Four Simple Ways to Increase List Opt-Ins

Communication and Connection are the Lifeblood of your Business

Many technology companies ignore email lists, Facebook pages, and the like. Their sense seems to be that technology buyers don’t need to wined and dined and otherwise presented with a smile.

Even tech buyers talk to each other and communicate occasionally with the outside world. If you simply see the massive effort that a company like Hubspot (a true tech company) does to nurture leads, and the equally massive growth they’ve seen over the past year, you can’t help but recognize the importance of lead nurturing.

At the heart of lead nurturing is the “Opt-in.” An opt-in is simply a way for you to get the names and email addresses of people who might be interested in whatever you’re selling. This kind of marketing works far better than sending an email to a list you collected at a trade show or conference because it’s “permission-based.”

We know that permission-based email (where the user “opted in” to a list) gets almost five times the open and click rate as non-permission-based email. And, people who consciously Like a Facebook page are far more likely to read your Facebook updates, participate in surveys or quizzes, and interact with you and other followers.

Here’s how to increase your opt-ins and generate more quality, targeted leads:

1 Offer information that’s valuable to your leads

This is an area in which Hubspot displays true mastery. They are constantly on the lookout for topics of interest to their target market. They conduct studies, interview customers, and watch the trends online to understand current issues, questions and concerns.

Then, they create straightforward and targeted reports (not “white papers”) that provide the information people want.

These reports are typically between ten and 20 pages and are filled to the brim with quality information. Hubspot doesn’t attempt to sell their services until the last couple of pages of the document.

Another approach is to provide free Webinars. These can be pre-recorded or live, and in exchange for the ability to view the Webinar, the viewer gives you his or her contact information.

2 Create a focused Opt-In page

Most businesses will create one or more special reports or videos and do little more than provide a “Download Now” button on their home page.

Unfortunately, the visitor will be too distracted to click on the link or opt-in to get the report. Ideally, you’ll have a separate web page that’s entirely focused on one thing: the opt-in. All the visitors sees on the page is an opt-in form and reasons why they should give you their personal information.

These opt-in pages can contain a video or they can be text-based (or both). We’ve seen that text-based opt-in pages out-perform video-based opt-in pages, quite possibly because we’re becoming less enamored with videos.

In fact, split tests have shown us that people generally prefer to download a PDF report over watching a video online. This is a reversal of the trends we saw two years ago.

3 Keep the Opt-in form “above the fold”

The opt-in form should be immediately visible on the web page. The visitor should not have to scroll to find the form.

Also, we’ve found that an opt-in form on the right performs better than an opt-in form on the left. We’re not sure why, but we suspect that it’s because we read from left to right and our eyes “land” on the opt-in form instead of skimming past it.

To the left, you’ll have a compelling headline that grabs their attention and immediately puts them into a “I need this” frame of mind. If you did a good job of naming your report, then your title can simply be the name of the report.

Then, include several strong bullets that give solid reasons why the person should download the report. This can be statistics, data, or information that is specific and relevant to the prospect. What you want here are strong benefits and not features.

4 Only ask for email address

This last tip will rankle some, but we’ve learned that our opt-in rates increase by 15% or more just by eliminating “Name” from the opt-in form.

Hubspot actually asks for name, email, business name, website URL and about four other questions. It’s a tedious form, and I know that I’ve avoided downloading a report I wanted because I didn’t want to waste time on their form.

In truth, this additional information won’t increase your conversion rates. We’ve found that the conversion rates actually increase without asking for the person’s name, probably because we’ve increased their level of trust.

We don’t trust “glad-handers” and for some reason that’s how it feels when someone asks for our name and sends us an email with “Hey there, Sid” in the first sentence.

You’ll have to trust me on this one for now, but try it for yourself. Do a split test and see if you can increase your opt-in rate by only asking for the person’s email address.

Written by Sid Smith Written by Sid Smith