Think back to when you first got online. When you landed on a semi-interesting page that had the wor “free newsletter” on the page, you joined.
It was fun to get email. Not true any more!
Before you hand out your email, you want to know what you’re getting (and how often you’ll get it). You’re worried about getting spam. And you don’t want your inbox inundated with drivel.
The same is true of your prospects.
Many folks guard their email address like a mama bear defending her cubs. And that means your landing page needs to do a good job of “selling” the prospect on joining your list.
Tip: Not only does a prospect protect his email address and inbox, he also wants to protect his valuable time. As such, even though joining your list is free, you still need to “sell” prospects on joining your list… in much the same way that you’d persuade someone to take out their credit card and purchase a paid product.
Because your landing page is a mini-sales page, all copywriting rules apply. Here’s a rough outline of what your sales letter will look like:
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Pre-headline (e.g., “Attention, [target market]!”)
“Benefit Driven Main Headline”
Dear [Target Market],
[Opening story that reminds prospect of the pain of his problem.]
[Introduce your newsletter and freebie as the solution]
[Tell prospective subscribers why they should join your list]:
Benefit
[Proof of your claims, such as a screenshot or testimonial.]
[Call to action plus reason to join NOW.]
[Subscription Form]
(Aweber.com or GetResponse.com form)
Sign Off,
[Your Name]
P.S. Reiterate the main benefit and/or the call to action.
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And here are the 4 C’s of creating your own compelling landing page…
C1 – Craft an Attention-Getting Headline
If the headline doesn’t do its job (i.e., get your prospect’s attention), then the prospect will click away. And that’s why the headline is the most important part of your landing page.
So, how do you create a headline that gets attention? By keeping these points in mind:
Speak to your target market. Your headline should practically call out to your target market by addressing one of their biggest problems and offering a solution (more about that in the next point). But you can also specifically address your market by creating a pre-headline (a line above the main headline) that says something like, “Attention, [target market]!”
Example: Attention, Work at Home Moms!
- Present a big benefit or make a big promise. People don’t just want a “free newsletter.” Instead, they want to know what they newsletter can do for them.
Example: Perhaps a weight loss newsletter helps subscribers “Lose 10 pounds quickly and easily – for free!”
- Arouse curiosity where applicable. In addition to presenting a big benefit, you can also arouse curiosity. One of the easiest ways to do this is by telling your prospects about the benefit without telling them how they’ll get that benefit.
Example: “Revealed: How to Lose 10 Pounds Quickly and Easily – Without Dieting!”
The word “revealed” helps arouse curiosity. In addition, anyone who’s interested in losing weight is going to wonder how to lose 10 pounds without dieting… and thus they’ll keep reading to discover the answer.
- Use “trigger” words. Certain words tend to catch people’s attention. Some of the more popular trigger words include: free, how to, secret, introducing, amazing, revolutionary, discover, revealed, guaranteed, you.
Now let me give you two more examples that incorporate the above points:
“Here’s How a Nun Earned $11,938 In Her First Month Online – And How You Can Too! Free Report Shows You How…”
“Free Report Reveals the Money-Saving Car Buying Secrets Your Car Dealer Doesn’t Want You to Know!”
You can also use these two templates to create your own headlines:
“At Last! Now You too Can Discover the Secrets of [insert benefit] – Free [report/video/ecourse, etc] Shows You How!”
“Free [report/video/ecourse, etc] Reveals What Every [Group] Ought to Know About [Getting a Benefit]!” (Example: “Free Report Reveals What Every Marketer Ought to Know About Getting to the Top of the Search Engines!”
C2 – Create Interest and Desire
Your headline hooks your potential subscribers and persuades them to keep reading. Now your landing page copy needs to engage them, interest them and make them want to join your list.
There are a few different ways to keep your reader interested in the opening paragraph of your sales letter. Here are two tactics you can try:
- Engage your reader with a story. Here you tell a story about someone with the same problem and how they overcame that problem. Naturally, their solution should include the use of your newsletter or freebie.
