Here’s a fact: the vast majority of your prospects are going to leave your site without taking action. Hint: That number may be as high as 99% percent. Seriously. Yikes.
Even if you have a great design, they’ll leave. Even if you have a high-converting sales letter, they’ll leave. And even if you have all your other conversion ducks in a row, the majority aren’t going to buy. (And that’s a waste of your time and advertising dollars.)
Sure, these visitors may have good intentions. They’ll bookmark your site and tell themselves they’ll come back. But just like everyone else who has a ton of bookmarks that they never re-visited, your prospect probably won’t be back to your site either, even though they still want the result that your product is designed to deliver.
That all sounds depressing, but there’s a way around this…
Simply get your visitors on your mailing list.
This gives you a chance to follow up repeatedly with your prospects, build a relationship, give them additional “useful, but incomplete” content (as mentioned previously), and point them to a paid product. It’s an extremely powerful way to boost your conversion rates and start making more sales right away.
With that in mind, let’s walk through the steps of setting it all up…
Step 1: Create a Lead Magnet
Basically, what you’re looking to do is create a highly desirable and valuable product that you can give to your visitors (for free) in exchange for their email addresses. This could take the form of:
- Ebooks or reports.
- Access to membership sites.
- Access to a webinar.
- Videos.
- Audios.
- Software/plugins/apps.
- Tools such as gear lists, worksheets, checklists, planners, cheat sheets and similar.
- A done-for-you-service.
- Access to a private forum.
- Coaching/consulting/feedback.
Be sure to do your market research so that you create something that your audience really wants. Also, be sure it’s useful yet incomplete – this means that it solves part of your prospect’s problem, while pointing towards your paid offer to solve the rest of the problem. Or points them to a paid product that further explains or enhances the free content.
Step 2: Capture Email Addresses
This step requires two sub-steps:
- Choose an autoresponder.
- Set up a lead page.
For the first step, choose a reputable third-party email service provider with a built-in autoresponder. Examples include Aweber, GetResponse, ConvertKit, iContact, and similar well-known, established companies.
NOTE: Most of these companies provide extensive help documentation and videos on their sites, so use this information to set up your first autoresponder and to create your opt-in form.
Once you’ve selected your autoresponder, then part two of this step is to create a lead page. This is a short sales page that persuades your visitors to give up their email address in exchange for your lead magnet. At a minimum, this page will include:
- A benefit-driven headline.
- An introduction to further pique interest.
- A list of benefits of your free offer.
- A call to action (telling people to opt into your list to get the lead magnet for free).
You can use a shortened version of your salesletter to create your lead page. Alternatively, you can hire someone to create a compelling lead page for you.
Here’s the next step…
Step 3: Craft an Email Series
Now that you have prospects on your list, your next step is to create an autoresponder series. This will give you a hands-free, automated way to build relationships with your subscribers and promote your offers (thus boosting your conversions).
At a minimum, you need to start with an autoresponder series stocked with five or so emails.
For example: “The Five Dog-Training Secrets Every Dog Owner Ought to Known.” Each email would reveal one secret, and then pitch your paid offer at the end.
Over time, you should add additional emails to your autoresponder series, with each email going out at the rate of about one per week.
For example, if you upload an additional 24 emails to your autoresponder, then you’ll have six weeks’ worth of content going out on autopilot. You’ll make sales without lifting a finger.J
Just like with your free content from secret 2…
Each email you send should be useful yet incomplete.
That means each email should be about 80% useful content that shares how-to information or tips, with the remainder of the email focused on promoting your paid offer.
Now let me give you a complete example of how all of this works…
Let’s suppose your main product is a copywriting guide.
When people leave your sales page without buying, you can use an exit redirect to send people to a lead page where you offer them a free sales letter template in exchange for their email address. (This lead magnet is useful yet incomplete, since people can use it “as is”, but also need your guide to make the most of it.)
You then send your new subscribers a five-part email series that shares five tips for creating higher-converting sales letters. Each email is useful (sharing a tip), yet the series is incomplete since it doesn’t completely solve the problem of low-converting sales letters. As such, each email will also promote your copywriting guide as the ultimate solution to boosting conversions.
Now let’s wrap things up…
Your Turn
For this secret, your assignment is to plan how you’ll get people to join your list, and how you’ll follow up with them. Answer these questions:
- What sort of lead magnet will you offer?
- Did you double check that it’s an in-demand product?
- Is your lead magnet valuable (meaning it’s something you could sell)?
- How will you create your lead page (yourself or outsource)?
- What are the main benefits of your lead magnet to include on your sales page?
- How many emails will be in your initial autoresponder series?
- What will these emails be about?
- What will you pitch at the end of these emails?
Go ahead and work on setting up your lead page and autoresponder. Meanwhile, I’ll see you in the next secret…
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