You Got the Email Address! Now What? How to Hook New Customers Right After the Opt-In

Growing an email list is one of the best ways to develop new customers and build a sustainable online business. According to one study, email marketing provides the highest ROI out of any channel, generating $38 in revenue for every dollar spent, and outperforms social media by 40x in effectiveness for gaining new customers.

But lead generation will do nothing for your bottom line if you don’t continue the conversation after the opt-in.

Opting in is just the first part of your lead’s journey of getting to know your brand. What you do with the lead after opt-in (or fail to do) will determine whether or not a person continues to build a relationship with your brand and ultimately buy from you.

Fortunately, there are some powerful things you can do—and automate—in the immediate aftermath of an email signup to start this relationship off right.

In this article, I’ll discuss how to optimize your opt-in confirmation pages and create an email follow up sequence that keeps your readers engaged, builds trust and ultimately increases conversion rates.

1. Creating a High-Converting Confirmation Page

So you’ve captured some email addresses. Now what?

One of the most frequently overlooked opportunities for boosting conversions is optimizing your opt-in confirmation or thank you page. Most confirmation pages simply thank the user for subscribing and end with a generic message to expect more content.

However, you can start engaging your new subscribers and possibly even generate a quick sale if you spend time creating a high-converting confirmation page. Below are some ideas on how to improve upon the typical thank you page.

Overdeliver by Adding Extra Bonuses

On my blog, I have multiple opt-in pages offering different PDF downloads. I include links to download all the opt-in bonuses on one thank you page.

New subscribers feel like they are getting extra value, because in addition to the freebie they wanted, they also get several other bonuses they weren’t expecting.

I’ve subscribed to and downloaded PDF bonuses from lots of blogs, and unfortunately, most of them aren’t very good. If you really want to get your subscribers excited about receiving more content, then you should make sure that your bonuses contain content that is useful, actionable, and interesting to your readers.

If you are struggling with ideas for opt-in bonuses, then consider creating a list of resources. Resource lists are one of the easiest download bonuses to create and according to an interview with Clay Collins from LeadPages, resource lists converted better than any other type of download that LeadPages tested on their own blog.

Here’s a screenshot of a thank you page from SiteTuners that includes additional resources for subscribers:

Although linking to blog articles can work well, I recommend including at least one PDF download. Downloads work really well because the user feels like they are getting access to exclusive members-only content.

Get More Traffic by Encouraging Social Sharing

Another thing you can do to improve your thank you page is to encourage people to share an article or your landing page on social media after they opt into your email list.

Jon Morrow uses this approach on Smart Blogger to capture leads for his seven-figure business. When I was reading this article on their blog, an interstitial appeared offering a PDF that contains 52 headline formulas for bloggers.

Once you opt in and confirm your email, you get an email that shares the link to the download page. Besides providing clear instructions on how to download it, Jon also asks people to share the resource on Twitter with an easy one-click link.

You can also ask users to follow you on your social media channels, which can increase the likelihood that they’ll see your content.

Use Share-Gated Content

Want to increase the odds that your new subscribers will share your landing page? Incentivize users to refer their friends or share by using share-gated content. WordPress plugins like Social Locker by OnePress allow you to easily set up buttons that unlock exclusive content when visitors share your landing page on social media:

Ramit Sethi uses this tactic on I Will Teach You To Be Rich, offering a free personal finance guide for joining his email list. After opting in, a popup window offers an additional bonus if you share the landing page for his guide:

If you choose to share it, a button displays that you can click to go to a VIP download page where you can get your free bonuses:

Link to Blog Articles

Another easy thing you can do to engage your readers is to link to your best blog articles from your opt-in thank you page. Link to articles that received lots of positive comments and provide unique insights that you won’t find on other blogs so that your new subscriber will get excited and look forward to your future content.

Here’s an example from my own blog. I placed links to article that I thought other people might be interested in right under the downloads section in case anyone wanted to read more.

Use Video

Consider also adding a video to your thank you page, because video can be a great way to create a more personal connection with your readers. New subscribers are also more likely to be engaged and watch a video when they first subscribe to your blog, so embedding a YouTube video can be a good way to drive up views, which can result in targeted traffic directly from YouTube.

You don’t have to say “thank you for subscribing” in your video (you can just thank them using text above the video). Instead, create a video that dives straight into content that can also serve as a standalone video on YouTube.

