The price advertisers pay is determined by the formula P = (B2 X Q2)/Q1, with P = price paid by the advertiser, Q2 = Quality score of the next highest-placing ad, Q1 = Advertiser’s quality score, and B2 = the next-highest-placing ad’s bid.

This optin landing page does an excellent job of combining curiosity with urgency to attract signups. I came to the page on December 26, 2008 from a text ad with the headline “3 stocks you need to get into before Obama takes office. ” The date is obviously important because it is just a few weeks before Barack Obama’s inauguration. Urgency is explicit in the timing.

It’s worth taking a look at why it is so effective
The headline is to the point and compelling to investors (I like the headline of the text ad even better because of its specificity). The design of the landing page is clear and spare. You see the headline then “Enter Your email” and just one field to fill out – your email address.  It sits there in the middle of  the screen surrounded mostly by white space like a tempting piece of candy to someone with a sweet tooth. Hard to resist. See screenshot below:

There are many examples of spare opt-in pages. But this is about as spare as it gets, depending on the strength of the headline and the simplicity of the layout for its power.

A small logo in the upper left corner tells you it’s from the Motley Fool, a brand name in the investment newsletter field. It’s all that’s needed to tell you this is coming from an authoritative source.

What happened after signing up
It’s also interesting to see what they did post-signup. Once I signed up I came to a detailed 3 page article/report. It goes into the historical relationship of stock movements and presidential administrations.

It then transitions into talking about the sectors that should benefit from Obama’s policies. The report then revealed all 3 stock picks. There is certainly good marketing reasons to give away this information.

1) It follows the give-away free information model on the Internet. The idea is to get people thinking: if I get all this for free, imagine what I’ll get with their paid product.

2) Theory of Reciprocity – one of the principles developed by noted social psychologist Robert Cialdini. The premise is that when you give people a gift (e.g. valuable Free Report), people feel obligated (and may pay for your newsletter).

Still, I wonder . . .

The text ad and landing page headline were exceptionally compelling.
I believe the power of the curiosity and the urgency generated here would immediately stimulate a good conversion rate to a paid membership. In that model, you would not give away all 3 stocks (remove the word Free from the headline), and reserve this valuable information for those who buy the newsletter (preferably a Free Trial).

There is the risk people would resent that you teased them again. But I believe it’s worth a test. I’d experiment with a shorter article or report that gives away some of the prized information, possibly 1 or 2 of the picks. Then lead them to the Free trial to find out the rest.

In any case, in the model they applied here, they still have time to convert me. After all, they now have my email.

Whether you go for the conversion right after signup, or later during email followups, combining curiosity and urgency is one of the top combinations for getting results.

For another powerful opt-in technique, go to squeeze page advice.
For copy and marketing consulting, go to www.altmancopypro.com