When it comes to email marketing, having good opt-in offers is a great way to not only grow your list but also offer value to your customers.
What is an opt-in offer?
An opt-in offer is an incentive provided by your company in exchange for someone’s contact information, typically their email address. You can also use opt-in offers to drive sales and increase engagement.
It’s designed to encourage people to “opt-in” to your email list, allowing you to communicate with them directly.
Examples of opt-in offers
- E-books or Guides: A downloadable PDF. (A good example of this is our CRM Buyers Guide)
- Discounts or Coupons: A percentage off their first purchase.
- Checklists or Templates: Tools that help solve a specific problem.
- Webinars or Courses: Free training sessions or lessons.
- Exclusive Content: Early access, insider tips, or members-only material.
How to share your opt-in
There are multiple ways that you can share an opt-in with your audience. Here are just a few:
Use Your Website
- Prominent Placement: Add the opt-in form to high-traffic areas, such as the homepage, sidebar, or footer.
- Dedicated Landing Page: Create a page focused solely on the opt-in, with no distractions like navigation menus. Drive traffic directly to this page.
Use Popups
- Popup plugins, such as Hollerbox, can help place your opt-in offer on high-traffic areas of your website. Create a form within the popup and your audience can give you their information in a few simple clicks.
Leverage Social Media
- Organic Posts: Share your opt-in offer on platforms where your audience is active. Use visuals, compelling captions, and direct links.
- Pinned Posts: Pin the opt-in to the top of your profile or page to keep it visible.
- Ads: Run targeted social media ads to promote your opt-in. Focus on audiences that align with your ideal customer profile.
Collaborate with Partners
- Guest Posts: Write articles for other blogs or websites and include your opt-in as a resource.
- Joint Ventures: Partner with complementary businesses to share your opt-in with their audience.
- Affiliate or Referral Programs: Encourage others to share your opt-in in exchange for a commission or other benefits.
Use Paid Advertising
- Google Ads: Target specific keywords that align with your opt-in.
- Social Media Ads: Use Facebook, Instagram, or LinkedIn ads to reach a targeted audience.
- Native Ads: Place ads on relevant websites or content networks.
Why it works
People are more likely to share their contact details when they see immediate value. The offer benefits them but also provides you with permission to continue the conversation through email marketing.
An opt-in offer is a win-win: you grow your list while offering potential customers something they find useful or exciting!
Testing an opt-in offer
When you are ready to finally run an opt-in offer, you don’t just want to spin one up and hope for the best. You want to test it.
Testing an opt-in offer aggressively requires a structured approach to determine what resonates most with your audience. Here’s a detailed plan for how you can test and improve your next opt-in:
1. Define Your Goal
- Are you looking to increase email sign-ups, sales, or engagement?
- Decide what metric (e.g., conversion rate, CTR) you’ll use to evaluate success.
2. Develop Multiple Variations
Test key elements of your opt-in offer to find the best-performing version:
- Headline: Try different hooks and emotional appeals.
- Offer Type: Test formats like discounts, free guides, checklists, templates, or exclusive content.
- Visuals: Experiment with images, videos, or no visual at all.
- Call-to-Action (CTA): Change the wording, placement, or color (e.g., “Download Now” vs. “Get My Guide”).
3. A/B Test or Multivariate Testing
- Run A/B tests by showing two variations to a segment of your audience.
- Use multivariate testing if you want to test combinations of elements at once.
Tools: Google Optimize, Optimizely, or your email marketing platform.
4. Segment Your Audience
- Divide your audience into segments (e.g., demographics, behavior, traffic source).
- Test offers on different segments to see what appeals to specific groups.
5. Test Across Channels
- Run your opt-in offer on your website, landing pages, social media, and ads.
- Compare performance by channel to identify where your offer works best.
6. Incentivize Immediate Action
Test urgency-based tweaks:
- Add countdown timers.
- Use scarcity language like “Only 20 Spots Left!”
7. Experiment with Delivery Mechanisms
- Test single-step vs. multi-step opt-ins (e.g., pop-up vs. embedded form).
- Experiment with different types of pop-ups: exit-intent, scroll-based, or timed.
8. Optimize for Mobile
Ensure your offer is mobile-friendly. Test variations of the design and copy optimized for smaller screens.
9. Track and Analyze Results
- Track metrics like opt-in rate, traffic source conversion, and bounce rate.
- Use tools like Google Analytics, your email marketing platform, or heatmaps.
10. Iterate and Scale
- Focus on the winning variation and test minor tweaks to refine it further.
- Scale your winning opt-in offer by promoting it across broader channels.
By aggressively testing these components, you’ll refine your opt-in strategy and consistently improve your results. The more opt-in offers you run and test, the more understanding you will have of what works best for your audience!
How can Groundhogg help?
Having an great opt-in is all well and good, but without somewhere to collect and store your leads, it’s not worth much.
That’s why having a CRM is so important, you collect all your leads in your CRM, segment them, then use automated follow-up through email and SMS to turn those leads into customers!
Groundhogg is the ideal CRM if you use WordPress because it natively integrates with all your WordPress plugins. Plus it’s open-source and there’s no success-tax!
Get started with Groundhogg!
To get started with Groundhogg, you can:
- Start a 14-day demo.
- Purchase a plan.
- Take the free quickstart course.
- Keep reading!
Have questions? Don’t hesitate to shoot us a message!
