Below you’ll find an unedited version of a chapter from my new book, Email Marketing Demystified. To get your copy of Email Marketing Demystified, visit www.myemailmarketingbook.com.
After you have created your lead magnet, you will need to identify what kind of messaging you are going to use to get your potential subscribers to sign-up for your mailing list. The language that you use on your opt-in forms will have a dramatic impact on the number of people that sign-up for your mailing list. By creating a compelling and relevant offer, using strong language and clear calls-to-action on your opt-in form, you will get much higher opt-in rates.
Before looking at opt-in form software, you will first need to write the actual text (or copy) that will appear on your opt-in form. You will need to write a short headline, which will be the first piece of text that a potential subscriber reads. You will also need a description that provides more detail about what the user can expect to receive when they give you their email address. You will also need to decide what kind of information that you want to collect on your form and what you want on the text of your button.
Writing Your Headline
The headline on your opt-in form is the first piece of copy that your potential subscribers will see. The headline on your opt-in form may be the single most important words that you write in your business. A good headline will create desire for your lead magnet and encourage potential subscribers to read your opt-in description. A bad headline will be quickly passed over and ignored. Your headline should be short, engaging and briefly communicate what your website visitors will receive if they sign up for your mailing list. Your headline should be between five and ten words in length and will ideally fit into a single line of text.
Here are some examples of headlines I have personally used:
- Receive Analysts’ Upgrades and Downgrades Daily
- [Company Name] – Receive News and Ratings Daily
- Frustrated with Your Putting Skills?
- Learn to Eliminate the “Blow-Up Hole” (free video!)
- Add 20+ Yards to Your Drives Today!
Writing Your Description
The description on your opt-in form is the main copy that explains your lead magnet, sets the expectation for the type of email that your recipients will receive and provides an overall value proposition for why someone might want to be on your mailing list. Your description should be between 20 and 50 words in length. You should keep your description clear and concise. Avoid unnecessary words and keep your description as short as possible while fully explaining your value proposition and setting an expectation of what kind of email they will receive. Finally, include a call-to-action which instructs readers to complete the opt-in form.
Here is the current opt-in description we are using on MarketBeat.com:
Enter your email address below to receive a concise daily summary of analysts’ upgrades, downgrades and new coverage with MarketBeat.com’s FREE daily email newsletter.
Selecting Your Button Text
The text on your sign-up button will be the shortest part of your opt-in that you write. Your button text may only be two or three words, but having the right text on your sign-up button can improve your opt-in rates by 10-30%. Most websites make use very generic a button text like “Submit”, “Get Instant Access”, or “Subscribe Now.” Because web users are used to clicking on buttons that say “Subscribe” and “Submit”, using a generic button text will usually work reasonably well. I am currently using “Sign-Up Now (Free)” as the text on my buttons, which has outperformed more than a dozen other variations that I have tried.
You can also test creating a unique button text that ties into the copy in your title and description. At Microconf 2015, a conference for software entrepreneurs, copywriter Joanna Wiebe shared how she tested changing the button text on one of Dressipi.com’s landing pages. Dressipi is a service that helps women find clothes that look nice and fit well, regardless of a woman’s shape or size. She changed their button text from “Sign Up Now” to “Show Me Outfits I’ll Love” and saw an increase of 123.9% in the rate that the button was clicked (http://copyhackers.com/2014/09/buttons-vs-headlines/). By tying Dressipi’s button text into the copy of the rest of the opt-in form, she was able to see get higher opt-in rates.