Capturing Leads

[private].[/private]We are going to talk about “List Building” in a separate section, but since we’re currently knee deep into the creation of your sales page now is the perfect time to inject a few ideas into your creative mind regarding how to capture leads ON your sales page.

I’m going to give you a few suggestions that I’ve used personally and also mention a few suggestions for effective lead-capturing techniques that I’ve seen used on other high-converting products.

One of the most important points I’d like to stress regarding the lead-capturing techniques that you are going to implement on your sales page is that it’s EXTREMELY important to try and set your lead capture process up so that the leads who opt-in to your email list never actually leave your sales page.

This is important because when leads opt-in on the sales page and end up being rerouted to a page with more info on the newsletter or how to get “whitelisted”, it will displace them from the offer and then they’ll have trouble getting back to the offer. This means that they most likely will not return to the offer and therefore they will not buy the offer. They might never even see the “Buy Now” button!

I know it is kind of confusing to try to explain how the process works and operates without you actually seeing it in action. I recommend you browse around to a few of your favorite internet marketing sites, sign up for their newsletters, and “opt-in” to their lists.

Take special notice what happens after you opt-in to a list from a sales page. A good sales page will either bring you back to the offer, give you a new offer, or at the very least open up the page that appears after opting-in in a new window, so as to leave the actual sales page still up in the background.

I’m going to recommend my favorite lead management service once we get to the “List Building” section of the training, but for now read along and try not to get too caught up with the details. They will be addressed later on, once you get to “List Building”. For now, just focus your attention on the concepts at work and in a little while (in the “List Building” section) we’ll switch our attention to the technical stuff that allows the concepts to operate.

Building an opt-in list of leads you capture from the sales page is highly recommended and quite profitable for several reasons, here are a few:

  • Follow Up With Leads – You can set up an auto-responder sequence and follow up with your leads long after they leave your offer or decline to purchase your offer. This lets you save a lot of sales that would have otherwise been lost.
  • Affiliate Promotions – You can market other related products to your leads via affiliate links, which will help you increase your earnings from affiliate commissions. If people are interested in your product, they will surely be interested in related products!
  • Use Your List As A Bargaining Chip – Once you begin to build a nice sized list, it’s a great bargaining chip to use when approaching potential Joint Venture (JV) partners or potential super affiliates. By explaining to these potential JV’s and affiliates that you have a nice sized list and may be able to promote one of their products in exchange for a promotion from them, you will begin to see higher levels of responsiveness from these sorts of business partners!
  • The List Goes On – There are many more great reasons for why you should build an opt-in list right from your sales page. Think creatively and I’m sure you can see the huge benefit to having an email list of leads who are all interested in your product.

Now I’m going to cover a few ideas that will allow you to capture leads on your sales page without allowing the leads to actually LEAVE the sales page altogether. This is so important because if, after subscribing to your list the lead is redirected away from your sales page or offer, you are doing yourself a great disservice. While you are building a list you are also hurting yourself by making it more difficult for the lead to return to the sales page and make a purchase. By using one of the following suggestions you can build your list WITHOUT taking the offer out from under the nose of your leads.

Using Iframes:

Iframes are basically a method of showing an entirely different webpage inside of a small frame which is within another web page. For example, you can create a page on your site with a newsletter subscribe box and nothing else. Then, show that subscribe box within a self contained smaller table on your sales page. This way, when visitors subscribe to the newsletter inside the Iframe you can then redirect them to a thank-you page right inside the same Iframe!

Graphic subscribe box that opens in a small pop-up window

This may be considered to be a slight trick or sleight of hand, but it still accomplishes our mission. Create a newsletter subscribe box and take a screenshot of it. Place the screenshot of the subscribe box on your sales page and hyperlink it in such a way that when visitors click on the image of the subscribe box thinking they are entering their cursor into the appropriate field, the link will open the ACTUAL subscribe box in a new popup window. If visitors are blocking popups, this could pose a slight issue.

Pop-ups, slide-ins, exit-pops, etc…

Popup newsletter subscribe boxes are also a popular way to get leads to opt-in without having to navigate away from the sales page. Slide-ins are similar to pop-ups. The only difference is the manner in which they are presented on the screen. Exit-pops are also great because they will allow you to grab the attention of visitors who are trying to leave the sales page in the attempt to at least get an email address out of them before they go!

These are just a few suggestions off the top of my head and they are also suggestions that are frequently used on highly successful sites. If you need help on the technical aspects of implementing any of these suggestions, be sure to ask your questions in the discussion forums and myself or one of the other PFG members will be sure to help you out.