This can be very overwhelming because there is so much disinformation on autoresponders. So what should go into your autoresponders?
There is so much confusion on this that I just have to weigh in. No doubt you’ve been told or read that you should create a fancy autoresponder sequence where each email builds upon the previous email.
And that if you make it fancy enough, and complicated enough, you can get prospects to take any action you like, blah blah blah…
Your systems and predictions may be the outdated.
But guess what? You don’t know how people are going to respond to it. You can make a prediction, but your guess might be 180 degrees off.
So now you’ve come up with an elaborate system that accomplishes nothing.
More importantly, building a sequential series like sections of a story might have worked 10 years ago, but these days I guarantee that even your best customers will not read and digest every one of your emails.
There are several reasons your email won’t get read.
Some of your emails won’t even get through, and many will be lost in a sea of OTHER emails from other marketers.
No matter who you are or how famous you might be, not every message of yours will get read. Remember that. Thus each email needs to stand on its own and not rely on the reader having read and remembered something in a previous email.
So what should you place in your autoresponder sequences?
Here are some ideas that flat out work at getting a response.
1. Send people to your blog.
If you’ve got a blog with great posts full of good information, write up an email for each blog post and place it in your autoresponder. This only works for evergreen information and blog posts that don’t display a date.
2. You can even tie each blog post to a product you’re promoting.
For example, “Here’s a great product that teaches you exactly how to get traffic. And before you get that traffic pouring into your website, you’ll want to make sure your page is optimized for the highest conversion possible. Here’s a post on how to do that.”
You send a broadcast email to your list and the response is phenomenal, or just plain good. So what do you do? Most marketers forget about it. But the smart money says to copy and paste that email into your autoresponder series. And yes, it’s okay to send out repeat information. Some of your readers will never see it the first time, and others who did see it will appreciate the reminder.
5. Send them a question.
Yes, in the autoresponder series, send them an email that asks an either/or type of question. For example, “Which do you value more – exciting new diet news or easier fat-burning exercise techniques? Reply back with one or the other in the subject line.”
6. Then follow up with both.
“Are you one of those who wants the latest new diet news? Well check this out!” “Are you one of those who said you want exercise techniques that burn fat? Look at this!” You’re hitting both (in two separate emails) regardless of which they answered.
7. Personal stories.
You’ve got a ton of stories to share with others, you just don’t realize it. And so long as you can relate those stories to the interests of your readers, by all means share those. Anytime you can show that you are a real person with a real life and real challenges, you’re that much closer to forging a bond with your customers. After all, just like you, they want to do business with people they KNOW, like and trust.
As you can see, building an autoresponder series isn’t a cookie-cutter science. Best developed, it’s an authentic and organically developed series of follow-up messages that help you create deeper connections with your subscribers so that you can build meaningful business relationships through building trust and connecting the value that your products offer with the needs and aspirations that your subscribers actually have.
Are you up to the task of building a great autoresponder series? I hope so because once developed and refined, your autoresponder follow-up emails can work on autopilot for years to come helping to tirelessly deliver more sales and profits for your online business.
Notice the headline says, “How to Create a Product That Sells.” It doesn’t say, “How to Create a Product and Sell It.”
Frankly, that’s exactly what most marketers do they create a product without any thought to what the market wants. After they create a product without market research, then they try to figure out a way to sell it.
Result? Most times: failure.
Create a product for a target audience.
To create a product that sells you want to first identify a niche that’s hungry, and then create a product. Create a product to offer them whatever it is that they are hungry for.
The hard work is in finding that target audience that is ready and eager to buy. Once you’ve done that, creating the product is the easy part.
It is also the fun part because you know in advance that you are about to make money. So how do you identify a hungry niche?
These questions will help you find or create a product.
Here are some keys to look for when investigating a possible market. Are they in pain? Are they seeking relief from that pain, and are they willing to pay for that relief?
Do they have a problem? If so, are they willing to pay to get the solution to that problem?
Are they seeking a specific pleasure? Are they willing to pay to receive that pleasure?
If you find competition in your prospective niche, it’s a good sign that there is money to be made. So don’t think you’ve got to find some great undiscovered niche because it’s not likely to happen.
