When you start out in internet marketing I always recommend that you take a step by step approach. Today I’m going to cover how to set up a squeeze page. This is a key part of setting up an online business but one which often confuses the newcomer.

Put simply a squeeze page is a web page that has only one purpose – to capture the contact details of visitors so that you can then follow them up. That’s it – you don’t want to distract the visitor with other information or hyperlinks that will tempt them to click away to other websites.

Typically, you will capture the email addresses and sometimes the names of your visitors. You then have all the information you need to put your follow up marketing in place. This is classic marketing technique and is not new. Prior to the invention of the internet, the process was more time consuming and required telemarketing and business reply mail etc.

Today it’s much easier to get people’s contact details, provided you adopt the right strategy. We’ve already talked about how you need to focus your visitors on giving you their email addresses. Avoid all distractions, this usually means keeping the content on the squeeze page to a minimum.

Secondly, you also need to give them a great reason to leave their details. We all get so much spam these days that people are wary of sharing their information too freely. So make them a great offer to entice them. Think about what they would really value and make your offer very clear. For example, you could give away an ebook, a report or access to an instructional video.

Quality squeeze pages will include various elements to draw in the visitor – eye catching headlines, great sales copy, relevant keywords, testimonials, audio and video.

There is one thing that you need to be aware of. Over the last year Google has introduced updates to their algorithms that can penalise some web pages that they consider to be spam due to their lack of content. As a result internet marketers have adapted and many now increase content by including a blog on their website. The opt in form remains in a prominent position at the top of the page with further information at the bottom.

We’ve covered what a squeeze page does but now let’s put it in context and describe what else you need to have in place for this process to work. The first thing you’ll need is a domain name where you’ll put your information. Then you’ll also need a web host which will connect you to the internet and display that information to the world.

The final step in this process is having a system that will store the contact details online and allow you to send out follow up emails to your prospects. This is your autoresponder service, a well known one is Aweber. You create your sign up form using this service and then place the code that they give you on your web page. With these elements in place you’re then ready to start driving traffic to your website and building your email list.

Let me finish with a couple of examples of squeeze pages that illustrate how they work. You might like to fill in your email details so that you experience the process from the visitor’s perspective. And you’ll also get the added bonus of some great information!

The Online Video Champ sign up gives you access to a series of videos on how to use videos in your online business. The List Building sign up has an offer of a video and a report. Note how they are brief and to the point.