Easy-To-Use Techniques To Attract Hundreds
Of New Subscribers And Grow Your Opt-In List

It's been proven time and again that opt-in e-mail is the ultimate tool for marketing products or services online. Not only does it generate BY FAR the best response rates, but it can also be the most cost-effective way to sell online, period. In fact, if you start building your own opt-in e-mail list now, you might never have to spend a dime on advertising -- ever again!

Here's why: Once someone gives you their e-mail address, and once you start sending them quality information on a regular basis, they slowly become familiar with your company. And a customer that has become comfortable receiving information from you on a regular basis is much more likely to make a purchase from you than someone who has never even heard of you before.

This is why an opt-in list is so incredibly valuable. It may seem like a lot of work to produce a weekly newsletter for your subscribers, even though only a small percentage of them actually buy anything from you; however, with each message you send them, the chances of that subscriber becoming a customer go way up.

And once you've started turning subscribers into customers, you're home free! At least 20% of your customers will buy again from you in the future. And those who have made two or more purchases from you are even MORE likely to continue to buy from you. Can you see how powerful this is?

How Many People Will Opt In to My List?

There's one question that we get asked more often than any other when we talk to people about building their own opt-in e-mail lists: How many people should be joining my list? What's a good number to aim for, and how do I know if I can improve?

Well, the answer is: It depends. A site with lots of traffic will get more opt-ins than a site with only a few visitors a day. And a site with a well-written and well-placed opt-in offer will always do much better than a site with a boring “Subscribe Now” link stuck down at the bottom of the page.

If you are converting 5% of your visitors to opt-ins, you're on the right track. This means that for every 100 unique visitors to your site, you should be getting 5 new opt-ins. If you implement the strategies in this article, we're confident you'll be able to get this number closer to 10%. FYI: At our web sites, we are consistently converting just over 10% of visitors to opt-ins.

If you are getting anything less than a 5% conversion rate, you are definitely doing something wrong! But don't worry: The tips and secrets you're about to learn will help you boost your numbers dramatically.

Use Killer Copy to Attract Tons of New Subscribers

How motivating is it for a visitor to give you his or her name and e-mail address when presented with a subscribe box titled, "Subscribe to my free newsletter"?

Why? Why should they subscribe? How will they benefit from subscribing? What are they going to get? Just because your newsletter is "free," doesn't mean they want it. There are plenty of free newsletters out there they could subscribe to. What makes yours different or special?

You really need to "sell" your free newsletter to potential subscribers. In one or two short, exciting sentences, clearly state the benefits of subscribing to your newsletter. For example, if your web site was golf-related, you might say something like..."Subscribe to the Free 'Golf Tips' Newsletter and receive monthly tips and advice from Pro Golfers. Improve your swing, hear about world-renowned golf courses, learn which clubs the experts prefer, plus much more!"

It sounds a lot more interesting than "Subscribe to my free newsletter," don't you think? Visitors to your web site will think so, too!

Proven Opt-in Magnets to Grow Your List

You'll need more than just great copy, though, to attract the maximum number of opt-ins. After all, people get plenty of e-mail already these days...

And that is exactly why you need to offer your visitors something so valuable or interesting that they'll be willing to share their e-mail address with you. There are a few tried-and-true offers that will entice your visitors to leave their information. Probably the most effective is…

Opt-in Magnet #1: Free Newsletter

Nothing pulls opt-ins like a free newsletter. In all the years we've been marketing online, we still haven't come across anything that attracts e-mail addresses like the promise of free information.

The reason: People come online to find information, not to shop. If someone does a search for “Sailing,” it's typically because they want information on sailing, NOT because they want to buy sails. When they see your site listed in the search results and click through, it's because they are looking for information from you, not products.

So if all they see when they arrive at your site is a bunch of products and prices, they'll be gone before the page even finishes loading. But, if they see that you offer a FREE newsletter that talks about all the latest sailing tricks and tactics, with tips from top sailors around the world, then they've probably found exactly what they're looking for.

Now, all they have to do to get the EXACT information they were looking for is enter their name and e-mail address. Seems like a fair trade, doesn't it? They'll be getting valuable information on a subject they're interested in, and you'll be getting their e-mail address so that you can offer them products that they will probably need.

Opt-In Magnet #2: Free eBook

A free eBook can be a huge draw, depending on the kinds of products or services you offer. For example, a web site for a Chicago real estate agent would probably get a TON of opt-ins if she offered a free eBook titled “7 Things You NEED To Know If You Are Buying Or Selling A Home In Chicago This Year.”

