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THE WINNING ADVANTAGE eZINE
Tuesday, July 18, 2006
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Published by Earl Savage
ES World Marketing
http://www.esworldmarketing.com/blog/ezine/
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In This Issue:
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1. Message from the Editor

2. Feature Article – “Beef Up Your Opt-In Email List With an Offer
Your Visitors CAN’T Refuse! “
by Derek Gehl

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Dear Reader,

WELCOME and Thanks!

As always, I hope you’ll enjoy and profit from reading “The Winning AdVantage”.
Please feel free to post your comments at the bottom of this blog post. I am here
to help and I welcome your feedback.

Wishing you success,
Earl Savage, Publisher
The Winning AdVantage eZine
winning@esworldmarketing.com

P.S. If you like this ezine, please forward it to your friends, downline, upline, etc.
If you have ideas for improving it, please let me know. I’d love to hear from you.

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Click Here To See How I Get 25-50 Free Visitors To Your
Website Every Single Day http://esworldmarketing.com/supertip.htm .
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=>> Feature Article
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“Beef Up Your Opt-In Email List With an Offer
Your Visitors CAN’T Refuse! “
by Derek Gehl

If there is one piece of advice I would give to every
business operating on the Web today, it would be this:

You MUST collect the opt-in information
of visitors to your web site!

Why? Because if you’re not constantly building your opt-in
email list, you’re letting MOST of your sales opportunities
slip right through your fingers! I can’t say it often enough!

Studies have shown that it takes an average of FOUR TO SEVEN
points of contact to make a sale — and you won’t make it to
the second point of contact if you don’t have a way to reach
your visitors after they’ve left your site.

Think about how many web sites you visit in an hour of
surfing the Internet — do you remember the salescopy and
products from each of those sites? Could you find a particular
site again if you wanted to re-check their information? Even
if you Googled it, there’s no guarantee that exact URL would
show up in your keyword results.

In most cases, visitors come to your site, they look around,
then they leave, and they’re gone forever.

But simply by collecting their first name, last name, and
email address, you can stay firmly on their radar and expose
them to your products time and time again — all at nearly no
cost to you! These people are your opt-ins, and an opt-in
email list is the very foundation of any online business.

That’s why it’s amazing to me that many people don’t take
advantage of opt-in email marketing.

Especially when statistics from PostFuture back up exactly
what I’m saying:

*82% of online buyers have made at least one purchase
in response to an email promotion

*67% of users open at least 60% of opt-in emails they
receive

*32% have made an immediate online purchase in response
to an email!

*59% have gone on to redeem an email coupon in an
online OR offline store.

People pay close attention to their email, and more and more
people are buying online every year!

But consumers know that their personal information is gold,
and they won’t give it to you unless you give them something
they want in return. If you provide your visitors with a
targeted, valuable opt-in offer, your opt-in email list
will grow — and so will your revenues.

So now that you know WHY you should be collecting your
visitors’ information, let’s take a look at…

*WHO you should be considering when you build your
opt-in strategy

*WHAT to offer your visitors to get them excited
about opting in

*HOW to promote your offer

*WHERE to put it on your web site!

Once you’ve got the answers to these questions, you’re
ready to put together the best possible opt-in offer for
your target market.

——————————————————–

WHO? Know your target market — and build an
offer they can’t refuse!

——————————————————–

The first step in creating a solid opt-in strategy is to
consider the people you want to opt in to your list. Just
as the best businesses are created in response to the needs
of a specific niche market, so are the best opt-in offers!

That’s why the first, most important question is always
WHO. Unless you can specifically say who you’re aiming your
strategy at, you’re going to have a hard time running any
kind of an opt-in campaign… AND your business, for that
matter.

You can find out a lot about your site visitors’ preferences
and habits by looking at the server logs that your web host
supplies. What’s the most popular page on your web site? What
pages do visitors stay on for the longest time? Build your
opt-in offer around what’s on those pages.

Where do people most often click away from your site?
Obviously whatever’s there isn’t something your market
considers valuable, so a related opt-in offer wouldn’t work.

When do most people visit your site? If they’re visiting
during work hours, your offer will be much different from
one aimed at people visiting in the evenings.

Also consider the questions or comments you get from
customers after a sale. What do they want to know? What
do they like or dislike?

The more hard information you have on your target
audience, the easier it will be to come up with an
opt-in offer that answers their specific needs.

Now’s the time to think about WHAT your target market
really wants…

——————————————————–

WHAT? Discover the opt-in incentive that will
provide maximum value for your opt-in email list
— and get your subscribers in the mood to buy!

——————————————————–

There are tons of different incentives you can use to
encourage people to give you their personal information –
but not every offer will suit every web site or business.

