Ever come across the terms landing pages or squeeze pages? Interesting phrase, don't you think? So let's shed some light on this – what are landing pages for lead generation? How can you create an awesome landing page to get more people on your email list? What should and shouldn't go on there? 

Let's find out! 

SOME EPISODE HIGHLIGHTS: 

(0:23) Grab our amazing resource Click Tricks totally for FREE!
(5:10) Do you really need a landing page to collect leads?
(7:59) Why offer a lead magnet on your landing page?
(12:31) Why do you need to put so much effort into something free?
(13:53) Don't call it a FREE anything!
(17:15) What should you include on your landing page for lead generation?
(22:05) Tell them they're joining your email list!
(24:52) Add social proof.
(26:54) Time to start sending out email campaigns.
(28:53) Subject line of the week.

Do you really need a landing page to collect leads? 

The short answer is yes. But first, let's go over what landing pages do. To us, landing pages are lead-generation tools that help business owners and email marketers capture email addresses. 

Some people talk about sales pages as landing pages, but we find that super confusing (and our students do too!) Let's think about this for a second – your sales pages are what you're sending people links to in your emails. And if you're emailing people, you already have their email address! 

So for the sake of clarity, what we're talking about here are opt-in pages, where the only thing someone can do is to put their details into a form to either register for something or grab a thing for free.

The reason why you want to collect someone's email address can be wide and varied – it could be a free class, a webinar, a master class, a report, or a lead magnet. Ultimately, a landing page is a lead-generation tool.

So you do need one.

Because otherwise, how are you going to collect email addresses? 

Why offer a lead magnet on your landing page? 

If someone comes into your world, you want to get them on your email list, right? And that’s what lead magnets are for. You give them to people at the start of their journey with you. Once they’re on your list, if you create new lead magnets, you don’t need to send them to your existing subscribers.

The only exception is if you’re doing a product launch and want to create a waiting list by asking your existing subscribers to qualify their interest for that product in advance. You're essentially asking them to raise their hands. This is useful for segmentation, or if you’re having a slight change of direction and want people to pre-qualify for something.

For example, we could use a PDF or Google Doc to help us pre-qualify some of our existing subscribers for our Accelerator programme, which is a higher-ticket, more intensive, high-calibre programme. We could create a document that outlines what’s involved in the programme, and ask people to tell us they're interested so we can inform them when the doors open again. That particular lead magnet would serve a marketing collateral purpose. But we wouldn't it to our whole list. 

Lead generation pages are also useful to send people to a specific location. If you're doing a talk or a podcast interview, you don’t want to send people to your website. Because that’s full of information that will get them distracted. Instead, you send them to a landing page where all they can do is give you their email address.

Why do you need to put so much effort into something free?

Creating a lead magnet (and an opt-in page to go with it) is a lot of work. But you do need to put that work in because you want your lead magnet to appear valuable. You want to convince people that it can do something for them.  

Let's not forget that an email address is a form of currency! You may be giving something away ‘for free' (i.e. no money is exchanged), but people's email address does have a value attached to them. You're asking for something precious in the form of personal data. It’s a way for you to communicate directly with that person.

More often than not, people read their emails on their phones, so you practically get access to that! And that's valuable, especially as you might also start sending them emails every day from now on. And they don’t know you yet – they don't know they can trust you. Believe it or not, there are people out there who make it very hard for subscribers to leave their lists. And that’s not the way to do email marketing, but it happens. 

Don't call it a FREE anything! 

A tip we’d like to share when it comes to creating the copy for your lead magnet is to never call it a “free” PDF, workbook, eBook, or whatever it might be. Instead, say something along the lines of “Get your totally free copy”. It’s a slight shift, and it makes a difference because the implication is that you created something of value, which is not free, but you’re giving it to people for free. This is an important distinction from a copywriting perspective – it makes people want your lead magnet more. 

Even with our resource, Click Tricks, we don't tend to say it's free. Instead, we say we're giving it to people for free. And that implies that it has high value. If you can, it’d be great for you to sell the same thing elsewhere and give people proof that you're selling it for money. 

What should you include on your landing page for lead generation? 

First of all, let's mention something you shouldn't do. Don't put your massive company logo at the top of the page. Because when it comes to opt-in pages, the message is more important. So if you want your logo on the page, have it on top but just a bit smaller. You want the thing that grabs people’s attention to be the headline – the promise that your lead magnet is going to deliver. When you design your page, don't add too many things that compete for your audience's attention. Focus on one thing and make it the most prominent – the biggest and boldest.

