It is no secret that the results online marketers have been receiving with their lead capture and squeeze pages have been diminishing drastically over the past several months.

It is an absolutely truth that no one seems to be addressing and very few have figured out how to combat. Online marketing absolutely depends on the ability to collect data and more importantly “correct” data.

I started noticing this trend about 3 years ago. At that time “spam” was at an all time high, and marketers were buzzing about the challenges legitimate marketers were having.

If you have been marketing online anytime at all you have seen a constant increase in people like Mickey Mouse, Snow White, George W Bush, and others leaving their name along with bogus emails and phone numbers on your lead capture pages.

The truth is “you have a junk email account” I have a junk email account and so does the average consumer. Consumers understand that their email address is an asset, and they are not willing to give it up as easily as they one time were. Unfortunately that is only the first challenge.

The second challenge is the day of “old fashion” squeeze pages is ending. They will be completely obsolete within a couple of years. When the average person ends up on your lead capture page this is what they see and hear blah blah blah blah. The same old same old. Research has shown that the average consumer sees a lead capture page, when they were looking for information click away within seconds.

A couple of years ago people started to teach the concept that your squeeze page must be “incentivised”. This worked for a few months, but unfortunately collecting correct data from incentivesed website is becoming less and less effective.

Why?

Because in the consumers mind the perceived value of digitally delivered products has decreased drastically according to our test over the past 12 months. Offering free ebooks, reports, software and email courses simply dose not work at the level these incentives once did.

So what is a online marketer to do?

Is there an answer, and if so what is it?

Yes, here it is, and the answer is going to seem so simple that there is a good chance you will miss it. Offer physical products as incentives THAT MUST BE DELIVERED THROUGH THE POSTAL SERVICE.

We started testing this on our catalog site about 3 years ago. We immediately saw an increase in our opt in rate and the collection of real data. We started offering a free three hour audio training program called “Confessions of a Network Marketing Millionaire” which we mailed to people that opt in to our No Fluff Marketing Ezine.

We charge zero for this, nada, not even a shipping and handling fee. About two years ago I started noticing top internet marketers like Matt Bacak, Russell Brunson, Keith Wellman, Deagan Smith and others following this model offering free audio cd’s with a postage and handling fee of $5.00 - $9.00.

Stop and think about this. Why have multi-million dollar marketer adapting this business model? Number one, because it works! Here is why. It is human nature. When a prospect knows that a “physical product” is going to be mailed to their home or office, they will give you real data. Name, address, email and phone number, if they give fake data it will tend to all be fake. Does this make sense?

So the answer is to offer a physical product on your lead capture page. A cd, dvd, booklet, etc will enable you to collect real data and will improve your ratio’s of opt in subscribers drastically.