Squeeze Pages: What They Are and How to Set Them Up

[This was originally a post on our vFlyer blog - How to Create a Killer Squeeze Page]

One of the hottest methods for lead capture these days is something called the squeeze page. After some recent updates to our Contact Form Module, you can now use it to create your own squeeze page on your website and capture more leads!

What the heck is a squeeze page anyway?

In a nutshell, a squeeze page is a simple web page designed to get potential customers to give you their contact information in exchange for something. Often, this is in exchange for a piece of information (a whitepaper, for instance) or access to a particular page of a website. Since a squeeze page is usually designed without any form of navigation (no menu bar or links to other pages) a visitor is essentially forced to enter their contact information to proceed — otherwise they have to completely back out of the site. There is no escape! And this, my friends, is the squeeze.

Upon entering her name and contact info, your visitor is then redirected to a page where you can give her what you promised on your squeeze page. Now you have successfully converted this person into a lead! Pat yourself on the back. Now let’s discuss your offer.

You have to give ‘em something!

You don’t want to force someone to give your their email address or phone number without incentivizing them first; that’s just bad form. It will also make for a very poorly converting page. So before you set up your squeeze page, you need to think about what you’re going to give your prospective customer in exchange for her contact information.

Here are a few ideas:

• A free report (PDF) (use our File Module to upload PDFs)
• Coupons (PDF or images on the page)
• Access to your current listings
• An informational video
• A free home valuation
• Your top secret guacamole recipe

Here you’re pretty much limited by your imagination. Just be sure that you’re providing real value to your potential customer so that she feels good about the exchange.

Messaging on your squeeze page

Once you’ve determined what you want to give your customer for her contact info, then it’s time to create a convincing message on your squeeze page. You need to sell this prospective customer on the incentive you’re providing.

Many squeeze pages follow a similar format which starts with a headline, a sub-headline, some text or bullet points, a call to action, and then the contact form. Some people also use video in lieu of, or in addition to, copy text.

Squeeze page construction

Alright, now that we understand the concept behind a squeeze page, let’s talk about the nuts and bolts. The first thing we want to do is create a new page template using a One-Column layout – we can name this new template ‘Squeeze’. Next we’re going to edit this template and uncheck all page sections — the Main Body Section will remain checked by default and this is fine because that’s where we’re going to put our content.

After this, we’re going to head to the Site Editor and add a new page. When the Add Page dialog box pops up, we’re going to change some of the settings. We’ll name the page something like Sign Up or Opt In, choose our new page template named ‘Squeeze’ under the Page Template drop-down menu, and then under Menu Options we’re going to select ‘Do Not Add to Site Menu’ from the drop-down menu.

Once we click Save and Close we’ll be presented with a fairly blank page, which is what we want. From here, feel free to add whatever content you’d like — I personally like to use the Freeform Editor for its flexibility in formatting the content. I’ll make the headline and sub-headline nice and big and then outline the benefits of someone signing up.

I’ve created an example which you can check out here (link opens in a new tab) where I’ve used the layout module to split up the content and add a video on the right hand side along with the contact form.

Contact form settings

The finishing touch for your squeeze page is to add a contact form which redirects to another page upon submission of someone’s contact information. When you add your contact module to the squeeze page you will see ‘Go to Page’ under the Settings area. Here you can choose which page your site visitors are redirected to, whether it’s a video page or a page with a download link for a PDF. Since this page you’re redirecting people to has valuable information on it, you want to make sure it’s not linked to from anywhere else on your site, so don’t include it on your site menu.

Something else to keep in mind is that the less information someone has to put into a squeeze page contact form, the more likely they are to fill it out. Ask for only what is necessary — a name and email address is most common. For any contact form fields you’re not using, just select the ‘Hide’ option in the module settings.

Finale: send people to your squeeze page!

The final step is to send people to your squeeze page. To do this you’ll want to make note of your published squeeze page’s URL, which might be something like example.com/page/sign-up. Then start linking to your squeeze page! Some great places to do this are from your email signature, in forums, on blogs, and in PPC ad campaigns.