Marketing Runs Deep: Episode 13

Hey everyone. This Bryan Hatch, founder of AutomateBIG and I'm excited to jump into another episode of Marketing Runs Deep because the topic we're going to be addressing today is something that comes up for every business. If you have any type of digital presence, any type of website, this must be a focus of your company. It's the opt-in page. An opt-in page is, simply put, a page you create that asks somebody for their name and their email, and you give them something in exchange. Now we've talked about, in different videos, the lead magnet, actually what you're going to give away, but this time I want to talk specifically about the opt-in page. Okay. It's very ubiquitous.

People use an opt-in page on pretty much every website out there in the world. They don't use it very well, but it's the contact us form. Everybody has one of those that seems like it says, if you have any questions, put your name and email address and what questions you have, hit submit. While that's not a great opt-in, and I'm not saying you shouldn't have those. I'm saying it doesn't do anything for your business. I'm guessing that most people don't have a ton of those getting filled out, considering the style of business that we work. Now, the opt-in page is your sales page for whatever you're giving somebody away for free. You have to make somebody believe that what they're going to get is going to help them in some way, shape, or form.

Now, when I say you have to make them believe, it also must do that thing. Again, it's in another video, but the lead magnet has to be valuable to somebody. It can't just be something that you threw up on a page, and you're like, blah, here it is. It has to be something valuable that will help them change their life, their business, whatever it is they're there trying to work on. On the opt-in page, what you do need to have is you need to have a great headline. That is something that I preach time and time again. If you ever talk to a professional copywriter, they're going to say that if they had four hours to spend on a page, they would spend three of that on the headline. The first thing people are going to read and capture and understand is whatever you portray in the message that they read first, the headline. Some people overwrite the headline with a video, and that's not bad either, but they have to be there for a little bit to get it.

You want their brains to capture what it is right away, so a headline is very, very important. The headline should be something that gets people's curiosity, gets people to come out and read the rest of the page, find out what's going on. This opt-in page needs to have a good headline. I recommend and like having videos at the top of the page if that's possible for whatever you're giving away. It's not required, but it's definitely a good element. It gives people a visual of what you or your company does and what this thing that they're going to be opting in for will do for them.

The secondary piece necessary on this page has to be testimonials. You want to put something by way of who you've worked with. Doesn't have to be a testimonial technically, but somebody you've worked with some, something you've done for somebody, but it's best if you have someone that says, "These guys did this" or "I got this free thing" or "I got this lead magnet. I got this, I opted in for this thing, and it made a difference in my life."

Now you don't have to go crazy hard and strong with testimonials on an opt-in page when you're giving something away for free, but it depends on what you're doing on your opt-in page. Another opt-in page could be like an application. For example, there's a lot of people that I work with to do masterminds, or they run a high ticket offer of some sort. You have to apply to learn a little more about it. Maybe do a demo. You have to do something more than just, here are my prices, pay online. Some people want you to have a conversation with the sales rep. That is a great opt-in page to have someone apply as well. Fill out an application, see if they're going to make the team. That's a great tactic in the marketing sense.

The psychology of marketing is to get someone to apply for something because now they want to be on the team. They want to get whatever is offered at the end of that, which may be a mastermind or a special group training or something of that nature even if that's free. If you're doing a free group training for only those people that qualify, well then that's totally fine. Your opt-in, again, is exchanging something of value for something that they'll be willing to apply for, give you their name and email address for, which is awesome.

Now that we've gone over some of these tips, you also want to make sure that I can never leave out benefits. You've got to have the benefits on the page. People will have to know what benefit they're going to get from getting this free thing that you're going to give them or whatever the opt-in is for. Tell them the benefit of what it does for them in their life when they submit and they go from there. Now I want to jump in and show you some great examples of opt-in pages and what they're doing that actually convert more traffic than a lot of people out there. Let's jump right in.

All right. In our first example, on Brendon Burchard's page, he is offering a quiz or an assessment, as he calls it here. You get to take 36 multiple choice questions and then you get to see how you compare with the rest of the people that have been surveyed or worked through. I love this example of an opt-in page because it gives you benefits within it, but it's actually very short. The page is not very long and gets right to the point. He has a video that explains quite a bit. This is one way to shorten up your pages. Give people a video that explains the benefits, but there are still benefits saying fast questions to determine how you respond versus your peers. You can see how you're going to be successful compared to other people. This is a great opt-in, performs extremely well from what I understand from Brendon, and that is great. That's one of the examples you can do, create a quiz or an assessment that people get to compare themselves.

Next, you can put a little less effort as far as the opt-in itself, but the page can be done beautifully. Create a high contrast element to all the wording, branding, imagery, etc. Be spot-on as far as design. You can create something straightforward, simple where there's not a whole lot to be confused about, and that's one of the things that I love. Simple wins, or simplicity wins. Many times that's the case. You'll see other examples that don't follow that suit, but we'll go from here.