Another angle you can use is to simply talk directly to the prospect about his problem and really make him feel the pain of the problem. Then offer your newsletter and freebie as the solution.
Example: “You work hard on your websites. You’ve put in a lot of late, blurry-eyed nights. And that’s why it’s so frustrating that you’re not making more money…”
- Jump right into answering the “what’s in it for me” question. Most people remind the prospect about the pain of the problem (see previous example) before offering the solution. You can, however, go straight to the solution in your opener.
One way to do this is to use the “imagine this” opener. This is where you get the prospect to imagine how good things will be when his problems are solved.
Example: “Imagine opening your email inbox to see it stuff full of PayPal sales notifications…”
Your opening paragraph or two gets your reader interested and reminds him of his problem. Your next step is to then introduce a solution (your newsletter and freebie) and list all the benefits of these solutions.
You introduce the solution simply by saying something like this:
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“Introducing [name of newsletter] – your guide to making money online!”
Then your next step is to create bulleted list of benefits to let the prospect know why they should subscribe to your list. For example:
“Join now (it’s FREE!) and in just moments you’ll discover:
- How to [benefit]!
- The Secrets of [getting a benefit]!
- The Quick and Easy Way to [get a benefit]!
- A surprisingly simple trick you can use to [get a benefit]!
And much, much more!”
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C3 – Cite Your Proof
At this point, your prospects are interested in joining your newsletter. But there’s a problem: Although they’re interested, they don’t really believe you.
You see, they’ve joined plenty of lists before. The landing pages promised them the moon… but didn’t deliver. Many of these promised “content-filled newsletters” every week and instead delivered nothing but advertisements. And so the prospect is wondering if you’ll renege on your promises just like everyone else.
Tip: There’s nothing wrong with delivering a newsletter that’s nothing but product pitches… if that’s what your newsletter readers expect! But if you’re like most good marketers, you’ll want to deliver a combination of good content (to help build relationships with your readers) and product pitches. Whatever you decide to do, just let your readers know what they can expect from your newsletter.
So here’s the solution: Offer proof of your claims.
This proof may include things like:
- Social proof, in the form of testimonials or endorsements from satisfied customers. These can be text testimonials or video testimonials.
Tip: Use testimonials that offer evidence that your solution works. For example, a testimonial like, “The newsletter is fun to read” is weak. A stronger testimonial is something like, “I lost 15 pounds using these diet secrets – if I can do it, anyone can!”
- Screenshots.
Example: You might show a screenshot of a PayPal account to prove your income claims.
- Example: You might show “before” and “after” pictures for a dieting product.
- Videos are more compelling than static pictures and screenshots, so you can use video instead.
C4 – Call Your Prospect to Action
Your visitor wants your solution. That means the next thing you have to do is tell him, exactly, what step he should take next (and why). In this case, you may say something like this:
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“There’s only one thing left for you to do – enter your first name and email address in the form below and click submit so that you can get instant access to [product/benefit]!”
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Tip: In order to create a subscription form, you’ll need to first get an autoresponder using a service like Aweber.com or GetResponse.com. I am testing a plugin for WordPress Mail Poet, I will be updating this article when I test it fully, It is free to 1000 signups) Then follow their simple onsite instructions to copy and paste a line of code into your web page (or give the code to your webmaster and tell him or her to paste it below your call to action).
While explicitly telling your prospect how to join your list will help boost your conversion rate, there’s something else that will boost it even further.
Namely, by giving your prospect a reason why they should act now.
You see, if there is no sense of urgency, then many prospects will bookmark your page (if you’re lucky) and tell themselves they’ll do it “later.” But later never comes. Instead, life gets in the way. They’ll never return.
Instead, what you need to do is convince your prospect to join your list immediately, while they’re excited about joining. One way to do this is to make your offer limited, such as by having a certain freebie only available for a limited time. Or, you can toss in a “fast action” bonus to the first 1000 people who join your list.