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Opt-in campaigns are powerful ways to increase your potential conversions over an extended period of time. Rather than attempting to sell your products or services to new visitors immediately, you’ll offer the chance to “opt in” to an email subscription, such as a newsletter or regular blast. Over time, your subscriber list will grow. This will allow you to corral potentially interested leads. Eventually you’ll be able to market to them in escalating forms, pushing them closer and closer to the end of the buying cycle.
So what makes an opt-in campaign successful? There are tons of potential variables. However, these are seven of the most important factors for success:
1. They Have CTA’s Everywhere
The effectiveness of your campaign depends on the quantity and quality of the leads you receive. The more people who have subscribed to your email blasts, the more value each email blast will carry. Successful opt-in marketers realize this. Accordingly, they have calls-to-action (CTA’s) in many places.
They offer CTA’s in footers, side bars, and in pop-up ads on their sites. Additionally, they offer them in their social media campaigns. They may even have specific landing pages set up to encourage more signups. Even links to the pages use a relevant CTA. Relying on multiple funnels allows you to grow your audience quickly (provided you’re targeting the right market to begin with).
2. They Know How to Use Content
Content marketing and opt-in campaigns have a seamless working relationship. Content attracts more visitors. Then, the promise of more, similarly valuable content encourages those visitors to sign up for your email newsletter.
Content can also provide the backbone for your ongoing email marketing blasts. It serves as the fuel for your newsletter, for example. Or it can potentially serve as an exclusive offer for your subscribers. (This can be especially powerful for long-form content such as eBooks or whitepapers.) However, before you can start reaping the benefits of an opt-in campaign, you need to know how to use content to your advantage.
3. They Differentiate Themselves
You may have a number of competitors. Moreover, your niche may not be that unique. However, you still need to find a way to differentiate yourself. Otherwise, your opt-in form will look just like everyone else’s and your signup rates are going to plummet.
Therefore, if you have a unique value to offer, such as specific types of content that nobody else can produce, that’s big. Otherwise, you’ll have to rely on more subjective, less tangible factors. For example, you could offer your more engaging personality. Or you could offer similar content to others, but with a unique spin.
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4. They Leverage Personal Brands
Opt-in campaigns also know how to use the power of personal branding to their advantage. Corporate brands are useful and relatively simple to manage. However, they have a big problem in the modern market: trust.
People inherently trust other people more than they trust corporations. And signing up for an email list requires some degree of trust. For example, you want to trust that your information will be used appropriately. Also, you want to have some assurance that you’ll see a value out of the transaction. Accordingly, companies that leverage more personal brands to attract and retain customers tend to see higher opt-in rates.
5. They Experiment
Most people don’t earn a high opt-in rate when they first launch a campaign. Their early attempts at conversion are weak, misguided, and unrefined. How do marketers start with these low performers and build to something much more substantial?
The answer is experimentation. Committed opt-in marketers play around with different options. For instance, they experiment with the design and layout of their forms. They change up they kinds of copy they use. They even try sending out different types of emails. Paired in AB tests, it’s easy to see what new additions or changes are effective and which ones aren’t. Therefore, these savvy marketers gradually improve their performance over time.
6. They Segment and Refine Their Lists
It’s tempting (and easier) to keep all your email subscribers in one convenient list that you use for all your marketing and advertising efforts. However, the best opt-in marketers go a step beyond. That is, they review and segment their lists to separate their subscribers into distinct categories.
For example, you could filter out people who have engaged with your emails in the past. Then you can make even more appealing purchase offers to them, pushing them deeper into the buy cycle. They also regularly scan and weed out “bad” emails to keep their lists clean.
7. They Reward Their Subscribers
Finally, you need to give your visitors a good reason to sign up. And you need to give your subscribers good reasons to stick around. Opt-in forms represent a kind of value exchange. Your users will give you their personal information. However, in return, you need to give them something they want. Oftentimes, this takes the form of content and special offers. But don’t assume you know what your subscribers want. Go out of your way to research and ask them.
Are You Ready for the First of Your Opt-in Campaigns? Let’s Get Started!
These seven secrets can’t instantly make your opt-in campaign successful. However, they will help to get you started in building momentum. Your product, your brand, and your overall design will all have major effects on the potential outcome of your opt-in campaigns.
So make sure your house is in order before pursuing this tangential marketing campaign. Still, if you follow best practices, there’s no reason why you can’t enjoy a massive ROI for your efforts. Once created, your opt-in forms will require little work. And your email blasts will get more and more effective, while still costing only a minimal amount to maintain.