Because people already get so much email these days, you
need to provide them with a really compelling incentive to
opt in to your list.

Most people think of newsletters right off the bat when
they are first developing an opt-in incentive for their web
site.

Starting your own online newsletter is one of the
most effective methods of building your opt-in list. It’s
an incredibly powerful way to position yourself as an
industry expert with your customers and subscribers, and it
reminds them regularly of your presence.

For some businesses, however, offering a free newsletter
isn’t the best way to collect email addresses. Let’s suppose,
for example, that your site sells washers and dryers. You’re
going to be hard pressed to come up with interesting, relevant
information about laundry for your free newsletter every month!

According to an Ipsos-Reid poll, 71% of all Internet users
have unsubscribed from at least one email list because the
information delivered wasn’t sufficiently interesting or
relevant.

Before you start a newsletter, think about how much
interesting and relevant information you can deliver to
your specific audience and how much time you have
available to put it together so it can be delivered
on a regular schedule.

If a newsletter isn’t a good fit for your business, don’t
worry — there are other ways to collect email addresses,
and they require less time and effort.

1. Offer a free course

If you have a lot of know-how in your area of expertise,
you can turn your “expert” status into a free multi-part
course on a subject your readers are interested in
learning.

It’s another great way to start collecting opt-in email
addresses, and it has the advantage of putting you in
touch with your opt-ins several times.

Ask yourself what kind of information your readers want
from you — what do you have to teach them? What have they
come to your site to learn, or what kind of information
were they seeking?

By using delayed autoresponders, you can set up the
different lessons in your course to be emailed to
subscribers at specified intervals, all without any
effort on your part.

Your delayed autoresponder program could be set up to
send a new lesson to subscribers every seven days –
meaning that subscribers would automatically be exposed
to your company and your offer four times over the
course of a month.

And the best part is, you are contacting them with
information that they have specifically requested.

If you’re interested in getting your hands on an
email management program with unlimited autoresponder
capability, check out:

http://www.marketingtips.com/mailloop

Don’t forget that your course can contain text, audio,
graphics — even video — whatever suits the material
you’re delivering. Just send your subscribers a link
to the web page where your course can be found.

Unlike email, your web site doesn’t put any restrictions
on how much rich media you can feature.

2. Offer a free eBook

A free eBook can be a great incentive, depending on the
kinds of products or services you offer.

If you offer a free eBook, you’ll have to take the time
to actually write it. But an eBook doesn’t need to be
hundreds of pages long to be useful. An information-packed
eBook can be as short as 8 to 10 pages, and still provide
a ton of value for your opt-in subscribers.

Not only does a free eBook help build your list, it also
helps familiarize your visitors with you and your products
or services.

You can also make your eBook viral — and no, that
doesn’t mean you’re making anyone sick!

“Viral marketing” is a strategy in which you encourage
your customers to pass on a marketing campaign or message
to others. Like a virus, your message has the potential
to spread throughout online communities.

With viral eBooks, word about your business spreads
quickly. For example, let’s say that you persuade 10
people to pass your eBook on to their friends. And if
they share it with even a few of their friends?

That’s a number that multiplies pretty quickly — and can
convert into tons of highly targeted potential customers!

You can even create a new opt-in offer for people who’ve
received the eBook from friends. Put a link in the eBook
to a special landing page that features the offer and
collect a “second generation” of opt-ins.

3. Offer downloadable articles

If your site contains a lot of useful, original,
content-rich articles, one of the best ways to collect
email addresses is to require that visitors to your site
opt in to your list if they want to download those
articles.

As long as you offer useful information, and as long
as the downloadable articles contain something that
people can’t get for free in the version you have posted
on your site, you can expect to get a TON of sign-ups
using this strategy

Now, maybe you’re not comfortable writing, or your business
isn’t suited to offering a written opt-in incentive. But don’t
worry! There are a number of opt-in offers that don’t require
much writing at all — just a bit of creativity!

4. Offer other “downloadables”

Articles aren’t the only items you can offer for download
on your web site — why not offer e-cards, screen savers,
desktop wallpapers, or templates that your visitors can
enjoy in exchange for their opt-in information?

For example, if you sell books about pet care, you can
offer e-cards or printable cards with photos of adorable
animals! Or if you sell beach home rentals, you could
easily create a screen saver with pictures of some of
your most beautiful destinations.

(Imagine if you could be on your visitors’ computer screen
EVERY DAY — whether they were online or offline! That’s
what screen savers and wallpapers can accomplish — all
with a minimum of set-up time, and at no cost to you!)

You don’t even need a ton of graphic design skills — a
few good shots of your products or related items, and
you’re most of the way to creating something attractive
that will keep your visitors connected to you and your
product.

