It's Ninja Time - 11 Stars are Flying!

If you have a website – then you need at least one lead capture page.  This is NOT your “contact” or “contact us” page.  No way!  That’s where so many business owners make a huge mistake. 
Every bit of traffic building you do… whether it is through your link building campaigns (articles, videos, content) or from your Google Adwords account must be designed to drive visitors to your lead capture page.  You should always send them to a lead capture page first, to make it easy for them to respond.  If you send them anywhere else – you fail.  If you send them to the home page of your website and it is not a lead capture page, you’ve failed, plain and simple. 

The lead capture page is designed to do ONE thing. Capture a lead. That’s all. If you try to make a sale at the same point, you will likely lose the lead. They won’t enter their contact information.

1. First and foremost – you must have good material out on the Internet that they will find, read and click through.  So start with writing and optimizing good articles, putting together good videos or writing good ads for Google… something that will not only get their attention, but compel them to click on through to get what it is your offering.
2. Congruency is absolutely MISSION CRITICAL.  Make sure that the first part of the copy on your lead capture page – exactly matches the promise from the source that drove them to that page. For example, if the link in your article promises a free report titled XYZ – make sure that the lead capture page matches that. You would be surprised how often business website owners describe and offer something specific and then have it lead their prospect to a landing page that’s slightly different OR bury the free report offer at the bottom of the page somewhere.  If they got to scroll to see the offer… you fail.  If your information isn’t congruent with the source of their “click”… the reader “disconnects” from your material… “this isn’t what I was looking for…” and in under 5 seconds – they’re gone!
3. The value proposition must be crystal clear to the prospect. What exactly will they be getting in exchange for providing their contact information?  Even if you are giving them free content, you must still sell them on the value of the content. 
4. You should also be clearly expressing privacy issues. Let them know they won’t get bombarded with a zillion emails from you – and then keep your promise. Nothing is worse than signing up to get a free report and then getting an email every single day that’s pure selling and zero content.  If you’re going to send them emails… then send them something of value.  For example – if you’re an attorney, you can offer them a free report that gives them ideas on how to solve a legal issue or problem… and send them additional tips via email as a follow-up to the report.
5. Also – be short and sweet.  Face it – your prospects are busy. It’s so easy to click off the page, without entering the required information. So stay on point. Say exactly what you need to say to get them to respond. Nothing more. Nothing less.
6. Don’t ask them for too much information.  Experience tells me that name and email are good enough to start the relationship.  I’ve seen lead capture pages that ask for seven different pieces of information. The more you ask of them, the less likely they will fill the form out. Once you lose them, you’ve probably lost them forever.  Ask yourself – would you fill out a 10 question form to get something?  Truth be told – if the information is REALLY IMPORTANT… I might.  But a good rule of thumb to follow – just get their name and email for now. 
7. Use a lead capture page to start to build a relationship with the prospect.  Let them know what they are in for with you. Tell them how often they will hear from you. Tell them what additional type of content they will be receiving. If they are receiving a specific 7-day course, tell them that. If it is a sporadically published ezine, tell them that. If it’s just a free report, with no followup (bad idea) tell them that.
8. Write To Sell, DON’T Write For The Search Engines.  Focus on copywriting that sells, NOT on SEO keyword copy. Use sales structure like AIDA: Attention, Interest, Desire, and Action. This is NOT the place to worry about using the correct keywords. That is irrelevant. You aren’t looking for SEO placement. This is all about sales. You are looking for one person at a time to respond to your ad.
9. Use Good Headlines.  Include a headline that captures the essence of your offer, some benefit driven bullets, and maybe a few paragraphs of compelling reasons why they made the right choice signing up. Probably less is more. Most important is to reassure them they’ve made the right decision by choosing to trust you. 
10. Testing is important as with any marketing.  If you’re getting traffic, but no one is providing their contact information – then your lead page needs to be modified.  Perhaps the most important variable to test is the title of the free thing you are giving them to sign up. Test different titles/headlines and test different content topics/themes. You’ll probably find that one specific combination resonates much better with your target market.
11. Include a compelling “call to action”.  Without one – you fail.  Your lead capture page must ask for the reader to take a specific action. Don’t assume they will automatically fill the form out, just because they clicked there. Tell them exactly what to do to get what you promised them.

If you haven’t, it’s a great show about an advertising agency, set in the 1960′s. The ad executives were the rockstars of the time, paid well to know what was on the minds of consumers.

What would they have made of a keyword research tool, I wonder?

And unlike fifty years ago, there are fewer barriers to entry to many traditional markets. In the past, in order to compete nation-wide, or internationally… a huge, multinational machine of people and capital was needed. Now, with a credit card – we just tap into a vast network in an instant.

Fifty years ago, publishing a book was difficult and expensive. A large publishing company could get shelf space at a major retail outlet, but you couldn’t. Probably still can’t. You needed to print many copies, a risk and cost out of reach for most people. A publisher could reach out to reviewers, and work the publicity machines but again – you mostly likely couldn’t and can’t.

Now we can compete.

We can get far more reach, in in much less time, for a fraction of the cost.

So many niches, so little time.

So, what are you going to do today?