What?!

If your free offer — the thing you’re giving away for free in exchange for their name and email address — isn’t what your visitors want or need, they won’t sign up and enter their name and email … even if your opt-in box is awesome!

Here’s the first thing you need to know about your opt-in free offer:

Your free offer needs to be irresistible. It needs to be extraordinary. It needs to be incredible. It needs to be valuable. It needs to be amazing. It needs to be so good that your first instinct is to charge money for it, and that it hurts a little bit at first to give it away for free.

Why? Because it really isn’t free. You may not be asking for money, but you are asking for their email address, and in today‘s climate of overcrowded, bulging inboxes that pretty much never reach zero, an email address can hold just as much value to your prospect as cash.

So how do you know if your free offer will be irresistible to your prospects and ideal clients?

You’re in luck, because figuring this out isn’t as hard as it sounds. There are only three other things you must know before creating your opt-in free offer to ensure that it is irresistible to your ideal clients.

1. You Must Know Who You Want On Your List

The first step to creating a successful free offer to use for your website opt-in box is to make sure you know exactly who you want to attract with your offer. Who is your ideal client? Who do you want to attract to your site? What type of person to you want to join your list so you can continue to market to them?

How do you know who your ideal client is? Your Ideal Client is some one who:

• Has problems and challenges you can easily fix and solve with your eyes closed
• Sees you as a valuable necessity they treasure, instead of a necessary evil
• Likes you, appreciates your hard work, and will tell their friends, peers, and contacts about you
• Pays you what you’re worth and is happy to do so because you’re worth it

By knowing who you want to attract with your free offer, you can tailor the development of your irresistible free offer (and the marketing for it) to speak right to them, making sure every bit of content is relevant, valuable, and useful.

2. You Must Know What Your Ideal Client Struggles With

The number one reason consumers go online, search the web, or perform a search with a search engine is to solve a problem or fulfill a need. That means that new visitors to your site have a problem or a need and they are looking for a solution.

They need help. Will you be the one to provide a solution?

It is critical that you understand the top three biggest challenges, pains, struggles, and frustrations that your ideal clients have — They are at best, looking for a solution, and at worst, looking for help to make it better.

3. You Must Know What Your Ideal Client Wants and/or Needs

To make your opt-in free offer irresistible to your ideal clients and ideal website visitors, it must provide something your ideal clients and visitors want and/or need — something they are looking for.

It needs to address or solve at least one of their top three problems. That way, when they reach your site and see your opt-in, they will:

• Identify with the problem you mention — “Oh my gosh! I have that problem.”
• Know they are in the right place — “It’s as if you are speaking right to me.”
• Feel relief at finally finding help/a solution — “Yay! I think this will help me, I should opt-in.”

If you know who you want to attract with your free offer, what they struggle with, and what they are looking for, you can craft the perfect irresistible free offer that will provide the solution they have been looking for (or at least a taste of it).

Just make sure you make it so good, you really want to charge for it.

For visual people like me, check out the step-by-step information graphic of the basic opt-in process below – and for those of you who want this written out step-by-step, you can find that below the graphic!

Now Here’s What You Need to Know About Setting Up The Opt-In Process…

As I mentioned, time and time again, we see the same mistakes made in the planning, execution, and follow up (auto-responder) that takes place as part of a successful opt-in system. If you build your next campaign based on the following five key points and five opt-in best practices, you will increase your online success:

1. You must create a “free” giveaway like a report, e-book, e-course, audio download, consulting session, or something else that has intrinsic value, and will help your target market. With more online marketers adapting this method, your offer must be absolutely irresistible and address what we like to call your ideal clients’ “do-anything, pay-anything problem or need”; if you expect your site visitors to trade their email address (and your future marketing messages) for it.
2. You must think like an advertising copywriter when you write your call to action and opt-in box copy. Don’t use adjectives; use strong action verbs to motivate a response and focus your copy on the results your visitor will achieve by opting in to get your offer.
3. Use powerful imagery to increase your results. Avoid using the standard opt-in box that is provided by your email marketing provider. A custom designed and coded opt-in image or full integration into your website header or sidebar will compliment your website much more than the ugly standard box provided. If your irresistible free offer is a report, e-book, DVD, or CD, etc. consider creating a custom 3D product image to help draw attention to your offer.
4. Don’t ask for too much information. If your free offer is downloadable from your site, only ask for a first name and email address. If your free offer requires mailing, only ask for the information you need to deliver your product.
5. Always use a double opt-in (see below). Double opt-in sequences ensure that you have a real email address to market to in the future, and confirm that your prospect did not make a mistake in giving you their information.