Your video content can address a popular struggle that your audience is facing or any topic that your audience can get a lot of value from.

For example, Ramit Sethi uses video on one of his thank you pages, targeting people who are interested in personal finance. In the video, he discusses how to reduce personal debt:

This particular video is unlisted on YouTube and is for subscribers only, but it has accumulated over 17,000 views. If the video were public, the views and positive engagement would result in even more traffic from YouTube, which tend to promote videos that have high engagement.

Provide a Low-Ticket Offer

People rarely sell from their email confirmation page, but if you have a low-price introductory product, you might want to consider offering it right away. If your product addresses your reader’s needs and you can immediately convey the value in it, then you may be able to generate sales when your new subscribers are most engaged with you.

To increase the likelihood of purchase, you can offer new subscribers a discount or other bonuses for a limited time.

Spanish Pod 101 offers Spanish language lessons on a sales page right after the opt in. People who sign up for the site clearly already have an interest in learning Spanish, and some of them might be willing to purchase right away.

If your product has a longer sales cycle, like a monthly recurring subscription or a high-priced product or service, you can include a call to action for the user to sign up for a free trial, schedule a phone consultation, or join an upcoming webinar.

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The most important takeaway from this section is to make sure that your subscribers are getting a ton of value from the content on your confirmation page.

Don’t create low-quality downloads just to have an opt-in bonus available. Put some time and effort into creating something that your readers will get excited about. Your opt-in content is the first impression that your readers will have of you and the value you can deliver.

And check out these thank you page examples for more ideas and inspiration.

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2. Optimizing Your Email Launch Sequence

If you’ve already been doing some email marketing, then you probably already have an email autoresponder sequence in place. It takes an estimated seven exposures to your brand before the average customer will buy something from your business, so sending your prospects multiple emails is an important way to create brand familiarity and build trust and authority in a short amount of time.

But if your email sequence doesn’t engage your readers, you could be losing engagement and even sales.

So how can you take your email sequence and make it even better? Here are a few tactics to try out.

Add Emotional Triggers to Your Content

In an article on Inc., sales expert Geoffrey James says that buying decisions are based on six emotions: greed, fear, altruism, envy, pride and shame. Purchase decisions are often influenced by emotion, so including emotional triggers can not only improve engagement, but also lead to higher conversions. Think carefully about what ideas or information will get your followers excited and share it with them.

Case studies and stories are great ways to connect with your readers and improve engagement. Alex Turnbull ran a test and found that adding a story to a blog post increased the number of people who read it by 300%. Adding stories increases email open and read rates. According to the Brand Storytelling Report by Headstream, around 80% of consumers want brands to tell stories in their marketing.

Is your content getting your readers excited? If not, think about how you can add stories or emotional triggers into your email content to engage your readers. Here’s a great resource on storytelling for businesses.

Prime Readers to Take Action

The first email you should send to your new subscribers is a high-converting confirmation email that encourages customers to take some type of action. Getting subscribers to read more content, email you back with questions, or buy an introductory product are good ways to get subscribers engaged with your business. But basically, you just want to get them to do something in response to this email.

Here’s an example of a thank you email from Danny Iny from Mirasee. He engages readers with a quick story and then invites them to interact with him directly by asking them to email him back with any questions they have.

So does encouraging interaction really help your business?

In this article in 2014, Neil Patel mentions that he gets over 50,000 comments on his blog monthly which requires over 26 hours each month for him to reply to. But he invested the time to reply to them because commenting increased both traffic and sales.

Interaction allows you to build a more personal connection with your readers and although it takes time, it shows readers that you care and can also increase engagement and sales.

Try an Email Course Format

As product launches have become popular in recent years, some readers have become resistant to them, as the format is easily recognizable. If you feel like your niche is saturated with product launches, then you may want to consider using an email course format instead.

Email courses involve sending a series of emails filled with content to educate your readers. Joshua Earl has used email courses to successfully sell computer programming and marketing ebooks.

One big advantage to using an email course as an opt-in bonus, rather than a PDF download, is that it sets the expectation for the reader that you will deliver multiple valuable emails to them, which can increase the likelihood that people will subscribe with their main email account, and check their email regularly for your free content.

