6 Steps to Create a Top-Notch Opt-in Form

Imagine this……

You spend time, money and effort driving traffic to your website.

But the majority of people who come onto your website may not be ready to purchase. Without gaining an opt in, these prospects will simply leave your website and possibly never return.

Email marketing is the backbone of your company and underpins every other type of marketing you do.

Having a prominent email opt in on your website is a great way to capture information from those visitors that are ready to buy from you, but also (and most importantly) from those that would otherwise have left your website without purchasing anything.

If this happens, these people are lost opportunities at that point, but if you craft a well presented, compelling email opt in form, you may well be able to capture their interest to hear more about you, or act on an opt in offer. You then have their contact details and can work towards providing further valuable information, and lead towards a conversion.

But growing your list is also much more than just capturing those visiting and leaving your website. It needs to be a consistent long term effort across every touch point prospects have with you and your business.

Whether it’s a sign up form on your website or a dedicated squeeze page to capture leads, let’s take a look at 6 key steps to creating a top notch opt in form:

1. Create a killer headline

As with a newspaper headline, your objective here is to create a compelling headline that is either BENEFIT driven (by this I mean it focuses on the benefits the subscriber will receive) or hits on a specific problem or wish that the subscriber’s you would like to attract have. It should be kept short and sweet whilst grabbing the attention of the user.

The examples below show the difference between these two headlines:

Speaking directly to your target audience:                                       Benefit driven:

2. Be open, honest and transparent

This form is the first impression of your business for many users, so it’s really important to start the relationship off in the right way and tell people exactly what they will receive and when, so that there are no nasty surprises when they start to receive your emails!

By setting their expectations properly at the point of sign up, you will ensure that the people who register really want to receive your communications and are interested in what you offer. This will also help to ensure a low complaint rate (subscribers pressing the spam/junk button) and higher engagement (opens, clicks, conversions etc.) with your campaigns going forward.

As can be seen in the example from M&S below, showing subscribers an example image / link to an example email that you’ve previously sent, that they can look at helps to illustrate exactly what your communications look like and the value provided.

3. Make it easy to use

Ensure your sign up forms are not overly complicated, and are clean, easy to read and understand, as well as to complete. If you can, use systems that make the sign up form more intuitive (such as completing common email addresses, postal addresses from just postcodes etc.), this will also help people to complete the form quickly and easily.

The example below from Selfridges shows a very easy to use, simple sign up form including drop down options, a benefit drive headline and images of previous emails sent to set expectations further.

4. Only collect the information you need

It is common marketing knowledge that the more steps you require someone to take to complete an action, the less likely they are to do so. The same holds true when it comes to prospects signing up for your email list – the more information you ask for, the less likely they are to complete the form and sign up.

Collect only the information that you NEED on sign up – so email address, would of course be the minimum level of information needed to register them. However, by asking for items such as first name or what their interests are, you can ensure that you start to personalise your messages from the start of the relationship.

On the flip side, the more fields you require to be completed, although this will reduce the number of sign ups you receive, it is likely that those that do will be even more qualified and interested in what you are offering.

So consider carefully your business objectives, how you will want to personalise your communications going forward to ensure relevancy as well as the end conversion you are driving the sign up to, in order to decide what fields to collect on sign up and which could be collected later on in the relationship (such as during the on-boarding process; the initial sign up automated series of emails).

In the example below from H&M they choose to only collect email address on sign up; this may be related to their opt in offer. Giving a discount on sign up means that any subscribers who go on to use this offer will provide more information during the purchase process.

5. Give something in return

With so many email programmes out there to choose from, how can you encourage visitors that interact with your website, social media channels, shop front or other touch points, to register to receive YOUR emails?

Sometimes called an opt in offer or lead magnet, adding an incentive gives an additional reason to the user to give you their email address (a valuable commodity) as well as helping to address and bolster the ‘what’s in it for me’element of the decision to subscribe.

The example below from SnapRetail shows a squeeze page offering a free guide as the incentive.

Want more info about opt in offers? Download my free guide ’28 Incredibly Enticing Opt In Offers to Build Your Email List’ here >

6. Put it everywhere and make it prominent!

If no one sees your sign up form, how is your list going to grow?! Ensure you place it, and advertise it, everywhere that you have a touch point with prospects and customers including, first and foremost, your website.

The key here is to capture the traffic you drive to your website through other marketing that you are doing; as I mentioned at the beginning of this post, email marketing underpins every other marketing effort you make.

