I was talking with a client recently and they said they wanted their email signup removed from their website.
This got me thinking... ok, you have a list of people that want to hear from you, which you're getting rid of and the one of the goals for your new website is to rank high and get more visitors. So... why ditch the ones you have and why not try to capture more leads? It's kind of backwards thinking.
If Internet Marketing is brand new to you, the big thing there is your list. It's gold. These people do anything to build their lists. They know that for each person on their list, they can earn, on average, $1 a month from them. This has to do with response rates and click-throughs but that's a general rule of thumb.
For example, if you even have 800 people on list, that's an extra $800 a month from them or $9600 a year. If you have a list of 1700 subscribers, then you're looking at $20,400 per year.
It quickly adds up!
With your website, you should have multiple calls to action. I mentioned this in my last post:
Need a Basic Business Website? (webstix.com)
Set Up Calls to Action (CTA)
When people get to your website and look around, you're going to want to just straight up ask them to do some things. Each one of these things is called a call to action. Each CTA can vary in strength.
Here are some sample CTAs starting with about the strongest:
- Buy a product
- Call you
- Fill out a form with contact information
- Join your email list
- Like / follow you on social media
You just don't want one CTA, you want a few. Give people a few ways to take action and leave it up to them but definitely ask for all of them. Don't be afraid to ask.
There's one CTA above that you want to make sure you absolutely focus on and it's probably not the one you think it is. Look at the list again, which one is best?
It's the email list, believe it or not.
I talk to some people that think collecting email addresses on a list and sending them emails is too much work and then at the same time, they're concerned about SEO. That's a little backwards. The purpose of SEO is to get your website in front of your audience, right? Well, that's what an email list is... people who WANT to hear from you.
You can either provide monthly news or else come up with a giveaway and ask people for their name and email address to get it. We've done that with our e-book.
Simple, right? You're paying for website traffic somehow... even just having a website costs money, so your goal is to try to get each visitor (or a majority of them) to take some kind of action. It doesn't have to be big but just do something. With regard to this post, the one I'm emphasizing is building your email list.
A great way to build a list is to give something away. Here are some ideas to get you started:
The reason I listed "PDF" a lot above is because there's a higher perceived value when you offer a PDF. You are much more likely to get a sign up with a higher perceived value. So, besides that, you want to make sure what you're giving away does have high value. It should be something people want to know. It should be something they regret if they don't sign up for it. Put good time, research and effort into creating whatever you're giving away because you don't want to give away crap. People will think that's what your website or business is all about, so make it good.
Maybe there's a service you can offer for free. Giving someone just a taste of your service basically gets you a sales meeting in front of them while you give away that service. There, you have the chance to give them more details, information and benefits of your service. That personal connection will help you get more sales from them in the future.
Don't ditch your list! Instead, move it up on the page. Make it better. Give something away. When you do that, you'll end up with a list of people that you can market to over and over into the future.
There was even a list I was unsubscribing from because I was on their list twice (it was skiing related, so of course I wanted to get it - just not twice) and they had a message on the e-newsletter management screen begging me to stay. I grabbed a screen shot of it:
If you're scared to get started with this, then don't worry - we can help you set this up. We even have copywriters available and a team of designers to make your e-newsletter look amazing when it shows up in people's inboxes. Contact us today!
-Tony
