A Can’t-Mess-It-Up Guide to Crafting Your Newsletter Opt-In
Welcome to another installment of my Can’t-Mess-It-Up-Guide series! I hope you’ve gobbled up how to create your first offer and how to go about setting your rates, too.
Today, we tackle something new — making a newsletter opt-in!
Opt-ins are the freebies you give people who sign up for your newsletter, and here’s the thing about those peeps… they’re your VIPs. You’ve gotta take care of them. They’re the ones who’ve raised their hands to say, “Yes, hi. I really connect to what you’re saying here, and I’d like to invite you into my already very crowded Inbox because I don’t want to miss anything you want me to know.” This is so important! And so valuable! These are the people most interested in buying what you’re selling (literally) and we need to give them some TLC.
An opt-in is also the fastest way to establish trust and expertise with new potential clients. Your opt-in shows them who you are, what you stand for, and what they can expect from you in the immediate minutes after they sign up to get your emails. It also serves as an incentive for them to check out your offers and gets the *right* people on your list. If they don’t need this opt-in, they probably don’t need your offerings, and it’s fine to let them go find the person that will help them. This way, you can attract your dream clients and create a business around the people you can most help and who you most enjoy helping.
It’s pretty sweet.
Quick little baby disclaimer: If you’re a product or goods-based business, all you need is a shiny coupon or discount code. That’s it! Hooray!
Folks who offer services, read on for A-Can’t-Mess-It-Up Guide to Crafting Your Newsletter Opt-In!
First, identify the thing all of your clients have in common. Think: why they need your services and/or what they gain from working with you. For example, all of my clients are: creative women who want to launch their dream businesses. (<— This will be very close to the “who” of your elevator pitch!) It will also point you towards the kind of opt-in you can offer. (Read on for great examples!)
Include what you want them to know that they don’t already know – another way to say this is: give them the answer to a question they didn’t know they had! This will immediately give your opt-in value and they’ll walk away better, stronger, or smarter for reading it. It’s also a chance to show off your expertise and the kind of payoff they can expect from hiring you.
Make the freebie title grabby and to-the-point. Be specific so people know exactly what they’re getting, but be sure to keep it fun! You want them to think “Ohhh, I want that.” Use your already meticulously crafted offers for inspiration and guidance. The language you use will also act as a marketing tool for your brand, too!
See if you can make your freebie streeeeeetch, (hint: like craft an email drip!). E-books used to be the thing to do, but these days, an email drip is so much more effective. By that, I mean to drip out an email once a day. For example, if you wrote something like “5 Tips To Clean Out Your Closet For Good,” you could put it all in a download they’d get just once – or you could provide one tip a day for five consecutive days. I highly recommend the latter. This gives you a chance to show up in folks’ inboxes much more often, and there’s incentive for them to open and read each email. Make sure you end with a call to action! Which, speaking of…
Include calls to action. A call to action is anything that tells your readers where they should go, what they should click, and/or what they should do to work with you. Usually, a call to action will start with a command. You can use language like: “Sign up for…,” “Click here to…,” “Save your spot by…,” “Seal the deal…,” “Snag your xyz…” “Learn more…” etc. etc. Make sure you include the correct links and any discount codes they need! While you definitely need to make sure people know about your offerings, your calls to action can also be to reply to your email with their questions or challenges, join your private Facebook group, check out your About page, etc. Anything that gets them to know more about you and your work is exactly right!
Last tip: If it takes you more than a few hours to make your opt-in, it’s too much. This is a bite-sized deliverable incentivizing your potential clients to come back for more. Think of your opt-in as an appetizer to your work! It’s delicious, but for the whole entree, they’ve gotta hire you. (Side bar: I could do food analogies all day. It’s one of my super powers.)
If you’re still feeling lost, here are a few more of my ~favorite~ opt-in examples from some of my wildly impressive 90 Day Business Launch clients!
A Little Awareness: Ease the Burnout with Suset’s 5 day quest! This is so perfect for her ideal client - overachieving women who are sick and tired of being sick and tired.
Thoughtful Gesture: Gift-giving extraordinaire Inge gives folks 10 free host(ess) gift ideas to help you become every party-thrower’s favorite guest!
Three Circles Wellness: Take the quiz to find out if therapeutic yoga is right for you! ← quizzes are *so* hot these days.
Opt-ins are just one of my magical business coach tools to help launch your successful business, and in 90 Day Business Launch we nail down the one that’ll work best for you *and* your ideal clientele. Head here to check it out, and fill out that no-obligation application to join our next round! There’s more where this came from, and I’d be thrilled to apply it to your future dream business.