Tag Archives: grow leads on your website

How to Create an Ebook as an Opt-In Offer

How to Create an Ebook as an Opt-In Offer
When building your email list, the best way to increase subscribers is by offering something in exchange for their email address. This needs to be more than a basic “Sign up for our newsletter!” call to action. People have no idea what to expect from your newsletter. So even if it’s full of valuable content, you need to offer more to get their email address. Create an ebook opt-in offer.

There are many different options for an opt-in offer, eBooks, white papers, free video webinars. But an ebook is a very powerful option. Typically it’s around 25 pages and covers a single topic your audience is interested in.

If you’re ready to create your first ebook, check out our tips below.

1. Pick your a Relevant Topic.

Pick a topic that’s relevant to your business. What’s something your target market would be interested in learning more about? What question do you get asked most? That’s a great topic for your eBook.

For a digital marketing agency, an ebook about Facebook ads or creating a social media strategy. A contractor might have an ebook about minor fixes homeowners can do themselves. A credit union might have an ebook about repairing your credit.

It’s important to give away valuable information in your opt-in ebook, but not too much information that they don’t buy from you.

2. Outline your ebook.

Since ebooks are much longer pieces of content than a typical blog article, the best way to get started is by creating an outline. Write the main points you want to make and include a few bullets about each one.

The best way to outline your ebook is by dedicating a separate chapter to each subtopic, then cover each subtopic thoroughly.

3. Flesh out your points.

Now write your ebook! Take the outline you’ve created, write your introduction, and flesh out each of your chapters, subheadings, and bullet points.

Include a call-to-action to your products/services in your conclusion to let each of your new email subscribers know what next steps to take after reading your ebook.

4. Proofread and edit your ebook.

Proofreading and editing anything you write is always crucial. Sentences that may have made sense when you initially wrote them might need some cleanup after rereading them. Once you’ve finished writing, set it aside for a few days before coming back to edit. It’s always a good idea to let it stew before revisiting it.

5. Design your ebook.

This can be one of the most difficult parts. You want your ebook to be engaging and compelling. It requires more design than a regular blog post. You want to make it easy to read and aesthetically pleasing. Don’t slap a bunch of words onto a Microsoft Word document and export it as a PDF.

Here’s a great tool to create your own eBook, https://MyeBookMaker.com.

Once you’ve finished your design, export it as a PDF, and you’re ready to get started increasing email subscriptions with your new ebook opt-in offer. Create a pop-up on your website and a landing page that includes a thank you and link to download the eBook for new subscribers.

How to Capture the Elusive Lead – Part 3 Capture

How to Capture the Elusive Lead - Part 3 Capture
You’ve attracted new prospects and engaged with them several different ways. Now it’s time to seal the deal and capture the elusive lead. You can accomplish this with lead magnets that give your leads something of value in exchange for their email addresses and other information. Here are a few options for lead magnets to implement for your lead generation campaigns.

Ebooks

An ebook is a long-form piece of content that positions you as the authority on a particular topic or market segment. The information given to your visitors should solve one of their pain points immediately. That way they’re likely to give you their email address in exchange for the offer. One way to create an ebook is to rework a series of 4-5 blog posts into one cohesive “mini-digital book”.  This can work well for business-to-business, and business-to-consumer.

Coupons

People love discounts and couponing, so this is an easy way for to get immediate value in exchange for their email address. Offer free shipping, a set percentage off their purchase or a buy one, get one type of promotion.   This is, of course, a great option for business to consumer-focused sites.

Email Courses

Need to get a lot of information across in a structured manner? An email course delivers lessons over a set time period, “dripping” the information into the visitor’s inbox. You have the advantage of increasing your touchpoints with your lead while giving them valuable information.

In-depth Tutorials

Answer the pressing questions that your audience has or simply make their lives easier with an informative tutorial. Tackle anything related to your product or industry, but be strategic. Create a foundation and educating future buyers with the info they need to make a purchase decision at the end of the funnel.

Buyer’s Guide

A buyer’s guide is another lead magnet that revolves around educating potential customers on their options. Create the most exhaustive guide possible that covers all important considerations when making a purchase.

Don’t just cover the features and considerations that make your product come out on top. Not every lead is an ideal buyer for you, and people will remember if you help them out with the process, even if they don’t buy directly from you at the time.

