How To Test Your Online Product Before It’s Even Made – Part 3 | Lead Capture
This is part 3 of 4 of the “How To Test Your Online Product Before It’s Even Made” series. In part 1, we made sure a market exists for our product. In part 2, we discovered the features and benefits of our future product and deconstructed the philosophy behind the “two-phase” sales process. Here in part 3, we’re going to take a closer look at the first phase of the sales process, which is all about lead capture.
In order to convince a person to take a big action, it’s easier if we get them to take a smaller action first. We know this already. This is why we get free samples, why we are encouraged to test drive, and why we want to capture email leads.
For the purpose of testing our ideas for future online products, if we can’t get people to be interested in what we have to offer and simply sign up for an email list (the small action), then there’s no point in creating the sales page and/or the product itself. If they don’t want to test drive the car, they are not going to buy it.
So Why Email for Our Test?
You might be wondering why we’re so interested in capturing email leads at this point more than anything else. Why don’t we just track to see if people reach a certain page, or click a certain button?
There are two specific reasons:
Reason #1 is because clicking a button and reaching a certain page is too easy. It’s almost second nature for most of us. When we see a dark blue underlined piece of text like this, we automatically want to click on it. Did you just try?
So, if it’s second nature for most people, then it’s not a great indicator for people’s interest and the possibility of buying from us. It may be a small indicator, but not really.
Reason #2 is because if we do capture an email lead, which takes a certain amount of thinking and processing of information from the person filling in their name and email address, we can follow up with that person if we do end up creating a sales page and a product in the future. You can’t go back to those who clicked a certain button or went to a certain page, but you can always contact people on your email list. No waste.
How Do We Capture Email Addresses?
There are several email marketing software companies available to choose from, but the email service from AWeber is by far the best. If you’re going to begin capturing email addresses for whatever reason, AWeber has my top recommendation. That is an affiliate link, by the way 
For this post, we’re more concerned with getting people to take that first small action and signing up for our email list. Consequently, I won’t be covering what you should be writing in your follow up emails, but I will definitely cover that in a later blog post.
As far as setup and creating your opt-in forms for your website, AWeber does a fantastic job of walking you through the process.
Step 3: Setting Up The Lead Capture Process
The rest of this post is dedicated to illustrating how we can setup a “squeeze page” to properly test and capture email addresses for our product. To me, the page gets it’s name because we’re taking traffic to a certain page, and “squeezing” them into an email list.
If you have a blog or website where you can place an opt-in form in your sidebar, that’s great. Your sidebar is a perfect place for an opt-in form, but for the sake of this test, we’re going to leave it out.
The reason for this decision is because we want to see results and numbers that come directly from the features and benefits of our product, not just because there’s an opt-in form that shows up in the sidebar. For this same reason, we will not be offering a freebie, or “lead magnet”, because many times people will only sign up to get a free gift. Remember, we want to see raw results from the product we’re going to offer. Once we know the product will sell, we can introduce the sidebar opt-in form and lead magnets to get as many people into the sales funnel as possible. We don’t want any false data.
I love how this is starting to sound like a science experiment. In a way, it actually is.
Squeeze Page Theory
There are said to be “proven” methods and tactics to optimize squeeze pages. I will cover most of these next, but realize that the only way you’ll know what works best for you is to literally test different strategies against each other. We’ll talk more about that in a bit.
Here are some basic “squeeze page” theories:
1. No Choices
The primary function of a squeeze page is to get people to opt-in – that’s it. Because of this, we want to remove any other action that the visitor could possibly take. Advertisements, links, and navigation items should be taken out. We’re basically leaving them no choice but to either opt-in, or leave.
2. Nothing Fancy
This is one of those cases where less is definitely more. The more graphics, dazzle and glitz we put on our squeeze page, the more distractions there will be. The focus should be on the content of the page and the opt-in area.
3. Continuity
Many people say that a squeeze page should have absolutely no graphics at all, but I think that’s a mistake. At least for me, I think a squeeze page with a simple header that has graphics similar to our other pages will help keep a sense of continuity throughout the entire process. I’d like for them to know that they are still on our website.
4. What Goes Where
Since most people read from left to right, we want our content on the left hand side of the page. Our opt-in area should be in the upper right hand corner, and everything should be above the fold.
(Remember, “above the fold” means the reader can see everything without having to scroll down).
