This article is starting with the assumption that you are using an opt-in page. It doesn’t matter what type, video, audio, etc., you’re using. If you’re already using an opt-in page, you, like most marketers, are probably giving something away in order to obtain their name or email address.
That’s the big mistake! Why? In order to answer that let’s think about what’s going on in the prospect’s mind. Think about it…
They come to your opt-in page, and you tell them, “Give me your name and email address, and I will give you a free report (or some other gift). Once they give their name and email, they receive the gift, and they are taken to your sales letter. Simple enough. Everybody does it this way.
Now ask yourself a question…why are people giving you their name and email address? Is it because they want to see what you have to sell? No! Are they truly interested in your product? No!
In many cases, they may have some interest in your product once they see the report or whatever it is you give them… BUT, they are absolutely NOT interested in your sales letter. Now think about it…we’ve just given them a report (that they are interested in) and then we’re sending them too a sales letter they are not interested in. We are, in fact, pushing them away from the purchase, we’re giving them a reason not to buy! It’s no wonder sales conversions are only 1% to 3%.
Let me be very clear about this… because we are giving them something to read, something to listen to, something to watch…we are giving them a reason not to buy! Why is this?
Because we have just given them what they are looking for (our gift/bribe). We have given them a reason not to buy. We email it to them, and their thought process says, “Thank you, I’m going to leave this page, check my email and watch the video, listen to the audio, or read the free report etc. Then, if I’m still interested, I might come back and buy your product”. We have just pushed them away from our sales page.
Ask any direct salesperson (online or offline sales) and they’ll tell you that in the real world of sales the odds of them coming back and purchasing are not very good. This is way good salespeople do everything in their power in order to get the sale NOW! And what have we just done? We’ve sent them away and given them a very good reason not to purchase now.
There is a certain amount of pressure that develops throughout a sales process, this is natural. In this case, we’re not only relieving that pressure but giving them an alternative to purchasing.
As you may know, I sold vacuum cleaners door to door for several years. I became fairly good at it. Here are some things we never did when we sold vacuum cleaners. We never accepted anything inside a person’s home. Why? Because if we accepted anything, even something as simple as a glass of water, that was payment for our time.
In other words, it relieved the sales pressure, it took them off the hook. After all, we were cleaning their home, shampooing their carpets for free while demonstrating the vacuum cleaner. There was pressure and an implied obligation, but that pressure was relieved, that obligation was satisfied when they gave us cookies, food, water, milk, etc. If you accepted any of those “payments”, your sales dropped dramatically.
While it isn’t exactly the same online it still relieves the pressure when you give them a free gift. The end result is the same…we’ve given them an opening; we’ve given them a reason not to buy and sales drop dramatically. So, if you’re not giving them a bribe, why would they give us their name and email address? The answer is simple and powerful…curiosity.
Curiosity is the most powerful psychological tool you’ll ever find. How do we do this? We create curiosity opt-in pages similar to this…
Hi, my name is Armand Morin. Thank you so much for visiting our page. I have a question I want to ask you. If I could show you a way to generate 100,000 visitors to your website, would you like to know about it? If the answer is yes, then here is what you need to do next. Fill in your first name, your primary email address and click the submit button on this page and on the next page, I’ll give you all the details on how you, too can generate 100,000 visitors to your website. Don’t wait, go ahead do it right now. Fill in your first name, primary email address, click the submit button and I’ll see you on the very next page!
That’s my opt-in page. What did I give away? Nothing! I created curiosity. They don’t give their name and email in order to get my bribe. Instead, they give their name and email in order to satisfy their curiosity. They want to know what I have to sell. They want to see my sales page!
People are smarter today than ever. When I ask them for their name and email address, they know I’m going to try and sell them something and their curiosity is piqued enough to want to go to my sales letter to see what it is. In this scenario my opt-in page built enough curiosity to compel them to give their information so they could be taken to the next page (which is my sales letter) to see just what I was selling.
You may be saying to yourself, “But doesn’t everyone do it this way (with a bribe)?” The answer is yes, almost everyone uses bribes to get the name and email address. That doesn’t make it correct. Remember those words your mom said (probably over and over again)… “Just because everyone does it doesn’t mean you have to do it!”
You may be saying to yourself, “This will not work with my product!” My answer is, “It WILL work with your product, if you utilize the 30x system that I have been talking about and teaching for years!” First come up with the reasons people want your product. Come up with as many as you can. Come up with as many keywords/ keyword phrases as possible.
If you polled the people who may be interested in your product, they would all have different reasons for being interested in it. In fact, they each may have multiple reasons. But…we can only effectively use one reason on an opt-in page. You can only effectively use one reason to maximize SEO.
How many reasons can we effectively give for a person visiting your opt-in page? Once again, to be most effective we can only use one reason per opt-in page. Here is your strategy: you have a sales letter that sells your product…you need to build curiosity in order to get people to want to visit it.
Let’s say you had a weight loss product. Come up with at least 30 reasons why people may want to lose weight. Write them down.
- Maybe they want to lose weight because they just had a baby.
- Maybe they want to lose their beer
- Maybe they want to go on
- Maybe they want to go to a class
- Maybe they are single and want to find
- Maybe they just got divorced and want to find
- Maybe they want to look good in a bathing
- Etc., Etc., Etc.
One opt-in page would never be able to effectively build curiosity for all these diverse reasons. We need one opt-in page for each reason.
For example…
“Just had a baby and need to lose some weight? My weight loss secret will get those lbs. off fast and easily. Just enter your first name and email address, click the enter button and you’ll be on your way to fast and easy weight loss.”
“Need to lose weight fast for that class reunion? Just enter your first name and email address, click the enter button and you’ll discover how to lose weight and be the envy of all your classmates.”
In each case we’ve targeted their need and created the curiosity to get them to leave their name and email address and read your sales letter.
Each page is search engine optimized for the particular keyword or phrase they searched on so you know you have targeted people coming to your opt-in and on to your sales letter.
Do you need a different sales letter for each reason? No! Each opt-in page goes to the same sales letter. You only need to concentrate on one very good sales letter…they’ve been pre-framed to read their need into your sales letter.
So, dump the bribe and build curiosity. It’ll make your life much easier and generate more sales!
You may be saying to yourself, “This will not work with my product!” My answer is, “It WILL work with your product, if you utilize the 30x system that I have been talking about and teaching for years!”
