Opt-In On Sales Page Or Not?

17 replies
I see many info-vendors putting an opin box on their sales page.

I can see the pros of doing this, but then some IM'ers will say
"but there should only be one action per page...you either want
them to optin OR click the order link...which is it? Pick only one
action per page!"


What Are YOUR Thoughts On This?
#optin #page #sales
  • Profile picture of the author Underground SEO
    Personally I leave an opt in out of a sales page - I feel it may stop them from buying the product, however if you weigh that risk up with the possibilty of buildig your list then well - it still gets me questioning my strategy to this day!
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    • Profile picture of the author Alexa Smith
      Banned
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      • Profile picture of the author Emmanuel Betinis
        Originally Posted by Alexa Smith View Post

        If I were selling my own product without affiliates, I wouldn't dream of not having an opt-in on my sales-page and offering something of real value in exchange for the prospective customer's email address.
        Makes sense.


        Originally Posted by Alexa Smith View Post

        Not trying to follow-up the prospective customers (who will opt in) with an autoresponder series is leaving most of the money on the table. This needs to be done either by the vendor or by the affiliate.
        Definitely, since I've discovered for myself with eMail marketing
        that MOST leads purchase AFTER the first touchpoint.


        Originally Posted by Alexa Smith View Post

        If I were selling a product somewhere like Clickbank (which of course I'd be doing only if I were aiming at affiliate sales), I wouldn't dream of having one: with an opt-in there, I'd be losing the 10% of potential affiliates who I'd expect to make 90% of my future affiliate sales, and leaving myself with perhaps 90% of the affiliates I might otherwise have attracted, and about 10% of the sales.
        That's exactly why I chose to only have ONE call to action on my landing
        page with NO optin box at http://SEOHelpVideos.com/letter

        ...I wanted some verification & reinforcement on this one...thanks!

        P.S. As both an affiliate and a vendor, I'm still not sure how I
        feel about the "Affiliates" link at the bottom of many salespages,
        but maybe I should go check out the ole' search box here before
        throwing up a new but yet "already-answered-a-million-times-before" thread. :rolleyes:

        P.P.S. I've already went ahead and set up a ton of
        20-factor Taguchi split tests on nearly EVERYTHING,
        but perhaps I should also test with or without the
        "Affiliates" link at the bottom...I mean, there's a
        chance it will increase the CTR% of the order link
        by removing the "Affiliates" link at the bottom,
        and that would be easy to test, but there's
        also a chance it could significantly negatively
        impact the amount of affiliates the vendor
        could aquire (which now makes me wonder
        the stats on Clickbank as to what the average
        percentage is of how many affiliates find products
        by using the CB marketplace VS. through looking
        for the "Affiliates" link at the bottom of the
        salespage and if it's worth justifying removing
        it in an effort to turn more affiliates on to promoting
        the product more). <gasp for air after long sentence>


        Originally Posted by Alexa Smith View Post

        (I'm actually an affiliate, not a vendor, so for me seeing an opt-in on a sales page is the fastest way to get me to close the sales page and look instead at one of the 10,000+ other products on Clickbank).
        This sounds familiar...

        I always get turned off by this as an affiliate too!

        How do you feel about the possibility of the vendor's followups increasing
        the affiliate's conversion rate due to the fact there's now double the
        exposure of the product to the prospect making it twice as
        likely he/she will buy the product (provided the vendor's followup links are
        legit so the affiliate still gets the sale of course)?


        Originally Posted by Alexa Smith View Post

        Apart from this, I don't have a whole lot more to say than what I said in this post and this post the other day (but that was plenty!).
        I took the time to read both of those threads, and I'm glad I did.
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        • Profile picture of the author lav007us
          You can use optin form in pop up window that appears when visitor moves cursor towards top right of screen to close the window.

          This way, you make a subscriber and you can offer you future products to him by email.
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  • Profile picture of the author willyboy104
    This has to be Alexa's favourite subject =P

    I agree with the above ^^

    Just to add to Alexa's part, some vendors will feel they are missing out on an oppurtunity from not building a list through their sales pages. This is why you would add a sales page to the thank you page/download page offering an unmissable free bonus. This would help create a list for the vendor which is 100% targeted but also one which each subscriber has already purchased something from you so the chances they would purchase something else is highly likely.

    I am not sure what Alexa's view is on opt in pages after someone has paid but I am sure she will shout at me soon if she doesn't like it ;P
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  • Profile picture of the author lcombs
    Here's a cool little trick I learned from Jeff Mulligan.

    Put your opt-in form in an iframe.

    That way, you get sign-ups without taking them away from your sales page.
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  • Profile picture of the author senderbot
    Hi,

    I'd say have a squeeze page with opt-in that is reached directly from your Google ads marketing. At this stage you simply want their email with the promise of a nice bonus so you can continue the marketing conversation.

    Once signed up customers get sent to your regular site (which can also be found through SEO) which does not have an opt-in as at that point your desired action is a sale.

    That way you can also have affiliates used the regular sales page without the opt in.