Here’s an example of an opt-in page from Joshua Earl’s site, where he offers a nine-day email course:

In your email course, be sure to deliver value to your readers and get them excited about reading more of your content. In Josh’s course, he simply adds links at the end of his emails so that interested readers can buy his products.

Use Segmentation and Personalization to Improve Results

You can also segment users based on their interests, using email marketing platforms like Convert Kit and Active Campaign to track what links they click or what items they purchase. Email segmentation is the practice of segmenting your email list so that you can deliver content that is more personalized towards your readers’ interests.

According to a study by Econsultancy, 74% of marketers reported that using personalization increases engagement from customers. Segmentation will allow you to create emails that are more targeted and customized towards what your readers are interested in learning about and purchasing.

Derek Halpern uses segmentation on his blog Social Triggers. After you confirm your email, his thank you page presents the promised opt-in bonus and also offers three more buttons you can click on to get more content.

Clicking one of the buttons will lead you to another opt-in page where you can opt-in to get more content. Here’s where the magic happens. Depending on which button you click, Derek will know which topic you are interested in (growing blog traffic, selling courses or creating sales page). He is segmenting his list by interest and now will be able to send you content and sell products targeted towards your interests.

When I click on the button to build my audience, I get redirected to this page which offers a free video that explains how Derek got 200,000 subscribers. Clicking on the button displays a pop-up window that allows the visitor to opt in to another email list to get access to the free video.

Here are some more examples of how other businesses have used segmentation to improve their results by sending more targeted content to the right people.

3. Continuously Improve Your Product and Sequence

If you’ve taken all of the above steps to create a sales funnel that works, then congratulations!

But don’t stop just because you have a working sales funnel. Work on creating a strong post-conversion strategy to keep updating your product and your marketing sequence to improve your results even further.

Pay attention to your analytics to see what you can change for the better.

Monitor Analytics and Make Adjustments

Which links are people clicking from your opt-in confirmation page? Consider removing links and downloads that aren’t popular and possibly replacing them with other content. Or if you feel like the content is truly valuable, test out other headlines to see if you can increase click-through rates.

Are people watching your videos?

Video hosting sites like YouTube and Vimeo provide analytics to let you know how long people are watching your videos and where people are dropping off. Use this information to improve your videos by cutting out sections that people aren’t interested in, or creating transitions to keep users engaged.

YouTube analytics offers this information for your videos.

YouTube also provides a free video course explaining how to use their analytics to see how your videos are doing and how to improve them.

For your email marketing sequence, pay attention to which emails are getting opened and if people are clicking the links within the email. You can test out different headlines to improve click rates for emails that aren’t popular as well as rewrite the content in those emails.

Here’s an example of a headline split test that I ran using one of my MailChimp accounts. The top headline outperformed the bottom one in both open and click rates.

Most email list programs should have analytics that you can use to test different headlines and copy. Be sure to use those features and continuously test new ideas to improve your results over time.

Get Customer Feedback

Your customers are a great source of information. Get feedback from buyers on why they purchased, what they liked and didn’t like and what they thought about the launch sequence. Sending an email with a link to a survey can be a great way to get feedback if you have a lot of customers and sending personalized emails can improve response rates if you have just a few customers. Surveys are easy to send with tools such as SurveyMonkey.

Providing live coaching sessions for your customers can be another good way to get feedback, as well as increase the value of your product or service. Pay attention to the questions people ask and consider getting on one-on-one calls with people who have interesting comments or ideas during your group coaching sessions.

Monitor Competitor Campaigns

Another thing you should do is keep an eye on competitors, including their launch sequences and products. Sign up for the emails and see what type of content they are using for their launches, what they are offering for sale and how they are pricing their products.

Are you providing more or less value than your competitors? Use this information to price your product accordingly or adjust your marketing sequence so that your marketing and offer are competitive.

Getting the sale is a great goal to achieve, but post-conversion engagement is also important. Creating a great customer experience will reduce refund requests as well as encourage satisfied customers to refer others and leave positive reviews.

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A Good First Impression Goes a Long Way

Being able to capture email addresses and grow your email list is just the first step in an effective email marketing campaign. Be sure to put time into creating a high-converting confirmation page and also creating an email launch sequence that provides value for your readers.

Continuously monitor and improve your entire launch sequence to keep your business growing while creating an amazing experience for your readers and customers.

What challenges have you run into while creating an opt-in thank you page and follow up email sequence? Let me know in the comments below for advice!