It’s fun when a prospect calls you and tells you they are visiting your website and want to sign up for your services. It definitely happens. But these cases are only three percent on average (according to some sources) of the volume of people who visit your site and are interested, but not enough to call.
That means that 97 percent of the other prospects are simply lost forever.
The good news is you can do something about that by offering a free report or newsletter in exchange for their email. Adding your not-ready-to-buy-but-interested-in-staying-in-touch prospect to a list where you send them periodic news of value is the way to warm these people up over time until they become buyers. (You can also encourage them to follow on social media, but getting them on your list is much, much better.)
To do that, you need an opt-in on your website. First, you’ll need a list management app such as Constant Contact that helps you comply with spam laws. Once you set up your list management account, you can go in and find the place where the opt-in code can be generated and send it to your webmaster. Alternately, you can give the webmaster your user ID and password of your list management account, and they will know how to go in and create the code to add to your website.
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Your opt-in form should be streamlined. Most people ask for name and email address only. Some add phone number to the list. In any case, limiting the number of personal pieces of information you ask the prospect for will increase the number of signups you get.
Make sure your opt-in is “above the fold” on your home page. “Above the fold” means it’s visible before scrolling and is an old newspaper term to indicate the story in on the top half of the front page and visible when it’s folded in half.
It’s no longer enough to simply say “Subscribe to my newsletter” anymore because of all the noise of the web and social media. You’ll get more signups if you offer an enticing “lead magnet” in the form of a free report, video, whitepaper, or other content.
Encourage opt-ins outside your website to get even more signups. Do this at networking meetings, speeches or trainings you give, social media, public relations, and all the other lead-generating marketing sources.
Nurture your list by sending out periodic newsletters of value that will warm your prospects up. If you subscribe to our newsletter at http://acceleratornewsletters.com/, we take care of this for you. Otherwise, you can write your own newsletter for your clients.
Tyr these opt-in best practices to salvage 97 percent of your traffic and to get more business.
