Opt-in Page – What It Is and How I Learned To Create One

Last weekend I did something I’ve never done before, and didn’t know how to do before I actually did it.

(Hot tip – don’t ever let the fact that you don’t know how to do something stop you from doing it!)

I created an opt-in page complete with lead magnet, thank you page, access page, workflow and tags.

Sounds like Greek? Well, it did to me too before I dived into it, so that’s fine.

(Hot tip #2: Don’t ever let the fact that you don’t understand words or concepts intimidate you and stop you from taking action, you will learn what they mean!)

Creating an opt-in page and all that other stuff starts with having access to a platform where you can create a funnel (more Greek!).

A marketing funnel is a series of stages to guide users through the customer journey. The end goal of a funnel can be to capture a lead (in this case capturing the email address), or to guide the user to making a purchase.

What I want at this stage is to build an email list with people who are actively interested in what I’m doing, and who want to find out more. I don’t want people on my list who will not open my emails or maybe even report them as spam.

So it’s crucial that I actually address the right people with my opt-in page.

How do I do that?

First, it has to be clear on the opt-in page itself what I’m doing (online marketing!), and what they will get from me. No beating around the bush.

And, as an incentive to sign up to my newsletter (more about that in a second) I offer a free gift that will only be of value to those who are interested in what I do and what my newsletter will be about.

This time I offered two free training videos with affiliate marketer Dean Holland (who is my mentor and who has created the program I’m following). If you’re not interested in online/affiliate marketing, those videos will not be of interest to you, and the incentive to sign up won’t be there.

Mission accomplished!

So why the newsletter? Why ain’t I content with just getting them on my email list?

I want to build a relationship with my audience. I want them to get to know me, like me, trust me. To achieve that I want to send them information on a regular basis. Information that will be of interest and value to them, and that they want.

I believe it’s important to be authentic and transparent. If I pretend to be something I’m not at the moment (like making a lot of money when I’m not doing that yet), people will see through that and lose any trust they might have had.

So the newsletter can simply be to tell them I have a new blog post up that could be of interest, or about something I discovered that could help them, or something I’ve been thinking about that I want to share.

It doesn’t have to be complicated or long, I think people appreciate short content.

So the steps I took to accomplish my optin funnel were these:

• Create an optin page where I explain what the newsletter will provide and what free gifts I offer
• Add a button on that page for a pop-up where the user can enter their email address (and first name if I choose that)
• Create a thank you page that asks the user to check their email to conform the sign up and get access to the free gifts
• Create a page with the free gifts (the training videos with Dean) and some informatio9n about what to expect from me
• Link the three pages so the user will go through the funnel in the right order, including the confirmation link in the email
• Write and add the sending of the confirmation email and and the welcome/access email to the workflow
• Create tags to the actions in the workflow so I can see in my contact list (where the email addresses submitted will end up) if the user has confirmed the subscription

This may all seem like a daunting task, so many steps and quite technical.

But, if you get guided through the process one step a a time, it’s very doable and actually fun.

The trick is to do exactly what you’re being told to do. Don’t think that you’re so smart that you can wing it or work ahead or skip steps. You’ll screw it up, believe you me.

My goal is not to try to be or appear smart, but to be successful. I don’t mind following the instructions that will lead me to my goal.

This post is long enough as it is, but in another post I will discuss why I choose to use a so called double opt-in, meaning the subscriber has to click a confirmation link before getting subscribed and gatting access to the free gifts.

See you soon!

To our success, Katrin

Pst! If you want to learn more about Dean Holland, you can get his book The Iceberg Effect for free!