How To Increase Opt In Subscription List Conversions

The following e-mail came to me on July 7 from a previous social media marketing student who is having success with sending traffic to their website but having little success at building a mailing list. Please read the e-mail first and then my recommendations below.

“Hi Paul,  After attending your fine course on June 7, I proceeded to implement your instructions, to the letter (not without watching your excellent webinars twice). While I accept that you cannot guarantee conversions, only increased traffic, I received at least 200 visits over a 15 day period (approx.). They all went from my landing page (www.SteveDubin.com) to my capture page (http://www.thewandguy.com/), but not even 1 converted to “Take the tour”.

This glaring statistic suggests I must be doing something wrong and perhaps, a few tweak suggestions from you could have my conversions improve (I’m implying it would be easy to improve when the conversion rate baseline is “0”).  Regards, Steve Dubin”

Dear Steve, and all other parties interested in greater conversions.

I speak a lot about the six key elements of a profitable landing zone. It’s not only important to have all six elements but it’s important that each of these elements be constructed in such a way to optimize their effectiveness.

For example; the first key elements of a profitable landing zone is of course “how to enroll and engage the site visitor” which is done with a very effective hypnotic headline.

If the headline does not capture interest it is likely that the visitor will lose interest quickly and move on to the next website. A hypnotic headline is one that includes an attention grabber, information about the product or service and built some curiosity so that the reader will continue to read.

There are of course many other elements of an effective headline but, the idea is ultimately to keep the reader moving from the visiting stage to the exploring stage.

When I look at Steve’s website I notice that the headline is difficult to read. It is in a handwritten font which doesn’t necessarily stand out. I usually like to recommend a simple font like; Calibri or Helvetica.

Another key area of a profitable landing zone is the ability to create a mailing list. Therefore; in the top right-hand corner of every page should be an opt in subscription form. Don’t take it for granted that people will just want to join your mailing list. These days it’s difficult to get people to fork over an e-mail address. I would recommend that you deliver high-value in exchange for that e-mail address.

Obviously what high-value means to people is a matter for further discussion. In my experience however, six or seven chapters of a high-powered e-book or a report usually does the trick. The question is; does your opt in subscription form capture their interest and peek their curiosity?

Here are some examples of effective opt in subscription form headlines; “the top six public speaking mistakes and how to avoid them”, “how to make Google your sales force”, the top six most popular piano sheet music pieces free.”

I could go on and on about how to create good headline. However, I did notice that with Steve’s website this opt in subscription form is missing. It requires the user to click a link at the bottom of the page which then sends them to a lead capture page built by the network marketing company.

This is where I have my major issues. Again, I can only speak from experience that there are certain elements of this page that could use some overhaul.

1. 1. I noticed that the video starts on its own, this is never a good idea. Always give the user the option to watch a video.

1. 1. The headline, “a global wellness Revolution has begun”, really tells me very little about the product itself. In fact the entire video doesn’t give me much information at all.

1. 1. Then, I look at the way the video is being delivered. Who is the trusted credible source? Can I find that person on the Internet? I tried unsuccessfully . These days people do their research. They’ve been trained by Google on exactly how to do that.

1. 1. How is the video put together using hypnotic copywriting? If you analyze what is being said you will notice that it is more important the way that it is delivered in the actual content itself. One of the things that I noticed is that the speaker himself is nervous. Anyone who sways from side to side is a sure sign of nervousness. People will not do business with people who seem unsure.

1. 1. Aside from the speaker’s credibility comes the issue of what is it exactly? What is he talking about? This is where the two most important words in marketing come in. Yeah…sure! People are inherently skeptical and when there are obvious gaps in information their skepticism is peaked. It is very difficult to tell someone who’s been programmed one way for their entire lives that it is possible to overwrite that programming with 3 min. of treatment. When it sounds too good to be true, while it may be true or not, the fact of the matter is it’s difficult to believe.

1. 1. The context of this video is such that it eludes to the fact that the procedure is simple, almost too simple for anyone to believe. I personally would have not done it this way. That doesn’t make me right, I’m not trying to be. I’m just basing my observations on experience. After having presented my products and services to tens of thousands of people I can tell you that it is not easy to get people to believe something when their entire lives they’ve believed something else.This is where context comes in. It’s not what you present but how you present it. I for one am always looking at online conversion strategies and I can always tell when an organization is winging it versus knowing exactly what to do and the right order to do it in. I’m not saying that this organization doesn’t know what they’re doing but I can tell you I would not have done it this way.

There is nothing wrong with the self-care revolution. But there cannot be a revolution if you cannot get people to believe it. Changing someone’s belief system requires strategy, knowledge and energy.