Free Webinar

A short beginner webinar is a great way to gather email addresses. Start with short live trainings on the basics of your product or industry. Record the training and send the training to your whole list. Or record several short trainings on several topics and bundle them together for a pay to view training series.

Simple Sign-Up

Some companies try to ask for as much information as possible when they’re capturing a lead. They have long forms or even a multiple part process. Prospects don’t have a long attention span before they go to another website so keep it simple. All you need to start your relationship building process is a name and an email.

You can use progressive profiling throughout your future relationship to find out more information. In the beginning, it’s better to treat lead capture as a slow and deliberate “getting to know you” phase.

Use MailChimp to Get More Leads from Your Website

 

Use MailChimp to Get More Leads from Your Website Ask any digital marketer about the key to online success, and they’ll tell you “the secret is in the list”.  Getting traffic to your website is the first step in the process, but turning them into customers is the tricky, important part.

The key is to capture an email address from visitors and use it to keep in touch until your prospect is ready to buy. A great way to keep in touch and in front of potential customers is a weekly email campaign.

MailChimp is a 3rd party email marketing software that lets you do just that.

What Is MailChimp?

MailChimp is a cloud-based email newsletter system that helps you to collect and store emails from your website, and design, send and measure email marketing campaigns. They are free for your first 2,000 email address and 12,000 sends, which means you can get started and try it out without spending a dime. They also have a paid version which has automation processes for drip campaigns.

Gathering Email Addresses

Use MailChimp to gather email addresses by adding  a newsletter subscription form to your site.  Create a free opt-in offer like a downloadable ebook. People “pay” for the free item by entering their email address.

MailChimp is tough on spam. MailChimp has your subscribers double opt-in to your list.This means they’ll sign up on your subscription form and they’ll receive an email with a link to click that confirms their subscription.

Adding an existing email list to MailChimp? The double opt-in doesn’t apply to email address added directly to MailChimp. But, if you haven’t sent an email in a while you may want your first one to confirm their desire to continue receiving your emails.

Create a Campaign

Once you have a list in MailChimp, create an email campaign, include news, deals or interesting articles and send to your customers and prospects. Make sure you include a clear call to action in your email, so your readers know what to do with the information you send.

For convenience, you can schedule more than 1 newsletter at a time. Or to automatically send your blog post to your readers via RSS feed without any effort on your part.

If you pay for your MailChimp account you can send an automatic drip campaign. This is a set number of emails you send for a specific purpose … to move readers through the sales process and convert them to buyers.

Measure Results

One of the best features of MailChimp is their reports and statistics. The detailed reporting features built into the system lets you measure your email open rate, and link clicks to name a few. It tells you if anyone reported you for spam (not good!) and how you are doing based on industry averages.

When you’re starting out with email marketing, MailChimp is an invaluable tool that helps you refine your message and delivery. I’d recommend you spend some time reviewing and analyzing each report you get and adjusting your email marketing plan accordingly!

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Targeting Your Ideal Client with Facebook Ads to Grow Website Leads

Targeting Your Ideal Client with Facebook Ads to Grow Website Leads

Successful inbound marketing is knowing who your customers are, and targeting them carefully so that you get maximum ROI for your digital marketing spending. Sounds great, but once you know who you want to reach, there’s still the small matter of figuring out how.

Fortunately for everyone, there are online tools designed for just this purpose, and Facebook’s laser targeted ad services are one of the very best.

What Are Facebook Ads?

Facebook ads range from those that show up in your news feed, and look like posts from friends, to those in the sidebar and elsewhere. Some look like ads, while others (usually called boosted posts) are actual posts that have been “sponsored” to show up in news feeds.

How Do Facebook Ads Work?

Facebook ads work (basically at least) like most PPC ad types. You set up the ad, set a budget, and pay per click or action. There’s a dashboard, where you can see what’s happening with your ad set, and you can have more than one at a time.

How Much Do They Cost?

Like most PPC advertising systems, there’s a cost per click or action for your Facebook ads, but since you can also set a total or per day budget, you can control your spending at a granular level.

So far, so good. Now, here’s how you really get more from Facebook ads.

Facebook Ad Targeting Tools

The thing that sets Facebook apart from most other advertising systems is the targeting options available. Because Facebook knows so much about their users, there are almost endless options you could choose, to reach only the people you want.

