How to Create an Irresistible Email Opt-In Freebie in 48 Hours

List building is a topic every online entrepreneur dives into sooner or later. The power is in your list. If you don’t have a list, you don’t have a business. You need to grow your list to X amount before your business will really take off…

Any of those sound familiar?

I thought so.

So, tell me – how’s your list building going? Do you have one started yet? Is it going sloooower than you might like it to be?

One of the things that skyrocketed my own list growth was creating a TRULY irresistible email opt-in freebie. I mean REALLY.

Do you offer an incentive for people to sign up for your list? Is it gosh-darn-drool-worthy? Are you seeing floods of new subscribers scrambling to sign up for your gotta-have-it freebie offer?

If not, you might find this guide useful.

Inspired by Sean Ogle’s 48 hours series (like this one and this one), I give to you, How to Create an Irresistible Email Opt-In Freebie in 48 hours.

STEP ONE: FIGURE OUT WHAT THEY WANT

What’s your target market’s biggest question? pain point? What sort of questions do you get OVER AND OVER again?

TRULY solving an oft-asked question or pain point is a big part of the magic of a highly successful opt-in freebie.

How do you know what their biggest question or pain point is? By listening (and asking if needed).

How to Figure Out Your Target Market’s Biggest Question or Pain Point

• Search through your email. I tag every question that comes through about my services (or just questions in general) as “prospect” or “audience research” in my email account. Depending on how long you’ve been in business, this can serve as a wealth of customer research.
• Listen. Are you in any forums or social media groups that your target client is in? Things like a professional LinkedIn group or a private Facebook group or a local listserv? What sorts of questions are your ideal clients asking in these groups? Every time I spy a question and/or comment about one of my areas of expertise, I copy and paste the EXACT language into a Google Doc called “X Area of Expertise Customer Research Doc”
• Ask. You can do this a lot of ways.
  • Have a Facebook page? Twitter profile? Simply ask your followers to fill in the blank or answer one specific question that drills right to the point of it all.
  • Are you in any Facebook groups that include your ideal customers? Post your question (with a qualifying if you’re a… (insert a brief description of your ideal customer) to make sure you’re only getting answers back that matter). In more than one group? Post it in each. As long as you’re an active member of these groups already, you’re likely to get some interesting responses.
    Note: Facebook doesn’t save threads and posts forever, in fact sometimes they disappear pretty quickly. Be sure to copy and paste the answers you get into your own doc (Google or otherwise) to make sure you have a safe hold on this valuable info.
  • Have an existing email newsletter? When people sign-up, you could include this question in the welcome email. (this is one I picked up from smarty pants Derek Halpern)
  • Have an upcoming quick chat with a prospect? Ask them live (and jot down their exact-language response)
  • Want to learn a little more? Create a survey using a tool like SurveyMonkey.
  • What should you ask?
    You could ask something like:
    • When it comes to (losing weight/launching your first online product/building a social media following/insert your focus), what are you struggling with most?
    • What’s your biggest stumbling block when it comes to (insert your focus)?
    • What frustrates you most about trying to…?”

After combing through these answers, you’ll start to see popular themes which you can use for the next step.

STEP TWO: COME UP WITH AN INSANELY USEFUL SOLUTION (ALSO, SOME EXAMPLES)

When I first started out with my email newsletter, the only opt-in offer I offered was this one (which is still live on my site): http://www.lizlockard.com/3-most-common-marketing-mistakes/. Now while this opt-in offer has a fairly solid intrigue-building headline… this wasn’t an OHMYGODIHAVETOSHARETHISNOW kind of value-add for my ideal prospects and customers.

It wasn’t until I created my 100% free Google Analytics Quickstart course, that I got this kind of inherently-viral sharing of my opt-in freebie. And who doesn’t want their opt-in offer to spread like wildfire?

So what do I mean by INSANELY useful? I mean think about the things your ideal customer has told you their struggling with and think of the pie-in-the-sky solution you could offer. No, this shouldn’t be something people are currently paying you for. There is a bit of a line – but stretch yourself.

What form could this take? Quite a few, maybe a:

• PDF report
• Subscribers-only video
• Autoresponder course
• Free sample – virtual like free graphics or physical with free CD or other physical sample (careful with this one – a bit more expensive)
• Anything else you can dream up

Some of my favorite INSANELY useful opt-in offer examples:

• Alexis Grant’s “How to Land Your First Paying Client” at TheWriteLife.com – http://thewritelife.com/first-client-freebie/
• 52 Headline Hacks – http://boostblogtraffic.com/headline-hacks/
• Pat Flynn’s very high quality “eBooks the Smart Way”, which you can find on this page: http://www.smartpassiveincome.com/passive-income-101/
• Fabienne’s Free CD (yep a physical freebie mailed to your house) “How to Attract All the Clients You Need” – http://www.clientattraction.com/
• Tara Gentile’s Revenue Planning Tool – http://taragentile.com/plan/
• Jody Jelas’ Profit Planning Calculator – https://jodyjelas.leadpages.net/profit-calc-optin/
• and all of these – http://www.lizlockard.com/my-favorite-opt-in-offers/

STEP THREE: CREATE YOUR INSANELY USEFUL OPT-IN SOLUTION

Now that you’ve got your insanely useful opt-in solution idea, it’s time to create it. There’s a bunch of ways to do this, depending on the form your opt-in offer is going to take, but let’s walk through a few of them.