If you liked this article you may also like:

Top 10 Dumb Landing Page Mistakes You Need To Avoid 

5 A/B Tests You Should Be Running On Your Landing Page Opt-in Forms 

3 Steps To Improving Your Lead Generation Landing Pages

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Top 10 Tips for Improving Website Conversions and Lead Generation for 2015

Is one of your goals for 2015 to improve website conversions and generate more leads for your business online? Don’t rely on Search Engine Optimization (SEO) alone. Here are our top 10 conversion rate optimization tips to help you achieve success:

1. Invest in quality content.

In a world inundated 24 hours a day, seven days a week by a constant babble on the internet and social media it pays to offer a distinctive voice that will appeal to your target demographic. Not only should quality wordsmithing draw traffic and build readership, it should include SEO keywords in the body as well as in the snappy headline that generates interest. 

There are many built-in and/or free search engine optimization (SEO) tools available now so there is no excuse not to have complete and optimized meta titles, meta tags, and meta descriptions. 

As important as SEO is for the search engines, well written, meaningful copy about your product or services in a tone that resonates with your target audience is key for attracting human interest. Know how relationship books stress being a good listener? 

Use your content to build good relationships with existing and potential clients by being mindful of their questions and concerns raised in comments or any feedback. Use this to generate topics that will answer commonly asked questions and anticipate customer need.

2. Invest in quality visual elements.

You know that old saying that a picture is worth a thousand words? Make those visuals count by using professional photographs to showcase your products or services. 

Poor quality photographs, pixelated images, amateur video, or obvious stock photos simply don’t motivate purchases the way professional photographs do. Again, you need to impress the human eye with photographs but remember that you also need to optimize photos for the non-human search engines. 

Further, since Google’s Hummingbird search algorithm update, optimized images and videos are ranked higher in search than plain-text. That means great visual elements can please both your human audience and search engines so an investment in the creative components of your online marketing activity is worthwhile.

3. Be responsive.

Engaging with your clients and potential clients builds relationship, and when social media marketing and interaction is managed effectively it is a great way to generate interest in your product or service among qualified leads. 

Monitor social media and deal with questions, requests, and comments promptly and professionally -- always mindful that how interactions are managed may persuade (or dissuade) people to do business with you. 

Ensure that icons and social sharing buttons are visible and encourage visitors to your site to share, perhaps upon completing a purchase or filling out a contact form like some large brands do in the hopes happy customers will want to share what they’ve just bought with their friends and family.

4. Anticipate need with your contact form.

Tailor your site’s contact form to suit the most common reasons visitors would want to contact you. It should be intuitive to fill out and reassure visitors that they have found the right forum to contact your business. 

The language ideally should confirm the expectation: “Please let us know if you would like to arrange for a free consultation” or “Sign up for our webinar.” If you say that you will respond the same day or reply within two business days be careful to follow through. 

Contact forms typically increase conversion rates when they are featured on all website pages or easy to navigate to from anywhere on your site. Analytics will help to track conversion success rates. 

5. Think beyond the desktop.

The reality is that most people now surf the web using handheld devices like tablets or smartphones, which means the most successful websites are designed with mobile functionality in mind (not a separate mobile-specific app -- that’s outdated now!). 

If your website doesn’t work for tablets or smartphones expect frustrated visitors to bounce from your pages to look elsewhere. Responsive designs for websites work no matter which device is used and keep browsers happy. 

That’s not all! Google has also made mobile optimization a visible search advantage, which means having a responsive website design is even more important now.

6. No one should have to ask for directions.

Don’t make visitors on the information highway feel lost, confused, and frustrated when they visit your site. Clear navigation encourages browsing and keeps visitors on your site rather than looking for other options online. 

Strive for clarity and simple navigation with every webpage easily accessed via the homepage. Ensure your most important and most-sought after information is as they used to say in the heyday of newspapers above the fold. 

In other words, the biggest news goes under the banner headline at the top because that is where people will look first.

7. Make it easy.

Visitors to your website appreciate finding what they want quickly. Expedite customer queries with a reliable site search tool that will leverage the keyword data from your pages to optimize results. 

Fast load times are very important because frustrated visitors will give up and exit out to look elsewhere. Test every form and link yourself and have others try and provide feedback so you can fix any trouble spots before they irk potential clients.

8. Generate goodwill with valuable free downloads.

Packaging informative content in a free e-book or PDF handout are attractive to visitors, plus you can use these offers to motivate people to sign up for your newsletter or email campaigns. 

