One of the primary goals of many websites, and ours too, is to build a quality list of prospective future clients and to continue to stay in the conversation with our current clients. A very common strategy to build a database of names and email addresses is to include an email marketing opt-in form or subscribe form on every page of a website, and experts will often tell you the upper right-hand corner of a web page is the most effective pace to place it. Now it doesn’t have to be in the exact top right-hand corner, but in that general area is preferred.
To entice website visitors more, many website owners will offer an Irresistible Free Offer such as a special report, free CD, e-book, video, or audio recording. But these offers aren’t really free because visitors are required to give their name and email address to receive the gift.
As more online marketers, entrepreneurs, and businesses use this approach to grow their marketing lists, inboxes around the world are being saturated with a barrage of less than stellar messages and spam. As a result people are more cautious when it comes to opting in. An emerging trend that we are seeing is to provide downloads like audios, videos, reports and more without any opt-in required.
Now, I know you may be screaming, “I’m having a hard enough time with my Irresistible Free Offer, let alone a second or third item that I can give away without anything in return.”
Here is a simple strategy that we use and doesn’t require much additional work. After you have been blogging for a while, look at your most popular posts that cover a similar topic, and edit them into a focused free report and publish it as a “no opt-in required” download that is truly free. This no opt-in approach to list building has two effects:
- It shows you do really care about helping your prospective future client solve their problems, without expecting anything in return.
- It makes the statement, “If your no opt-in required stuff is this awesome, just imagine what your opt-in required content must be like.”
The individuals, who opt-in after reading your truly “free” reports, will already be fans and be much more likely to receive your future newsletters and marketing messages. In today’s competitive online world, your focus needs to be on quality, not quantity.
If you are a Google Analytics user, you can track your downloads a few ways:
- Enable event tracking and add the file type you want to track.
- Record the download as a virtual page view when someone clicks on the link.
If you are a WordPress user and have the Google Analyticator plug-in, use the first method. The settings menu for the plug-in will allow you to add the file types to track without any advanced Google Analytics programming knowledge. By tracking your downloads of your no opt-in required products, you can then compare them to your opt-ins that require an email address. Have the expectation that the numbers will probably be greater for the no opt-in required information, but over time you will be able to measure how well your content is resonating with your audience. If it is good, they will come back and give you their email address. If it needs work, you will know and be able to have a measurable goal to work toward.