    Thats how I would do it, although I've also seen people do the above but have a "no thanks take me to the product page" link under the opt-in on their squeeze page.

    So that leads me to ask, to all you with experience of this,

    If you have a squeeze page would you have a "No thanks take me to the regular page" link under the opt in box?

    Cheers

    Max
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  • Profile picture of the author Silas Hart
    I'm selling a self-made micro niche product. My sales have been great, but I want to turn "possible customers" into actual customers and put them on my list. What can I offer for them in exchange for their e-mail, and still make them more inclined to purchase my $24 product?

    Should I try to sell them the product for $27 but offer them a $5 Off Coupon via e-mail, and capture their e-mail addresses and names that way?
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  • Profile picture of the author birdie28a
    Why not use something like "Exit Splash" then direct them to a page so they can download a free report without having to opt-in. On the report that they downloaded you can give them some useful information then at the end of the report have other resources or part of a sales letter. I have tried this and it works for me. Frankie
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    • Profile picture of the author Ronak Shah
      Originally Posted by birdie28a View Post

      Why not use something like "Exit Splash" then direct them to a page so they can download a free report without having to opt-in. On the report that they downloaded you can give them some useful information then at the end of the report have other resources or part of a sales letter. I have tried this and it works for me. Frankie
      This is being done on many sales pages now a days.

      I've seen it working.

      It works if you've a killer opt-in page copy that is helping you out to gain a landslide of leads.

      I think you must try using an Exit Splash.
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  • Profile picture of the author Mrs S
    I prefer to leave opt in boxes off my sales page as I want people to focus on buying not getting distracted by a free report etc. However, I understand that if the person decides not to buy they are then lost - which is why I'm about to test the addition of an exit splash type pop up box to encourage them to sign up before they leave.
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  • Profile picture of the author Christophe Young
    I noticed a lot of people, especially in my niche, have a squeeze page with opt in as their first point of entry. Example, www.myproduct.com goes to their squeeze page and once someone opts in, they go to the sales page.

    I've considered trying this approach but I'm afraid that it will hurt my Google rankings as sites with lots of content usually rank higher. So, I'm wondering if I change my index page to a squeeze page, will this kill all my SEO efforts.
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    • Profile picture of the author Emmanuel Betinis
      Originally Posted by Christophe Young View Post

      I noticed a lot of people, especially in my niche, have a squeeze page with opt in as their first point of entry. Example, www.myproduct.com goes to their squeeze page and once someone opts in, they go to the sales page.

      Yes, that's exactly how SEO Help Videos is set up.



      Originally Posted by Christophe Young View Post

      I've considered trying this approach but I'm afraid that it will hurt my Google rankings as sites with lots of content usually rank higher.
      That's an understandable fear, Christophe. And it may hurt your rankings, but, like what you're saying about Google liking "content", as long as you try a new squeeze page with just the same amount of content or greater, you'll have a decent chance of keeping that ranking. Testimonials, for example, can be great content for Google to pick up...and if the content within those testimonials is relevant to the keywords you're going for (which they will be), then you shouldn't have too much to worry about - try it & just keep a backup copy of the original page that was there before in case you want to switch it back to re-gain that ranking.

      I can tell you in my experience with one niche site in particular...I was in the exact same situation as you were. My homepage was ranking very well but wasn't set up as a "squeeze page". I wrote the squeeze page sales message from scratch...and simply ADDED it to the already-existing content. This not only kept my #3 position I was in for the past several months, but it also boosted me to #1. Sure, it could have been due to the continuous backlinking I was doing to the page that finally "broke the camel's back" and shot me to #1 coincidentally at the same time, but I'm willing to bet adding that EXTRA content certainly didn't hurt. That's for sure.

      I structured it in a way that kept most of my essential ONPAGE factors in place (the <TITLE> & <H1> tags amongst others), but yet slams them with a headline and from there into the squeeze letter with a couple optin boxes in there along the message...|||SPLICE||| then comes the original content you had to begin with. I left mine there since it was pretty much good informational content anyway (and since "G" ranked me well for it too) that had no distracting links anyway (just content) and then threw in another optin box at the very end of the page.

      Like I said before...I can only speak for me and my test results, but that page converts at around 26% and is STILL at the top of the Google SERPs.


      Originally Posted by Christophe Young View Post

      So, I'm wondering if I change my index page to a squeeze page, will this kill all my SEO efforts.
      It might. It might not. It probably won't, but nobody can say for sure.

      But there is one way you can find out for sure, Christophe...

      Try it.

      Put together a squeeze page, make sure your title has the keyword
      you're currently ranking for contained in it - if the current title would
      still be relevant for the squeeze page title then leave it as it is - if
      you're currently using an <H1> tag with your keyword in it, leave that as is
      in the new squeeze page. Try something similar to what I explained in the
      above paragraph (if you dare) and let me know what happens.

      P.S. When you make the change be sure to WAIT long enough for
      things to happen. Many times people freak out when their ranking
      has "been dropped"
      .
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      • Profile picture of the author genietoast
        Try it. See if it works for you.
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