We’re always looking for lots of nice new ways to get plenty of people onto our mailing list. Remember the permission part, we don’t spam. We ask permission, and then we’re nice to them while we build our trust with them.
But we want more people on that list because it’s a numbers game provided they are targeted potential customers. Then the more you have is percentages, the more leads you’re gonna get, the more sales you’re gonna get, the more permanent customers you’re going to get. So how do we get more opt-ins?
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1. Your Website Has to Be Set Up Right
Your website has to be set up to get opt-ins. So in your sidebar of your website — I’m assuming you’re using a WordPress site and you have it set up with a sidebar. So in your sidebar, you require a lead make or, an opt-in form. It had better not say, “Sign up to our newsletter” or “Sign up to get updates”.
Don’t even use the term “sign up” because people have seen that. They’re blinded to it. Make them an offer or make them feel they want to be part of the community.
You’ll see some sites say–In fact, on one of my fire sites, it says, “Join…”–We have a list of 32,000 as of this moment on one of my sites. This is, “Join 32,000 business people who trust Fire Protection Online for their fire safety updates,” or something like that. “Go and see. Sign up.”
And these are people who have opted in. We are very low on subscribe rates so that’s good. But get that in your sidebar.
2. Put Out Fresh New Content All the Time
You are going to be putting out fresh new content all of the time, aren’t you? You are using WordPress, you’re doing it yourself, so you need to make sure you’re writing the content.
You’re pinning up once a week or twice a week or whatever you’re doing. Put another opt-in opportunity at the end of the articles. People read it. How about something like, “Did you enjoy this article? Then blah, blah, blah. We have a free course about…We have etcetera…”
3. What Does Your Homepage Say About Your Site?
Your homepage is going to be the most visited page on your website. It’s just the way it goes. Everyone hits the homepage to see what’s in it. Now, generally, most of us put the homepage where we cram in a summary of everything we do with no particular thought to it. So make the most of it.
People can come to your website getting your information for free, you can almost charge them. Charge them via an e-mail. Make them an offer. Make your homepage an opt-in. It doesn’t have to be the entire homepage. It can be the top, the above the fold, the part people see. It can be a video, an e-book, a cause, or something.
Just get them to opt in. The rest of it can be below that. They’ll find it, don’t you worry. You want them on your list so that you can market to them individually.
4. Make Sure You Have an Exit Pop-Up
Now, what I mean by an exit pop-up, I don’t mean the ones that leave something under the website when they’re gone. I mean one with exit intent. There is fantastic technology that’s been around. I think it’s called the OptinMonster. There there is OptinMonk.
But you can Google exit intent pop-ups and you’ll find a number of them. What happens is it senses when you’re little mouse heads up the page to go to another tab or backspace or to close, it senses that intent and puts in a pop-up and says, “woah…”, and then, “Did you know we have a free e-book too blah, blah, blah.”
Put you’re offer in there. These, by the way, are incredibly effective. They may have been going because they finished reading. They might not because they didn’t want to know. But get it there. They were leaving anyway. What is the harm in asking them to opt in?
5. Have a Better Call to Action
You can have them, but if they’re not working, they’re not working. Get a better call to action. Just do not ask someone to sign up for a newsletter. They don’t want a newsletter. It’s boring. Make another title. Make it sound interesting.
Look around, look at the top marketers. What do they do? How do they do it? People that you’ve heard have got huge lists. Look at list building experts. Look at their websites and see what they do. They’re list building experts, you cannot see them but they are good at building lists and have a good offer.
6. Don’t Use This Word
The next one is on a different track. It’s the last one. When people contact you and you get into discussion via e-mail with a client, they are by default interested in what you do. Or they ask a question about something you’ve done, then tell them you have great information.
It would be of benefit to them to be on this list. Don’t use the word list. It would benefit them to visit this page and sign up there. Just tell them, invite them personally. One on one. You can’t get a better more targeted person than that. Loads of people don’t do this.
Just say, “By the way, you ought to…” Say, not in your signature or something like that, although it should be in there anyway. Just in the thing. “By the way, I think this would interest you.”
In a couple of days, I’m going to give you some more ideas on getting this list building going.
Tuesday Toolbox Tip
Of course, once you got people on the list, you’re going to write to them because you’re going to send them e-mails and to get responders and so on.
Jennifer, my fabulous assistant, found wordcounter.net. It’s dead simple. It’s a website. I always use it in a browser. It’s free, and when you write, it counts the words. It counts the sentences.
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It tells you how long your sentences are. And it strips out all bad characters and stuff. She sent it to me as a good idea and I’ve been using it ever since. It’s really, really clever. It’s just so simple. The most simple things are the best. Wordcounter.net.
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Which one of the above do you need to focus on getting done?