(A) PDF Report

These can be fairly simple or fairly complex, depending on the team, skills and budget you have available to you.

The process:

1. Write out all the copy of your report. All of it. Cover, Table of Contents (if needed), each and every single page, last page (to include social sharing links or some other call to action)
2. Get some design on it.
   1. You could simply create the report in something like Word and use a free Word-to-PDF converter like this one (disclaimer: I haven’t personally used this one). Or even easier – create it in a Google Doc complete with the images you’d like to use and then simply download the doc as a PDF from the File menu.
   2. Get someone to design it for you. Leah Kalamakis is one provider of such a service – http://www.leahkalamakis.com/pdf-design/
3. Create an image of it. You can use a tool like this one to create a 3D cover for your download. Or you can find someone on fiverr.com to do this for you.
4. Proof it. All of it.

Next step is uploading it to your site and connecting it with your email service provider (see Step Four).

(B) Subscriber-only video

You don’t need much to create a video. You could do this with your own webcam or even your own phone’s camera. Check out this post from Ali Rittenhouse for tips on how to do that: http://alirittenhouse.com/how-to-record-video-using-your-smartphone-ipad-or-tablet/

The process:

1. Write out your script & plan out your ‘shots’ if necessary.
2. Shoot the video.
3. Edit as necessary.
4. Add some branding to it if you like (you could potentially do that following these instructions from ClickZ with a 3-second bumper you get created for you on Fiverr.com) and a call to action at the end (like asking your viewer to share the link)
5. Host it somewhere secret (meaning you shouldn’t include this page in your navigation bar on your website and maybe make it an unlisted video on YouTube if you choose to use YouTube)
6. Add social sharing buttons below it. Easiest way to do this? Create a clicktotweet (Alicia Cowan walks you through how to do that in this post.)

Check out step four for how to link this up to your sign-up process.

(C ) Autoresponder Series/Course

The logistics of this one will be different depending on your email service provider, but the process is generally the same.

The process:

1. Outline your autoresponder course.  What point will each email make? How many emails will you send? How often? CoSchedule has a great post that goes into deeper detail on creating your first free autoresponder email course here: http://coschedule.com/blog/email-course/
2. Write each email. Every single one. Remember to write as if you’re writing to just one single person (your ideal client) and keep it peppy! If you’re feeling low energy, come back to it later or try these tips for getting into the “write” mood.
3. Include social sharing throughout your autoresponder course. Try linking out to your Facebook page or including a clicktotweet that links back to your opt-in page
4. Load it up into your email service provider.
   1. How to do this in MailChimp – http://mailchimp.com/resources/guides/working-with-automation/html/
   2. How to do this in Aweber – http://www.idealady.com/set-up-aweber-autoresponder-messages/

Check out step four for how to link this up to your sign-up process.

(D) Free Samples

Who doesn’t love a free sample? Some of the more successful free sample offers I’ve seen often work for graphic or web designers. Something like free sample graphics or a free template. Other free sample examples include those of the physical kind – whether that means a free audio CD or shipping an actual free sample of your product. Careful though – shipping physical samples can be quite expensive!

The process for virtual samples:

1. Create your free sample using whichever program is relevant for the sample (Photoshop for free graphics, etc.).
2. Upload your free sample to your website or, if it’s quite large, perhaps upload it to something like DropBox
3. Create a secret page on your site (not in your navigation) that includes a thank you & link to download your virtual sample

The process for shipping physical samples is much more complicated – involving organizing automated shipping in addition to asking for your subscribers mailing addresses. If you’re *just* getting started with email opt-in freebies, I highly suggest you go virtual.

STEP FOUR: CREATE YOUR SIGN-UP PROCESS

Now that you’ve dreamt up your ideal client’s solution and created an insanely useful freebie to match, let’s get a little techie and finish this process up.

First up: Create Your Thanks for Signing Up Page

This is a super-secret page on your website. It’s not anywhere in your website’s navigation, and Google shouldn’t be able to find it.

To hide it from Google, simple mark the page noindex << the techie way of telling Google not to show that page in the results. Also helps to not name the page after the title of your free download. Call it something else like /email-awesomeness/ or something not easily guessed. Not sure how to do the noindex, nofollow thing? If you’re using WordPress, you can do this with your SEO plugin. I recommend Yoast if you’re on WordPress.