Then, make what people are getting with your lead magnet super clear. What is it exactly? You can talk about the benefits but also the medium. Is it a PDF? Is it an instant download? Or a series of videos? Be as specific as you can be about what you’re giving them. Specificity and proof are super important. So you’ll want to say it’s a “26-page instant download”, for example, or a “12 minute and 32 seconds video training”. Build a true picture of the thing you’re going to give them so people can decide if it’s for them.

Also, another objection people have to downloading something (and giving you their email address) may have to do with its quality. Especially if it’s a free thing, is it going to be good enough? Tell them how long it’s going to take for them to see results after using your resource. For example, we have a product called Batch It Crazy, which is a batching method for writing lots of emails. And we promise that by the end of 90 minutes, you’ll have 365 ideas for your emails. So make sure you tell people what outcome you can promise them and be specific about what it can do for them.

Tell them they're joining your email list! 

A very important thing to do from the very beginning of your relationship with your subscribers is to set up the belief that they’re joining a newsletter. Be honest with people and let them know you’re giving them something for free in exchange for their email address to join your newsletter.

So either say something along the lines of: “Join my newsletter and get a free copy of my thing” or “Get a free copy of my thing when you join my newsletter”. And then have some copy or a sub-heading above the opt-in box that tells people that when they give you their email address, they'll start receiving a daily hint, tip, story idea, or piece of information to help with whatever you do.

Why do this? Because the days of tricking people onto your email list are long gone! If you’re clinging to that because you’re worried that people won’t want to join your newsletter, you need to have more belief in what you offer. People always have the choice to unsubscribe if they no longer want what you send out, so be upfront. They're joining your email list – make that clear and transparent.

And if you get fewer people opting in as a result, be sure that the ones who do join will be higher-quality subscribers. You’ll have an easier time not having to filter them out of your list later on because they don’t engage and clog your deliverability. Just make it obvious on the page that they’re going to be added to your email list and sell them the benefit of joining – tell them how you’re going to be solving their problem even faster.

Even with the design of your landing page, don’t hide anything. Make it bright and visible – do whatever you need to do to draw everyone’s eyes onto the button. 

Add social proof

Below the fold, you can also add social proof. Do you have testimonials? Help people decide if they want your lead magnet by showing them what others think about it. This builds on the belief that your lead magnet is a good thing, and people are getting value from it.

You could even use one of the tools in our Automate Hero suite (Scarcity Hero) to tell your audience they’re joining X amount of other people who have also subscribed to your newsletter. So when people land on your opt-in page, they can see how many other people have also downloaded your lead magnet.

And if you're worried that that number may be small, it doesn't matter. People will see and interpret numbers in different ways. Even if you have a small list or you’re just starting, people might view a small number as a sign they're getting more personalised attention or something unique. They’re joining a rather intimate group of people where they’re perhaps not just a number. And to them, that's a great thing!

Time to start sending out email campaigns

So what do you do next? Once people have opted in, you can offer them what's often referred to as a tripwire offer. If you're already inside our membership The League, you'll know we have an email sequence called the Encore campaign, which uses reverse psychology because it involves not selling things straightaway and foreshadowing the sale.

One last thing to remember is to only ask people for the information you need to be able to send them your lead magnet. For example, if you’re sending a digital download, don’t ask for their physical address. If you don’t need it, don’t ask for their phone number or gender. There needs to be a good reason for the information you request in the opt-in form. Make it congruent and ask for as little information as possible.  

Subject line of the week

This week’s subject line is “Quick. Hide the sweets” and is about Rob’s hatred for Halloween and children who go around trick or treating asking for sweets. Rob just can’t be bothered with it – he’s the bah-humbug! of Halloween. And that was the story in the email that inspired the subject line. So check it out!

Useful Episode Resources

Related episodes

Cold Email Outreach – Is The Technique Sleazy or Super Effective?

Fix Your Traffic Problem For Good, With Todd Brown.

How To Create THE Most Successful Re-Engagement Email Campaign (And Smash Your Sales Targets).

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Not sick of us yet? Every day we hang out in our amazing community of Email Marketing Heroes. We share all of our training and campaigns and a whole bunch of other stuff. If you're looking to learn how to use psychology-driven marketing to level up your email campaigns, come and check out The League Membership. It's the number one place to hang out and grow your email marketing. Best news yet? You can apply everything we talk about in this show.

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