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How to Create an Effective Free Opt-in Offer

How to Create an Effective Free Opt-in Offer

Getting traffic to your site is great, but what do you do when half of the traffic leaves without purchasing or leaving any trace they were there? Here’s where an opt-in offer comes into play. An opt-in offer will grow your email list and continuously generate profits. The tricky part is convincing someone to give you their email.

The most important things to keep in mind when designing your opt-in offer are:

  • What’s in it for them?
  • What message will resonate with my audience?
  • What plan do I have to ultimately convert them into a customer?

When you ask for someone’s email, offer them something valuable for their information. It’s a must! Offer a resource that has significant enough value to be a good “trade” for their email address.  As well, be upfront about what your subscriber can expect once they give you their email address. How many time will they get an email each week?  Tell them what they will receive and it’ll greatly improve your chances of getting their information.

There is a multitude of different offers to use for the opt-in offer incentive including:

  • Coupon Code
  • Webinar Content
  • Educational information i.e.- video tutorial
  • E-Book Download
  • Contest Entry
  • Exclusive offers

Another method to consider is to get an email address and other information with a loyalty points program.

Starbucks is a perfect example of great customer retention through a loyalty program that allows people to earn stars every time they make a purchase. Customers redeem their stars for free drinks, food, and products.If you offer people incentives to create an account and recurring incentives for goal completions, they’ll be 10 times more likely to return.

Once you’ve established your offer, the next step is deciding what to do once you get the email address.

This is the time to make your company’s message stand out from the emails that fill people’s inbox daily. Choose your message and how you want to deliver it, then design your email to display your message engagingly.

We hate to break it to you, but not all emails get read!  If you can get a 35% open rate on your emails you are doing well.  That’s why you need an offer that helps you gain a volume of new subscribers.

Your main message must pop off your email right away.  The subject line often makes or breaks whether the email is read.

So now that you have your email list and message, you need to think about how to get them back to your site.

Your emails should have easy to read call to actions that will bring people back to your website. Offer a promo, show a new product offering, or include an excerpt from a blog that requires people to go back to your site to continue reading. Offer your subscribers solutions to their problems or something entertaining. Make your contact list look forward to your emails and you will see your conversions rise.

There is proven growth in email marketing you just need to be creative to stand out among the millions of opt-in offers.

Your best bet in creating a successful opt-in offer is to get into the minds of your ideal customers. What do they want to know? What would make them give you their information? Answer that and your opt-in offer will do the lead generation for you.

How to Effectively Use Free Opt-in Offers

How to Effectively Use Free Opt-in Offers

Your small business may have an excellent website. Yet it might not be enough!

A site with great design and well-written descriptions may not get you the clients or followers you need to have a successful business.  Why?  Lead Capture is missing.

You need to market your website to get the maximum number of visitors and make sure you keep in contact, so they end up as customers, not just one time visitors on your site.

They don’t often buy the first time!

Most site visitors don’t commit to buy your product or use your services on their first visit.

Thus, it’s critical you make sure you have a way to capture their contact information when they DO visit!  With consistent interaction after the capture you may convert your visitor to a customer over time.  A well-designed opt-in offer to capture the email address and open two-way communication is an excellent way to engage your visitor. Their first visit is the best chance you’ll have to make that connection, so you need to choose your offer wisely and deploy it well.

The Offer Must have Value!

Research shows that free offers in exchange for an email address are effective.
Your visitors have a chance to try something without cost or obligation. They get to know you better and learn that you have something beneficial to offer. You’ll need to provide something of real value related to your products/services in exchange for their email address. It might be an eBook, a webinar, a product sample, a coupon or a highly informative video or newsletter. If you have a service, you can offer a free trial to “try before you buy.” It must be of enough value and compelling to motivate a sign-up.

Even if your business is not selling products or services, you need to grow your email list. Why?  It’s the simplest path forward to stay in touch with your clients and potential clients. Successful opt-in offers follow these guidelines:

  • Have an opt-in offer form which matches your site branding. Make sure the form is easy to complete (Not too many fields; best is name and email). Make it easy for a visitor to quickly opt-in.
  • Make sure the opt-in form is a prominent item on your site. Be sure it’s easy to locate. Use color, motion, or eye-catching graphics to call attention to it.
  • The offer should be really helpful. Make it nearly impossible for visitors to consider leaving without taking your offer. Your audience must see the value in the offer.
  • A well-received form might include a picture of you to make the offer more personal and humanize the business.
  • Make a strong case for the benefits your prospect will gain by accepting your offer.
  • Include success stories and testimonials to help encourage acceptance.

Conversion rates vary for opt-in offers. The more time you cultivate the contact, making sure they get the full value of the offer and keep in touch, the better the conversion rate. According to Totango research, trial offer conversions could run from under 8% up to 20% with follow-up. The key to better conversion is communication with the lead on a regular basis, and using their first name. This is part of your email nurture follow-up strategy.  Deployment of emails should be on a scheduled basis or based on the lead’s use or lack of use of the trial product. You can offer coaching or help by phone or email.

If you make a good impression, you’ll be rewarded!

These are essential keys to success on your site.  Any questions?