If there is no competition, realize that it’s probably because no one is buying.
Now then, you are going to allow your market niche to define your product. In other words, rather than creating the product and then finding the market, you’ve now found your market and you’re going to create your product to satisfy the specific needs of that market.
Let’s walk through an example or two.
Say you’re targeting retirees who want to make extra income online. What do you know about your niche?
You know that generally, they’re not as computer savvy as teens and twenty-somethings. And that they’re going to be more receptive to building long-term income rather than something that’s supposed to make them rich overnight.
That they’re likely to be more skeptical when it comes to making money from home, and so forth.
Thus you are going to target all of your marketing and your products using the information you gather from your research on this niche. And you’re going to always have your prospects in mind when you’re working on your business.
You might even imagine a couple of your best prospects right there in the room with you as you’re creating your product and your marketing materials.
Here are some of the hottest niches right now.
Let me give you a head start on finding a niche that’s just dying to purchase your product.
The three biggest, hottest, and hungriest mega niches are…
1. Health, fitness, and weight loss
2. Making money
3. Relationships, dating, and personal development
These are excellent starting points, but of course, you’re not going to target the ENTIRE health, fitness, and weight loss market. If you’re trying to market to everyone, you are marketing to NO ONE.
Thus you’re going to drill down to find the specific group within these niches that you want to market to.
Examples: College women wanting to lose weight. Stay-at-home moms wanting to earn money.
People married over 10 years wanting to put the spark back in their marriage.
And you could narrow it down from there. The point is, once you have a hungry niche, you extensively research and even interview that niche until you know exactly what they want, and then offer it to them.
Do you see the difference between guessing what people might want, and KNOWING in advance what they will pay for? It will save you time and frustration while growing your bank account 10 times faster than guessing ever would.
Many bloggers are looking to increase their subscribership and these tips should help. Here are 7 ways to get more subscribers every day.
When someone asks what you do for a living, what do you tell them?
Here is a more accurate response to the question.
Do you tell them that you own your own business? That you write a blog? Maybe you say that you create products or build websites.
Of course, some more common professions like you’re a doctor, lawyer, plumber or race car driver? I hope not, because while all those things are professions they’re still NOT what pays your bills.
The only real answer to the question of what you do, regardless of what your profession is, is that you are a marketer!
Your answer to “What do you do?” says a great deal about how YOU think about your business or job. If you’re defining yourself by the service you provide or the products you sell, you’re setting yourself up to lose business that otherwise could have been yours simply because your head is in the wrong place.
Every business is a marketing enterprise.
Every business is first and foremost a marketing enterprise, even if it’s a non-profit. After all, without customers, you have no business. Getting those customers and then getting those customers to spend their money with you is how you stay in business, stay profitable and grow.
When your mindset is on marketing first, you will base your decisions on what creates business, thus eliminating many of the wrong turns and mistakes that the “business owners” make.
You are a marketer. Say it loudly, state it proudly, act accordingly and you cannot help but be successful.
Here are 5 great ways to boost sales, capture attention and get your prospects seriously interested in purchasing your offers. Whether you’re doing product reviews or simply sending traffic to an affiliate page, these ideas are effective.
1. Use screen captures to help your buyer.
Our first method of increasing your sales is to use screenshots or screen captures. These screen captures might be of the vendor’s website, the product itself, the download page, etc.
Similar to using a screen capture, use a picture that displays one or more benefits of the product. Depending on the product, see if you are able to find a photo that depicts a benefit of using the product.
For example, if it’s an herbal supplement to provide energy, then a photo of a leaping, jumping, or a somehow energized person will boost interest.
3. Use pictures of the product itself.
I like to use a professional-looking picture of the product I’m selling. If it’s a physical product, by all means, use photos provided by the vendor or ones you’ve taken yourself.
4. Show the data of the product you are promoting.
Along with pictures, people need information about the product to help them justify the purchase they are considering. Are there any tables or charts on the sales page that present a good case?
You might place one of these in your write-up or your review.
5. Make a video of the product.
This is perhaps the best one of all, make a short video of you USING the product. If it’s a physical product, show it off and if possible use it in front of the camera.
If it’s a digital product, take screen captures of you using it. Small things make a difference, and product images and videos sell.
