In case you're not familiar with squeeze pages, they are websites that give you one option, and that option is to provide your email address in exchange for something. That something might be an ezine subscription, a special report, a teleclass, a podcast, an e-course, or some other form of valuable information.
Squeeze pages have become a popular list-building tactic because they allow the website owner to get email addresses from visitors who are interested in more information. As opposed to making all of your content accessible to all visitors to your website.
A year ago I made the switch to a squeeze page at www.10stepmarketing.com. My goal was the same as any other Internet marketer. To grow my email list more quickly. This in effect made the rest of my site inaccessible to browsing visitors (the other pages weren't locked, there was just no obvious navigation to them from my squeeze page.)
What happened? Well, it's interesting. I've been using two different sets of website stats and while you'd think the stats for the same web pages would be consistent, they are not.
Based on one set of stats, my opt-in rate nearly doubled when I made the switch, from an average of 30% to 59%. For the following five months it hovered around 45%-50%. Needless to say I was very happy with this. It then settled back in for the rest of 2006 at just under 30% - pretty much right back where I started before switching to a squeeze page.
My second set of stats reflects different numbers, but a similar pattern. Currently my opt-in rate based on these stats runs consistently between 10% and 15%.
But here's the kicker: At the beginning of this month, I launched my new website WITHOUT a squeeze page. And my opt-in rate so far this month is a paltry 4%! I'm going to give it a bit longer to test, but I will be interested to see if this drop holds.
While I like the idea of offering full access to my website to all visitors, one of my primary goals is to build my list. And, a squeeze page may just be the best way to do this.
Have you tested a squeeze page vs. a standard home page? If so, I'd love to hear your conclusions. Post a comment to share.