Who Else Would Like to Double Their Email Opt-In Rates?

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Hey!

Guess what? I recently doubled the opt-in rate on my own site (the one you’re reading now).

Then, I went to a friend and doubled theirs.

Finally, I went to an old client and tripled their opt-in rate.

Happy faces all around. 🙂

How did I make it happen?

Was there some new technology involved? No, not really.
Did I introduce a brand new design perhaps? Not at all.
Well did it at least have to do with a new fancy color scheme copied from Amazon? Nope, not that either.

It’s good old-fashioned Salesmanship in Print, also called Copywriting.

The lifeblood of effective Conversion Rate Optimization.

Surprised? You shouldn’t be. The same old fundamentals take on new names, forms and technicalities while the human nature stays essentially the same: persuasive copywriting coupled with scientific testing.

Are YOU Doing Opt-In Testing On Your Web Sites?

It’s quite shocking to see how many sites don’t do this at all, even those with plenty of traffic to have a quick cycle of tests improving the speed of their list building again and again, on a continuous basis!

And what’s even worse than not testing for improved opt-in conversion? Changing to a new form of opt-in without testing if it’s better than the previous one!

So clearly, internet marketers everywhere need to be schooled in this delicate art.

Let’s start with the following:

Make sure you have several opt-in points on your site; say, a lightbox on the front page, an inline form with blog posts, and more.
Have a proper value proposition on your opt-in box, so you can tell if you’re interesting enough.
Test different appeals, different opt-in gifts, different value propositions, yes even different layouts / technical formats (sidebar, lightbox, before/after posts, etc.)

That would be the very basics to start with. You can find further tips on CRO sites and by coming back here often. 🙂

P.S. Optimizing your speed of list building is really the low hanging fruit of Conversion Optimization. Where the rubber really meets the road is changing the way your sales funnel works and doubling and re-doubling your rate of sales.

Juho Tunkelo Member since May 22, 2007

Long time marketing strategist, superstar skills in copywriting and conversion optimization. Ring me up on Skype or send me a free-form email and I’ll lend you a keen ear.