I'm getting a 15% loss after they fill in the free eBook form?

Maybe something wrong with the settings of your autoresponder, and these people are not getting the confirmation mails. If on the other hand autoresponder is configured properly and they are getting confirmation mails but are not clicking them as is usually the case in double optin method, you can try single optin but leave the above message intact so as to give the impression that the person will get a confirmation mail and as a result he will submit his valid email and not some fake email although this can't be ruled out.

That's what double optin is all about.

That's not a horrible number. That means that out of 100 people who fill out the form, 85 will get the report and 85 will be on your list.

If they actually go to check their email so that they can confirm their email address, these are the people you want anyway.

I wouldn't worry about the people who don't confirm their email address. I don't think you are having a technical or delivery problem...I think that a certain amount of people simply won't confirm their email for various reasons.

I wouldn't worry too much about it. Instead, I would focus my efforts on driving more traffic to the site to get interested subscribers.

So, 85% of your opt-ins are confirming right?

That's not bad.

You can try to increase that # by making your go and confirm message a bit more emphatic.

Why not ask them to do it right now, before they forget and/or lose the confirmation email among their other emails?

If you're using aweber,...

... you can send them to a special page ( thank you page ) that urges them to confirm...

...and then send them to a page that thanks them for confirming ( confirmation page ) that will also have the download link for the free report etc., or your sales pitch.

Hope This Helps!!

TL

Exactly what Jason Anderson said above. You're doing fine with that amount of dropoff. You'd probably see the same number of downloads if you sent them the link directly instead of a double-opt in.

As Jason pointed out, if the people you're losing are proving to you that they can't open and email and click a link inside, they're proving they can't perform the MINIMUM requirements needed to make you any money if they WERE on your list.

List building is a game of numbers. Focus on actives. Purge the inactives and non-confirms regularly.

Helpful hint - if you want to boost response to your list, take the lowest-responding 80% and send them an email saying they have to click the link inside or you will unsubscribe them fo rusing up resources that other people could be using instead. (Yes, sending emails does actually consume up computer resources and cash.)

That will pull probably 5-10% of your "sleepers" out of their inactivity and get them re-engaged. The rest of them, eliminate everyone who hasn't opened an email in 3 months or more every quarter.

They aren't suddenly going to start. But at least you can TRY to save the openers-who-are-not-clicking.

Jason hit the nail on the head

/thread



Peace

Jay

Not bashing, but it might be that you're offering a free eBook & then requiring them to get on your list instead? Stinks like a bait & switch stunt to the average guy. I probably just wouldn't give you my email in the first place.

At any rate, I don't think a 15% drop off is completely bad, actually seems quite good to me.

Todd

You've already got them to your site by stating the eBook was "Free", but then I get to your website & you want me to "pay for it" by giving you my email address. That's not free, that's an exchange of value, it's bartering: I'll give you the ebook if you give me your email address...

Free to most people implies "no strings attached" and doesn't simply mean "no money involved"...at least to most of the people I've talked about it with, and yes I do ask people these kinds of things :-)
If you've decided to deliver the eBook over email, then you clearly should have a way to prove that they've given you their permission to send it. That's just common sense.

However, I think you might see a huge difference in subscriber response (by %) if you were to market the free newsletter first, then give the eBook as a bonus to subscribers. That delivers an immediate expectation to the viewer they will take part in an exchange of value with you before anything happens, and the eBook is just a little more incentive. If they prove they're willing to trust you by exchanging valuable things (email addy for list subscription & eBook) with you, and you don't burn them, you can eventually ask for sales & have them respond in accordance with how much they trust you.

The other idea is to deliver the eBook publicly through an http link and then offer the newsletter within it. These people prove they've been through the book & seriously want to know more...and again, they've proven to be your market by getting a subscription.

I'm not sure about you, but I'd rather have 100 subscribers that are wanting to act, than 1000 that are a waste of bandwidth & only wanted to see what was in the eBook.

Todd

I am not an expert in auto responder, but I will tell you a couple of things that jumped out to me.

If you read your message, it doesn't really tell people that THEY need to respond to the email to confirm and get the product they signed up for. You are telling them that this email will confirm them. With many people, you have to spell it out EXACTLY.

I would recommend that you tell them below the form they fill out that they will need to confirm their request, and or in the message they get on the page right after they sign up (your message above).

Remember, I am no expert, so this is just my uninformed opinion. But I have signed up for lots of stuff so I feel that I do have some experience with it. Good luck.

By the way, if you are only losing 15%, that isn't really a high percentage. Nothing you do will get 100% to confirm. I have heard of people only getting 15% to confirm, so you are doing a lot better than that.

Yeah, that is pretty good. Some people "lose" about 50% of their opt ins. You should know that these people would only have been dead weight anyway, its better to have a smaller more reponsive list anyway. Good luck!

Something that I am going to do is download the unconfirmed ones to an excel sheet (csv) then see if I can find another service that accepts these imports, saves losing (in your case 15%) of your leads.

Anyone know of another service that accepts unconfirmed imports?