Welcome back to the show.
I hope you are so, so well.
I have just got back from Noosa in Queensland in Australia where I was for a
little bit of a shorter trip than planned.
I was meant to go out for 10 days and with my partner and our son and
tie in a little bit of a holiday to a speaking gig that I had at the
Heart-Centered Business Conference.
However, at the last minute, my partner had an injury and couldn't
fly, and so it was all a little bit like unsure what to do.
But in the end, I traveled solo for the first time without my son.
He's eight months, eight and a half months now, which I felt
really unsure about doing.
And to be honest, a little bit fearful of also what other people
would think of me for doing that.
but he was absolutely fine, completely, fine without me and thrived.
And I was really lucky to have family to help out with my partner
and my son and I had the best time.
Oh my goodness.
Like, honestly in person stuff.
It's just, it's just incredible.
To be in a space.
And also it's incredible when you are in a space that is really intentionally
curated and when the people there you feel a sense of connection to.
And I know that I have been to events where I have left them and
felt disconnected and felt like there was something wrong with me
because I didn't really feel like I was like the other people there and
I was looking for something deeper.
And my beautiful, incredible, like just super smart friend, Tash Corbin, who
is an incredible marketer, is the host and the creator of the Heart-Centered
Business Conference, and I was absolutely honored to speak there this year and to
be part of a panel and also to mentor at a special day for VIP attendees.
And I've already got my ticket for next year.
I cannot wait to go back.
It's in September next year, 2024.
And be in a space again with wonderful, incredible, smart, caring,
genuine, entrepreneurial people.
And this time as an attendee sitting back and taking in all the wisdom.
So you should totally check it out.
If that sounds like something you would really love to just Google Heart-Centered
Business Conference or Tash Corbin and follow the links and snap up your ticket.
But, I don't even know if there's gonna be many left, because I'm pretty
sure everyone that's in a position to be able to get a ticket that was
there over the past few days will have already got their ticket for next year.
now on that note, I have my own in-person coming up.
It's my only one planned this year.
It is my, if I say so myself, pretty, pretty special retreat
that I run called Elevate Retreat.
I've run this several times now, and it is back in October, 2023 from the 11th to the
13th, and it's a time and a space and a place for you to come away, get away from
the the grind, the every day, the being in it to be in a space where you can let
your ideas and thoughts and imagination expand to be in a place where you are
held and supported and encouraged, and people see how incredible you are and want
only the best for you, and remind you and help you remember how incredible you are.
And we will strategise and we will also, slash I will also, very kindly call
you out and challenge you on little areas I might see you holding yourself
back from what it is that you really, really want to do, or have or be.
Spaces are limited.
We have space for eight women.
And I actually, this is a member event, so this is open to my members
in the Modern Marketing Collective and fills with our members, but
I wanna let you know about it.
Because I got a feeling that you may well be interested too.
So if this sounds like something that would be really supportive for
you and expansive for your business, and oh my goodness, I've had a lot
of my former retreat attendees, my retreat alumni on the podcast.
You might have heard their stories and seeing their before retreat and
after retreat selves and businesses is pretty bloody inspiring.
So go ahead.
I really encourage you to go to my website, emilyosmond.com/business-retreat,
kinda like that little hyphen in the middle business dash retreat.
Or just search Emily Osmond Business Retreat and pop your
name on the application form.
So applications open up, on, let me just grab the date here, the 29th of May.
And like I said, this is for my members, but if this feels like
something that would be really amazing for you, I encourage you to
go ahead and apply and you could just tick if you're a member or not yet.
And you can also join the Modern Marketing Collective if you're
accepted to come to the retreat.
And why would you want to do that?
Well, oh my goodness.
You are going to have these strategies, the support and the connection and
community with those entrepreneurial people that have been at the retreat
with you after the retreat to help you, and I'll be there coaching you each
month after the retreat to help keep you on track and to guide you and to
know what we spoke about there, what your focuses are, what perhaps your
challenges are that you come across.
To help you continue that momentum after the retreat, to help you have access
to the strategies to then implement into your business that are inside the
modern marketing collective, and to continue being in a space with inspiring,
encouraging, positive, proactive entrepreneurial people, including those
that you were at the retreat with.
