The competition is fierce because the audience is huge. So attracting attention, establishing your credibility and creating a compelling offer are essential.

The problem you face is most online consumers do not buy the first time they visit a website.

For proof, consider your own buying behavior. The last time you shopped -- whether it was online or offline -- did you first collect information and compare prices, or did you pull out your wallet at the first opportunity?  

When you don't provide prospects with a reason to return to your website, you lose opportunities for sales. This is why building an online prospect list is critical to marketing success on the Internet.

Once prospects register for your list, you can deliver more content that establishes your credibility, while also giving them reasons to collect more information and return to your website.

One quick and easy way to grow your list is through a squeeze page. A squeeze page is essentially a condensed website with one page and a single objective ...

Collect e-mail addresses.

When prospects arrive at your squeeze page, they can either enter an e-mail address to receive some type of free information or leave without doing anything -- there are no other options.

To see an example, check out http://www.howtopersuadeprospects.com.

Roughly half the people who visit the above squeeze page submit their e-mail addresses and instantly receive the free video (you may have been one of them). I have several squeeze pages online targeting different areas of direct-response copywriting and marketing. Each one is adding names to my prospect list at all times.

You can do the same thing with your online marketing efforts. Simply come up with incentive -- such as an article, report, video, checklist, consultation, subscription or e-course -- that helps solve a problem your target prospects share. 

Applications such as WordPress make setting up your own squeeze page a snap (you can check out the software I use and try it risk-free for 60 days at http://www.squeezepagetutorial.com).

In addition to the benefits discussed earlier, a squeeze page gives you an immediate advantage over your competition because ...

·         You can instantly qualify your leads and screen out unwanted prospects.

·         You can drive targeted traffic from prospects who use search engines such as Google, Yahoo and Bing.

·         You can establish yourself as an expert in your area of business and emphasize your competitive advantages.

·         You can set up an automated e-mail marketing campaign to maintain contact with your prospects and customers.

·         You can initiate a channel of communication that allows you to discover your prospects' desires related to your product/service.

What's more, the software I use allows you to maintain complete control of your online marketing efforts and ...

·         Customize your own designs and add new pages with just a few clicks of your mouse.

·         Apply powerful persuasion principles, including social proof, authority and scarcity.

·         Use video to build brand recognition and expand your marketing reach.

·         Create new lead-capturing squeeze pages whenever you need them.

·         Add a blog to drive more traffic.

You'll discover how to set up your squeeze page in minutes at http://www.squeezepagetutorial.com.

Please feel free to share this e-mail with the people in your network.

Sincerely,

Tom Trush

So what have I left out? Give me your comments and get more free articles, videos and expert interviews at http://www.writewaysolutions.com. Also, if you have a copywriting or marketing question you need answered, just click reply and your message will come directly to my personal inbox.

P.S. I hope you had a happy holiday season. If you were out last week and missed the trend that will drive marketing success in 2011, you can check it out here: http://www.writewaysolutions.com/blog/864/the-trend-that-will-drive-marketing-success-in-2011/.