Try a few of these conversion boosters in your next affiliate promotion and I bet you’ll make more sales for your efforts.
I mentioned in a previous article that you don’t want to become one of those one-hit wonders. Many one-hit wonders make a big splash on the Internet and then vanish.
But how do you make sure that you’re not?
Because it’s really easy to say you won’t be, but the fact is that no one PLANS to be a one-hit-wonder. In fact, it happens when you DON’T plan or have a big enough goal.
I’m going to offer some tips here for ensuring that your success is not the flash-in-the-pan variety. But rather the type of success that continues to pay off day in and day out for years to come.
Really what we are talking about is becoming what you might call a “repeat success.” Because isn’t that the opposite of being a one-hit wonder?
There is nothing at all wrong with that initial success. It’s repeating that success over and over that gets you the outcome you’re seeking.
Sort of like being a one-hit wonder a hundred or even several hundred times. And when you view it like this, you see that it becomes easier.
You want to be consistent in business activity.
The first thing I’m going to recommend will sound too easy, perhaps, but it’s extremely important that you try it out for the next 21 days.
I say 21 days, because psychologists say it takes that long to make a new habit. Plus, it gives you the proper chance to evaluate the results and see that what I’m telling you is profound, to say the least.
Pick a number between 2 and 5.
Okay, are you ready? The first thing you need to do to ensure you have ongoing success is to pick a number from 2 to 5. After you choose that number, then do that many things in your business everyday.
Let’s say you are a super busy person with a full time job and a young family, so you don’t have much time to devote to your online business. Your number is going to be 2, because you’re only going to have time to do 2 things a day.
If you’re working online full time, your number is 5. And if you’re in between, you can determine the right number for you.
Time to choose what to do and write it down
Now then, every evening you’re going to make a list of the most important things you need to accomplish the following day in your business.
If your number is 2, then write down the 2 things you want to do. If your number is 5, then you’ll list the 5 things.
Obviously, you’re not going to choose 5 really big things like “build a new website,” “create a new product,” etc. Instead, you’ll break down your tasks so that they’re manageable and doable in the time allotted.
Make those things your priority.
And then you’re going to do those things, no matter what. As in, NO MATTER WHAT HAPPENS.
Doing the things on your list takes priority over your favorite TV shows, eating out, etc. These things are as important as brushing your teeth and sleeping.
Once you realize that then you’re not arguing with yourself on whether or not to do them, you’re simply DOING them.
I told you this would seem too simple, does it seem too simple to you? Because this one technique will do more for you than almost anything else.
Certainly, it will allow you to accomplish more than any self-help seminar you could attend, or any time management tool you could use. The list technique is not new, it’s old and it’s proven and you know what else?
It flat out WORKS and you can start now.
So if you’re not already doing it, then I encourage you with all my heart to start using this method now, today, right this very moment.
I do have a word of caution for you now. I see students of Internet Marketing get very excited and say something over-ambitious like, “I am going to do TEN things every day!”
Watch out for over-ambitious traps
But don’t fall for this because this is a trap. What happens when you do that is you get burned out and in less than 21 days you’re not doing ANYTHING in your business.
It just became too overwhelming, too time-consuming, and too much like WORK. And isn’t that what so many of us are trying to escape, the drudgery of WORK?
So don’t fall into that trap. If you have lots of hours in your day then choose the number 5.
Do those 5 things in the morning and early afternoon, and then TAKE THE REST OF THE DAY OFF.
Protect the biggest asset in your business.
It’s very important to protect the biggest part of your business from burnout. You will find that the biggest asset in your business is actually your enthusiasm for the business.
That’s right, and you do not allow yourself to get burned out with over-ambitious plans. Also, it’s important to take a day off for yourself but not 2 days off at least not in the beginning.
Because if you take 2 days off, those 2 days often become 3, and then 4, and then you’re not doing anything in your business. But you can take one day off and go do something totally unrelated to your online business, and come back refreshed and re-energized the next day.
When you start a project, finish it!
My second tip for ensuring you have long-term success is so simple, and yet few people understand the power of it. Ready? It’s to FINISH WHAT YOU START.
