If your opt-in form is still up on your blog , then you may be loosing an opportunity to increase your verified opt-in rate, on top of that, precious advertisement space.
Sounds confusing?
In short… You need an opt-in form, and you also need to replace it as well!
Wait! Before you pick up your computer and start throwing it at me, let us first take a step back….
As a marketer, you should have your own autorespondent software or services (I highly recommend aweber or getresponse) to capture visitors’ details such as name and email addresses. Normally, the opt-in process requires visitors to verify their email addresses, termed as double opt-in. Below is a typical process flow of an autorespondent with opt-in form embeded in a blog/website.
The ultimate goal here is to get the visitor’s opt-in detail into the mailing list, and you’ll notice that this happens only when the person clicks on the verification link in the email sent to them. Thus, there will definitely be a certain percentage of people who did not do that. Some of the common reasons for unsuccessful verification include:
- Visitor opted-in with the wrong email
- Verification email got into the spam folder
- Visitor forgot/missed/did not bother to open the verification email and follow the instruction within.
We can address point 1 and 2 by giving proper instruction upon opt-in and also to drafting the email correctly so that it doesn’t get filtered as spam.
So how about point 3? You can reduce this problem and increase you verification rate by simply replacing your opt-in form.
Imagine this for a moment…
John visited your blog, likes it and decided to opt-in to your mailing list by filling up his name and email address into your opt-in form. Since John has not verified his email yet, the next time he visits your blog, instead of seeing the opt-in form, he sees a message reminding him to check his inbox for the verification email. After he has verified his email by clicking on the link in the email, subsequent visit to your blog, he sees a welcome message. This is illustrated in the figure below.
The typical process flow remains the same, only difference is what the visitor sees in replacement of the opt-in form. Think about it, since the visitor has already opted-in, whats the point of having the opt-in form up there taking up precious space? You can be creative with the space such as:
- Updates of new products in the members’ area
- Promoting products
- Special announcements
- and more…
Such “magical” process can easily be achieved through the use of cookies to track whether the visitor has opted-in and verified his email, and take the necessary course of action. Sounds simple doesn’t it?
I won’t go into the technical details as it may be too confusing especially for those with no technical background. However, if you’re keen to get this process up running in your blog or website, simply leave your comment below and if there is a demand I’ll consider releasing the script.
Want to see the process in action? You can do so by filling in your name and email in my opt-in form on the right sidebar and see how it works.
Popularity: 45% [?]
No comments yet.