You can even offer a monthly subscription to special
items like these, or a members-only area on your web
site where subscribers can go to find goodies that relate
to your industry.

5. Offer a contest, puzzle, or game

Running a contest on your web site works on the same
principle as dropping your business card in a jar at the
local diner in hopes of winning a free lunch for your
office.

The diner collects information about its customers, and
the customers get the chance to win a valuable prize.
Both parties benefit, and it doesn’t really cost the
diner anything more than a few burgers for the winner.

Depending on the kind of business you run, there are a
ton of different options for this type of opt-in
incentive.

Some examples include:

**A contest to win an item related to your product:
Say you sell party favors — hats, toys, and streamers.
You could hold a contest to win a free birthday cake from
a bakery in your area or a percentage-off coupon for a
party rentals place.

**A contest to win one of your products: But remember –
don’t offer to give away the primary product you sell.
People will enter the contest hoping to win — and leave
your site without considering an actual purchase!

**A weekly puzzle or quiz: The type of puzzle is up to
you: a crossword with words that relate to your
business, or a “multiple choice”-type quiz, an
animated jigsaw puzzle, or a game of “Hangman”!

You can set it up as a contest and draw a name from
the winning entries to award a prize — or require that
people give you their opt-in information to get the
answer.

6. Offer a survey

Surveys are a great way to generate opt-ins, and they
also provide a valuable service to the people who take
part in them.

For example, if you had something to sell that was of
interest to gardeners, you could mention your survey in
relevant newsgroups, forums, or related newsletters, and
give a link to the survey page on your web site.

Your survey could delve into what types of products
gardeners are using in different kinds of gardens, or
what kinds of gardening challenges they face in their
particular region.

Let participants know that you will send them the results
if they give you their name and email address.

Because participants have to come to your web site to fill
out the survey, you should be able to take advantage of all
that new traffic and generate a significant number of new
opt-ins.

You might even incorporate a survey question such as
“Would you like to receive a complimentary copy of our
monthly newsletter (or eBook, or course) with tons of
gardening tips and tricks?”

If they answer “Yes” to that question, you can add their
name to your opt-in list!

7. Offer a members-only forum or discussion board

Members-only forums and discussion boards can be a major
draw for people in niche markets. Because their areas of
interest are often unique and specific, they sometimes
have a hard time getting the information they want, or
finding other people who are interested in the same things.

You can step in and provide a community for like-minded
people to meet and discuss their hobbies or their concerns
— or pretty much anything to do with your market.

If you can provide a forum that appeals to your market,
people will RUSH to give you their opt-in information to
be a part of it.

This will also give you a great opportunity to learn more
about your customers and what kinds of products or
services you can develop to further meet their needs –
AND grow your business.

You’ll need to participate by establishing some community
rules and moderating the forum — not to mention starting
up some topics of discussion and adding your two cents to
the debates!

But in the meantime, your subscribers will do most of
the work by creating valuable content.

8. Offer members-only specials

One of the easiest ways to encourage visitors to opt in
with their personal information is to offer them a chance
to save money! It can be as simple as the following text:

“Do you want to receive our special MEMBERS-ONLY
offers? Every month we bring exclusive deals to
our subscribers that you can’t get anywhere else!
To start saving now, just sign up below!”

This is a great way to drive opt-ins AND sales, and to
make your potential customers feel appreciated before
they even buy your products!

There are many different opt-in incentives available — you just
need to apply a little creativity to choose the one that’s
right for you and your target market!

But even the BEST opt-in offer can be ignored if you don’t
know how to present it to your visitors.

Let’s check out HOW to get your potential customers interested
in your offer…

——————————————————–

HOW? Build a compelling opt-in offer that no
visitor to your site will ignore!

——————————————————–

Opt-in offers aren’t tough to write, but they do require a
little bit of thought and time on your part. We’ve worked
with some of the best (and highest-priced!) copywriters in
the business, and here are the three hard-and-fast rules
they follow when writing an opt-in offer:

Rule #1: Emphasize benefits, NOT features

To persuade visitors to sign up for your offer, you NEED
to answer their biggest question: “What’s in it for me?”
The best way to do this is by always emphasizing the
benefits of your product or service, as opposed to the
features.

Here’s an example: Suppose you are offering an eBook on your
tax advice site. If you were to write…

“Download our FREE eBook, written by a real CPA.”

… you’d be advertising a feature. You are telling your
visitors a fact about your eBook.

Here’s how it reads if we emphasize benefits instead of
features:

Don’t pay a penny extra on your taxes! Discover 10
simple things that you can do to save hundreds — even
thousands! — of dollars on your return this year! Just
enter your name and email address below to get your
FREE eBook!