Of course, if you offer a free eBook you'll also have to go through the trouble of actually writing it. But keep in mind that an eBook doesn't need to be hundreds of pages long. If you can pack 5 or 10 pages with lots of valuable information, your visitors won't feel cheated.

Want to offer an eBook but don't have time to write it? Hire a freelancer! Expect to pay anywhere from about $25 to $75 per hour. Here are a few resources to help you track down a writer:

http://www.sunoasis.com

Opt-in Magnet #3: Free Download

If you are selling a software product, you can't beat a free download of a 'Trial Version' of your software. The idea is to get the customer actually using your product and then ask them to pay for it after a set amount of time, usually 30 days, in order to keep using it. If they don't pay, the software is disabled.

Of course, since you collected their e-mail address when they downloaded the product, you'll be able to offer them a 'special discount' on the 'full version' of the software just before the trial period expires.

Where to Put Your Offer to Maximize Your Opt-ins

We're always shocked when we visit a web site and have to search around for their newsletter subscription offer. Sometimes we'll see a little 'newsletter' link down at the bottom of the page, next to the link to their legal disclaimer. Other times, 'NEWSLETTER' will appear in their navigation bar, between 'LINKS' and 'CONTACT US.'

Remember what we've been saying: opt-in e-mail addresses are the most valuable marketing tool an online business has. You MUST place your opt-in offer in a prominent place on your site. If you aren't already doing this, we can just about guarantee that you're losing sales by the truckload.

There are basically two schools of thought on where you should place your opt-in offer. If your homepage contains a long salesletter, you'll want to put the opt-in offer somewhere around the second page. You have grabbed your visitor's attention, shown them that your site has some valuable information, and now you offer them a free subscription to a newsletter that contains more of the same kind of great information.

If your homepage DOESN'T have a long salesletter, you'll want to place your opt-in box prominently within the first fold of your web site. (The first fold of your web site is the first section that is visible to a visitor without scrolling.) People's eyes are generally drawn to the top left-hand part of a page first, so anywhere near the top left is generally a good place to put your opt-in offer.

Of course, these aren't proven facts for YOUR site, so we would encourage you to test a few different locations. Try your opt-in box at the top of your page for a week, on the right hand side for a week, and over on the left for a week. Whichever spot pulls the most opt-ins is the best place for your box.

We would also encourage you to place the opt-in box in the same place on every single page of your site. The more chances you give your visitors to opt-in, the higher your conversion rate is going to be. Of course, you don't want to overdo it… one opt-in request per page is plenty!

How to Grow Your Opt-in List When Your Site Gets No Traffic

Of course, none of the information we've been giving you does much good if you don't have any visitors to convert to opt-ins!

The following strategies are some of the quickest and most cost-effective ways to drive traffic to your site in droves… and convert a ton of opt-ins in the process. Those of you who aren't seeing much traffic to your sites will want to pay special attention to this section:

Strategy #1: Advertise Your Newsletter in Other Newsletters

What better way to attract targeted newsletter subscribers than through a related industry newsletter? If you sell tropical fish supplies, for example, advertising in another online tropical fish newsletter will ensure that you are targeting the EXACT audience you are looking for -- people who are interested in tropical fish AND who read newsletters on the subject.

You'd be surprised at how inexpensive advertising in these online publications can be. Generally speaking, the people who run smaller newsletters don't get a lot of telephone calls from individuals interested in purchasing ad space, making it relatively easy to negotiate low ad rates.

The best way to set up ads in newsletters and e-zines is to contact the newsletter owner directly via e-mail or telephone. You'll have to negotiate the specifics of your ad with them individually (i.e. how long your ad can be, how much it will cost, etc.).

Strategy #2: Co-Registration Services

Another way to get tons of new subscribers to your free newsletter is through a technique called co-registration, which involves getting your newsletter or e-zine offer listed alongside another publication's. When someone subscribes to the other newsletter, they are given the option of signing up for yours as well -- without re-entering their personal information.

Because subscribers don't have to enter their personal information a second time to subscribe to your newsletter, they are far more likely to sign up, and this means that you get more e-mail addresses to market to!

You see, the power of this technique is two-fold… First of all, when people sign up for a newsletter on another web site, they have made a conscious decision that the information the site offers is of value to them. So when the site offers them another subscription -- this time to YOUR newsletter -- this subtle recommendation is extremely effective.

