Eric's Estimate

So When Are You Going To Start Collecting Optins?

Posted on February 2, 2010 by Eric

photo credit: Fiorenza Thompson

Being a web designer for a number of years I’ve had the pleasure of working with a lot of great local business owners. Some of the ideas and products that I have helped to promote are amazing. Everything from electricians to e-learning to hydroponic grow boxes. But there is one thing that strikes me as odd…

Business owners don’t generally see their website as a lead gen tool.

Sure they want all kinds of salesy information on their site. It may even look like the cat’s ass. It’s on their business cards, it’s under their logo. Hell sometimes it’s even printed on the back of their fancy BMW.

But a lot of these sites lack opt-ins (an opt-in for those of you who don’t know, is a web form that collects info – usually a name and an email/phone number). Even when I suggest adding an opt-in it becomes really difficult to convince the client that it’s a good idea.

Why the hell would you ever not want to collect lead data from your site? You have XXXX traffic every day, and most of those potential buyers will go on their merry way and forget about you. BUT, if you offer them something for free and in exchange they give you their contact information… suddenly you can remind them that you still exist. And when they finally get around to buying in your market, you will still be fresh in their minds.

So how do you go about generating an opt-in for your site?

First you need some type of database that can collect the contact information. I’ve used a number of these companies, including aweber, vertical response. The one that I’ve liked the most, for not only how they’ve designed their site and their copy but also their interface and features, is MailChimp. You can signup for mailchimp here.

Once you have an account to collect the contact info, you will need to create an opt-in form. Mailchimp can generate this for you and all you have to do is copy and paste your code into your site.

So you’ve got your account, got your opt-in on your site, but you still aren’t getting anyone to sign up. There could be a number of reasons for this. One is that they have no reason to sign up. You need to offer something in exchange for your prospect’s contact information. This can be anything from an eBook, to an online quote or a product catalog. These things can all bring in huge lists of prospects that you can mail a newsletter or other promotional materials to.

In the future I’ll be going over in more detail how to increase your conversions, and how a double opt-in process works. Stay tuned and subscribe to the blog to make sure you don’t miss it!

Got questions? Let me know in the comments below.