If you don’t have a list of prospects and clients you can send marketing messages to, then you probably don’t have a sustainable business. Therefore you must collect information from visitors to your website with an opt-in box. Below are some additional reasons to have an opt-in box.
People won’t send you this information
You need to ask for it. Therefore, you need to have an autoresponder service and use their web form to ask for this information.
Your request for name and email address needs to stand out from the rest of your website
Otherwise, people will not notice it. If you use a simple form, visitors to your website may gloss over it and never opt into your list.
Add Design to Your Opt-In Box
Although your autoresponder service will give you Java or HTML code for a simple form to collect this information, you need to make the form stand out by surrounding it with a noticeable opt-in box. The opt-in box should contrast from the rest of the page so that it draws the visitor’s eye.
Show Off Your Gift
An opt-in box can showcase your opt-in offer, making your request for name and email address more compelling. Include your bonus name and, if room, an image of its virtual packaging.
Emphasize Your Promise
An opt-in box can emphasize your promise not to share their information with others and use it responsibly — increasing trust. People are very aware of how their inboxes are filled with SPAM… so let them know that none of that stuff will come from you.
More Professional
An opt-in box looks more professional than a simple form. When you have a clean, stylized opt-in box, it looks more like you are willing to invest in your business. And when you believe in your business, it is easier for others to do so, as well.
I hope you can see that an eye-catching opt-in box is a necessity if you are going to grow your list from your website. The only more compelling option is to have a squeeze page… but that’s another article!
Not collecting visitor information is the 3rd deadly mistake of home page design. Would you like to know the other four mistakes? As well as learn more about how to create an effective web presence? Pick up a copy of Carma’s book, Home Sweet Home Page: The 5 Deadly Mistakes Authors, Speakers and Coaches Make with Their Website’s Home Page and How to Fix Them!
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