Building out your email list continues to be one of the most fundamental ways to grow your online business. Communicating with people through regular newsletters helps to build trust and draw people into your world. 

But email addresses are a high commodity and a lot of people are wary of giving out their details. Today I’m talking about 9 elements to consider when creating your opt-in page so that your freebie actually works for your business to create conversions. 

WHAT EXACTLY IS AN OPT-IN PAGE?

You may have heard of the term lead magnet, which is usually a freebie that people can get access to. The opt-in page is where someone can pop in their email address in order to obtain the lead magnet. The goal is to make sure that you are maximising the results for your business from that page. Here are some ways to do it.

CAN I HAVE YOUR ATTENTION PLEASE! 

The first point to consider is having a bold headline that grabs the attention of your target audience. It’s important to be really clear here about exactly what your promise is and what it is that you’re providing. 

Underneath the headline, include a subheading to give a little more detail about what you’re providing. Explain the benefits of WHY someone should want this freebie. How will it help them and what problems will it solve? 

Next is the call to action. This is the button people actually click to download the lead magnet. Make sure this is bright or in a high contrast colour so that it’s really obvious what people need to do in order to obtain your freebie. And be creative with the copy here. Make it really clear and enticing, like “Yes, give me it now!”

WE LIVE IN A WORLD OF DISTRACTIONS. KEEP IT SIMPLE

It’s tempting to want to include every little detail and loads of graphics on a page, but most of the time, less is more. Keep your opt-in page really simple so that you can minimise, or even better, completely eliminate, distractions. You just want to provide one really clear action for people to take, which is to submit the form and opt-in.

In terms of the actual form, keep this simple too. People don’t want to spend a lot of time filling out details so my advice is to stick to the bare minimum. This might vary depending on the needs of your business, but in a lot of cases, a simple first name and email address will do. 

COMMUNICATING THROUGH IMAGERY AND CLIENT TESTIMONIALS

Think about how you can illustrate or represent your lead magnet through the imagery on the page. Make it tangible so that people can visualise what they’re going to get when they opt-in. 

A bonus tip here is to make sure you create a level of consistency with your website aesthetics, ensuring that it makes sense with your brand instead of being really different or unexpected. This helps to build trust with your audience and leaves no surprises which might turn them away. 

Another way you can really build trust and help people understand what your offer will provide is to include social proof through the form of reviews, comments and feedback you’ve received in the past. Social proof can be so powerful because it helps people see that other people trust you. It shows them that someone else opted in and had a good experience, which means they will too. 

WHAT IS THE DATA SAYING?

When it comes to marketing, everything is iterative. Have a look at the statistics behind your opt-in page to see what the opt-in rate is. Think about how you can make it better and what you could do to create even more conversions. This is where you can test, refine and tweak the page to find out what works and what doesn’t work. Remember, keep it simple and do one thing at a time so you can really collect data on what is helping. 

The most important thing is to put your offer out there, instead of holding yourself back while you aim for perfection. Connection over perfection is what it’s all about!

LINKS;

Sign up to my Elevate Business Retreat Waitlist here! Applications open on the 29th of May. 

Check out Emma Troy’s Showit templates here, and use my affiliate code VIPEMILY for $100 off your purchase.

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[00:00:00] Welcome back to the show. I hope you are so, so well. I have just got back from Noosa in Queensland in Australia where I was for a little bit of a shorter trip than planned. I was meant to go out for 10 days and with my partner and our son and tie in a little bit of a holiday to a speaking gig that I had at the Heart-Centered Business Conference.

[00:01:12] However, at the last minute, my partner had an injury and couldn’t fly, and so it was all a little bit like unsure what to do. But in the end, I traveled solo for the first time without my son. He’s eight months, eight and a half months now, which I felt really unsure about doing. And to be honest, a little bit fearful of also what other people would think of me for doing that.

[00:01:35] but he was absolutely fine, completely, fine without me and thrived. And I was really lucky to have family to help out with my partner and my son and I had the best time. Oh my goodness. Like, honestly in person stuff. It’s just, it’s just incredible. To be in a space. And also it’s incredible when you are in a space that is really intentionally curated and when the people there you feel a sense of connection to.

