Selling the Opt-in

Regardless of the opt-in method you decide to use to build your list, you are going to have to "sell the opt-in". You will need to give the visitor a reason to opt-in to your list. This is usually done by offering free information in the way of a report, a book, videos or perhaps a software trinket of some kind. This greatly depends on your market and what you are selling. Let your imagine run wild.

The visitor will have to be sold on the free information that you are offering just like they will need to be sold the product you are marketing. You are charging dollars for your product, but you are requiring that they provide you with certain information to acquire your free stuff also. So although your opt-in offer is free, your visitor is paying a non-monetary consideration for the free information. You'll need to convince them that your free material is worth that price. Make sense?

What Info Needs Collected?

You have decided on your free offer and you have decided on what opt-in box method you will use. Now what information do you want your visitor to exchange for your free information? Generally speaking, the less information that you require, the more opt-ins you will receive.

You will see some marketers just asking for the visitors email. Others will ask for their name and email address. Some will ask for the visitors email address and only their first name. If you are planning to market to your list through snail mail, then you will need their complete address as well.

I usually only require an email address and a first name. My feeling is that by only asking for a first name it seems much less formal and intrusive. Again this is something you can test with your offer and determine what works best for you.

You can absolutely drive yourself crazy testing this stuff. The more important thing is to get your offer up and converting to sales. Once you determine that your offer has legs, then start to seriously test it.

Single Opt-in vs. Double Opt-in

Another decision you will need to make about your list is will you build a single opt-in list or a double opt-in list. As an email marketer you will want to be familiar with the SPAM law. The law does have some teeth, and there have been some high profile cases where offenders have been prosecuted and fined thousands of dollars. The last thing you want to deal with is a federal alphabet agency coming down on you for spamming. Your best hedge against this becoming a problem for you is to build a double opt-in list.

With a single opt-in list, when a visitor gives their information and hits the "submit button", they are on your list.

With a double opt-in list they will enter their information and hit the submit button. They will then receive an email explaining to them that someone at their email address has made a request to join your list.  It will further explain that you take spam laws very seriously and that you want to confirm that it was in fact them who made the request. The email will contain a clickable link and will instruct the new opt-in that they will need to click that link in order to confirm the fact that it was them that opted-in and that they do wish to receive your information. Once they click that link, the requested information will automatically be sent to them. In fact the beautiful thing about using an autoresponder is that this entire process happens automatically 24 hours a day.

There are a few different ways that you can set up the confirmation process in your autoresponder for maximum effect. I discuss them all in my ListMasters course. But you can see how requiring your new list member to double opt-in can go a long way in reducing the number of spam complaints that will be made against you. There are some more steps that you can take to protect yourself and I discuss them in the course as well.

As long as you are using the double opt-in process and not sending absolute crap to your list, you shouldn't have much to worry about in the way of spam complaints. You will still receive a few complaints here and there but it won't be enough to be concerned about. Most people have the common sense to simply "unsubscribe" to a mailing list if they are not satisfied.

I have been building various lists over the last five years and I have never had an issue. Treat your list well and send them quality content and they will thank you. Please do not allow any fears of violating the spam law to stop you from building your list.

Welcome Your New List Member

Now let's take just a second and recap what had taken place to this point.

You have inserted your opt-in form on your site. The visitor has opted in to your list. If you are working with single opt-ins then that is it. You can start them on your mail sequence immediately. I have already advised against that so let's assume you are using the double opt-in method.

In the case of the double opt-in list, the visitor opts-in. They will then receive the confirmation email from your autoresponder asking them to click the confirmation link. Once they do so they are on your list. You should have an email in the queue that they will receive immediately. The email should thank them for joining your list, show them how to access the information you promised and also let them know what they can expect while being a member of your list.

Please do not attempt to sell them anything in that first email. That is exactly what they are expecting you to do and probably was a reason they may have been reluctant to join your list to begin with. We have all been on the guru lists where all they do is constantly hammer us on the latest greatest widget that we need to buy. Nobody wants that. Show them that you are different, and that you really do intend to provide them with outstanding content that they will look forward to receiving.

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