If you start creating a product, finish it and then promote it. It’s not finished until you get it out there and promote it.
If you’re writing a blog, set a schedule and keep to it. True, your blog will never be “finished,” but if you stop writing then it’s as good as an unfinished project.
This is simple wisdom but it’s not easy.
Look, I probably sound like your parents on this one. “Son, you’ve got to learn to finish what you start.” Why do you suppose your parents said that? Frankly, they probably said it because their parents said it, but there is a terrific amount of wisdom behind that thought.
First of all, if you don’t finish what you start then you have wasted your time and energy on that project. Second, you receive nothing in return for your effort and you can’t make sales and earn money on a product you didn’t finish.
Third, unfinished work breaks you down psychologically. Having unfinished tasks in your life is like having pesky little green goblins. They’re sitting on your shoulders tapping you on the side of your head and telling you that you’re a failure.
Why? Because an unfinished project is a failure. It’s a constant reminder of something you intended to do but didn’t follow through on.
There may be a good reason to quit a project.
One note: If you’re in the middle of a project and you realize that it’s the WRONG thing for you to be doing (for whatever reason) then by all means bail out. There is no sense wasting more time on something once you’ve realized your project has little hope of success.
Careful planning and research should minimize the instances of this happening, but there are times when things aren’t in our control. For example, you’re writing a series of promotional emails for an affiliate product that suddenly gets pulled from the market.
The best case scenario, in that case, is to re-adapt the emails to another product and move on.
Success loves speed.
This brings me to my next tip for ensuring you are not a one-hit-wonder and that is that success loves SPEED. If you are quick to move from an idea to implementation, you’ll seldom have a project that goes unfinished or doesn’t pan out.
For example, if you’re writing code for a plug-in on a piece of software today and you get it finished next week, you can start selling it. If it takes you 6 months to write that code, and the software is obsolete in 5 months, you’ve wasted your time.
Not to mention the fact that speed also reduces competition, at least initially. Using the plug-in example, if you’re fast you can get that plug-in on the market 2 weeks ahead of any competitor, rather than weeks behind the competition.
Again, success loves speed so when you get a great idea, don’t sit on it, ACT on it. NOW.
Building your email mailing list.
Next is your mailing list and yes, you need to be building a list. I don’t care what kind of marketing you’re doing or want to do, what your product or service is, etc.
It doesn’t matter, because everyone who enjoys long-term success online is always growing and mailing their list.
In fact, they have TWO lists, a list of buyers and a list of interested prospects. And whatever else you are doing, you need to be building that list and sending them offers.
An email list is key to long-term success online.
This is KEY to long-term online success. I know you’ve heard this before, but if you’re not aggressively building your list then you’re just not “getting” it and it’s high time you start.
I don’t mean to sound like a drill sergeant on this, but it’s simply not negotiable. Unless you want to be some flash-in-the-pan marketer who creates a product, sells a few hundred copies and disappears off the Internet, you MUST build a list and never stop building that list.
The reason you can never stop is that some people on your list will lose interest in your niche, or they change email addresses and don’t tell you. Or any of a number of other reasons they are no longer a viable prospect.
Now some folks will say that you don’t need a list because of social media, to which I’ll vehemently disagree. Social media is an awesome tool to help you build your list. I highly recommend you spend time on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and YouTube if it’s helping you build your list.
But you still need a LIST of people who know you and like you so that you can send them emails and yes, SELL them stuff.
You’ll find that the majority of your income comes from emailing your list and either letting them know about your own products or suggesting an affiliate product on which you earn a commission.
Build your list as “fast and furious” as you can.
The best thing you can do when it comes to list building? Build quickly, aggressively, and without hesitation. What I’m saying is, to find all the best ways that work for you to build your email list.
Then be relentless in using those methods to build your list even bigger and stronger.
Look at it this way, if you add 10 subscribers a day to your list, in a year you will have 3,650 subscribers. Now if you really focus your time and resources on list building you can multiply your numbers.
Instead of adding only 10 subscribers a day, you add 100 subscribers a day, in a year you will have over 30 THOUSAND subscribers.
This is a profound difference in just a year. Multiply it out over 3, 5 or 10 years, and you can see how worthwhile it is to be aggressive in your list building.
