Executing an excellent opt-in marketing strategy is impossible without first building an opt-in list. Having a big opt-in list, when maximized, guarantees a successful email marketing, which in turn generates higher revenue for your business.
What is Opt-in marketing, and why do you need it for your business?
Opt-in marketing is a type of inbound marketing strategy where a business receives permission from website visitors and potential customers to send them promotional emails and newsletters. These prospective customers give you their email addresses and the approval to send them stuff. It is basically receiving permission to market directly to them. As a result of this, some people prefer to call it permission marketing.
A group of collected emails is called an opt-in list, and the bigger your opt-in list is, the larger your direct marketing audience.
Why is opt-in marketing crucial for your business?
To build a thriving business, you want to have a lasting relationship with loyal customers. You need your web visitors to become paying customers in the long run. To achieve this aim, you need a way to track them and guide them through the process that will eventually result in them buying your products or paying for your services. Opt-in marketing permits you to do this easily.
What are the types of opt-in strategies?
Single opt-in
In the single opt-in, you only require your visitors to give their permission once. As long as they accept, you are free to send them emails.
Double opt-in
Unlike in the single opt-in where permission is required once, in double opt-in, your visitors have to give their permission twice. This is generally considered the best and safest. It means your prospective customers are very sure of the access they give to you, so your emails are less likely to be ignored or sent to the spam folder.
Opt-in marketing is flexible in that you can have different lists consisting of different people based on their needs. This means you can send ads tailored to the needs of specific groups of people instead of random people who may not be interested. This way, you can tremendously cut down your advertisement and marketing costs and still generate revenue.
How can you use opt-in marketing lists to generate more revenue?
Before building that list, you must understand that selling is a process; it is building a relationship with your customers. It would be counterproductive to go through the stress of building a list only to have subscribers opt out because you’re spamming them with sales letters. Building an opt-in list is only the first step to building that relationship. Since you have the permission to send them mails, the emails you send to them should take them through the process of:
- knowing more about your business,
- understanding how the services you offer are profitable to them
- getting them to trust you enough to make a purchase, and hopefully refer their friends too.
This process might take days, weeks, or months, but that’s sufficient time to build a good relationship with your subscribers.
Opt-in marketing can be highly instrumental in generating massive revenue, but you have to do it right. Before you run off to build that list, here are 8 tips to help you execute your opt-in marketing excellently.
- Make sure your opt-in forms are visible
Your visitors should not have to look hard to find your opt-in forms, because frankly, they won’t. You have to place your forms where they are sure to catch them. They could be in the middle or at the end of an article. They are sure to be seen in those spots.
2. Encourage your visitors to opt-in with a lead magnet
Lead magnets are incentives and juicy offers like free ebooks, toolkits, checklists, or even discounts off products that your visitors will find valuable. Lead magnets encourage your visitors to opt-in.
3. Keep your opt-in forms short and simple
Don’t ask for too much information, just the necessary ones you need to start a relationship. People don’t want to feel like they are giving out a lot of information to strangers. Plus, longer forms are discouraging, and one of the major reasons visitors don’t opt-in. Their email addresses and first names will do just fine.
4. Show added value for opting-in
A little bit of info on what type of mails you will be sending can increase the chances of visitors opting in and also reading your mails. They know exactly what to expect and will look forward to them.
5. Get creative with the subscribe button
Instead of just saying ‘subscribe’, you can change the button text to show the value of opting-in. For example, visitors will most likely click on ‘Get your free ebook’ than ‘subscribe’.
6. Welcome emails are welcome
Remember, we are building a relationship. You don’t want the first mail your subscribers receive to be a sales copy. Welcome them to your business, explain in detail the awesome things you have in store for them, and how often they should expect to hear from you. Also, give helpful resources; make them look forward to hearing from you.
7. Group your lists according to visitors needs
As we said earlier, your marketing is more effective when tailored to meet the needs of specific groups of people. Having different lists means you can build relationships with your prospective customers based on what they require at different times. You know what services to offer what group and what words to avoid in another group.
8. Don’t Spam
Nobody likes to be bombarded with emails or ads; send your emails at the frequency you promised. Remember to switch the content of your mails up occasionally. You don’t have to send sales copies all the time. You could send freebies or content your subscribers will generally find helpful.
Opt-in marketing might be the difference your business needs to boost sales. Go ahead and start building relationships with those lists.