Email Marketing Opt In

Once you have your copy, your product, your website NOW you can start marketing!

Keep in mind that visitors, in general, are not there to buy … They’re looking for information. The rule of thumb is it takes 7 impressions to make a sale. Of course, your milage may vary but it just goes to show you that you have persuade prospects over time.

They’ve come to your site once but how do you build that persuasion? While you can do it with Facebook, Twitter etc. one stand-by that still works VERY effectively is email marketing. With email marketing they are giving you permission to contact them - They want you to!

Value that permission, it’s not an invitation to sell them. Rather it’s the first step of a relationship … And that’s what email marketing is alll about, creating a relationship.

Just like you don’t ask someone to marry you at first site, chat with them, develop your relationship THEN you can pop the question (ask for their business).

The first step in this process is the email marketing opt in. This is the offer you give them, the copy you use to present that offer and the actual form you use to collect their information.

The Offer

What does your target audience care about? If it’s not related to THEIR interests they won’t bother.

Generally the best opt in is information - It’s easy to produce and that’swhat your audience generally wants.

As opposed to a one-off such as a report, turn it into a series.  Send a small report every few days.  It’s easier to digest by the audience and builds that rapport over time.

Thats’ how you can get those magic 7 impressions!

The Copy

Even though your offer should be free you still have to “sell” it. What is the benefit, how will it help them in their lives?

It doesn’t have to be 20 pages, a few good paragraphs should do. Remember that call to action … What do they need to do (and why).

The Form

The form should be fairly short, first name and email. If you ask other questions you find out more about your audience (good!) but then you’ll lower your response rate.

Place it high up the page.  Good practise is to have it above where they scroll.

While you could create the form yourself it’s best to use a ESP - Email Service Provider. There’s a huge task in delivering email, cleaning your list, and other email logistics … Let the pro’s handle that (focus on building your business).

Your email list is a powerful business asset. Keep growing it, nurturing it and it will pay off big time! Just remember they are not names on a list, each represents a real person, so treat your list with respect.

Last time we talked about the headline, the most important area of all the copywriting secrets. However that’s only the first part (getting attention).

Remember the AIDA formula:

Attention
Interest
Desire
Action

You have to do all the steps to lead someone through the sales process. Today lets focus on building interest.

You already know they are interested in your topic … They’re there and now are starting to read.

With that knowledge appeal to what they care about - Their PROBLEM.

Relate to it,  understand their pain.  For example if you start with a question they can see that you know where they are coming from:

Are you unsure of how to use blue widgets?

Do you want to start using blue widgets?

It might simple but that little secret tells the audience that you know about them (and care!).

Better yet, starting that way gets them to agree with you.  Get them saying yes at first and the big YES (the sale) will be easier.

The next step is to establish your credibility- Why should they listen nad TRUST you?

Tell them about your background, your expertise, your experience.

Try to give hard numbers here,  as opposed to vague generalities:

Bad - years of experience

Good - 13 years of day-to-day experience helping over 350 businesses achieve Internet success

Another way of establishing that all important credibility is with testimonials. You can sing all your own praises you want,  people will take that with a grain of salt. Give some good solid testimonials and the power of peer influence can work for you.

Again try to use specifics as opposed to generalities. While you can’t make these up you can solicit questions that get the disired effect.

How many extra sales have you got since working with me?

(Remember to get their permission).

While some people will give you a testimonial without asking, you should actively be seeking these out.

Make it part of your customer service follow up process.

You do follow up with these customers don’t you? … That’s the biggest copywriting secret of all, it’s a LOT easier to someone you’ve sold to before so keep in communication with your customers!

Now you have your niche, your product, now comes the fun part - Sell, sell, sell!

If  you’ve done your research it’s not that hard to come up with effective copy.  Just remember it’s not about you, your product, it’s about THEM … your audience and THEIR needs! Focus on that and you’ll be fine (remember it’s about the benefits not the features).

Here are some simple copywriting tips to come up with a good headline, the most important part. After all, if you can’t hook your audience right away they’ll be gone to another site:

• Include your main keyword.  People want to know that this is relevant to their needs so if they see “their’ keyword they’ll know they are in the right place.
• Focus on one KEY benefit - Don’t try to be all things to everybody, that just makes for diluted copy.
• Spell it out exactly how it will help them. If possible state a specific measurable benefit (lots of money - vague, $4572 in 5 weeks - sounds real).
• Spell out how it will make them FEEL. People are emotional creatures so appeal to what makes them tick (emotional laden benefit).

This last point is the difference between decent copy and copy that SELLS and usually the hardest part to get right. Think, where are they coming from, what is their pain point? Then think where do they want to go … how do they want to feel?