So, it's a win, win, win, win, win.
All righty.
So that is it on the retreat front now let's get into this episode.
So we are talking about what exactly makes an opt-in page
typically convert pretty well.
And just to wind back a sec there, so what is an opt-in page?
Really simply?
It's where someone is going to opt in for something and typically it means that
they are opting in with their name and their email address for something that
you have to offer and typically it's used as a term for something that is free.
So you may have heard of the term of a lead magnet, and this is basically
the page that people go to, to access or to, pop that email address in to
then get access to your lead magnet.
So they're basically saying, yes, I need that, I want that.
Let me give you my details of where to send that.
So that is an opt-in page.
Now I want to take you through what can help these pages have more people
that visit that page actually opt in.
Actually put their name and email address in, because that is the goal that we want
to make sure that we are maximizing the results for our business from that page.
So we want to make sure that most of the people that are visiting
that page are going to continue that little journey that we are taking them
on and put their email address in.
And I know I used to kind of be like, well, wouldn't everyone that goes to
the page put their email address in?
Like if they know that it's got this freebie that they want or
they're interested in, like, isn't everyone just gonna go ahead
and put their email address in?
But no, it's not the case.
Some people will just, I don't know, can't be bothered or they'll drop off
or they're like, oh, this isn't what I thought it would be, or, and this is
what I'm gonna take you through to help make sure that you get as many people
as possible actually taking action to continue the journey to pop their email
address in so that you can then, Provide that incredible freebie that you have.
Okay.
Now, as we go through this, please don't forget that last week on the
podcast we had Emma Troy, who is an incredible website designer.
She creates and specialises in high converting websites, and
I've teamed up with Emma to give you $100 off her template.
So as we are listening, and if you're thinking mm-hmm I think it'll be super
handy to have a website that is gonna help me do this, and you like myself,
and I guess like Emma, are really into stunning designs really aesthetic
designs, then go ahead and check them out.
You can go to Emma's website, emmatroy.com.au/shop, or just
Google Emma Troy and the links will be in the in the show notes here.
And if you enter the code VIPEMILY, then you'll have a hundred
dollars off her website templates.
And they are on the incredible website site called Show It, which I don't
think you can really beat when it comes to the design side of things.
And my website is built on, show it, and it's based on, a customization
of one of Emma's templates.
So I use and love her templates, her work, and her as a business owner.
All righty.
So let's get into some of these tips now.
Number one.
You want to make sure that you have something that grabs attention
when it comes to your headline.
Okay?
So this is really the, the first sentence on that page.
Okay?
And that might even just be something for you to recognise as well.
Do you actually have a, a sentence on that page instead of one big paragraph?
You wanna break it up, make it punchy.
So an intention grabbing headline, and this needs to discuss.
And share really clearly what exactly the promise is, what
exactly you were providing.
Okay?
What exactly that freebie is.
All right, so I'm just gonna give you an example here.
One of my freebies and opt-in pages is for some prompts to
help you write your content.
Okay?
Now I have called it 52 Timeless post prompts.
so it's explaining and communicating like the benefit here is that they're timeless.
You're not gonna have these, and then they're not relevant or they're no
longer the trend or something like that.
These are timeless pieces of content ideas that you can use.
Okay, so my headline's super simple, 52 timeless post prompts, but it's pretty
clear in terms of what it is and a little bit of a why you should want that.
That's number one.
Number two is then once you've got that sentence there that explains
really clearly what it is that they are having there, what exactly your
offer provides is a sub-headline, and this can continue that on.
So maybe you can't quite fit everything you want to explain in their headline.
You can use the sub-headline to maybe emphasise another part, another
benefit, or to give a little bit more detail about what they're receiving.
So again, let me just give you an example here.
So mine, subheading or sub-headline says, A year's worth of weekly
content ideas made simple.
So I'm just taking a little bit further to explain the benefits
of why someone should want this.
So it gives them an entire year of content ideas and it makes it simple for them.
See, what I'm doing here isn't super complicated, but it's just making
sure that I'm really, really clear about why would someone want this?
What is the benefit to them, and then how can I communicate it to them?
Okay, so we got their headline, the sub headline.
Now we have the action that they need to take.