Of course quality matters as well. A list of buyers is worth far, far more than a list of prospects.
Here is one of my list-building secrets.
I’ll tell you my secret for quickly building a list of buyers: Create a product that sells for $5 to $10, and then give away 100% of the commission to your affiliates, paid immediately via PayPal. You’ll find software that automates this if you look for it.
By paying your affiliates 100% commission that goes straight to them, they have a huge incentive to promote your product. And YOU get to keep the prospects and market to them time and time again.
The marketers who DON’T build a list? Those would be the one-hit wonder people.
They do something, and they make some money, but they don’t stay in touch with their customers and prospects. Now the funny thing is, they left the lion’s share of the money on the table. Because it’s the money in the FOLLOW-UP that you makes the REAL money.
Think about this, if you sell a $17 product, get a list of buyers and prospects, and then do nothing. Or you never bothered to gather the list in the first place.
So whatever you made on your $17 product is ALL you are going to earn.
But if you captured their email addresses, you can continue to market to these folks for days, weeks, months, and even years to come. You will be earning thousands of dollars more in affiliate commissions and selling your own products.
Stay focused on one thing and make money.
And the last bit of advice on how NOT to be a one-hit wonder? Focus. That is, choose a niche and focus on that niche at least until it’s earning you a steady stream of income.
Once you hit that level if you think you want to try a second niche, go for it. You do not want to use a scattergun approach from the beginning. Do not enter 2, 5 or 10 niches all at once because you will only yield minimal results. More accurately no results because your energies are too dispersed.
In other words, you can get a tiny bit of success in several niches simultaneously, or a whole lot of success in one niche – your choice. Personally, I prefer to devote all of my time and energy to just one niche, and I’ve found it pays off quite well.
Pick your niche and define it.
And by niche, I do mean NICHE. Weight loss is a category and is not a niche.
Weight loss for women over 50 in the Dallas area is a niche. Another example of a niche is weight loss for work-at-home moms.
Or weight loss for men in their 30’s who have diabetes. The more narrow your focus, the easier it can be to reach your target audience.
They will be more likely to purchase because they feel you are speaking directly to them.
So don’t choose the “make money” niche because you’ll discover it’s too vast and too broad. Instead, take it a level deeper and define it.
More like this, “part-time work for high schoolers” niche or the “supplement your social security with a profitable hobby” niche.
Do you see the difference? Narrow your niche and get specific.
I know I’ve given you a lot of tips here. You might want to go back and review (then implement aggressively) because it’s equivalent to rocket fuel for your business growth.
Have you slaved for hours over your latest blog post and nobody tweeted it or shared it on Facebook? Or perhaps you wrote a dozen new articles and all you hear are the sounds of tumbleweeds drifting across your screen?
It’s harder and harder these days to capture people’s attention. Namely, because attention spans have gotten shorter. As people are deluged with more and more things to watch, read, and do.
Here are some fast tips to make your writing, shall we say, more readable.
Forget your honors English class and write like people speak.
Not sure if you are writing in the way you speak? Try reading your writing out loud. If it’s awkward or stilted, work on it till it reads well and that it still gives the information.
Break up the length of a paragraph.
Seriously, have you ever gotten an email that’s a one-page paragraph? Could you read it?
Did you read it? Chances are you probably didn’t read it.
The fix is simple, just hit the enter key more often like this.
You want to do it often so consider hitting the enter key every two or three sentences.
Use subheadings to keep the reader scrolling
People like to scan what they’re reading, and if something captures their attention they dig deeper. That’s why you want to add subheads to your blog posts and articles.
Not Sure What A Subhead Is? (This is an “H2” subheading)
Using a subheading is like using a mini headline inside your article or blog post. See the line above and that I have described the heading as an H2.
There are several classifications of headings and subheadings. The title of a blog is an “H1” and is the largest and boldest font because it’s the title.
The rest of the subheadings classifications are “H2 thru “H6” and are used in an outline format. Subheadings start at level “H2” and then “H3” and so on.
Your H2s will be your key topics or categories of the article. The H3 will be the important points you want to say about each topic or category, and so on for H4s, H5s, and H6s.