Now that we have covered the five key points in planning your irresistible free offer opt-in, the next biggest problem we see is with the execution and set-up of the opt-in process. Follow these five opt-in best practices to ensure that once you hook your prospect with your offer, you can reel them in with ease:

1. When setting up your opt-in forms with your email marketing provider, select the option to send the visitor to a webpage on your site; not the ugly default page of the software provider. Don’t forget to add the actual page to your website. In a double opt-in sequence, we call this the “Confirm” page and usually have a message like:
    
   “Congratulations on deciding to take your business to the next step by grabbing your copy of our Awesome Free Report. We just sent you an email to the address you provided to confirm that you entered it correctly, and to confirm that you are just not some lame SPAM-Bot messing with my site. You should receive this in a few moments, and when you do, simply click the link for instant access to our Awesome Free Report. If you don’t get the confirmation email, you may have entered your email address incorrectly, so please try again. Thanks.”
2. Then create the confirmation email within the software provider you use and set it to send immediately after someone opts-in. In this email message, you need write a quick note to tell the recipient to click the link to verify their email address and get their free stuff. When setting up this step, select the option to “Send to a Web Page or URL” on your site when the link is clicked, not the ugly default page. We usually call this destination page the “Thank You” page and have a message similar to:
    
   “Thanks for confirming that you are an actual person, and not trying just fake me out to get my Awesome Free Report”. As promised here is your copy.”
    
   The “Thank You” page is where you will put the download link(s) and download instructions for your free offer. Don’t forget to add this page to your site and upload your offer to your website.
3. Do not commit follow up sequence failure, or forget to create a follow up sequence or auto responder. Many people opt-in to get free products but never actually read or listen to them. As a result, your message is never heard. A well planned follow up sequence or auto responder can help your message be heard and automate some of the initial marketing to your new prospect. An easy method is to have an email follow up sequence planned to send every few days for a week or two after someone opts-in. A great tactic we like to use is to supply surprise bonus content that was not mentioned in the initial free offer.
4. Use consistent email subject lines to avoid confusion with your new prospect. If your follow up sequence emails appear like random marketing messages, there is a good chance that your emails will not get opened, your new prospect will quickly unsubscribe, or worse, you will get flagged as a SPAM.
5. Finally, the biggest failure in executing an email marketing follow up sequence is the lack of adding a call to action or up-sell at the end. By now you have gone through a lot of work in creating your irresistible free offer and planning and coding the follow up sequence, so you better make a pitch at the end. It doesn’t have to be big or involve a monetary transaction; although ideally it would. It can be as simple as scheduling a free consultation, or a free trial of your paid product. If your prospect doesn’t “buy” right away, at least now you have their email address to send content-packed, valuable email newsletters.

If you follow the five key points to a successful opt-in process and the five opt-in best practices I outlined, your opt-in sequences will run smoothly and give you the greatest chance at successful email marketing and sales conversions.

Email addresses should be obtained only by legitimate means like through opt-in and subscribe boxes on your website, or by specific request. This is why email marketing lists are often called opt-in lists. Valid contact information should be included in every piece of email marketing and a privacy policy should be provided.

Single Opt-In Marketing Lists vs. Double Opt-In Marketing Lists

• Single opt-in emails do not require a confirmation via email. In this case, when a customer subscribes, they are automatically added to your marketing list.
• Double opt-in emails require the subscriber to confirm their subscription and agree they do want to receive your email marketing messages. In this case, when they subscribe, a confirmation email is received in their inbox. They will only be added to your list if they click on the link in the email message.
• NOTE: Just because you meet someone at an event and they trade cards with you doesn’t give you the right to add them to your list. Also, adding everyone you have ever met to your list and justifying it with an unsubscribe link that gives them the option to not receive your ezine is unacceptable. If you use either of these tactics, you will be viewed as a spammer.

Remind Email or Ezine Subscribers How they Joined Your List

Many email marketers will include a 1-2 sentence description of how their list is generated. This short statement reminds the recipient that they did in fact opt-in to the marketing list.