[00:02:12] And I know that I have been to events where I have left them and felt disconnected and felt like there was something wrong with me because I didn’t really feel like I was like the other people there and I was looking for something deeper. And my beautiful, incredible, like just super smart friend, Tash Corbin, who is an incredible marketer, is the host and the creator of the Heart-Centered Business Conference, and I was absolutely honored to speak there this year and to be part of a panel and also to mentor at a special day for VIP attendees. And I’ve already got my ticket for next year. I cannot wait to go back.

[00:02:57] It’s in September next year, 2024. And be in a space again with wonderful, incredible, smart, caring, genuine, entrepreneurial people. And this time as an attendee sitting back and taking in all the wisdom. So you should totally check it out. If that sounds like something you would really love to just Google Heart-Centered Business Conference or Tash Corbin and follow the links and snap up your ticket.

[00:03:22] But, I don’t even know if there’s gonna be many left, because I’m pretty sure everyone that’s in a position to be able to get a ticket that was there over the past few days will have already got their ticket for next year. now on that note, I have my own in-person coming up. It’s my only one planned this year.

[00:03:42] It is my, if I say so myself, pretty, pretty special retreat that I run called Elevate Retreat. I’ve run this several times now, and it is back in October, 2023 from the 11th to the 13th, and it’s a time and a space and a place for you to come away, get away from the the grind, the every day, the being in it to be in a space where you can let your ideas and thoughts and imagination expand to be in a place where you are held and supported and encouraged, and people see how incredible you are and want only the best for you, and remind you and help you remember how incredible you are. And we will strategise and we will also, slash I will also, very kindly call you out and challenge you on little areas I might see you holding yourself back from what it is that you really, really want to do, or have or be. Spaces are limited. We have space for eight women. And I actually, this is a member event, so this is open to my members in the Modern Marketing Collective and fills with our members, but I wanna let you know about it.

[00:05:16] Because I got a feeling that you may well be interested too. So if this sounds like something that would be really supportive for you and expansive for your business, and oh my goodness, I’ve had a lot of my former retreat attendees, my retreat alumni on the podcast. You might have heard their stories and seeing their before retreat and after retreat selves and businesses is pretty bloody inspiring. So go ahead. I really encourage you to go to my website, emilyosmond.com/business-retreat, kinda like that little hyphen in the middle business dash retreat. Or just search Emily Osmond Business Retreat and pop your name on the application form.

[00:06:00] So applications open up, on, let me just grab the date here, the 29th of May. And like I said, this is for my members, but if this feels like something that would be really amazing for you, I encourage you to go ahead and apply and you could just tick if you’re a member or not yet. And you can also join the Modern Marketing Collective if you’re accepted to come to the retreat.

[00:06:25] And why would you want to do that? Well, oh my goodness. You are going to have these strategies, the support and the connection and community with those entrepreneurial people that have been at the retreat with you after the retreat to help you, and I’ll be there coaching you each month after the retreat to help keep you on track and to guide you and to know what we spoke about there, what your focuses are, what perhaps your challenges are that you come across.

[00:06:56] To help you continue that momentum after the retreat, to help you have access to the strategies to then implement into your business that are inside the modern marketing collective, and to continue being in a space with inspiring, encouraging, positive, proactive entrepreneurial people, including those that you were at the retreat with.

[00:07:19] So, it’s a win, win, win, win, win. All righty. So that is it on the retreat front now let’s get into this 

[00:07:26] episode.

[00:07:26] So we are talking about what exactly makes an opt-in page typically convert pretty well. And just to wind back a sec there, so what is an opt-in page? Really simply? It’s where someone is going to opt in for something and typically it means that they are opting in with their name and their email address for something that you have to offer and typically it’s used as a term for something that is free. So you may have heard of the term of a lead magnet, and this is basically the page that people go to, to access or to, pop that email address in to then get access to your lead magnet. So they’re basically saying, yes, I need that, I want that.

