Email Opt-in Best Practices for Coaching Websites

Email Opt-ins on your website are necessary to consistently generate quality leads for your coaching business. A growing Email List of prospects is an asset you have complete control over. And you can market your coaching service and offers to your subscribers through strategic email campaigns.

The Key points from this article are - 

1. Why market research for your target audience is necessary to create the Email Opt-in content & provide invaluable offers to your prospects
2. How effective copywriting in your Opt-in forms influences visitors to take an action on your website
3. Why and how Email Opt-in positioning affects the conversion rate of site visitors turning into potential clients
4. How to build the relationship with the subscribers on your Email List, and convert them into your coaching clients

1. Defining your target audience -

If your website, copy and coaching service doesn't resonate with your website visitors, then your business will struggle. You need to be able to understand their pain points (objections, insecurities, and fears), and then deliver your message/service that is equally resonating & persuasive.

It is also important to note that people in your Target Audience will eventually become a part of your Target Market, i.e. they will have increased interest in your products & services.

A target market is anyone who might be interested in your products or services. Your target audience is the group of people—one of the groups described above, for example—to whom you direct a specific marketing asset or ad. - Crazy Egg

So your persuasion & lucrative offers should really draw them in.

You can define your target audience in the following way -

1. Use surveys to study your current customer base - Their main frustrations, objections, interests & preferences related to your niche. Keep the survey short & precise, and make it interactive.
2. Engage with your website audience through your content & blog posts - Discussions & comments on your Blog invites your audience to engage in healthy conversations. These discussions can also give you certain objections, criticisms & compliments, which gives your further information about your audience's wants, needs and pain-points.
3. Keep tabs on your competition - This helps you to refine your content and cater to your target audience with a much more personalised focus
4. Analyse how your audience navigates your website - There are a plenty of Dynamic Heatmaps, Visitor Recordings and A/B testing tools that you can use on your website.

Knowing your target audience is more than just segmenting the people who will buy your product or service. It is about identifying those potential customers who also have the means & the motivation to do so.

2. Effective copywriting in your Email Opt-in forms -

“Opt-in copy is not the place to be generic or vague.” - Neil Patel

Your copy should be able to paint a very clear picture of what your content, guides and services can do for your target audience. It won't work if you just state what your content is and what it contains. Learn to value your audience and their time.

Make your opt-in form short & easy for visitors to fill and sign-up. Using effective copywriting in your form helps a lot in capturing their attention and compelling them to click the CTA button.

Instead of a generic CTA like "Subscribe", use keywords & phrases that best define your niche and something that triggers your audience into readily signing up to your list.

3. Email Opt-in positioning and design -

78% of websites make it easy to sign-up & opt-in to their list, yet 22% really make it difficult for the visitor.

Easy to "opt-in" means -

• The form is clearly visible on your website, and it is not a vague/subtle link hidden on the page
• Clear instructions are given on how to complete the sign-up process

Difficult to "opt-in" means -

• The form is not clearly visible on the site, or you are just using the form on only a single page of your entire website
• Making the form a link that people need to click to arrive at a new page that has the form (Do not include additional steps, it creates friction & reduces the chances of visitors opting in!)

A pervious study found that adding more fields to an opt-in form suppresses opt-ins.

By asking for too much information, you'll scare of your prospects. So, learn to respect your audience's time, energy and privacy.

4. Building the relationship with subscribers on your Email List -

Now that you have setup your opt-in form on your website, and are starting to get traffic, you can't just sit back and relax. The people who subscribe to your list need to be engaged right from the onset. Remember -

First impressions are everything, especially when it comes to email marketing. In the online world, you don’t get to network face to face with a person, so it’s a lot harder to make a lasting impression.

There are a few ways to build this engagement & give sufficient value to your subscribers. This way eventually you can start selling your product or service via email.

• The Welcome Email - Customise your Welcome Email so that it conveys your brand, your message and what your subscribers can expect from your emails. Do not make it a generic confirmation email that people receive right after they sign-up to your list. It is important that you set their expectations with this email - What is the purpose of these emails? What will be the frequency? What benefits will they receive as a subscriber? And so on.
• MailChimp and OptinMonster are pretty powerful email tools that you can easily setup for your website, and build subscriber engagement progressively through campaigns, newsletters and other offers.
• Here are a few wonderful examples of Welcome Email Copywriting that you can use for your list - Engaging your Email Subscribers, OptinMonster
• Include a Call To Action in your Emails - It is the best way to guide your subscribers to take the next step in your sales process. You could direct them to your latest course or content. You could show them a guide to setting up their new account on your website. Or it could be just any other relevant link on your website that will build the necessary engagement.

Bonus: How to Re-engage with inactive/"dead" email subscribers -

• By asking your subscribers to update their information - “Simply asking customers to update their email information can have surprising engagement results. This tactic gives the customer an opportunity to enter a new email address if hers has changed, customize her email settings, and sign up for mobile or social media updates, if it turns out that’s how she prefers to engage.” - Neil Patel
• Share a survey or include a relevant CTA which will help you understand how many individuals are active on your list. This will allow you to trim out those who did not make the effort to respond. Now you can focus on the remaining individuals, knowing that they are worth your time & effort.

Just remember that it is always easier to re-engage with your inactive or "dead" subscribers than gaining new followers from scratch.

So, go ahead and give it a try. Value your client's time and give them personalised attention if they become a subscriber. Good luck and Good Coaching!