So the call to action.
Now you want to make sure that you have, I would recommend a really bright or
high contrast button for people to click.
So you wanna make sure it's gonna be, obvious on the page
where they need to click.
To then submit the form.
Okay, so I have mine on this particular page I'm talking about, which by the
way, converts anywhere from 40 to 50 to 60, and some days even, even a
hundred percent of people opting in.
But it's a really nicely high converting page.
Mine is just a bright orange.
I'm like, people cannot miss that button.
And I actually say on it " get free prompts".
So people know exactly what's gonna happen when they click that button.
Okay?
So it's super clear, it's not complicated, it's really, really clear.
The other thing, okay, after that call to action is actually
just having the form there.
So making sure you have, the place where they're gonna submit their details.
Now, This does depend on the type of thing that you are offering in terms
of what exactly you are asking for it.
It also depends on your business, but what exactly you are
asking for in the form itself.
For my business, I will typically ask for the first name.
Sometimes I'll ask for the surname, and the email address, and that
is enough for me and my business.
But you may need some further details or some different details for your business.
On the whole, what I would typically recommend is to keep it pretty minimal
in terms of what you are asking for.
You will probably see a drop off the more criteria, the more information that
you are asking people for just because it just takes a little bit extra effort
each thing you are asking people for.
We don't have a lot of patience sometimes.
We're like, ah, this is too much.
I don't wanna fill this in.
I'm over it already.
So, I would recommend keeping it just to the minimum information
that you need to gather.
Okay.
Now something else to think about is what you have on the page in
terms of other buttons or other things for people to click.
And my recommendation is to really, if you can have nothing else, I have nowhere else
that people can go, people can click off.
You just want to provide that really clear one action for people to take,
which is to submit that form and opt in.
So if you have a, The menu bar for your website you may or may not want
to consider if you can hide that.
You would also want to consider if you have a lot of other things on that
page that may distract people, even if they go to that page with the intention
of getting that freebie and opting in for it, make sure that there's not
too many other things that you are asking them to do that may distract
them away from their initial intention.
So keep the page to that one action you want people to take, and that's
gonna help you have more people opt in.
Another thing, so I think this is number five now, we've looked at the headline,
the sub-headline, the call to action button, the form itself, we've looked
at, not having too many other things slash no other things that they can do.
So this is number six is looking at the imagery.
So looking at how can you either illustrate or represent what
they are about to receive.
So what that freebie is.
So you may have a mockup to help people visualise that amazing PDF or ebook
or something that you're about to send them so they can see it and they, okay.
Yep, that makes sense to me.
That makes it really tangible.
That's what I'm going to get
. For my page, I actually just have a photo of me.
And a little bonus tip here is that I try and match and I'm considerate about
matching the imagery that I use on the page with the imagery that I use that
they see before they go to the page.
So there's a level of consistency on that journey that gets into the page.
I don't want them to be jarring, have a jarring experience of what they see in
the marketing of the lead magnet, and then what they see on the page itself.
It has to make sense and continue my brand versus being
really, different or unexpected.
Because if people land on a page that's like, hang on a minute,
is this the same business?
Is this the same brand?
Am I in the right spot here?
They're gonna be confused and click away and it can also just
lower the trust level that they're like, well, I'm not really sure.
Hang on, can I trust?
Can I put my details in here?
So I'd recommend thinking about the imagery that either represents what
they're about to receive or that is a really great, just branding for your
business that people will recognise.
And for my business it's I'm the personal brand in it, so having an image of me
works well and that may work for you too.
Okay, so number seven, and this is an optional one.
They all are of course, but this one I don't actually have on
this specific page, but I think it's something that I could add.
And I actually want to make this point that your opt-in pages, as
with all of the things that you do with your marketing, are iterative.
Are things that you want to get out there and improve and test and refine and tweak
and continue to make even better over time, versus if you're the type of person
that wants it to be absolutely perfect and absolutely completed and the best it's
ever gonna be before you allow yourself to put it out there, then I think this
could be a helpful approach for you.
And I take this approach for me, so I'm like, look, it's better
that it's out there at all.