[00:08:24] Let me give you my details of where to send that. So that is an opt-in page. Now I want to take you through what can help these pages have more people that visit that page actually opt in. Actually put their name and email address in, because that is the goal that we want to make sure that we are maximizing the results for our business from that page.

[00:08:52] So we want to make sure that most of the people that are visiting that page are going to continue that little journey that we are taking them on and put their email address in. And I know I used to kind of be like, well, wouldn’t everyone that goes to the page put their email address in? Like if they know that it’s got this freebie that they want or they’re interested in, like, isn’t everyone just gonna go ahead and put their email address in?

[00:09:13] But no, it’s not the case. Some people will just, I don’t know, can’t be bothered or they’ll drop off or they’re like, oh, this isn’t what I thought it would be, or, and this is what I’m gonna take you through to help make sure that you get as many people as possible actually taking action to continue the journey to pop their email address in so that you can then, Provide that incredible freebie that you have.

[00:09:33] Okay. Now, as we go through this, please don’t forget that last week on the podcast we had Emma Troy, who is an incredible website designer. She creates and specialises in high converting websites, and I’ve teamed up with Emma to give you $100 off her template. So as we are listening, and if you’re thinking mm-hmm I think it’ll be super handy to have a website that is gonna help me do this, and you like myself, and I guess like Emma, are really into stunning designs really aesthetic designs, then go ahead and check them out. You can go to Emma’s website, emmatroy.com.au/shop, or just Google Emma Troy and the links will be in the in the show notes here.

[00:10:21] And if you enter the code VIPEMILY, then you’ll have a hundred dollars off her website templates. And they are on the incredible website site called Show It, which I don’t think you can really beat when it comes to the design side of things. And my website is built on, show it, and it’s based on, a customization of one of Emma’s templates.

[00:10:42] So I use and love her templates, her work, and her as a business owner. All righty. So let’s get into some of these tips now. Number one. You want to make sure that you have something that grabs attention when it comes to your headline. Okay? So this is really the, the first sentence on that page. Okay?

[00:11:03] And that might even just be something for you to recognise as well. Do you actually have a, a sentence on that page instead of one big paragraph? You wanna break it up, make it punchy. So an intention grabbing headline, and this needs to discuss. And share really clearly what exactly the promise is, what exactly you were providing.

[00:11:24] Okay? What exactly that freebie is. All right, so I’m just gonna give you an example here. One of my freebies and opt-in pages is for some prompts to help you write your content. Okay? Now I have called it 52 Timeless post prompts. so it’s explaining and communicating like the benefit here is that they’re timeless.

[00:11:51] You’re not gonna have these, and then they’re not relevant or they’re no longer the trend or something like that. These are timeless pieces of content ideas that you can use. Okay, so my headline’s super simple, 52 timeless post prompts, but it’s pretty clear in terms of what it is and a little bit of a why you should want that.

[00:12:10] That’s number one. Number two is then once you’ve got that sentence there that explains really clearly what it is that they are having there, what exactly your offer provides is a sub-headline, and this can continue that on. So maybe you can’t quite fit everything you want to explain in their headline.

[00:12:32] You can use the sub-headline to maybe emphasise another part, another benefit, or to give a little bit more detail about what they’re receiving. So again, let me just give you an example here. So mine, subheading or sub-headline says, A year’s worth of weekly content ideas made simple. So I’m just taking a little bit further to explain the benefits of why someone should want this.

[00:13:01] So it gives them an entire year of content ideas and it makes it simple for them. See, what I’m doing here isn’t super complicated, but it’s just making sure that I’m really, really clear about why would someone want this? What is the benefit to them, and then how can I communicate it to them? Okay, so we got their headline, the sub headline.

[00:13:24] Now we have the action that they need to take. So the call to action. Now you want to make sure that you have, I would recommend a really bright or high contrast button for people to click. So you wanna make sure it’s gonna be, obvious on the page where they need to click. To then submit the form.

[00:13:50] Okay, so I have mine on this particular page I’m talking about, which by the way, converts anywhere from 40 to 50 to 60, and some days even, even a hundred percent of people opting in. But it’s a really nicely high converting page. Mine is just a bright orange. I’m like, people cannot miss that button.