If for some reason you cannot place everything above the fold, it’s wise to place a second opt-in form (for the same list), below the fold as well. This way, you can make it easier for the people who do scroll down.
5. Your Content
The content of your squeeze page is the most important element of this phase of testing, and probably the hardest thing to figure out. For help, we can use the list of features and benefits that we created in the previous post.
If you have the resources, I definitely recommend finding a copywriter or hiring one for this quick project. He or she will definitely use the list you created to write you some killer content for your squeeze page.
Your content should include:
- An Attention Grabbing Headline: The headline is usually placed in large red text at the top of the page, and is used to “hook them in.”
- 1 or 2 Questions Directed to the Reader: These questions should address the top concerns that your target audience has in your niche. These are usually placed below the header on the left hand side of the page.
- 3 or 4 Things Your Product Can Do For Them: Usually in bullet form, underneath the questions, you’re going to answer the questions you just asked using the benefits from your list. Don’t worry about the features – your readers don’t care about them. Remember, all they care about is “What’s in it for me?”
- A Call To Action: This is really important. You’re going to ask them to sign up for your email list to get more information about your product. If you don’t ask, they will not sign up.
Things to remember:
- You don’t want to mention any specifics or features about your product just yet. All we’re doing is creating excitement about your product, and making them want more.
- Don’t mention the name of your product, if you even have one yet. The name is probably the last thing you should worry about, but for some reason it’s what we all want to figure out first. There’s really no need to mention it here.
- Again, less is more. If it looks like an essay, they’re not going to read it, which is why the bullet points work so well. They’re easy to read and straight to the point.
6. Your Opt-In Form
The opt-in form, which is located on the right hand side of the page, doesn’t have to be fancy either. As long as there is a call to action, a name field and an email field, you have exactly what you need. However, I wouldn’t use the generic button that AWeber provides. I’d go with a larger one that also includes a call to action inside the button itself.
Lastly, you should somehow mention that you won’t be selling, distributing, or spamming their email addresses.
Other Options for Content
The content piece of your squeeze page does not have to be just text. In fact, many people are using audio and video in their squeeze pages now because it adds a little more personality to the page.
If possible, I would recommend testing all three forms of content at the same time. You can use Google Optimizer to send equal amounts of traffic to each and see which one performs better for your audience. This way, we can make sure we’ve covered all of our bases so we don’t assume that we have a dead product when people would actually respond better to a video instead of text.
You could also test different headlines, font sizes, and bullet points – anything you want!
A Final Word About the Squeeze Page
These theories for the design and content of your squeeze pages should give you the best chance to determine whether or not your product will be something that your audience will be interested in, in the least amount of time. Remember though, that these are theories (although they have been tested on several sites and mentioned by a lot of other internet marketers). The only true way to know if a certain setup for a squeeze page works for you is to tweak and test your ideas for yourself.
Sending Traffic To Your Squeeze Page
Once you setup your squeeze page, your job is to send traffic to it and let your page do all the work. You can use the features on Google Optimizer, Google Analytics, or even a url shortener like bit.ly to track the numbers for you. I prefer Optimizer or Analytics because you can set it up to see the exact percentage of how many people signed up for your list, vs. how many people viewed the page. If you’re testing different versions, as you should be, then all you need is Optimizer.
Here is a list of some of the ways that you can send traffic to your squeeze page:
- Links via Twitter.
- Links in your sidebar. (This is ok here, because they still opt-in on a separate page after reading your content)
- Links after your blog posts (in a highlighted box!)
- Links on your Facebook page.
- Place a link in an existing email list.
- Ask a friend to tweet or blast a link for you.
- Paid Advertising via Google Adwords and Facebook
Regarding the paid advertising, think about this: it’s a lot cheaper to spend $250 for traffic now, than to work on a project for 3-6 months that doesn’t sell as expected.
If you get a lot of signups, that’s a great sign! Plus, your email list will continue to grow. If you don’t see very many sign-ups, then you either need to tweak something on your page, and if that doesn’t work, you may have to dump your product idea and move on to the next. Better to know now, than later.
The lead generation factor is a good indicator of customer interest in the product that you want to sell. Some may even suggest to stop here, and get your product created at this point.
In the next step, for those of you who want to be absolutely sure about your product, we’re basically going to setup a real live sales page. I’ll show you how that works in the next post.
