It’s easy to assume that, just because you provide an opt in form on your site, visitors will be eager to join your mailing list. Unfortunately, it’s not quite that simple. After all, many people receive hundreds of emails every day, and they know that opting in to your list will add even more emails for them to wade through.

So it’s critical that you give visitors an incentive to join. They need to know that they’re going to receive something of value in exchange for giving you their contact information.

Here are some ideas for improving your opt in rate, and building your subscriber list more quickly:

• If you will be emailing a newsletter, let prospective subscribers know what kinds of information the newsletters will contain. If you’re running a site that sells wine making supplies, for example, you could tell visitors that your newsletter will give them tips for better tasting wine, “insider” access to special varietals, discounts on wine making and bottling equipment, and advice from veteran wine makers.
• Offering a free ebook or report is a great way to get people to subscribe to your list. Using the wine making example, you could offer a report such as “30 Days to Better Tasting Wine”, “7 Essential Tips for Choosing a Wine Kit”, or the like. Just make sure that the report or ebook offers valuable, actionable information, or people will likely unsubscribe the first time you send out an email.
• An email mini-course is also an effective offering. With many of the email marketing services, it is easy to write a batch of emails, and then schedule each one to be sent a certain number of days after the visitor subscribes to your list. It’s a lot like writing a report, except you send it to the subscriber in daily installments, instead of placing the information in a PDF file. The advantage of using this technique is that you stay in front of your subscribers – they look forward to receiving each installment of your mini-course.
• If you use a membership service such as Amember, you can offer access to restricted pages on your site. These pages can contain “premium” content that is not available to regular visitors. This content can provide advanced tips, insider information, or other content that visitors perceive as having a high value.
• Offer access to a video series. Typically, the videos will be instructional, showing subscribers how to accomplish a certain task. Internet users love videos, because they offer more in-depth, “hands on” information than articles or blog posts. 

Next time, we’ll look at ways to communicate to your email list members to build trust, gain loyalty, and increase sales.

Lee

Twitter: @JJMbuzz

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Suddenly, the phone rings. It’s your boss, and he wants to call an emergency meeting. You drop everything, grab your laptop, and head off to the meeting… you’ll just have to come back to the site afterward.

When the meeting is over, though, you come back to your desk to find a stack of papers marked “Urgent”. It’s a rush project that a client needs to have finished before the end of the day. You know this client is very demanding, and would have no problem taking her business elsewhere if the deadline isn’t met. So you delve into the project, working feverishly to complete it before 5:00.

During the commute home, you think about the site… you’re pretty sure you remember the address. But when you get home, you remember that your daughter has ballet practice. So it’s back in the car.

A few hours later, you finally have a few minutes of your own… but you can’t remember the website address. You try a few Google searches, to no avail. You might be able to check your browser history in the morning… if there are no emergency meetings waiting for you when you get to the office.

If this has never happened to you, you must have a more tranquil life than most of us. For many people, this is a daily event.

Now, let’s look at the flip side of this scenario. From a marketer’s standpoint, you’ve lost a potential customer. It doesn’t matter how compelling your content is or how great your products are… if a visitor becomes distracted and can’t find your site again, your marketing efforts have been for nothing.

This is why it is critical to build a  mailing list. If a visitor likes your content, he will want to “opt in” to your newsletter, so he can find your site again.

Building a mailing list is accomplished through the use of an “opt in” form. This is a simple script that you place on your site which asks for the visitor’s name and email address (and sometimes other info, such as mailing address and telephone number). Once a visitor enters his contact info, he receives a confirmation email. He must click on a link in the email to indicate that he really does want to receive email from you.

After the visitor has confirmed the subscription, you are free to send emails – newsletters, product reviews, updates, etc. – to keep your visitor thinking about your business. Of course,  you’ll want to include a link to your site in each email, so your subscribers can easily find your site.

There are several companies online that offer email marketing services, such as Aweber, GetResponse, and Vertical Response. These sites make it easy to create opt in forms, manage your lists, and send emails.

Next time, we’ll look at ways to encourage more visitors to subscribe to your email list.

Lee

Twitter: @JJMbuzz

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