[00:14:08] And I actually say on it ” get free prompts”. So people know exactly what’s gonna happen when they click that button. Okay? So it’s super clear, it’s not complicated, it’s really, really clear. The other thing, okay, after that call to action is actually just having the form there. So making sure you have, the place where they’re gonna submit their details.

[00:14:30] Now, This does depend on the type of thing that you are offering in terms of what exactly you are asking for it. It also depends on your business, but what exactly you are asking for in the form itself. For my business, I will typically ask for the first name. Sometimes I’ll ask for the surname, and the email address, and that is enough for me and my business.

[00:14:51] But you may need some further details or some different details for your business. On the whole, what I would typically recommend is to keep it pretty minimal in terms of what you are asking for. You will probably see a drop off the more criteria, the more information that you are asking people for just because it just takes a little bit extra effort each thing you are asking people for. We don’t have a lot of patience sometimes. We’re like, ah, this is too much. I don’t wanna fill this in. I’m over it already. So, I would recommend keeping it just to the minimum information that you need to gather. Okay.

[00:15:24] Now something else to think about is what you have on the page in terms of other buttons or other things for people to click. And my recommendation is to really, if you can have nothing else, I have nowhere else that people can go, people can click off. You just want to provide that really clear one action for people to take, which is to submit that form and opt in.

[00:15:49] So if you have a, The menu bar for your website you may or may not want to consider if you can hide that. You would also want to consider if you have a lot of other things on that page that may distract people, even if they go to that page with the intention of getting that freebie and opting in for it, make sure that there’s not too many other things that you are asking them to do that may distract them away from their initial intention. So keep the page to that one action you want people to take, and that’s gonna help you have more people opt in. Another thing, so I think this is number five now, we’ve looked at the headline, the sub-headline, the call to action button, the form itself, we’ve looked at, not having too many other things slash no other things that they can do. So this is number six is looking at the imagery. 

[00:16:39] So looking at how can you either illustrate or represent what they are about to receive. So what that freebie is. So you may have a mockup to help people visualise that amazing PDF or ebook or something that you’re about to send them so they can see it and they, okay. Yep, that makes sense to me. That makes it really tangible. That’s what I’m going to get . 

[00:17:06] For my page, I actually just have a photo of me. And a little bonus tip here is that I try and match and I’m considerate about matching the imagery that I use on the page with the imagery that I use that they see before they go to the page. So there’s a level of consistency on that journey that gets into the page.

[00:17:29] I don’t want them to be jarring, have a jarring experience of what they see in the marketing of the lead magnet, and then what they see on the page itself. It has to make sense and continue my brand versus being really, different or unexpected. Because if people land on a page that’s like, hang on a minute, is this the same business?

[00:17:50] Is this the same brand? Am I in the right spot here? They’re gonna be confused and click away and it can also just lower the trust level that they’re like, well, I’m not really sure. Hang on, can I trust? Can I put my details in here? So I’d recommend thinking about the imagery that either represents what they’re about to receive or that is a really great, just branding for your business that people will recognise. And for my business it’s I’m the personal brand in it, so having an image of me works well and that may work for you too.

[00:18:20] Okay, so number seven, and this is an optional one. They all are of course, but this one I don’t actually have on this specific page, but I think it’s something that I could add. And I actually want to make this point that your opt-in pages, as with all of the things that you do with your marketing, are iterative.

[00:18:45] Are things that you want to get out there and improve and test and refine and tweak and continue to make even better over time, versus if you’re the type of person that wants it to be absolutely perfect and absolutely completed and the best it’s ever gonna be before you allow yourself to put it out there, then I think this could be a helpful approach for you.

[00:19:10] And I take this approach for me, so I’m like, look, it’s better that it’s out there at all. Even if it’s not perfect or even if it’s not got all of the things I could possibly have on it, it’s better that it’s just out there so it can start doing its job and start having people have the option and ability to get my freebie and me to have them now in my cusp or in my audience database on my email list so I can stay in touch with them then not being out there.