Even if it's not perfect or even if it's not got all of the things I could possibly
have on it, it's better that it's just out there so it can start doing its job
and start having people have the option and ability to get my freebie and me to
have them now in my cusp or in my audience database on my email list so I can stay in
touch with them then not being out there.
And it's better to be out there not being absolutely perfect or having
absolutely everything it could have on her, versus me holding myself back.
Okay.
So this is something that is, Something that you can test to see
if it increases your conversions.
And I added this onto I recently ran an Instagram workshop and I added social
proof onto that page in terms of people that I've helped with their Instagram
and what they've learned from me to show, Hey, I know what I'm talking about.
These are people that I've been able to help, some amazing
stories of how I've helped them.
So think about your social proof for your opt-in too.
So for me, for instance, I could actually add in, now I've had
this freebie out there a while.
I could add in some feedback and some comments and some, nice
reviews and that type of thing of people that have, experienced that
freebie and put them on the page.
And I could say something like, Hey, here's what other people think
or have to say, or what they've loved about this, about these post
prompts, and pop them on there.
Social proof can be so powerful.
It helps people see that other people trust you, other people
have gone ahead and taken that action and had a good experience.
So something to consider there, whether you have some reviews, case
stories, testimonials, that type of thing can be really really helpful.
Now, another thing that I don't have on this particular page, sometimes I do and
sometimes I don't, is further information.
So it could be, some dot points that go into here's exactly what's inside, and you
talk about a few things that they're going to learn from that thing that you offer
or they're going to be able to experience thanks to that thing that you offer.
but I've found like really keeping the page very, very simple works really well.
Okay, so just another thing that if it's gonna make sense for your business
and if you want to test it, but if it's gonna hold you back, cuz you're
like, oh my gosh, now I have to write a little bit more copy, giving a little
bit more details about what exactly this lead magnet is or what they're
gonna learn from it, or what the outcomes are going to be or what they
can expect, then don't worry about it.
Just get it out there.
Now the final thing I want to share, so this is number nine, is actually looking
at the stats behind your opt-in page.
So you want to know, well, how is it converting?
And you can see this based on what website platform you use or the analytics
tracking that you use as well to see, okay, well what is that opt-in rate?
The percentage of people that visit the page that actually then go ahead
and complete and pop their details in.
Tracking it and understanding, okay, well maybe it's 10%.
I think it could be a little bit more.
Let's perhaps do one of these things that we didn't have, or
let's see how we can do it better.
Maybe we could have a different call to action.
Maybe it says right now, " submit form" and maybe we could make it a little bit
more clear and entice and call to action says, that says something like, "yes,
give me it now", something like that.
Or "get access now" or, "yes, I want it".
So you can go ahead and, and tweak and test and just do I
recommend one thing at a time.
Give it a little bit, bit of time, so then you can see, okay, did that
actually improve or did that not improve?
Did it go down?
Did it stay the same or did it increase the Opt-ins that you received, the
conversion rate on that page so you can know and feel confident that
you have the data that's informing you of what is actually helping
or hindering your opt-in rate.
So making sure that you are testing and looking at the data there.
And that's why I know like this page converts pretty well.
I've changed a few things over time.
I've changed some imagery, I then use this as a bit of a base, cuz I know okay, it's
super simple, but it converts really well.
so I hope that's helpful for you in terms of understanding.
You can keep a page really, really simple, be really intentional about
it, and have it as a place that people know exactly what to do and why they're
doing it and what is in it for them.
Now, a reminder as well that if you know your website is well, either maybe
nonexistent, you want a website, but you don't really have the budget or the
capacity right now to hire a designer to like custom build one for you or
you want to DIY it, but you know, you can't really do it from scratch.
You maybe have never done websites before, most likely, and you know that
a template could be pretty handy for you, especially one that is absolutely
stunning and designed to convert.
Then you may want to check out Emma Troy and her Show It templates that
you can customize for your business so you can tweak the, colours, change
the imagery, change the copy there, and I'm a proud affiliate for Emma.
So you can go ahead and enter VIPEMILY on her shop page for her
website templates and enjoy $100 off.
So go ahead and check that out now.
Just google, Emma Troy or emmatroy.com.au/shop and
get your happy shopping on.
All righty, that's it from me and I cannot wait to speak
with you really, really soon.
Bye.