Thanks again everyone, you have no idea how much I appreciate your time, attention, and your comments. Cheers!
Posted on : December 4th, 2009
Related posts:
- How To Test Your Online Product Before It’s Even Made – Part 4 | The Sales Page Test
- How To Test Your Online Product Before It’s Even Made – Part 2 | The Two Phase Process
- How To Test Your Online Product Before It’s Even Made – Part 1 | Making Sure a Market Exists
- Do You Pass the Test? An Online Entrepreneur Mindset Exercise
- A Little Known Way To Increase Your Product Sales
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38 Comments (Click Here to Leave a Comment Below)
Hi Pat,
I didn’t realize this was a 3 part series. I don’t know much about squeeze pages, so this was interesting. I’ll have to test with and without one so I can post my results on my blog.
Oh, and I launched my blog a couple of days ago. It has just been submitted to Google, Yahoo, and Bing. Right now, it’s a bit bare (a new article will be up shortly) but if you come on over and take a look, that’d be exciting.
I have not promoted it yet. A full-time job makes these offline vertures a bit hard, but…. we’ll see what happens. But keep up with your informative articles!
Hey MH! Just checked out your new blog, very cool! It will take a bit to get some momentum, but just keep adding content and you know it can’t go anywhere but up.
Hopefully you can make it over to San Diego sometime soon! Cheers!
Hehe, I’m taking a road trip from east coast to CA mid-December. I’m thinking San Diego will be second half of the trip and Los Angeles first half.
Either way, I loved CA last year and hope to make a move early next Spring. But that thing called “money” is unfortunately somewhat of a deciding factor.
Thanks for stopping by
More awesome! Nobody can stop you. I’m going to use the SPI technique coming up here in a few weeks! Stoked.
Haha, cool Dan.
SPI technique…sounds pretty cool, but really I credit every other internet marketer out there for this. I’ve just put the best part of what I like together. I hope it all makes sense why. Cheers man!
Err, I realized it’s a 4 part series…
Phew….there’s really an intricate, ever-evolving, science behind developing a sales landing page…..just about everything we’ve been doing on mine has been tested to the extreme, from the use of certain fonts and colors and sizes, to bullet points, and alternating bold/non-bold text….
there is a guy named Bob Bly who is a genius when it comes to Sales Landing Pages/Good Sales copy….
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YgQQwPnsZpE&feature=related
http://www.bly.com
….he brings some amazing insights to the table, Pat…..if you haven’t heard of him, you should definitely check out some of his stuff…he has a ton of FREE youtube videos up, as well
Hey Howie! Thanks for the resources, very cool.
Hey, when are you gonna start putting in a URL when you leave comments? You’re the top guy each month and could get some traffic that way. Just letting you know!
LOL….since you insist, Pat….
……I don’t have this quite hosted on my own domain yet, but your readers may like to see how the sales’ landing page, of someone who’s been following your “How-to” write an eBook series actually looks….
In all transparency though, I actually hired someone to do the sales copy….I know people can do it on their own, but, I really wanted to do it right…lol….
http://www.ebookscreated.com/infobarrel/index.html
…..oh, and there are a few grammar/spelling errors on there…..we are addressing them as we speak
lol
hope all is well on your end Pat! We just go our first snow fall this year yesterday
…..accumulated about 2-3 inches….
so, my Fiance tells me I should tone down on the use of “Smiley-Faces” here….lol…..sigh…women…
…and, in the name of blatant self-promotion, just thought I’d tell everyone that I will (most likely monthly), be conducting random drawings for copies of my eBook (You can see all the pictures of the main eBook, and complementary guides), to my referral list….
http://www.infobarrel.com/signup.php?ref_id=3246
if interested, feel free to sign up under my referral list….
Great post Pat, I’ve enjoyed the series a lot so far. Very throughout explanation about squeeze page. I would add that the content on the squeeze page can be a video too and in some cases that might even work better than just text.
To find out which works better, test it out via split-testing. And I agree on the paid traffic. You’re paying for traffic to save time, and as time is money, you’re actually making money because you can see so fast what works and what doesn’t.
Hi Antti,
Actually, I have that in a small portion of the blog post, but I should of done a better job at making it more visible, because you’re right, its definitely an important part of the process that can be tested.
Thanks!