Base Camp is an app or a program you put on your computer that allows you to do some task management or project management, that kind of fun stuff. For these guys, there's a whole lot more wording, but they focus on what's happening in the marketplace. There are a lot of people working from home right now. In that, they've changed their headline. Their current headline is not the headline they had months ago. It's very relevant to the people that are coming to the page. It gives people an idea of how to be able to use their tool all in one working toolkit for working remotely. It's very specific. It's a great headline that hits the nail on the head of who they are trying to help. It's who they're trying to help, which is great. They have a high contrast button, give Base Camp a peek.

Now because they're more project management, they have a brand of pencil scratch and kind of work on things. That's why they put little arrows in, so it's very on-brand and then it showcases what you're going to get and how it works, very briefly. Then from there, they have other things you can get. We wrote the book, they go a little more in detail. They have some more social proof of what they've done for their customers and customer feedback. Give Base Camp a try. A lot of people have tickers, like how many people they've helped or that kind of thing, but this is a great example as well as a great opt-in. It is a free app you can buy, so that's a little different than some offers out there, but if you have something that's free for somebody and your main offer is an upsell from there, like once they have the base app, they'll need to buy the premium features. This is a great example to look at.

Another one that's interesting goes a little more design. It's maybe not the favorite design, but Labor Sync here basically does time-tracking for people that have teams all around the world and they have apps that you can use. One of the things I really wanted to highlight on this one that's not on all pages, but I feel like it's definitely worth noting, is a lot of people want to actually talk with somebody about their questions. That's a great opt-in. There are many of these tools out there that you can use, but it gives people the opportunity to send a message or to ask questions. There's actually some automated ways to do that, but it's going to ask them for their name and their email address.

Now you shouldn't be emailing them just everything in the world after they've done that, but it gives you a way to have a conversation with somebody and it can even be automated or have your team response, that's pretty simple.

Another one that I think is a little more fun that falls in that quiz space, is Buzzfeed. A different style of company, but what they do is they have a quiz with a headline, "Sorry, Millennials, But There's No Way You'll Be Able To Pass This Quiz." It challenges the millennials. Funny that it challenges the millennials to get in and take the quiz. They have a challenging headline that challenges the audience, and then from there, it brings in the people that aren't millennials into this. It's a very, very interesting headline. From there, they go picture based and you push in your responses and then at the end, you can type in your email address to get who you are, how you stack up, or whatever the quiz results are. A quiz, again, is a great way to get people to opt-in in a fun way, in a comparative way, but you do want to put in some energy into that.

Another place that I think is helpful to look at is a landing page builder. Leadpages is a landing page builder that builds webpages that people can put up for their businesses that are directly related to a campaign or marketing funnel. These guys now give you a workbook on how to make your website work better. After analyzing tens of thousands of pages, these guys have a great amount of knowledge in this space and it's worth looking at. They have the authority because of who they are but then get the workbook. A workbook is a great way and it's a great opt-in.

A website not working for your business? Great headline, get the workbook. Most of your cornerstone content gives you a little preview of other planning elements that are going to be in the workbooks, or previewing what you're going to get, which is a great way to get people to opt-in. Then again, download the eBook. Even different. Get the workbook, get the eBook, I want the eBook, download the eBook. Just different ways to do that.

There are two examples in this last example. Sean Soole does great work for business owners and he has Inner Circle. It's his mastermind, it is very deep level work and this is what I was referring to earlier as far as an application process. Join my exclusive Inner Circle. He goes over some main key benefits. The page itself, whether it converts like Gangbusters or not, what it does is allows people to make the team. If you apply now, this is another example of how you can go through, enter your information, answer these questions that will help him understand you and you understand what you're getting into as well. Then they'll reach out to you and work with you. That's a great example of an application process and it's a great opt-in. If you have a higher-priced offer and you need people to talk to you about it, then what you should do is word it in a way that makes people want to be on the team to get in the exclusive crowd. Then from there, have them apply, then you'll get back to them.

The other example I love that is not actually typical of a lot of business owners out there and a lot of sales staff teams, is that they'll have a strategy call or a demo or show you or give you an intro call, whatever it is they want to call it. From there, you can book a call. You pick a time that's going to work out for you, and then from there you get on the phone with him. Great ways that you can use opt-ins and the pages to put up valuable information. Make sure you're hitting on the benefits. Make sure you're putting some social proof on the pages and using those to allow more people to get in and learn about you so you can ultimately have a great conversation with them or perpetuate a relationship with them as a customer or client down the road.

Hey, thanks for watching this episode of Marketing Runs Deep and I hope that you have taken something that will make a difference in your opt-in pages and implement it into your business today because this is just one small way to AutomateBIG.