How to Squeeze More Juice Out of Your
Squeeze Pages

 A unique technique to capture more leads and build your list 

 By Leon Altman

There's probably nothing more crucial to the success of your Internet business than having targeted traffic opt-in to your list. It's so important that squeeze pages, which did little more than ask for sign-up to a list, became widespread.

Not only did reader frustration with this grow, but google stepped in and did something about it, instituting their google slap and landing page quality scoring. In other words, you now have to provide value and relevant content on the squeeze page (landing page) or you will suffer the consequences: In Adwords this means paying more money (a lot more) for keywords. It also affects your natural search engine rankings in google.

So with opt-ins so important but now now harder to achieve, what do you do? This is where the technique I'm about to tell you about comes in. It worked beautifully pre-google slap, and works even better now because it plays right into the new squeeze page necessities.

I call the technique: Contentus Interruptus

I first became fully aware of it years ago when I was writing sales copy and guiding marketing communications efforts for one of the biggest online financial websites. We tested all sorts of techniques to attract signups for paid as well as free services, but the approach of interrupting valued content consistently outpulled other efforts. While the idea is not new, the success of this particular method is in the details.

Here is how I came to discover the power of Contentus Interruptus, and how you can use it to squeeze more juice out of your squeeze pages….

I'd select a compelling, timely topic article from one of the website's financial columnists. Something like: "Why gold prices will continue to rise in the third quarter"). The article also had to have the right structure: a catchy beginning, and a sense of anticipation leading to valuable information or insight.

Then at a certain key point, I'd cut off the article and add an unobtrusive note with a link, such as: "To read entire article, click> gold prices.

Not all articles had the kind of structure I wanted for this method. In those cases I created a variation, where I would write a summary of the article, and structure it to build anticipation, so when I cut off the article, people almost automatically clicked the link to read the rest.

The link led to a short sign-up page. It generally contained an offer, like a free trial, and stated that upon sign-up, you'd get immediate access to the entire article.

The value of this technique was further confirmed to me when I did my own online financial newsletters. I remember one article in particular, where I crafted a squeeze page and a sign-up page about a topic that was getting a lot of buzz, but was still kind of mysterious-- the Canadian Oil Sands.

I received an explosion of opt-ins. Since these signups were obviously highly interested in a specific topic, I organized them into a separate sublist which proved to be highly valuable.

The Contentus Interruptus technique can be very powerful, but it must be done right. Here are some key points about using this technique successfully.

1) You must pick the right topic /theme.
There needs to be a compelling nature to the article. For instance:
- A topic generating a lot of buzz
- A solution to a persistent problem in your niche
- An article that sparks controversy

2)It must have a cliffhanger ending.
The article should build a sense of anticipation leading to a cliffhanger moment where you abruptly cut things off. Think of the moment in a mystery story when the murderer is about to be revealed.

3) You must have sufficient content before you break off the article.
This is both for a good Google landing page score, as well as for drawing the reader in, getting them involved in your content and invested in reading the rest of the article.

On the other hand, you don't want the rest of the story to be just a few sentences. Then the reader might feel shortchanged when they come to that page. The article should be long enough so you can break it off after some point and still have enough content left over for the next page. When the reader comes to that page, they should feel that they got value for giving up their email (or other data).

If there isn't enough content before the break-off point, you can start off with an introduction to the article. You can either summarize the points that the article will make, or make it a kind of preamble, where it naturally leads into the start of the article.

4) You need an enticing headline on the squeeze page, but don't make it look or sound like a sales letter or an obvious opt-in page. The headline could be the headline of the article itself or some other headline that pulls the reader into the article. It should feel like the beginning of an article not a pitch.

5) Use an unobtrustive link at the breakoff point.
I know this goes against commonly accepted wisdom of having the sign-up form as soon as possible, but this is a different case. I've tested it, and while the stats are close, I have found that having an unobtrusive link that the reader comes across at the end of the excerpt has achieved higher conversion rates. There is something about seeing the sign-up form too early that raises the reader's defenses.

6) Immediate access to the article
On the opt-in page after the squeeze page, let readers know they will get immediate access to the whole article right after sign up. This page can be very short. It displays your offer - Free Trial, etc., and the sign up boxes.

There are variations of this method that you can test. For instance, a promotional Contentus Interruptus squeeze page. That's where you still use elements of the story and anticipation but incorporate it into more of a promotional message.

With this method you can use the sign up form on the same page, because the tone of the page is different. For the most part, though, I have found that the more editorial approach often converts better.

There are other elements to the success of this kind of opt-in campaign. You need to incorporate keywords from the article into your pay-per-click campaign. The offer on the sign up page should be enticing. But the elements I've talked about here are the basics, and should get you you off to a good start.

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© Altman Communications 2007 All Rights Reserved.
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Leon Altman is an Internet marketing consultant and copywriter. To learn more about using his services to grow your business, go to www.OnlineMarketingExpress.com .