Your company’s website is like a digital street address. It’s where your company lives online. It’s a place to build awareness, attract and expand your audience, as well as engage with visitors in a way that provides them with a robust experience.
At the same time, your website also needs to be a place where potential users make decisions about whether they want your product or services. Two of the best website tools to help convert users are squeeze pages and landing pages. Though the differences between them and how they’re used can be profound.
To understand the role of squeeze pages and landing pages as well as how to use them effectively, we’re going to need to take a granular look at how they are most often used in digital marketing.
What is a Squeeze Page & What Does It Do?
A squeeze page’s primary focus is to capture information such as a site visitor’s name or email address. Mechanically a squeeze page is a type of landing page, though it is streamlined in that it has a singular focus. It might be as simple as acquiring a name and email address or other contact information such as the person’s address for a mailing list.
Whenever a user visits a squeeze page, it needs to be clear that there is one purpose in mind. That is to collect information.
So, while all squeeze pages are landing pages, not all landing pages are squeeze pages.
Other Things a Squeeze Page Can Do
Most effective squeeze pages are brief and intentional. The user has a singular choice to make. They need to decide whether or not to enter their information or not.
A squeeze page might be used to:
- Gather a new subscription
- Deliver a download
- Set up monthly reminders
- Sign up for a newsletter
- Sign up for an exclusive promotional information packet
- In this way, the squeeze page is asking the user to provide their information to be used later for further contact. This is often part of a digital marketing strategy, but might also be used for direct marketing, email marketing, or analytical purposes.
Squeeze pages need to clearly communicate some type of opportunity that will be activated when the user participates and enters their information.
What is a Landing Page & What Does It Do?
A landing page is designed to provide a site visitor with important details about a product or service to encourage them toward conversion. However, a landing page is always meant to be a standalone page with some type of targeted conversion goal. In this way, a landing page can capture well beyond just two or three data fields.
In a sense, a landing page is a miniature destination or stop along the way in the user’s grand journey through your website. These are standalone pages that help advance your visitors along a specific customer journey.
Most of the time landing pages are far more detailed a squeeze pages. As their goal is to help provide more necessary information to a potential new or returning customer who might still be making a very important purchasing decision. At the same time, a lot of landing pages are involved in communicating deals or other special promotional offers.
This information provided on a landing page is meant to help drive customers toward some actionable conversion or some other step forward in the decision-making process.
The Different Goals of Landing & Squeeze Pages
Landing pages and squeeze pages are designed to meet different goals. Though just like any page on your website, you need to make sure that visitors arrive at their destination with a robust, on-brand experience. This goes a long way toward the different decisions you need to help them make.
By design squeeze pages are better suited for goals that are intentional as well as straight to the point. Users should feel positively encouraged to quickly enter a name and email address before they hopefully move on to further explore the website.
A landing page better serves the goals of educating, selling a product or simply pushing your customer to the next stage of the marketing funnel. Since the content on a landing page tends to be more detailed, this information can be more intentional and increase customer engagement. This can help drive your customers along the path you’d like them to follow, toward a purchase.
Differences in Format & Page Length
One of the other major differences between landing pages and squeeze pages is the format and overall page length. The majority of landing pages are composed of extensive content, which requires proper formatting for users to digest all of the information. It also means there will likely be more on the page overall as a means to direct the customer’s attention to the most important pieces.
Whereas squeeze pages need to be much shorter and composed with a simple format. This means they tend to have less content and only one major place for a customer to direct their attention. Ideally, you want the user to not spend more than a few moments on a squeeze page. Just long enough for them to enter their information before continuing on to enjoy the rest of your site.
Most of the time a squeeze page will have just enough content to help the user decide to enter their information. This is usually just an eye-catching header, a few creatively worded lines of supporting copy, and a form in which to enter their name and email address. Any other content that’s present is likely going to be for legal disclosure purposes.
Then there is usually a button of some sort to submit the information. Sometimes the submit button will simply take the user to a more detailed landing page. Sometimes it takes them deeper into the site where they can learn more about a specific subject. Each time they are thanked for providing their information and encouraged on what they can expect to see for the engagement in the future.
