You may have heard the term opt-ins being thrown around but what exactly is it?
You know when you go to a website and there is a little box on the home page which says ‘sign-up now to receive your free checklist of five ways to re-purpose your content’ or something along those lines. Then you can choose to enter your name and email address and in return, you receive the free thing (usually via email). That is what an opt-in is.
An opt-in is a marketing strategy in the form of a free offering in exchange for contact information. What that person has achieved by offering you something in exchange for your contact details is to capture your information in order to email market to you in the future.
How exactly does an opt-in work?
You offer something of value (free of charge) to a potential client via a subscriber box on your website. That person gives you their information which you then store in their email database. The subscription then triggers a series of automated emails to be sent to the potential new client delivering their free thing and starting to build up trust and a relationship between the two of you.
What is the purpose of an opt-in?
I like to think of an opt-in as a first date. Now you’re not going to get married on the first date (unless you are starring in Married At First Sight!) so you need to treat this sign up as the start of your relationship with a potential new client. Once they sign up, you have now successfully captured that person’s contact information which you can use to further your position as an expert in their field and continue to market to them with the intention that they will purchase from you at some stage in the future.
The client journey through the opt-in
The person will sign up for your opt-in and receive the first email. Which will deliver the free thing they signed up for and start the relationship between your potential client and you. I would then recommend sending a further two emails in the automation. With a period of two days wait in between emails. The second email will aim to further position you as an expert in your field and nourish the new relationship. By offering more value to the potential client. The third email will again nourish the new relationship by providing further value and then making a clear call to action such as booking a discovery call with you to see if you are a fit to work together.
How to craft the perfect opt-in
There are many different things you could offer as an opt-in incentive to draw in new leads. A few of the most common opt-ins include:
- Checklist
- eBook
- Mini training
- Video series
- Swipe file
- Masterclass recording
The key thing to remember when developing the idea for your opt-ins is to provide something that your ideal client would find useful. Something that will position you as an expert in your field in the eyes of your ideal client.
Once you have that clear, you can go about creating the content for it, keeping in mind that you want to attract your ideal client. Make sure it looks professional, high-quality, and has your branding all over it!
Next, you need to come up with a name for your new opt-ins. You can go as fancy as you like with this but I would advise keeping the naming clear but enticing. You want people to read it, be excited by it, and understand exactly what it is they are getting when they sign up. Any confusion will result in hundreds of lost leads as people will just scroll on by.
The next step is to write up the copy for the email sequence you are going to walk your new potential client through. As I mentioned before, I recommend a minimum of three emails but this is essentially up to you. I like to draft my copy in a Word document first before setting them up inside my chosen email system.
Email 1
Sent: immediately at the time of subscribing.
What: This is the email that will deliver the free item to your new lead. I would also recommend adding something extra of value here to further nourish the relationship.
Email 2
Sent: a minimum of 2 days after the first email has been sent.
What: a little reminder to download the free item if they haven’t already and addition of further value to further nourish the relationship.
Email 3
Sent: a minimum of 2 days after the second email has been sent.
What: Something that would be of further value/interest to your ideal client, furthering your position as the expert. This is the place to include a strong call to action such as to book a call with you.
If you would like access to the exact files I use as templates to create my own opt-in sequences then click here.
After you have written the copy, you need to create the automation inside your chosen email system such as ActiveCampaign, MailChimp, ConvertKit, e.t.c.
The next step
Is to build the sign-up for the opt-in box on the home page of your website. Include an enticing headline, place for the person to add their full name and email address along with a button that will submit the form.
Once that part is done, you can link the form on the website to the email automation and test! Always ensure you test the whole flow of the client journey. To ensure you are happy with it before sending it out into the world.
If you would like to have a handy little checklist for all of the steps you need to do in order to take your opt-in from idea to reality, then click here.
There are two opt-ins inside this blog post. I encourage you to download at least one of them to see what I have been talking about, in action!
If all of this seems a bit overwhelming and you would like support to start growing your pool of potential new clients then book a call with me. Whether it’s coming up with an idea for your opt-in to the actual implementation or anything in between, my team and I can help. We have built hundreds of opt-ins for our happy clients and can’t wait to do the same for you!
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