[00:19:39] And it’s better to be out there not being absolutely perfect or having absolutely everything it could have on her, versus me holding myself back. Okay. So this is something that is, Something that you can test to see if it increases your conversions. And I added this onto I recently ran an Instagram workshop and I added social proof onto that page in terms of people that I’ve helped with their Instagram and what they’ve learned from me to show, Hey, I know what I’m talking about. These are people that I’ve been able to help, some amazing stories of how I’ve helped them. So think about your social proof for your opt-in too. So for me, for instance, I could actually add in, now I’ve had this freebie out there a while. I could add in some feedback and some comments and some, nice reviews and that type of thing of people that have, experienced that freebie and put them on the page.

[00:20:26] And I could say something like, Hey, here’s what other people think or have to say, or what they’ve loved about this, about these post prompts, and pop them on there. Social proof can be so powerful. It helps people see that other people trust you, other people have gone ahead and taken that action and had a good experience. So something to consider there, whether you have some reviews, case stories, testimonials, that type of thing can be really really helpful. 

[00:20:55] Now, another thing that I don’t have on this particular page, sometimes I do and sometimes I don’t, is further information. So it could be, some dot points that go into here’s exactly what’s inside, and you talk about a few things that they’re going to learn from that thing that you offer or they’re going to be able to experience thanks to that thing that you offer. but I’ve found like really keeping the page very, very simple works really well. Okay, so just another thing that if it’s gonna make sense for your business and if you want to test it, but if it’s gonna hold you back, cuz you’re like, oh my gosh, now I have to write a little bit more copy, giving a little bit more details about what exactly this lead magnet is or what they’re gonna learn from it, or what the outcomes are going to be or what they can expect, then don’t worry about it. Just get it out there. 

[00:21:40] Now the final thing I want to share, so this is number nine, is actually looking at the stats behind your opt-in page. So you want to know, well, how is it converting? And you can see this based on what website platform you use or the analytics tracking that you use as well to see, okay, well what is that opt-in rate? The percentage of people that visit the page that actually then go ahead and complete and pop their details in. Tracking it and understanding, okay, well maybe it’s 10%. I think it could be a little bit more. Let’s perhaps do one of these things that we didn’t have, or let’s see how we can do it better.

[00:22:24] Maybe we could have a different call to action. Maybe it says right now, ” submit form” and maybe we could make it a little bit more clear and entice and call to action says, that says something like, “yes, give me it now”, something like that. Or “get access now” or, “yes, I want it”. So you can go ahead and, and tweak and test and just do I recommend one thing at a time.

[00:22:48] Give it a little bit, bit of time, so then you can see, okay, did that actually improve or did that not improve? Did it go down? Did it stay the same or did it increase the Opt-ins that you received, the conversion rate on that page so you can know and feel confident that you have the data that’s informing you of what is actually helping or hindering your opt-in rate.

[00:23:09] So making sure that you are testing and looking at the data there. And that’s why I know like this page converts pretty well. I’ve changed a few things over time. I’ve changed some imagery, I then use this as a bit of a base, cuz I know okay, it’s super simple, but it converts really well.

[00:23:23] so I hope that’s helpful for you in terms of understanding. You can keep a page really, really simple, be really intentional about it, and have it as a place that people know exactly what to do and why they’re doing it and what is in it for them. Now, a reminder as well that if you know your website is well, either maybe nonexistent, you want a website, but you don’t really have the budget or the capacity right now to hire a designer to like custom build one for you or you want to DIY it, but you know, you can’t really do it from scratch. You maybe have never done websites before, most likely, and you know that a template could be pretty handy for you, especially one that is absolutely stunning and designed to convert. Then you may want to check out Emma Troy and her Show It templates that you can customize for your business so you can tweak the, colours, change the imagery, change the copy there, and I’m a proud affiliate for Emma.

[00:24:25] So you can go ahead and enter VIPEMILY on her shop page for her website templates and enjoy $100 off. So go ahead and check that out now. Just google, Emma Troy or emmatroy.com.au/shop and get your happy shopping on. All righty, that’s it from me and I cannot wait to speak with you really, really soon. Bye.