How To Create The Perfect Free Email Opt-In
As a coach or online entrepreneur, building your email list is crucial for growing your business and nurturing relationships with potential clients and customers.
But how exactly do you do that?
Surprise! The key to successful list building lies in creating the perfect free email opt-in offer that provides immediate value to your ideal clients.
In this guide, we’ll walk through the essential steps to create an email opt-in that attracts your ideal audience like
How To Create The Perfect Free Email Opt-In
Step #1: Understand Your Audience
Before crafting your opt-in offer, you need to deeply understand who your target reader is as well as the potential problems they’re facing.
The most successful opt-ins directly address specific challenges your audience is dealing with.
For example, if you’re a business coach, your prospects might struggle with time management or client acquisition. A life coach’s audience might be seeking clarity on their purpose or struggling with work-life balance.
Let’s begin by identifying your who and what:
- Who are your ideal buyers or clients? (ie. age, location, education etc.)
- What keeps them up at night (specific to your offering)? What are their red-hot burning problems or pains?
- What sort of questions would they ask someone about their problem? What would they type into Google?
Step #2: Do Some Market Research
Now that you’ve got a basic idea of who you’re serving, you can spend some time researching:
- Common questions in relevant social media groups
- Problems mentioned in discovery calls
- Feedback from existing clients
- Popular topics in your niche’s online communities
Where To Look For Optin Ideas
Sometimes it’s also useful to look at other people’s opt-in offers. However, this isn’t about copying someone else’s work! Sometimes you can simply get some great ideas by looking elsewhere—especially outside of your niche or industry.
Here are some suggestions for where to research:
Competitor Websites
What pain points are they addressing? What quick wins are they offering? Again, never steal (and oh my god do NOT try to pass off someone else’s work as your own). Always look at how you can tweak something to make it better or your own.
Ubersuggest
Make a free account. Now type in either a competitor site and look for their top performing content. Or type is a keyword and see what is performing the best on Google. Keep your mind focused on how you can take one of these ideas and make it more usable and easily consumable.
Start a thread asking questions about your topic or join a few Subreddits relevant to your niche & look for common pain points.
Amazon Reviews
Find the most popular books in your niche and read the reviews. Notice what people are raving about, as well as any criticisms or disappointments, to see what might be missing from the market.
Step #3. Choose The Right Format
Your opt-in offer should deliver quick wins while showcasing your expertise. Consider these high-converting formats:
1. A Quick-Start Guides
Guides are the perfect choice for entrepreneurs who help clients achieve specific outcomes. A quick-start guide provides actionable steps that give your audience an immediate taste of success.
2. A Free Quiz or Assessment
Self-assessment tools help potential clients gain clarity about their current situation. For example, a “Business Readiness Quiz” or “Life Balance Assessment” can provide valuable insights while demonstrating your expertise.
3. Templates and Frameworks
A good template is almost as good as doing it for them and a win/win for everyone. These practical tools help clients implement your methods immediately. Think: planning templates, conversation or copy scripts, or downloadable graphic templates.
Step #4: Write Your Opt-in Name & Page Title
Your opt-in’s title should be specific, benefit-driven, and create urgency. Instead of “Free Sales Guide,” try something like “30-Day Client Attraction Blueprint: How to Book 3 New Coaching Clients in the Next 30 Days.”
Here are some key elements of a compelling opt-in title:
- A clear timeframe
- A specific outcome
- Numbers or statistics when relevant
- Offers a solution to a pressing problem
Naming Your Opt-In Offer
The opt-In name should have three main ingredients:
- A tangible but believable promise
- A specific timeline
- And a path to get there
Some additional tips:
- Google the shortlisted names to make sure it is not in use already. Try to go original.
- Feel 100% confident that the name will stop your ideal buyer in his or her tracks.
- The opt-in subhead/tagline should not be an afterthought. It should be a power-packed mini-opt-in that either reinforces the benefit or gives a reason to
believe.
Step #5: Designing the Perfect Opt-in Page
Your opt-in page should be clean, and focused, as well as do a great job of persuading the reader to take action.
Here are three essential elements to help do that:
Headline
Make your primary benefit clear immediately. Use powerful words that evoke an emotion in the reader and create urgency.
Use Bullet Points
List 3-5 specific outcomes or benefits. That means focus on transformation rather than features. Some examples:
- “Learn the exact words I use in my discovery calls that will increase your sales by 50%”
- “Discover my powerful 3-step framework that turns casual Instagram DMs into coaching opportunities.”