(Of course, you'll have to pay for this service. The prices for co-registration vary, but you can expect to pay $0.25 to $1.00 per new subscriber.)

The second powerful part of this technique lies in the opportunity it gives you to develop a relationship with your target market. Yes -- you've had to pay anywhere from $0.25 to $1.00 to contact them; but trust me, it's usually worth it when you calculate the lifetime value of these potential customers. Remember that once you've sold to someone once, it's very easy to sell to them again and again.

Keep in mind that it is important to make sure that you're getting quality e-mail addresses. One way to check that your co-registration provider is sending you the right lists is by subscribing to your own newsletter or e-zine through their co-registration page. If you get your own e-mail address, then you can be pretty sure that you are getting the right e-mails.

You should also make sure that you get the e-mail addresses of the new subscribers as quickly as possible. You want to be able to start marketing to them right away because the longer you wait, the higher the risk of the addresses going “bad” and becoming outdated.

Strategy #3: Buying or Renting Lists

Renting e-mail addresses from third-party list providers is a route than many e-business owners choose because you are given quick access to a list of hundreds, if not thousands, of people who have “opted” to receive e-mail on topics that interest them.
You can usually expect to be charged 5 to 20 cents per deliverable message… and you should expect any e-mail addresses that are “bad” or that “bounce” to be replaced by addresses that are current.
If you decide to use a service like this, it's absolutely imperative that you find out how the e-mail addresses were obtained. You want e-mail addresses that have been collected ethically and responsibly, which means that you want the targeted addresses of people who have given their permission and opted in to the list.
This will tell you how suitable they are for your product or service and you can be sure that they haven't been harvested from newsgroups or similar areas on the 'Net.

A few third-party list providers who offer targeted opt-in e-mail lists are:

1. Postmaster Direct http://www.postmasterdirect.com
   
2. YesMail http://www.yesmail.com
   
3. Email Universe http://www.emailuniverse.com
   
4. Focalex http://www.focalex.com
   
5. TargitMail http://www.targitmail.com

Buying or renting e-mail addresses this way can get very expensive, so you need to be sure that your sales process has been tested and tweaked before you roll out your entire campaign. Do some tests using a few thousand addresses and you should get a fairly accurate picture of how successful your campaign is going to be.

Ultimately, your goal should be to develop a relationship with these people before you push a hard sale on them. Give them quality information that they can use… recommend a free resource… offer a free subscription to your newsletter… provide them with a free chapter from your eBook… whatever it takes to establish your credibility and develop a rapport with them.

Remember that the true value lies in the relationship that you develop with the person behind the e-mail address… not in the e-mail address itself. It will be the relationship that you develop with these people that will result in big sales both now and in the future… so keep this in mind if you decide to rent e-mail addresses.

Use the Power of Pop-Ups to INSTANTLY Collect 50% More Opt-Ins

Love them or hate them, pop-ups are the ultimate strategy for collecting opt-in email addresses at your web site. And the fact of the matter is, if you AREN'T using pop-ups at your site to collect opt-ins, you're not doing all you can to ensure the success of your business.

In fact, until recently, just ONE of our pop-ups has been responsible for adding an extra 5,000 new subscribers to our opt-in list every single month!

But then, we actually realized not too long ago that these numbers had dropped off from where they should be (because our visitors had increased in the meantime)… That's when we knew that the new pop-up blockers you may have heard of really were affecting us.

So we started researching solutions for getting around pop-up blockers, and we came across some very impressive technology that actually lets you use ads that LOOK like pop-ups and BEHAVE like pop-ups, but that are NOT really pop-ups. They're called "Hover Ads" and they're a different technology altogether.

And after a few simple tests with "Hover Ads," the results were incredible... Within 24 hours, our daily opt-in subscribers increased by 86%!

Hover Ads are different because they actually "hover" in the same window as your homepage -- instead of appearing in an entirely new window, like pop-ups. So the pop-up blockers have no way of knowing they're there, because they're just part of your regular web page.

Final Thoughts:

Building your opt-in list is the best investment you can make in the success of your business. Every single time you collect a name and e-mail address, you gain a potential customer, and the more potential customers you have, the more successful you will be.

So spend some time experimenting with your opt-in offer -- from the copy, to the placement on your web page, to the offer itself.

Then, make sure your offer gets as much exposure as possible with advertising or coregistration.

And it really is just as simple as that. Remember that marketing is really just a numbers game. The more people you can expose to your product, the more you will be able to sell. Period