Sell the benefits of the content you’re offering and incorporate any rave reviews or expert endorsements you may have. Keep visitors on your website by ensuring any downloadable information opens in a new tab or pop-up so they don’t click away from your page.

9. Publish frequently and cross-promote.

Regularly sharing new and useful information and insightful commentary keeps people interested and encourages return visits to your site. Use your other social media platforms (Twitter, Instagram, Pinterest, Facebook) to market your new blog posts with an integrated approach. 

Don’t stop there! Promote your business and social media sites in your email signature line and newsletters. Read more tips for content marketing here.

10 . Analyze conversion rates.

There are fantastic analytics tools available that take all the guesswork out of what works and what doesn’t so you can quickly modify and make changes to maximize success. 

When you want to determine the ratio of visitors who complete a desired action -- whether that is purchasing a product or signing up for a newsletter or some other action -- there are reliable methods to track and interpret website analytics. 

There is even software that allows you to test which elements generate the most interest and convert visitors to customers. It is possible to run an A/B split-test, which lets some visitors see option A while the others see option B so that you can then determine which option attracted the most customers. 

Another possibility is multivariate testing, which allows for many such comparative tests to run at the same time.

Use your time and resources wisely and reap the benefits from establishing your business as one that is easy to work with online and a trusted source for information and ideas.

If you liked this article you may also like these:

Top 10 Dumb Landing Page Mistakes To Avoid 

5 A/B Split Tests You Should Be Running On Your Landing-Page Opt In Forms 

5 Reasons Why Your Website Is Not Generating Leads (10 Fixes To Solve The Problem)

To view the original article Click Here

Top 10 Dumb Landing Page Mistakes You Need to Avoid

A landing page is a standalone page designed for one specific objective. Or it should be.

In reality, most landing pages ask visitors to do a lot of things, and what happens instead is that users leave doing nothing.

What does that mean? Most landing pages are designed to lose money.

It’s saddening to see that businesses could have a lot more conversions if they weren’t making these landing page mistakes. Especially since they could easily start profiting by honing in on 10 common mistakes.

Let’s take a look at them.

CTA – Call to Action

1. The CTA button doesn’t stand out by itself

If there are too many links vying for attention, it results in the CTA buttongetting lost in the melee. Look at this example

Image Source

Which button is the CTA? It’s hard to tell in all this confusion. My guess is the form, whose button says, “Get the brochure now!”

Not only does this CTA sound way too generic, but the page also has an attention ratio of 60:1. There are 59 other links that a visitor can go to.

Here’s another example,

This page wants a reader to register, get a demo of the product, read the articles, watch the video and throw up at the same time.

2. CTA button color doesn’t inspire action

There are various theories on which colors convert best, but using recommended color choices is no guarantee of success. The CTA button should contrast with the design so that it gets noticed. (So if your site is green, your button should be blue, red or orange. Not another shade of green.)

This article discusses why many eCommerce sites, including Amazon, tend to use a light orange color for their CTA buttons.

It is difficult to find which color would bring the most conversions without testing them first. Instead of boring you with case studies about which colors outperformed others, let me tell you about the emotions that various colors incite.

Blue: Blue is the favorite color of 35% of women and 57% of men. The color is associated with trust and security.

A darker shade of blue denotes professionalism. Blue is especially used by financial institutions for the trust it radiates and also by tech firms like Dell to show professionalism.

Green: Because of the way the retina functions, green is the easiest color for the eye to process. It works well for budget conscious shoppers. Being associated with “go,” green may serve as a good CTA color.

Red: Red causes our hearts to beat faster by activating the pituitary gland. This can cause people to behave in ways they don’t naturally act.

You can employ red for passionate responses. But keep in mind, too much of the color can be intimidating.

Purple: Purple is one of the least favorite colors among men but the second most popular among women. If your audience is primarily female then this color can work wonders.

3. CTA is in the wrong place

While people do scroll below the fold, 80% of their time is spent looking at information above the fold.

Moreover, people don’t read; they skim.

I can relate a personal experience here. A few days ago I posted an ad on a classifieds site looking for a roommate. The ad, which is barely 300 words, explained everything—the number of rooms available (1), whether it was a PG (Paying Guest) arrangement or not and the cost. Despite that, every call from an interested party indicated that they were blissfully unaware of any of the details that I had shared.

People don’t read your landing pages. Period.

Placing the CTA at the end of a long block of text, hoping that people would take in every word you wrote is madness.

