy a product, or leaving a comment on your post.

Good copy technique #1: Write How You Talk The reason why this is important is because you want your readers to be able to relate to what you're trying to say, and you can't do that if you're writing like you're aiming to get an A+ or 100% score in an English exam.

Not only will this bore your readers brain into oblivion but they won't be able to get to know the real you. People want to work with people they like and trust and they won't buy from you let alone want to work with you if they don't know the real you.

Good copy technique #2: Know Your Audience I'm sure you've heard of the saying, "You can't sell steak to a vegetarian".

Be aware that if you are not talking to the right person (someone who is looking for what you have to offer), you will not get them to buy from you.

You could be the best salesperson in the world, but if you're talking to someone who does not care about what you're saying, then you're just wasting your breathe.

So what you should do is research who your target audience is. You must know who you're talking to. You can't just type your copy out hoping to pull in as many readers as you can. Not only are you spreading your message too thin, you're not attracted quality leads for your business.

Good copy technique #3: Tell Stories in Your Copy Everyone loves a good story. Even better if it's an inspirational story that makes people feel good after reading it.

When you tell a story, you're telling your readers that you're a person who has struggles, triumphs, setbacks and wining moments just like everybody else. When you take people on an emotional journey, they are more likely to associate the feelings involved in the story with their own emotions.

When they identify with the story that you're telling, you just helped your prospect form a likeable relationship towards you.

Good copy technique #4: Motion in the story Elaborating on my last point, people will become more inspired when your story starts at a low point. Now this is the point where the person in the story is either struggling, broke, or unemployed.

This creates empathy and builds an automatic want for the little guy to turn things around.

If you follow this up with an all time low phase which becomes the turning point in the protagonist's life, this not only makes the protagonist more likeable but it creates hope that everybody too, can make a change in their lives as well.

Creating hope and inspiring people is key here. Always end the story on a positive note.

Surefire Ways to Boost Your List Using Article Marketing   Your First Giveaway Event