Ever seen one of those magnificent ocean liners tie up in New York or Southampton?
They have a special way of doing it, which is a great way of increasing your opt-ins.
You see, these ships have massive ropes that tie them to the quay. But, because they are far too big to throw over the side, they throw a narrow, lighter rope over first. This is far easier to catch. And, when that is pulled in, it leads to a thicker rope.
This rope is then attached to the real heavy duty rope, securing the ship to shore.
We all know that squeeze pages -- where you have to give your name and address before you are allowed access to the information you seek -- are a great way to build your list. They have even proved better than the hated pop-ups for great conversion rates.
But, now the Great God Google has frowned upon squeeze pages, when they are the first thing an AdWords clicker sees upon arriving at your site.
Allow me to let you into a little secret: squeeze pages, when combined with AdWords, weren't such great shakes in the conversion department anyway! So Google has done you a favor. Because there is a better, smarter way.
Don't be shy about giving your visitors some information before you ask for their name and e-mail address. The technique that works best is to have the start of your e-course, newsletter, article, video, or whatever content you want the visitor to subscribe to, open to every visitor. Needless to say, it needs to be some real, meaty content.
Then, when you get to an interesting part, break off the information and say something to this effect: "Oh, by the way, before I forget, I need your name and e-mail, so I can send you the rest of the course.".
We call this copy writing psychological technique a "nested loop". It's the same technique news readers use when they give you a compelling list of items "coming up later", to keep you watching until the bitter end. Humans have a built-in need for closure and tieing up any loose ends. So, by stopping the flow of good information at an intriguing point, you make them doubly desperate to finish it. This will result in far higher sign-ups for your list, than simply a sales pitch on the squeeze page the visitor has to take on trust.
Using this technique the visitor has more confidence in your material and won't feel they are letting themselves in for another torrent of empty content and follow up e-mails by parting with their name and e-mail address, before they've sampled the goods. In addition, because you've broken away from the hated AdWords/squeeze page combo, Google will likely smile on you and reward you with lower charges for your ads.
Copyright 2006 Paul Hooper-Kelly and http://InternetMarketingMagician.com/
Paul Hooper-Kelly owns http://InternetMarketingMagician.com/ and uses his forty years marketing experience to help ordinary people achieve extraordinary on-line success, both through the wide range of resources, articles and other information on his website and as a popular "tell it like it is" seminar speaker.
Paul has just written an amazing new free course "Zero To Hero In Seven Days", so grab your copy now while it's still free at Free_Internet_Marketing_Training_Course | |