If you’re not on WordPress, you’ll have to edit your robots.txt file to hide it (see your favorite developer for help with this) OR not worry too much about it. People discovering your free opt-in still means exposure for you and not *that* many people are going to try and go around your opt-in wall to get your freebie for 100% free.

Not sure how to hide the page from your website’s navigation? Exactly how to do this is going to vary site by site. If you’re not sure, ask your web guy or gal or head to the almighty Google.

Next, include a link to your download or embed your video or tell them their free physical sample will be in the mail in X days.

Right below your link, I like to invite these subscribers to connect with me even more. Perhaps you could embed a Facebook like box? Or Twitter follow button? Here are some tips on how to do that.

Second up: Create Your Email Marketing Opt-In List

If you haven’t done this already, you need to actually set up a “bucket” for all these emails to go in your email service provider.

Exactly how to do this is going to vary by service provider. You might be setting up new lists, or simply new groups or perhaps a tag for these new opt-ins.

Here’s how you might do this in MailChimp – http://kb.mailchimp.com/lists/growth/create-a-new-list

In AWeber – https://help.aweber.com/hc/en-us/articles/204028176-How-Do-I-Create-A-New-List-

Your mileage may vary

Third up: Create Your Freebie Opt-In Page

This is your “sales page” for your freebie. Include a relevant image, a drool-worthy headline (a little brain-blocked on drool-worthy writing? Try this title generator from Portent to unblock that brain block.) some text about the benefits of your freebie and maybe a review/testimonial if you have one. I know it’s free, but sell it baby!

The other key piece is to include the actual opt-in form that links up to your email marketing service provider list that you created in the previous step.

Here’s how to do that in MailChimp: http://kb.mailchimp.com/lists/signup-forms/create-signup-forms-and-response-emails

And here’s how to do that in AWeber: https://help.aweber.com/hc/en-us/articles/204027476-How-Do-I-Add-A-Form-To-My-Website-

(using another email service provider? Just check with them on how to do this.)

If all of that is a bit too techie for you, give this task to your web guy or gal or try a one-page solution from a provider like LeadPages.

STEP FIVE: TELL THE WORLD ABOUT IT

Now’s your chance to get people to spread the word about your new irresistible opt-in offer.

Places to share your opt-in offer:

• Your existing list. In your next newsletter, announce your new awesomeness to the people who loved you first and ask them to spread the word to anyone else who might find it useful.
• Your Facebook page. Create a post about it but also consider adding an opt-in form directly to your Facebook page. Here’s a post from Jamie Leigh on exactly how to do that: http://jamieleigh.com/add-email-opt-in-form-for-facebook/. Announce it in your About section. Create a new Facebook cover image about it. Go crazy
• Your Twitter followers. Tweet about it. Tweet about it often. Use a tool like Hootsuite to schedule regular (maybe weekly?) tweets about your new opt-in offer. Change your Twitter bio to include a link to it.
• Other social media sites. Are you on LinkedIn? Pinterest? Google+? Share it on every and any social media site you are active on.
• Facebook groups where your compadres or target customers hang out. Ask them to share it.
• Your promotional partners. Have a crew of like-minded business peeps that you regularly chat with, troubleshoot or mastermind with? Ask them to spread the word if your freebie is applicable to their audience.
• HelloBar on your website. http://www.hellobar.com
• Anywhere else you can think of.

This is the part where if your opt-in offer is truly awesome & inherently shareable, it’ll take off. Don’t forget to keep mentioning it and sharing it as your list and social media following grows.

STEP SIX: THINK OF ANOTHER ONE.

Yep, list building is never over. Most early list building success comes from consistently creating new ways for people to opt-in to your community and seeing what works best. Once you’ve seen your opt-ins start to dwindle to a more consistent pace, consider starting over from Step One and creating another – one that covers a different pain point for your audience and maybe helps you segment them so you can send them more relevant material they may be interested in and ultimately pitch them on a product/service/solution you have on that topic.

But that might be a whole other post

WHAT ABOUT YOU?

What have you seen be successful when it comes to creating an irresistible and shareable opt-in? Anything you’d add to this process? Do you do things differently? Did you find this helpful? Let me know in the comments!

Curious what sort of opt-in freebies I’ve created for my own site? Here are a few:

• 3 Most Common Marketing Mistakes Small Business Owners Make With Their Website (PDF Report) – http://www.lizlockard.com/3-most-common-marketing-mistakes/

• Free Google Analytics Quickstart Course For Small Business Owners (Autoresponder Series) – http://www.lizlockard.com/free-google-analytics-course/

• 5 SImple SEO Things You Can Do Today For Better SEO Tomorrow (Recorded Free Training) – http://www.lizlockard.com/5-simple-things-seo/

• The Liz Lockard Mini List Building eBook (PDF Report) – http://www.lizlockard.com/free-list-building-ebook/

• From 0 to 3000: Exactly How I Got My First 3000 Subscribers – http://www.lizlockard.com/0-to-3000-subscribers-webinar/