It has been said that your email list is one of the most valuable components of your online business for building a profitable website. The fact is, you often times need to contact customers multiple times in order to build trust with them before they will be willing to do business with you. This number of contacts goes up as the expense of the product or service you are selling increases. Thus, it just makes sense that you should capture the names and email addresses of your visitors so you can continue to provide them with your message until they feel comfortable doing business with you.
The first question when you get ready to implement this marketing plan is to decide on which autoresponder company you will use. There are several good ones online but it is very important to choose one with some tract history. You want to be sure the company will be around so you don’t spend all this time building a sequential autoresponder software program, and collect a large number of names and addresses, just to have the information go away when the company shuts down. You should also choose a partner business that has a lot of options for collecting and manipulating the information you will obtain.
One of the big questions is how you will have your visitors opt-in to your email autoresponder. That is, how will you actually get the people who visit your site to provide the information you require. The best way to do this is to offer something in return. For example, they could sign up for a free newsletter, free report series, or online course. You will provide this information by email so it only makes sense that your potential customers would need to provide their address and contact information.
The next question is where to put the signup form. You can use a banner add and try to write compelling copy which would inspire them to want to get your offering but most people will probably not spend the time to look around your site for a signup. You can also use text links such as, “Click here for more information,” but it is easy for your visitor to read right over these. The best way is to hover the signup form over the web site after the visitor has been on the site for a given length of time. You can set this time limit from one second up to 30 seconds. If you have compelling copy in your landing page then you would want to hold off on splashing the signup for several seconds so the reader can get a feel for the value you offer. If they spend 15 or 20 seconds reading your copy, and like what they read, then they are more likely to want to learn more by giving you the autoresponder lead information. If, on the other hand, most readers only spend a few seconds on your site then you would want to offer the signup for right away to try to capture the information.
Autoresponders, also know as automatic responders, are a great way to continue to get your sales and marketing information in front of your customers over and over until they feel comfortable enough to buy from you.
I would recommend setting up your hover sign up page to 30 seconds. Like you said it gives the reader some time to get a feel for your site. It’s just as annoying as pop ups if it comes up as soon as you visit the site. Give your readers some time to look around before you inviting them to sign up.
Thank you for that insight James. I agree with you, allowing the reader some time to get a feel for what you have to offer is really a good tip.