The landing page doesn’t tell a story in an effective manner

4. Not explaining clearly what you do

Let’s have a look at Groove’s landing page,

Source

Groove suffered from a conversion problem. So much so, they feared they would go out of business soon.

Their headline didn’t clearly communicate what they did. Even the sub-headline didn’t help much. After reviewing their site, a marketer told them, “Customer support is a product, not a problem. What problem are you solving, exactly?”

Another issue with their landing page was that they used marketing language. Their customers spoke differently; they used the language of problems, so there was a lack of connection.

Here’s what you need to remember: A landing page that doesn’t communicate its purpose is a poor landing page.

Imagery, copy and the sequence of elements—each of these should support one another to tell a convincing story about the product.

We will leave Groove alone for a minute and move to another example, Nerd Block.

The page answers a lot of the questions that visitors may have, primarily:

1. What is this site about?
2. What are the prices?
3. What kind of products are there?
4. How much time do I have left to order?

The countdown timer on the top incites a sense of urgency, which is beneficial in converting cold traffic to buying traffic. The headline communicates in the language of the customers.

This is a site that understands who the customers are and what they want.

Coming back to Groove, here’s what they did to tell a story: they introduced a logical sequence based on customer research. The result? They doubled their conversion rates.

They asked questions to:

1. Marketers
2. Power users
3. Beginner users
4. Themselves

Expert marketers told them what was wrong with their messaging, as discussed earlier. Next they turned their attention to users. They used a Kissmetrics report to identify power users. “And then we picked up the phone. We didn’t send out surveys, we didn’t email them questions, and we didn’t ask anything that could be answered with a ‘yes’ or ‘no.’

“We knew that if we really wanted to get the insight we needed—not data, but words—the best way to do that would be through having actual conversations with our customers.”

Through phone and Skype chats, they enquired about the problems that these power users hoped to solve with Groove. They asked about their experiences, aha moments and their journey with Groove.

Next, they reached out through email to people who had signed up recently. Intensely personal, the emails helped gauge the mind of the new user and understand what they expected when they signed up.

Finding what drives sign-ups helped Groove come closer to crafting a message that could resonate with customers.

Finally, they asked themselves:

• Why do we exist?

• What difference do we make in our customers’ lives?

• What do we believe in?

• What do we NOT believe in?

• How do we want a customer to feel about us?

• Who are our most ideal customers?

• Who are we not right for?

• How are we different?

This helped them stay true to the purpose Groove was started for and brought the team closer. All of this led to a customer-centric approach that worked.

5. Bad typography

“Typography is the detail and the presentation of a story. It represents the voice of an atmosphere, or historical setting of some kind. It can do a lot of things.” Cyrus Highsmith

Case in point: Recently, I clicked on an ad about “service management software” from Pegasus. The scrawny typography, tiny images and stock photo of someone holding something at the top are not helping anyone.

Source

6. Lack of imagery that inspires action

High quality imagery creates interest in the landing page. People smiling, especially women, create a feeling of trust.

When people in the image gaze at the call to action, it causes the visitors to pay attention to it as well.

Image Source

The site above, however, has failed to realize this simple concept. Being social animals, we are hard-wired to look where people are looking.

Source

These heat maps show where people are looking on the screen. Notice when the baby looks at the CTA, viewers tend to look at it too.

7. Expecting too much from videos

According to Conversion XL’s Peep Laja, ”With only 10% of users watching your landing page video, your page’s copy needs to stand on its own.”

Most people imagine that videos alone can drive conversions. However, there needs to be some supporting copy. Even if people decide not to watch videos, they should be able to understand what the page is about.

Let me share a case study where an image beat an explainer video at conversions.

During the redesign of BrookDale Living, the difference between the two variants was that one used an image of senior citizens while the other used an explainer video.

We have a lot of case studies detailing the effectiveness of videos, but in this case, the results were surprisingly different.

Delving in a little, it was found that the demographic at BrookDale Living comprised mainly women without a college education. They probably aren’t very net savvy and have poor broadband speeds, all of which makes watching videos a cumbersome exercise.

Source

When displaying videos on the landing page, keep in mind you need to have a supporting copy and do ample research on the audience demographic to make sure your videos are effective.

Testimonials

Testimonials are statements that support your credibility. It’s a well-known fact that the success of a business depends on word of mouth, and testimonials fuel that very concept.

However, the very testimonials that are supposed to create a sense of credibility can easily destroy it. Let’s see how that can happen.