One tip is to use visual imagery to express the emotion, show don’t tell.  For example:
I went to a scary movie (telling)
I went to a movie and had shivers running down my back (showing)

A few more headline copywriting tips:

• Keep it short, 17 words or less. The whole point is to get their attention quick and if you drone on, they’re gone
• Test, test, test.  The beauty of the web is that you can change your headline in minutes. Try different benefits, different emotional angles, you should notice trends of what works (of course go in that direction).

Next time we’ll talk about some more copywriting tips - Stay tuned!

You’ve got your niche now, how are you going to make some money?

Of course there are lots of ways to monetize your site but you don’t want to spend 100’s on it … Easy money that’s the ticket!

The first question to ask is what does the audience want? Without knowing what they want how can you sell them anything?

A few places to research your audience:

Google Groups - Search your keywords and Groups will let you know what your audience is asking about, having problems with, etc.

Amazon - Not only can you do competitive research here, check out the user comments - These are people that have bought the product and telling you what they want (& what they don’t).

Technorati - A blog search engine … Are people talking about it, if so what are they saying?

Through these tools you can learn what the audience wants!

Create your own Niche Product

The best thing to sell is information … It’s 100% your product, 100% your profit and you people will pay to save them time/energy/money of doing their own research.

I know what you’re thinking … That sounds tough, I’m not a writer, I’m not an expert.

You don’t have to be! As long as you create VALUE you have something that people will buy.

And how do you create value — By giving them what they want, which you just figured out by doing the research.

1) What are the top problems of your audience

2) Write one paragraph for each in a paper notebook

3) Keep that notebook with you at all times. What you’ll notice is that you’ll have ideas for each area - WRITE THOSE DOWN.

4) Over the course of a few weeks you’ll start to fill the notebook, then it’s a matter of spending a few hours and connecting the dots.

5) Voila you have  your product!

Now at this point it might not be a masterpiece and you might not be proud of it but this is only the FIRST DRAFT - You can always improve it, revise it, expand it, turn it into a video series … The hardest part is to start and by taking these steps you’re on your path to success.

Think of making this up, sounds too easy? Look to one of my hero’s Cory Rudl. He started with a simple ebook and that led to version 2, version 3 and many, many other products … You have to START making money online somewhere.

Now you are doing your niche reaserch and want to find the best niche? First of all note that there is no such thing as a “perfect” niche - There’s always going to be pros and cons about any niche you pick.

There might  be not a lot of people looking for the exact niche you want to go into. Or perhaps there’s too much competition, it’s a saturated market.

On the demand side consider the long term value of that audience. While it might not be a large audience now will it grow? Can you leverage that niche to other similar niches? After all one website with 10,000 visitors or 5 websites x 2,000 visitors is the same traffic! If you can dominate one niche you can send traffic to the other, use the same email list that you build etc.

Can you sell multiple products to that audience? If it’s a one-off product then that you might not be able to build that lifetime value of the audience. On the other hand if it’s a passionate audience you might be able to sell product and product, and charge higher and higher prices!

On the competition side you’re always going to have to deal with competition … Have you ever soon a Google search with 0 results???

The question is can you manage that competition?

How good are the competing sites? Do they look good, easy to navigate, clear and to the point?

How about their products? Are they good, quality products that solve what the audience wants? Are they priced appropriately?

Do they know how to market on the Internet? Can you (with a bit of work) outrank them on Google and other search engines?

Niche research isn’t JUST about the keywords you have to consider your audience and competition.

Are you looking to create a successful online business? Of course you are! Who wouldn’t want a business that you own, that can generate substantial income and you can work on it when YOU want.

The easiest, most efficient way to create a successful Internet business is by finding a niche market. After all there are already millions of websites online so you don’t want to go into a saturated marketplace.

Also, with the size of the Internet, even if say 1 in a 1000 people are interested in that area, that’s still a significant market!

The question is how to find a niche that is good? Here are a few tips:

1. Pick something you like - If this is going to be your dream job why not doing something that you enjoy? PLUS you probably know something about it.
2. Pick something SPECIFIC - The more specific, the more likely you can dominate that area. Also the more likely you can sell something as you TARGET your audience needs that much better.
3. Pick something that people are looking for - Check demand through various keyword tools to ensure that there is a market, don’t try to create a new market. Here are some tools:

   Google Keyword Tool - Get the numbers directly from the horses mouth

   Wordtracker - A paid tool that gives you demand numbers plus an estimate of competition

   BeBiz - A paid tool that walks you through step by step how to think about keywords and also walks you through the rest of the site building process

4. Pick something that you can compete in. Check the sites out in that area … Are they good sites? Do they offer good products? Do they know how to market online?
5. Pick something that people WILL pay money for. Of course this is the 64K question. The question to ask yourself is how much do people need this … Does it solve some type of problem? How deep is that problem? What are there other options?

That, in a nutshell, is how to find a niche! It’s not complicated but it does take work. Do that research, take that time BEFORE thinking about the website/product etc.

Find that HUNGRY audience and your on your way to building a successful online business!

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