- “Master the art of sales without feeling pushy or desperate.”
Social Proof
Always include a brief testimonial or success story that validates your expertise. This builds trust and credibility with your reader and further inspires them to take action.
A Clear Call-to-Action
The words on your button matter. Always use action-oriented language on your submit button. For example: “Join Us”, “Download Now” or “Start Your Journey” work better than “Submit” or “Sign Up.”
Step #6: Deliver The Optin
Now it’s time to deliver the goods! You generally have two ways of doing that:
- Refer them to a Thank You page with a download button
- Put the download in an email that’s sent out automatically
For security reasons, I prefer option two. However, usually, this requires you to set up a paid plan with an email provider like MailChimp or Flodesk.
If you can’t afford to do that yet, that’s okay. It’s always better to start collecting emails, even if the sequence isn’t totally perfect yet.
Step #7: Start An Email Welcome Sequence
You’ve got their email now. Congratulations! However, this is a big opportunity for your business and brand.
Ideally, signing up for your opt-in should put new readers into a welcome sequence of emails: a sequence of automatic emails that explain more about who you are and what your business or brand does.
The first few emails you send your readers are important! Use them wisely.
Here are some things to keep in mind as you create these emails:
- Build on the knowledge shared in your opt-in
- Address common objections
- Share your client success stories
- Lead them to your paid offerings
The art of creating a great email sequence is a totally separate topic which we will tackle further in a future post.
Step #8: Test and Optimize
After your opt-in has been active for some time, it’s time to optimize. How well has it been performing? How many people are actually signing up from your opt-in page?
Everyone has to start somewhere. But it’s crucial to monitor your opt-in’s performance to see how well it does and if there’s anything to improve upon.
Here are some metrics to take a look at:
- A good conversion rate (Aim for 20-40% on targeted traffic)
- The email open rates in your welcome sequence
- Engagement with your initial content
- Unsubscribe rates in the first week (There will always be people who take your free stuff and unsubscribe immediately! Don’t take it personally but try to keep this number as low as possible.)
More Irresistible Opt-In Tips
1. Don’t Hold Back The Good Stuff
Many would-be entrepreneurs hold back from sharing their true knowledge or wisdom in a freebie. They’re worried that if they do that people won’t actually buy from them.
But to make a splash, I want you to do the opposite of that: give away your best stuff for free.
For starters, you’ll never run out of great ideas. Even if you give one away, it will be worth it to attract in your ideal people. Second, giving away some greatness positions you as the industry leader or thought leader who you are. It’s impossible to blow anyone’s mind with generic copy-and-paste content. So don’t be afraid to go bold!
2. Keep The Focus On Your Business
My manifestation planner on The Aligned Life is my top email opt-in of all time. However, when I first put it out there I didn’t include anything in the pdf about me! (lol)
Now, I’m sure to have my photo, a short bio and my website link attached. Otherwise, my info might just get lost on someone’s hard drive (and what’s the point of that?)
Tell them who you are and what you can do for them, just to make sure there’s no confusion and to show them how you can continue to help them in the future.
3. Add Your Photo
Always add a picture of yourself—or at the very least, your logo. Photos are a much better choice because the point of getting someone on your email list is to let them get to know you. It’s much harder to do that if they have no idea what you look like!
If you don’t have professional brand photos, it’s okay! Just get someone to take a clear and crisp shot of you. Or take a selfie if you must. Just make sure it doesn’t look like a selfie!
What Not To Do
Here are some common free opt-in mistakes:
- Creating an opt-in that’s too broad or generic
- Promising unrealistic results
- Overwhelming subscribers with too much information
- Failing to establish clear next steps
- Not including more information about you or your brand
Your Perfect Opt-in Checklist:
Your free offer should:
- Be ultra-specific
- Address one problem
- Able to be used right away or quickly consumed
- Promises results not information
- Is something they will use (not something they just want to use)
- Positions you as an authority
- Positions your paid offering as the next step
Creating The Perfect Email Freebie | Final Thoughts
Remember, the perfect opt-in for your online business isn’t about creating the most comprehensive resource – it’s about providing the right information at the right time to the right people. Keep your focus on delivering genuine value that demonstrates your expertise while solving a specific problem for your ideal clients or customers.
Creating the perfect opt-in can feel daunting at first. But with these steps, you’ll figure it out in no time. With a well-crafted opt-in offer, you’ll build a list of engaged prospects who are eager to learn more about your products or services.
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