8. Using vague testimonials/ burying testimonials

In the case of GigSalad, one of their most impressive testimonials was buried under two other testimonials. The testimonial was from America’s Got Talent, making it hugely authoritative.

I couldn’t find the older version of the webpage in Web archives, but in earlier versions, the above testimonial was the third. Given that people don’t read much, it could have easily been missed by most users.

9. Not using their names or real images

In the case of CR Driving, the way testimonials are displayed destroys the very credibility they seek to create.

Image Source

At first glance it look good. But read the note on the upper right. It tells us that the images may not be of real drivers. Why not?

I know, I know. Conversion experts recommend using head shots of the people giving a testimonial. But if you can’t get a headshot, you should never replace them with stock photos. That seems obvious, but I guess it isn’t.

10. Using in-house testimonials

Testimonials are great, but they may cause a negative reaction if they are from your own employees. Say you are a Web design agency and you use testimonials from your own designers. That isn’t a great way to build credibility.

You get a bigger credibility boost using third-party statements. When you say you’re terrific, no one believes you. When total strangers say you’re terrific, we’re all ears.

Concluding thoughts

Each of these mistakes are easy to make. But as you can see, they’re also easy to fix.

Just spend a little extra time thinking about your landing pages and how well they speak to your customers. With a little extra attention, you can improve conversions and will be making money with each click!

Let us know if you know of any landing page mistakes to share in the comments.

If you liked this post why not check out these: 

5 A/B Tests You Should Be Running on Your Landing Page Opt-In Forms

5 Shortcuts for Increasing Email Conversion Rate in Record Time

9 Ways To Build Your Email List With Video

To view the original article Click Here

5 Sure Shot Tips to Help You Convert More Leads

Converting leads through your website is an essential objective for any website owner. If your business relies solely on the performance of your website, then this becomes even more important. For success online, you have to constantly strive toward improving the conversion rate of your website.

Conversion rate basically refers to the frequency of converting casual visitors on your business website into success leads for the business. This list can include customers who buy your services or products, sign-up on email lists, post comments, make inquiries, as well as perform interactions with your website.

Converting visitors into leads is not child’s play. Even when armed with social media and content marketing strategies, companies are still unable to successfully convert visitors to leads. A good conversion strategy requires constant testing and analysis.

Essential tips to improve lead conversion rates

Improving conversion rates should be your primary aim when operating a business website. Below, are a few points to help you boost lead conversion rates.

#1 – Employ different strategies for for different leads

You have to treat your leads individually. Your customer base will likely be comprised of different groups who have different interests and triggers. For instance, there may be some customers who like reading exhaustive content describing your business, yet others, may lack such patience and would rather take part in a webinar. As you can see, each group would have a different trigger so you need to approach each category with material that appeals to them.

#2 – Offer incentives

Offering incentives is a great way of converting leads. This method has been used in the online business scenario for a long time now. The longevity of this method proves its success in lead conversion. An example of this method can be seen in several blogs where casual visitors are asked to give their emails in exchange for an exclusive link to a free resource such as an eBook. This principle is applicable in any online business for lead capturing purposes. You can increase you email list very quickly if this is done correctly.

#3 – Get to know your leads better

Every business has its ideal customer. You should ask yourself how well you know yours before creating your content marketing strategy. If you don’t know them very well, then it’s time to get to know them. Check out their demographics. You should know their location, income, occupation, buying habits, lifestyle, and similar data pertaining to financial situations. This data is called as Central Demographic Model or CDM. Apart from this, you will also want to know customers’ Central Psychographic Model or CPM. This defines the preferences, behaviors, and other factors affecting buying decisions of customers. CDM and CPM collectively can help you in converting leads better.

#4 – Understand successful conversion processes

Conversion processes are not an exact science. You may be surprised at how something mundane has contributed toward lead generation in the past. Hit and trial also works in online business lead generation. As such, you should always look at what has lead to successful conversions in the past. Proper attention should be paid to your website’s history in converting leads. Once you realize what has impacted your visitor’s decision in buying your product or service, that should be properly incorporated into your content marketing model, and should be duly communicated to everyone in the sales and marketing teams.

#5 – Always customize follow-up communication

Customizing follow up according to client preferences is also a must for lead generation. Whether you are using batch signs or whether the sales team is directly following up with specific leads, you have to ensure that you have proper understanding of the follow up campaign. Doing this will assist in customizing campaigns and avoid any clashes between the different follow up campaigns. As with the process of tailoring lead generation campaigns and content marketing according to client preferences, follow up measures should also be done for best results.

To view the original article Click Here