Choose geographical areas, languages, gender, and age. Then select from thousands of interests. Make your choices broad or very specific. Then choose when your ads will run, and where. Exclude people who already like your page, or add a tracking pixel, to track actions on your site.

In most cases, it’s best to start your Facebook ads a little broader, and then narrow it down over time, so that you spend less for clicks, views, and actions.

Creating Great Ads

The final step in Facebook ad success is the ad itself, and while targeting is very important, it’s the ad itself that will be driving traffic to your page or website.

Make sure that the image is relevant and interesting, and that you have rights to use it! Choose a clear, simple image, and remember that Facebook doesn’t like loads of overlaid text, so keep it simple. Write a great hook, and add an action button.

If you’ve chosen the right target audience, and crafted a great ad, you should soon see traffic to your site, blog or page spike.

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Ways to Use Waftio for Your Next Product Launch

Ways to Use Waftio for Your Next Product Launch

Waftio is a set of 3 apps (Survey App, Form App, and Sweepstakes App) all designed to engage your customers and enhance your business at the same time.

You can deploy each one as a landing page, an embedded object, a widget popup, or a popup box. Out of all 4, landing pages and embedded objects are generally acceptable to use, but popups are a little more controversial. The typical visitor is annoyed with popups because they interfere with browsing. There’s nothing subtle about them.

But it’s this lack of subtlety that makes them work so well. They grab attention and demand action when done right. To ensure that you’re tantalizing your visitors more than annoying them, here are some creative ways to use Waftio popups your next product launch:

  • Ask for your visitors’ opinion
    People will feel more engaged if they know their voice counts, so include them in some decision-making processes, no matter how small. Have them vote on a name for a new product, or ask them what they want to see for the next launch.
  • Show them a sneak peek
    A product launch should generate buzz even before its scheduled release. A good way to do this is by offering a sneak peak via an inviting announcement on a popup.
  • Give discounts
    Who doesn’t want a good deal? But don’t give it away too easily. Ask people sign up with their email addresses to get an exclusive promo code. Just make sure your promo is worth their effort.
  • Offer interesting content for download
    When you post relevant information on your site, people are likely to provide their contact information in exchange for additional content. So work on your blog posts first. Once you’ve got that covered, visitors will be looking for ways to contact you instead of the other way around. This makes popups more welcome than usual.
  • Address an FAQ
    It’s frustrating to have to hunt for the FAQ section of a site to get a useful answer. To show visitors that you care about their needs, provide an answer to a few FAQs on a popup. This works so much better if the answer is positive (e.g., Free shipping? We got that covered!)
  • Run a contest with a cool prize
    People will go to great lengths to win a fun freebie, so if your prize is interesting enough, even a popup screen covering the whole page won’t faze determined visitors.

But as interesting as these popups are, give your visitors an easy way out. You can design your popups to be as big and colorful as you want. But make the close button accessible and visible. The last thing you want is for a visitor to leave your site because they can’t get past the popups on the page.

Popups are irritating if they solely serve your business’ purpose, and not your visitors’. Make your popups matter by keeping in mind what your visitors want.

How to Grow Your Email List for the Holidays

How to Grow Your Email List for the Holidays

For most retailers, the holiday season is extremely important. In many cases, the uptick in sales may be the difference between success and failure for the entire year.  Is your online marketing ready?  Here are a few key ideas to help you improve this holiday season.

Expanding Your eMail List for the Holiday Season

Finding ways to add potential customers to your email list is a practical and relatively inexpensive way to reach customers with your targeted message. According to Hubspot.com, email lists tend to degrade by about 22.5% each year as people move, change email addresses or opt out. With this degree of attrition, you’ll need to increase your list by 50% annually to increase your outreach.

So, with this in mind, your objective should be to increase your holiday email list and improve customer retention by planning interesting content to hold their attention.

Strategies to Gain Prospective Clients Through Email

Each new email customer opens the door to a new sale and the potential for long-term profitable engagement. Targeted emails allow you to focus your message to specific groups to entice them to visit your website or your brick-and-mortar store. But learning where you need to focus does require some interaction. Ways to attract email addresses and specific information about the prospect may come from a number of activities.

Trade Shows

Face-to-face is the best way to gather information. Encourage all potential customers to fill out a very short info form that includes an email address and a simple check of specific areas of interest.