This post was packed with lots of good ideas. I really like the idea about adding audio/video to the squeeze page. I am thinking of doing something similar with the opt-in within my sidebar. Not sure how much testing has been done with that, but I guess I can try Google Optimizer and compare the opt-in rate with and without video. Also, any suggestion on what modified button to use instead of the Aweber button? Thanks Pat!
Hey Vance, I’m actually planning on doing the same thing when the new design goes live of this blog. I definitely think it’s a fantastic idea.
As far as design of the button, I don’t think it’s TOO important, but what’s inside really counts. If you’re promoting a newsletter, it should say “get the newsletter”, if it’s promoting a free eBook, it can say something like “get my free eBook”. As you said, they should all be tested.
If you can make the button change color over the hover, that would help too. Like, from red to green. Just some ideas!
Awesome post Pat! I was wondering, can you do this as an affiliate to test products before you start promoting them? Just wondering? Thanks again Pat for the awesome post!
For affiliate stuff, you COULD test it, but you might as well just not test it since the products are already created. You might as well get some sales if you actually can.
For this series, we don’t yet have a product created, so you could use the same process, but not really use it as an “experiment”, but the actual thing!
Excellent. I’m still with you on this
My question is: Why are so many sqeeze pages so gosh darn long?
Are you sure these squeeze pages that you’re thinking of are ONLY capturing email addresses?
Oh no I was referring to the…oh never mind those are called ‘copy’ pages not squeeze pages, my bad. So much terminology involved in blogging.
Okay I’m back on course, sorry to disturb the class
I’m really enjoying this series. Looking forward to seeing the live, sales page!
Hi Rudy!
Well, it won’t be a “live” sales page, but we’re going to talk about building a live sales page that you can use to test how your product will really do. I’m sorry if I mis-communicated that!
Your post is very helpful. I am producing my first product but have not gotten to researching how the squeeze page works. But I have heard of them and your post is a great explanation of what they are and how they work. I’m definitely coming back to this post when I’m ready to look at a squeeze page. Thanks!
Hey Deborah, I’m glad your finding this stuff helpful! Please let me know if you have any more questions. Cheers!
I always got sales pages and squeeze pages confused before, but this post really cleared it up for me. Can you point me to any examples of effective squeeze pages out there?
Hmm, I’ll find some and email them to you once I do! I know there are a bunch of great ones out there, I just have to remember where I saw them. Thanks!
This is definitely an involved process. Lots of food for thought when I’m ready to go for a product launch. Hopefully soon…
Great information and keep up the good work…
Thanks Pat
Thanks Jason! I appreciate it!
Looks like I’ve got some work cut out for me in January
Hehe! I’m glad you put a happy face instead of a sad face after your sentence
Great series Pat and very good advice on squeeze pages. It’s worth spending hours or even days cooking up a sales page if it’s going to serve well for months or even years…
love the Christmas-theme in the blog header, Pat!
(that’s a classic case of listening to your readers….really makes the blog look timely and relevant and inviting…)….
[...] product and learned about the two-phase sales process. In part 3, we learned about how to setup a squeeze page to capture leads to test our product, and here in part 4 we’ll be tackling how we can use a [...]
Hi Pat, great post you have here. I don’t anything mind for a product, but it does helped me to start thinking of starting something for myself.
Thanks
For those who would like to see a visual example of split-testing:
There is a case study on lupa.cz about website optimization. The goal was to increase the number of downloads of a trial and free version of a software product.
The article shows:
- The weekly conversion rate before and after optimization
- The website before and after
- The split-tested graphic elements (3 images and 9 buttons)
Most of Pat’s readers wouldn’t understand the language, so here is a link to Google translation (OK for rough understanding, but sometimes incorrect): http://bit.ly/5nf6nV
Sweet, thanks for the link Hynek! Very very cool stuff!
Hey Pat,
Cool site. I was surprised that you said no freebies for the lead generation stage. I’ve been conditioned to think that lead generation must include a freebie of some kind but I get what you’re saying – that I want to test and see if I get opt-ins from the benefits of my product (and not so someone can get a freebie).
Never thought of if that way before. I’ll give it a test and let you know how it goes.
Thanks,
[...] February I will be testing this idea more thoroughly. I will be following Step 2 and Step 3 of the marketing test from The Smart Passive Income Blog. Step 2 involves thinking about the [...]