That’s a pretty dramatic difference, isn’t it? You’ve hooked
your visitors by letting them know how THEY will benefit by
signing up for your offer — by avoiding costly taxes in the
future.

Rule #2: Include a call to action

If you want people to take action on your site (such as
sign-up for your eBook), you need to have a call to action
that tells them exactly what you want them to do.

For example, if you want your visitors to opt in to your
list (and of course, you do!) you should include a link
that says something like, “Subscribe here to receive dozens
of FREE PowerPoint templates every month!”

You might think it’s obvious that you want people to opt in
to your list — especially if you’ve written a great sales
pitch that explains how your opt-in offer solves their
problem.

But no matter how convincing your copy is, if you don’t
provide your potential customers with a very specific call
to action, you’re just leaving them hanging.

Rule #3: Include a link to your privacy policy

A lot of people still feel a bit reluctant to hand over
their personal information to someone they’ve never met
before.

The best way to ease their fears is to include a link to
your privacy policy whenever you ask for personal
information. In fact, you should have a link to your
privacy policy on every page of your site!

This lets people know that you are committed to protecting
their privacy, and makes them feel safe leaving their email
address with you.

Your privacy policy should state explicitly what information
you collect from your visitors and how you intend to use
it. You don’t even have to create your own privacy policy
from scratch! There’s an easy-to-use “privacy policy”
generator at:

http://www.the-dma.org/privacy/creating.shtml

Now that you’ve learned about HOW to craft a winning opt-in
offer, let me show you WHERE on your site it should go to get
you the maximum amount of opt-ins!

——————————————————–

WHERE? Place your opt-in offer in the RIGHT
spot and send your opt-in rates through the ROOF!

——————————————————–

Believe it or not, there are still a lot of sites that hide
their opt-in offer, making it almost impossible for their
visitors to find it. In fact, a 2005 MarketingSherpa study
showed that only 52% of e-commerce sites have a prominent
call to register on their main home page!

**If your homepage contains a long salesletter, you’ll
want to put the opt-in form somewhere around the second
“page” of text. By this point, you’ll have grabbed your
visitors’ attention and shown them that your site offers
some valuable information.

They’ll be more inclined to give you their email address
once you’ve established your credibility.

**If your homepage DOESN’T have a long salesletter, you’ll
want to place your opt-in form prominently within the
“first fold.” (This is the portion of your web site 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 the top or left is a good place
to put your opt-in form.

**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
offer per page is plenty!

**You can create an opt-in offer that is specifically
targeted to a particular page on your site.

For example, if your web site is a catalog site selling
home aquarium products, and you have a special page
dedicated to different kinds of fish food, you can include
an opt-in offer on that page for a free report on “The Top
5 Mistakes People Make When They Feed Their Fish.”

And on your page dedicated to exotic breeds of fish, you
could offer a free eBook on “Tips and Tricks for Caring
For Exotic Fish”.

That way, you could establish yourself as a fish expert
with your potential customers at the same time as you
capture their information for your marketing purposes.

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Final thoughts

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An opt-in email list that you build with great opt-in offers
will generate profits for you starting immediately — and
continuing well into the future!

If you follow these suggestions, there’s no reason you
shouldn’t be able to get at least 10% of your site visitors
converted to subscribers!

If you are getting less than 5% of your traffic opting in to
your offer, you know you need to tweak your strategy.

I’ll say it again: Building a successful opt-in email list
is one of the most important things you can do for your online
business.

That’s why we’ve spent years learning and testing how to
create the kinds of opt-in offers that will have a DRAMATIC
impact on your conversion rates — and your bottom line.

To get insider-level access to advanced email tips and tricks,
head to:

http://www.MarketingTips.com/emailsecrets

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ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Derek Gehl specializes in teaching real
people how to start profitable Internet businesses that make
$100,000 to $2.5 Million (or more) per year. To get instant access
to all his most profitable marketing campaigns, strategies, tools,
and resources that he’s used to grow $25 into over $60 Million in
online sales, visit: http://www.marketingtips.com/tipsltr.html

==============================================

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That’s all for this time – thanks for reading!

To contact us, go to: http://www.esworldmarketing.com/contactus.html

Your success is our success!
(c) 2001-2006 ES World Marketing

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=>> OUR MISSION
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The Winning AdVantage, we are devoted to helping our subscribers
develop their marketing skills and promote their home-based Internet
marketing businesses and affiliate opportunities. This publication
features tips, techniques and how-to articles on such topics as ad copy
writing, finding good FRËË or inexpensive places to post ads, finding the
best available resources, and other issues related to making money on
the Internet. The Winning AdVantage eZine is dedicated to the
enhancement of your home-based Internet marketing business success.

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