Offer Giveaways

Conduct an online or in-store drawing to win a valuable gift. The customer fills in their email address and a bit of information regarding their preferences that allows for better targeting.

Frequent Buyer Program

Offer a discount on the next visit after the buyer has reached a certain threshold of spending. Application for the frequent buyer program should include an email address and information about specific interests.

Holiday Season Sign-up

Around mid-October, ask customers to sign up for your Holiday Special that gives them a percentage discount for all products purchased between Thanksgiving and New Year’s Day. This signup should include email and other pertinent information.

New Products Roll-out

Offer discounts to the first 50 people who purchase a new product or service. You should sign these buyers into the Frequent Buyer Program for future information.

How to Retain Current and Future eMail Lists

Dress Up Your Website

Interactivity is the key to developing new business through your website. Any activity which causes the consumer to visit your website and remain is positive. Consider developing an ongoing educational blog for your visitors. It will provide useful information and entice a return visit, and a well-written article will demonstrate your depth of knowledge of the products or industry you represent. Blog posts should include an embedded email subscription form.

Online Contests

Include a contest on your website or social media. Each time an entrant wishes to participate, an email address must be given for the vote to count.

Webinars

Identify and develop webinar events to demonstrate specific products and services. An email address should be exchanged for a webinar “ticket”.

Joint Promotions

Establishing a joint promotion with a nearby company can improve your image and produce additional email addresses.

eBooks

If you are feeling particularly creative, a useful and practical eBook offering tips regarding your industry or products can draw interest. For example, if you own a pet store, an eBook about puppy training would be a great incentive.

With the holiday season impacting a business’s bottom line so heavily, it’s always a good idea to step up your email marketing to bring people through the doors.

Lead Generation Strategy

Lead Generation Strategy

What are the goals of your lead generation strategy? The answer to this question is a good place to start, but is that enough? It’s true that no two businesses are alike, and no cookie-cutter marketing solution can be applied to all businesses.However, when it comes to lead generation, there are a few strategies that can work quite broadly across many industries.

These timeless strategies can work for virtually any business, organization, person, or idea as long as it involves an online presence. Read on to find out the strategies you can use to maximize the results of your lead generation efforts.

How many leads do you need to fill the pipeline?

You’re probably saying, “as many as possible!” However, as logical as that seems it’s not really workable. Come up with a realistic number. An exact number could be challenging to determine especially if you don’t have past sales metrics for your products and services. Along the way, you’ll get a better idea of what metrics are important to track, as you calculate your desired number.  Break it down to a monthly basis.  Is it 50?  If you have 50 a 8% closure rate, is that enough good leads in a month?

Capture the attention of your target audience

Understand what your audience wants and view your content from their perspective. Keep in mind, some of your visitors will never return to your website if you fail to capture their attention. Although asking for an email address is essential, many people are not willing to give it away. Sign up buttons no longer work effectively, they’re too common and easily overlooked. In this case, you’ll need to use other ways to capture their information.

One of the best ways to know what your audience wants is to ask them. A survey works well for this. Your salespeople may provide valuable insights as they communicate with your customers on a daily basis. Once you know, you’re better equipped to generate content that captures their attention, and eventually more leads.

Maximize the rate of opt-ins

Getting the lead to a page on your site isn’t enough. You have to develop an effective opt-in strategy. Capturing attention is only part of the battle. You’ve probably noticed the gap between traffic generation and lead generation. Some one-time visitors will ignore any attempts to get information from them.

Your landing page and offerings should be compelling enough to seal this gap. Using lead magnets like subscriptions, webinars, eBooks, bonus tips, free trials, email opt-ins, and training videos can effectively capture the interest of your audience. Your focus should be getting their permission to market to them.

Optimize your landing pages

These are used for single marketing campaigns. Landing pages essentially capture leads and tempt potential clients. They’re important stepping-stones before going further into your sales program. Don’t overwhelm your visitors with promotions or information about your business, but focus on one specific goal. Confirm the promise made by your landing page click source, and deliver the same.

Don’t focus on one method of lead generation, as it may limit the effectiveness of your overall marketing program. Multi-faceted approaches tend to create more buzz in the market, save time, and improve your results.

That’s a wrap on some time-tested tactics to grow leads on your website.  What’s the next step you need to take now to improve your website lead capture?  Needing a tool to make it easy?  You’re on the right website!