Get All Access for $5/mo

5 Ways to Capture Email Addresses from Landing Page Traffic Grow your elist with these 5 smart strategies.

By Robert W. Bly

Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own.

COMiCZ | Getty Images

The following excerpt is from Robert W. Bly's The Content Marketing Handbook. Buy it now from Amazon | Barnes & Noble or click here to buy it directly from us and SAVE 60% on this book when you use code MARKET2021 through 4/3/21.

Most marketers I know who use landing pages to make direct sales online focus on conversion: getting as many visitors as possible to the landing page to place orders.

Other internet marketers, when writing landing page copy, focus not only on conversion but also on search engine optimization: keyword selection and meta tag creation that can increase traffic by raising the site's search engine rankings.

But in addition to all this, savvy online marketers are concerned with a third performance metric: capturing email addresses. If you have a 2 percent conversion rate, then for every 100 visitors to the landing page, only two buy. What happens to the other 98 visitors? You won't be able to add their email addresses to your list unless you incorporate a deliberate methodology into your landing page to capture them.

Here are five methods for capturing the email addresses of landing page visitors who don't purchase. Every landing page you operate should use at least one.

1. Ezine Sign-Up Box

This is a box where visitors can get a free enewsletter subscription just by entering their name and email address. The ezine sign-up box placed prominently on the first screen is a widely used method of email capture for websites, but it's less commonly used for microsites and landing pages. That's because if your headline and lead properly engage the visitor's attention, they won't bother to sign up—they'll just start reading. Then, if they lose interest or reach the end but don't order, and instead click away, you haven't captured their email address.

2. Squeeze Page

Also known as a preview page, squeeze pages are short landing pages that require visitors to register with their name and email address before they're allowed to go on and read the long-copy landing page.

In some cases, the long-copy landing page itself is positioned as a "report" that visitors can read after registering. For this to work, your landing page must be written in an informative, educational style. Many squeeze pages offer a content premium, such as a free report, just for submitting your email address. Those seeking to capture snail mail as well as email addresses make the premium a physical object that must be shipped, such as a free CD.

Squeeze pages work well when your primary source of traffic is organic and paid search. That's because search visitors arriving at your site are only mildly qualified—they've decided to visit based on only a few words in a search engine description or paid Google ad. Therefore, they may not be inclined to read a lot of copy from an unfamiliar source. A squeeze page lets them absorb the gist of your proposition in a few concise paragraphs.

The main advantage of the squeeze page is that it ensures you capture an email address from every visitor who reads the full landing page. In addition, they've been pre-qualified, in terms of their interest in the subject, and are more likely to read through the long copy.

3. Email Capture Sidebar

These are forms built into the main landing page as sidebars, again making a free offer. In a long-copy landing page, the email capture sidebar usually appears early, typically on the second or third screen, and may be repeated one or more times throughout the page.

The drawback of the email capture sidebar is that the prospect sees it before they get too far in the sales letter, and therefore before you've finished selling them and asked for the order. So, the risk is that if your product teaches, say, how to speak French, and the email capture sidebar offers a free French lesson, the visitor will just take the free offer instead of spending money on the paid offer.

4. Pop-Under

When you attempt to click away from the landing page without making a purchase, a window appears that says something like, "Wait! Don't leave yet without claiming your free bonus gift."

The advantage of the pop-under is that visitors see it only after they've read to the point where they're leaving without ordering and the free content offer doesn't compete with or distract visitors from the paid product offer. The disadvantage is that about 25 percent of U.S. internet users run pop-up blockers on their devices, and many of these blockers will prevent your pop-under from showing.

5. Floater

A floater looks and functions much like a pop-up window, but it's actually part of the landing page's HTML code, and therefore won't be blocked by a pop-up blocker. The floater blocks a portion of the landing page when you click onto the site. You can enter your email or click the floater. Either action removes the floater and allows you to see the complete landing page.

As you can see, all these email capture methods offer some sort of free content — typically a downloadable PDF report, an ecourse delivered via auto-responder, or an ezine subscription — in exchange for your email address. But be warned: The ever-changing Google algorithm penalizes sites with floaters because, until you click out of them, they block the homepage.

Why bother to maximize the capture of visitor email addresses on your websites? First, by sending an online conversion series — a sequence of emails delivered by auto-responder — to these visitors, you'll have another opportunity to persuade them to buy. Second, the best names for your email marketing efforts are on your house elist. The faster you can build a large elist, the more profitable your internet marketing ventures will become.

Did you enjoy your book preview? Click here to grab a copy today—now 60% off when you use code MARKET2021 through 4/3/21.

Robert W. Bly

Author, Copywriter and Marketing Consultant

Robert W. Bly is an independent copywriter and marketing consultant with more than 35 years of experience in B2B and direct response marketing. He has worked with over 100 clients including IBM, AT&T, Embraer Executive Jet, Intuit, Boardroom, Grumman and more. He is the author of 85 books, including The Marketing Plan Handbook (Entrepreneur Press 2015), and he currently writes regular columns for Target Marketing Magazine and The Direct Response Letter.

Want to be an Entrepreneur Leadership Network contributor? Apply now to join.

Editor's Pick

Business News

'I'm Not Trying to Land on Mars': Mark Cuban Takes Dig at Elon Musk to Explain Why His Online Pharmacy Isn't Trying to Make More Money

Mark Cuban Cost Plus Drug Co. is an online pharmacy co-founded by Cuban and radiologist Alex Oshmyansky.

Side Hustle

'Hustling Every Day': These Friends Started a Side Hustle With $2,500 Each — It 'Snowballed' to Over $500,000 and Became a Multimillion-Dollar Brand

Paris Emily Nicholson and Saskia Teje Jenkins had a 2020 brainstorm session that led to a lucrative business.

Business News

'It's Not About You': How to Fire Someone Effectively, According to Kevin O'Leary

O'Leary says that if you can't fire someone, you aren't the right leader for the organization.

Business News

Meta Makes $1 Million Dollar Donation to Donald Trump's Inaugural Fund

Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg also reportedly gave Trump a pair of Ray-Ban Meta smart glasses.

Leadership

Should I Stay or Should I Go? 8 Key Points to Navigate the Founder's Dilemma

Here are eight key signs that help founders determine whether to persevere or let go.

Business Ideas

63 Small Business Ideas to Start in 2024

We put together a list of the best, most profitable small business ideas for entrepreneurs to pursue in 2024.