Bolding your important points. (This is an “H3” subheading)
In our fast-paced world, people have become very good at taking in a lot of information quickly, and one way they do it is by scanning the bold subheadings of an article.
When your readers scan the subheadings which are in a bold font with eye-catching keywords create curiosity about what you have written.
If you make your key concepts bold, your readers scanning eye will see them, and often they will stop to read the complete sentence.
Using photos is important for a couple of reasons.
A beautiful photo will catch the eye like nothing else. Better yet, use photos that have at least one face in them.
Placing a good photo that goes with the content you have written will give the reader that momentary pleasure and break from reading the written word. It will also help the person to remember your content so they can recall or come back to it as needed.
Another important thing that studies have shown is the eyes will linger longer on a photo of a face. If you can include a face in your photo then your reader will gaze a little longer to look at the face in the picture.
Add a caption to your photos. ( This is an “H4” subheading)
Similar to subheadings, the second most read copy on a page is the photo caption, so make it count. Don’t just write one or two words about the picture, but think of it as a headline to generate interest.
If you feel that you need to write two or three lines to describe your picture then go for it.
Using bullets and numbered lists is recommended.
I like this suggestion of bullet points or numbered lists because I use this method a lot. It produces a checklist in my mind automatically.
The human brain wants to accomplish something and so creating bullet points or numbered lists give your reader’s brain a way to check off what’s first and what’s next. Then from there, their brain can register, yes I have that done, and yes I have that done, and so on.
So what’s typically the third most read part of a sales letter? The bullet points or numbered lists hold the third position as the most read part of an article. (No surprise here the headline and photo captions are the first 2.)
When you add bullet points and numbers lists that give the highlights of the subject and are a great way to give much information very quickly.
Use links to lead your readers to more great information.
Implement these simple tips and you’ll get more people paying attention to your content. With a little bit of practice, you might even give late-night television a run for their money.
To make your email stand out and get it opened, make it clear that your email is useful to the reader. That it’s specific to what they want or need to know, and that it is also unique.
Here are a few additional tips to help ensure you get the most bang for your email buck…
It’s important to identify yourself.
Don’t send an email from a generic name in the hope of confusing them into opening it – they’ll just resent you for it. Use your own personal name.
More and more we see emails that say, “Your order is complete” or “Here is your download link” something similar, when it’s got nothing to do with anything the receiver ordered. This is spammy at best and downright deceptive at worst.
Create urgency SOMETIMES.
Urgency works best in moderation. If every email you send screams, “Time is running out!” “The price is going up!” “There are only 3 copies left!” Then you’re going to become like the boy who cried wolf, and you know what happened to him – he cried wolf so many times that when a real wolf actually showed up, nobody came to his rescue because nobody believed him. So the wolf ate him up.
Sometimes send a short email.
Yes, there are times when you have to send a longer email, but also send short ones. Remember, more and more of your subscribers are reading your emails on mobile devices, and in a distracted state. Keep your email messages succinct and to the point.
Has anyone ever told you to set goals? I know, silly question.
People are always telling you to set goals because goal setting can and does work. But has anyone told you there is a right way and a wrong way to choose those goals?
Here is an example of a static goal.
For example, you want to earn $10,000 a month so you set a goal to reach that $10,000 mark. So far so good, right?
Actually, no, because this is what’s known as a “static” goal rather than an action goal. Static goals sap your motivation because they’re focused on outcomes that are, for the most part, outside of your control.
The bottom is line they seldom work. Here is a quick example.
Imagine you’re in your living room and the house is a mess. You set a goal to have a clean, straightened, neat house in the next 2 hours.
So you visualize your house being clean. Then you look at pictures of your house taken when it was clean, and you write down your goal.
Two hours later your house looks exactly the same. Why?
Because you didn’t DO anything. You took no action because it was a static goal, not an action goal.
A goal like “Have a clean house” has no action tied to it.
An example of an action goal.
But what if you reword that goal to the following:
“Straighten, vacuum, and clean the living room, kitchen, and dining room.”
Instead of setting that, “I earn $10,000 a month” goal, how about these action steps?
First Week: I will create my first product on ____ (put your subject here)
Second Week: Set up the website, sales letter and emails to promote this product.
