Get More Subscribers by Taking the High Road
Has this ever happened to you?
You meet someone at a business event and miraculously you end up on their mailing list. I don’t know about you but I consider this assumptive behavior brash. It makes me wonder:
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Did I ask for additional information about this company?
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Did we discuss enough about me in order to know that I’m a possible client?
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Did I request this (insert frequency here) barrage of emails?
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Did I indicate that I wanted to be added to a distribution list?
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Did I drink too many margaritas at that event?
I’m pretty sure I’d remember saying: “What a nice tie — you know I don’t get enough junk in my inbox these days, will you please add me to your mailing list?”
One of the top priorities of marketing is to increase the number of high-quality prospects for your sales team and to move those prospects closer to buying from you.
Take the High Road
So how do you effectively add qualified prospects to your list? How do you build a real pipeline of qualified leads?
A good marketing plan identifies a target market and outlines their pain points. It also addresses how to attract those ideal prospects to you. At Crest we do this with content offers. Most companies are content-rich. They just don’t realize it.
When you make content available and people express interest in it, those who are really interested will willingly share their personal contact information with you in exchange for items they perceive to be valuable (makes their pain go away).
Build Better Landing Pages
The mechanism used to engage people in this exchange of information for content is a landing page. Landing pages are the most important pages on your website.
A good landing page should:
- Summarizes benefits
- Clearly defines the pain you are addressing
- Is easy to navigate
- Tells the viewer what to do next
- Doesn’t ask for too much information at once
- Begins a sequence of events
- Includes an image
- May contain video
- Is optimized for mobile
A good landing page is designed to influence behavior and converts at a higher rate than those that don’t adhere to the guidelines above. See an example here.
Ask Permission
Using a double opt-in process ensures the accuracy of email addresses. A double opt-in also protects against spammers and robotic subscribers.
Just like the business event that I attended where I ended up on someone’s mailing list, you need to build trust and gain respect in order to earn the right to approach someone as a prospect. Often it takes several touches to “convert” them to become a subscriber. Let people qualify or disqualify themselves with your content offers and on your landing pages.
It takes an ongoing effort and consistent improvement for this to succeed. Fortunately, many parts of the process can be automated.
- Plan ahead.
- Keep it Simple — address one pain point at a time.
- Make it about them, not you. Remember, everybody’s favorite radio station is WIIFM (What’s In It For Me?)
- Automate a sequence of emails appropriate throughout the buyer’s journey and hand-hold prospects along the way.
- Make it easy for them to share with others. Chances are if they find it helpful, they’ll know others that will too.
- Use a unique landing page for each offer.
We cannot control our prospects, but we can attempt to influence their behavior. The buyer moves ahead when they are ready, not when you want them to.
How Do You Grow Your List?
Follow these basic steps:
- Target the correct audience.
- Offer content that’s specific to their pain.
- Create educational content that eases their pain.
- Deliver content in exchange for permission.
- Develop unique landing pages for each content offer.
- Change your offers to match where buyers are in their journey of becoming a customer.
- Ask them to subscribe.
This approach requires more thought and preparation than bombarding everyone you meet with unwanted emails, but it is much more effective at helping you recognize and engage high-quality prospects — who are most likely to become your customers.
How are you growing your subscriber list? Let us know in the Comments section below. A real person reads and responds to all comments.
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Thanks,
David
contact me
www.crestconsultingllc.com
At Crest, we help companies:
- Create content that separates them from their competition
- Become subject matter experts in their field
- Measure the effectiveness of their marketing $$
- Generate a consistent pipeline of high-quality leads for less
- Turn clients into evangelists