You know how you visit a website that seems to have very good information and at the upper right side of the website is a dialogue box that asks you to join a mailing list and receive even more information? How many of us actually use these email opt ins? In your opinion, how effective are the email opt ins that you have seen and what is it that could be improved?

Each and every one of us has at some point in life been faced with this kind of scenario and probably given a recommendation or two about how to make it better. As an entrepreneur, this is one of the decisions that you will have to think long and hard about. It is a marketing strategy that is done right will result in more traffic to your website, which can then be converted to sales. It will mean that you will have more people on your email list, which increases your outreach.

Here are just some of the email opt in best practices that you can employ to ensure that you stay ahead of your competition and reap the benefits of the same. To start us of with the email opt in best practices, you need to understand that email marketing is just one of the ways through which you can market your business. It cannot be the only one and has to be complemented by other efforts. The best place to put an email opt in is at the top right corner of the website. Now, having a dialogue box that simply says join our mailing list for blah blah blah, or sign up to get our newsletter faster etc. Instead, one of the email opt in best practices will involve offering an ethical bribe. An ethical bribe means that you offer your clients something valuable in return for them signing up to your mailing list. If there is value to be gained by signing up, then you are more likely to attract a larger number of people than if you simply want people to sign up so you can bombard their inboxes with newsletters and information. Clients and prospects typically have to feel that there is something in it for them and not just them helping you out.

An ethical bribe in this case would take the format of a goody bag of sorts that would offer the clients and prospects a few things. For instance you may offer a free report, an audio collection of you best snippets, a work out video if that’s your space and so on and so forth. Your goody bag should have several things that will peak the interest of the prospect you are trying to woe. One of the email opt in best practices that you can also employ is having images of what it is the prospect will gain by joining your mailing list. They say a picture is worth a thousand words, images tend to communicate more than just words.