Third Week: Contact my list to offer them my new product by writing 3 guest blog posts on this topic to promote my product. And I contact 25 potential affiliates and joint venture partners and ask them to promote my product.
Eourth Week: Create my second product.
Static goals will frustrate you
If you’re using static goals you’re going to get frustrated. Still using the $10,000 a month goal as an example, it’s going to take you an investment of time and effort to reach that goal.
In fact it could take months to get there, and if you’re not seeing results in the meantime, you’re likely to get frustrated and quit.
Not to mention the fact that the goal has no action tied to it, and so you’re likely to “wait” for it to happen. Which it never will if you’re not taking the right actions to achieve it.
By setting action goals that take you to where you want to go, you are always achieving. You’re always making progress, and you’re constantly being revitalized by the achievement of each action goal.
You might want to set some action goals right now before you forget. I think you’ll find it becomes an addictive habit that pays off often and exponentially.
You already have a sign-up form on your website. But are you doing everything possible to get as many subscribers as possible?
Here are 7 tactics for growing your list faster with simple things that only take a few minutes…
Place your sign-up in as many places as possible
Preferably on every page. You might also place it in the header or footer as well.
Get in their face
Your opt-in form should be prominent, in bold colors, with background color, maybe animation, etc. Make the sign-up totally visible and eye-catching.
Use pop-ups
Love ’em? Hate ’em? Either way, pop-ups just plain work. Test to see if it’s best to use a pop-up that appears after a few moments, or when the visitor is leaving the page.
Do not have the pop-up appear immediately when they get to your page. You’ll just irritate your visitors and encourage them to click away.
People need time to see if they like your website and if they want to subscribe.
Run offers that encourage your visitors to forward your stuff to their friends or colleagues. And always include an easy way for them to sign-up.
Use social media
Perhaps this should have been #1 since social media can build a list faster than almost any other method. Place a sign-up form on your Facebook page, run contests, offer bribes and do whatever is necessary.
Whether you’re cross-promoting between your own product lines, or with another marketer, send emails. Send emails to each list you can access offering people a great incentive for joining the other list.
Put a few of these tips into action and celebrate the growth of your email subscriber list!
In other words, don’t use a headline extolling the benefits of weight loss. And then use bullet points about the benefits of exercise unless it’s in direct relation to weight loss.
Keep it consistent or you’ll confuse and lose your prospects.
Match your landing page to your sales page.
If your sales page is for a product that teaches traffic generation strategies, then your squeeze page should refer to traffic generation strategies. And not Internet Marketing in general.
Remember, you’re not selling a drill, you’re selling holes. You’re not selling steak, you’re selling the aroma, the taste, and the satisfaction.
Forget what you think.
So you think you’ve found the perfect headline? The magic bullets? Just the right color scheme?
It doesn’t matter what you think – it matters what converts the best. See #3.
Think “above the fold.”
Yes, your squeeze page might extend beyond the fold. That is, below the area that shows in the computer screen without scrolling.
But the area above the fold should stand on its own. It should show the headline, the bullets, and the opt-in form.
The below-the-fold area is for those prospects who haven’t quite decided to opt in yet and want more info.
Tell them what to do.
Your visitors landed on your squeeze page because they’re looking for something. Don’t be coy or clever and make it clear what they will get and what they need to do to get it.
Color matters.
Use opposing colors on the color wheel to create contrast, and then test, test, test. Yes, some colors really will convert better than others but it depends on your offer.
Testing contrasting colors with offers and your audience, so you’ve got to test it for yourself.
Be trustworthy.
Use short, 1 sentence testimonials that rock. Display your logo, certification, etc. Place your contact info at the bottom of the page. If you’ve been in business for years, state how many. If you’ve won awards, place those on there as well. Don’t clutter your page with this info, but do make it available.
Ask.
Perhaps the best squeeze page trick, outside of testing, is to ASK them a question that they must answer with a YES! “Do You Want to Look 10 years Younger?” “Are You Ready to Build Your List 10 Times Faster?” “Do You Want To Be Irresistible to Women?” Strategically placing these on your website puts them in a “YES!” frame of mind, making them more likely to opt into your list.
Implement these conversion hacks to increase your opt-in rates and grow your sales!
