Everyone has heard of a sales funnel, but have you heard about an opt-in funnel? An opt-in funnel is a funnel created in order to collect as many subscribers as possible by offering multiple ‘ethical bribes’ until the potential subscriber either accepts one or reaches the end of the funnel.
The very first thing you need to do is to maximize conversions on your opt-in page. You will need:
• An irresistible ethical bribe – Your ethical bribe must be a high-quality product which your prospective subscribers will think is very desirable and valuable. It should never be a throw away product. Create your ethical bribe as if it is something you could sell. If it is not a saleable product, don’t expect people to ‘buy’ it by giving you their names and email addresses in exchange.
Your ethical bribe should be:
– Easily delivered through your autoresponder;
– Closely related to the paid product(s) you will be promoting;
– Perceived as valuable;
– Desirable by those in your chosen niche.
• A compelling squeeze page – Write the content for your squeeze page as if it is a mini sales page because that is exactly what it is even though you are ‘selling’ something for free.
You should include a:
– Compelling Headline;
– A bulleted list of a few benefits;
– A strong call-to-action;
– An opt-in box.
Once you have created and set up your squeeze page, you will need to drive traffic to your site.
• You offer your visitors an ethical bribe on your squeeze page. Some visitors will exchange their names and email addresses for what you are offering. However, a large percentage of people will not. So, you need to try to capture the names and email addresses of these visitors as once they are gone, they are probably gone forever.
• Install an exit intent pop-up on your squeeze page to capture the attention of those visitors who did not subscribe to your list. You will need to offer something even more irresistible than your original ethical bribe. This could be an audio or video as most people think of these as being more valuable than a downloadable report. You will want to direct people to an actual opt-in page where you can install another exit intent pop-up for those who still did not subscribe.
• The pop-up should say something such as:
“WAIT! Don’t Go Away Empty Handed!
Download this complimentary PRODUCT NAME
at absolutely no charge
Just click below for access.”
Then create a simple button that says “Click to continue” and link that to an opt-in page for a product that is truly a no brainer. It could be something such as a checklist or mind map but is closely related to your paid product.
• Install yet another exit intent pop-up on this catch-all page. You should then post a survey asking why they were not interested in any of your ethical bribes. Ask them what they are looking for and what you can do to help them.
Offer them something in return for answering your survey. This is your last-ditch effort to add these people to your list so ‘no holds barred’! Bribe them with anything you can think of, perhaps a 15 minute Skype session, a huge discount on one of your best-selling products, a free product (of course, you would want this to be an entry- level product that you sell for less than $20), or anything else you could think of. Of course, they must opt-in to your list in order to claim your offer.
This entire process is designed to capture as many names and email addresses as possible.
