If you want to entice people to join your mailing list you have to give something of great value in return for their email address and name. After all, we all now how valuable our contact details are.
The best gifts are those that solve a problem your customer already has s they will start to see you as a solution provider and you give great value straight up.
Usually this will be a digital product like an ebook or audio recording, that can be delivered immediately on autopilot.
The thing that often starts business owners setting up this perfect lead generation system, is understanding the techy stuff. They have trouble visualizing the process, the steps involved, and what web pages and emails are needed.
So here it is, in dot point for your reference:
- Customer fills in email address and name in an “opt-in” form on your site. This may be on a page called a “squeeze page”, “Landing Page” or just on the main page of your web site.
- The information they fill out is sent to the email program you used to set up your “opt-in” box. I recommend Aweber and Autoweb Business.
- The email / autoresponder programs sends an email to the new subscriber, asking them to confirm it was them that filled in the form. The email will have a confirmation link in it. Usually, you can edit the text of this email to add a personal touch.
- Meanwhile…back on your web site…after the person clicks the “subscribe” button, they are taken to a new page on your web site. This is the Thank you page. I usually head this with “Step 2 of 3″ so they know they have another step to do. On this page you thank them for subscribing and tell them to check their in box and confirm their subscription
- The customer checks the in box and clicks on the subscribe link
- As soon as they hit subscribe they are taken to a web page that tells them they were successful. Your email program will give you the option to choose which page the customer is sent to. I send them to a page I have created on my web site called “Download page”. This page congratulates them and has links to their gift. I usually head this “Step 3 of 3″ so they know it is all over
- When the customer clicked on the confirm link in the confirmation email, this triggered your email program to send the first email you have loaded into the follow-up email sequence. In this email you start building the relationship and also include the link to the “Download Page”.
That’s it. Now you have a happy, double opt-in subscriber.
In summary, here are the assets you need to create:
- Landing Page - may or may not be linked to your web site navigation
- Thank you page - not linked to navigation
- Download Page - not linked to navigation
- Confirmation email - edit the standard one to personalize it. I usually put “Step 2 of 3″ in the subject line.
- Welcome email - first email in the follow up sequence with link to download page.
Good luck. If you don’t want to learn how to set this all up yourself, a great place to get help from people who understand Internet Marketing is Wonderful Web Solutions.