For example: “You are receiving this email message because you made a verbal or written request at an event, opted-in on one of our websites, www.bourncreative.com, www.jenniferbourn.com, www.designandprofit.com, or purchased a product from Bourn Creative.”

Provide an Easy Unsubscribe or Opt-Out Option for Your Email Newsletter

Believe it or not, by making is clear that you include unsubscribe and opt-out links in each email message, email newsletter, or ezine, you will actually increase your subscriber count. At some point people who have joined your list may want to leave. By showing them that leaving your list is as easy as joining it, you bypass some of the fear associated with the possibility of receiving spam and unwanted email in their inboxes.

No matter what type of business you have or what services or products you sell, a value-added email newsletter can be a great tool to help attract more customers and prospects. Email marketing helps you stay in front of your customers and prospects, increase your marketing “touches,” and generate more leads and referrals.

To do any type of email marketing, you have to set up an account with an email marketing service provider. These service providers enforce strict email rules, work tirelessly to keep their servers white-listed (liked) by the internet service providers / email providers, provide you the ability to track and measure your email marketing campaign results, and manage your email marketing list subscribes and unsubscribes.

Listed below are a few great email marketing service providers. The providers marked with an asterisk (*), are the providers I currently work with, or have worked with in the past for either myself or my clients.

• www.InfusionSoft.com*
• www.ConstantContact.com*
• www.Aweber.com*
• www.1ShoppingCart.com*
• www.iContact.com*
• www.myEmma.com*
• www.VerticalResponse.com*
• www.MailChimp.com
• www.EmailBrain.com
• www.GetResponse.com
• www.Bluehornet.com
• www.Lyris.com
• www.bronto.com

Everyone knows that giving something away for free is one of the best ways to get people to opt-in to your marketing list. Your free offer may be an ebook, a special report, or even an audio recording. In this blog post, I want to share with you ten additional tips for building your marketing list.

TIP 1: Add a Sign Up form or Opt-In Box
on Every Page of Your Website

Adding a subscribe form or opt-in box to every page of your website ensures that no matter what page a visitor may land on first, they will learn about your valuable ezine and your special offer.

TIP 2: Advertise in Another Ezine

One of the best places to spend your advertising dollars is in email newsletters, email marketing, and ezines from other entrepreneurs and businesses that target the same market share and audience that you do. Think about it. The audience is already subscribing to one ezine and the likelihood that they will subscribe to another is pretty high. Plus, the cost of advertising in an ezine is relatively low when compared to other forms of advertising.

An Advertisement in an ezine is also a great place to test out different headlines and calls to action. Just be sure you commit to run your ad multiple times and track your links. Remember, a mediocre offer seen several times will have better conversion rates than an irresistible offer made only once.

TIP 3: Promote Your Ezine in Your Email Signature

At the end of your email signature, after all of your usual contact information, include a quick 2-3 line mini advertisement for your ezine. If you’ve got a special offer or free gift, let people know about it!

TIP 4: Send Out a Press Release

Are you launching a brand new ezine? Are you tapping an emerging market that people want to know about? Have you hit a milestone such as a specific number of subscribers or a specific number of issues published? Did publishing your ezine bring you a huge new opportunity, contract, book deal, etc.?

No, the press release isn’t dead. In fact, with more and more media outlets cutting staff, the reporters and journalists who are left have a much larger responsibility and a lot more work to do. Reporters do still look at well written, relevant, timely press releases.

Also, optimized press releases with the right keywords and longtail key phrases are amazing tools for search engine optimization and increased online visibility for you, your ezine, and your business. Reporters use online media sources to search for press releases that are relevant to their stories. Bloggers use press release distribution sites to see what content is popular and to get ideas for new blog posts, and potential interviewees. You should be using press releases with links back to your website, services, and products to boost your search engine ranking.

TIP 5: Announce Your Ezine to Your Network

Be sure to send out a promotional marketing piece to announce your ezine to your clients, prospects, business networks, and friends. You can also send them a single sample issue to read through with an invitation to opt-in to your list and continue receiving your ezine. Also, if you belong to any professional organizations or associations, find out if you can place an ad in their newsletter or trade publication.

Check back tomorrow for the post Top Ten Email Marketing List Building Tips – Part 2.