The Incentive or Opt-in List Building Strategy

Do you like free e-books? SEO scans? Software? Does your ideal client like those things? And more importantly, do they like them enough to pay for them? 

We’re going to talk about developing an incentive is that so alluring to your ideal client, they will be willing to give up their email address for it. And to be a true list building strategy – and not a sign-up -download-cancel strategy, they not only need to want the incentive, they need to want the next email too. And the next. And the next.

A really good incentive will set them up to expect good things from you for a long long while.

Opt-In Incentive as a List Building Strategy

Do you check your email before you’re out of bed in the morning? C’mon – time to ‘fess up. What time is it when you make your final email check before you retire for the night? Or worse, do you cuddle your phone to sleep at night?

If you’re like me, there’s a little love/hate going on with that darned email. We’re slightly addicted to our email and slightly (or a lot) annoyed by it too. But whether you love or hate it, I bet you’re protective of it.

For example, at the store when the checkout clerk asks for your email. How do you feel inside? Annoyance? Disturbed? Put-off? If you could see my internal reaction you’d think I was just asked for something terribly inappropriate…

We do not easily part with our real email addresses. And it’s even more difficult to set a standard of anticipation for your newsletters. Convincing a reader to part with their email is not an easy task.

Set up the Incentive Strategy

For this list building strategy to work, the incentive has to be worth the email address. It needs to be worth real money.

This is the biggest mistake I see – creating something that you’ve thrown together – is never a good idea.

• a person’s real email is personal and valuable
• it takes huge value to get a person to voluntarily part with their email address
• incentive in exchange for email is a transaction of value for value

Knowing that your audience is comprised of smart savvy individuals, will they part with their real email for some little thing you quickly whip up?  I doubt it. Some of the best opt-in incentives that I’ve fallen for recently – free canva templates; social media caption templates, free seo analysis; free performance report; webinar.

List Building Incentives Must Be Valuable

The incentive has to be valuable – worth the transaction. Neil Patel says that the way to get a good signup incentive is to use something that the reader has to pay for elsewhere.

If you can check these off, you’ve got a good incentive:

List-Building Incentives and Opt-ins

Use any of these ideas to help you come up with something that works for you. Select easy-to-digest for most audiences. White papers and case studies are usually for some serious readers or bigger ticket sales item.

*Some ideas from Entrepreneur & Smart Blogger