This is nothing new… you’ve heard it said a billion times… “the money is in the list“.

I can say that you can make a good bit of money without a list (a site of mine makes almost $2k a month with a list of just over 100 subscribers)… but an email list (or mailing list also!) is another asset that you can leverage big time to create more revenues and repeat customers/visitors to your site.

Like I mentioned, you don’t NEED a list to be successful… but a list makes it a whole lot easier to be successful and keep your readers and customers coming back time and time again.

Before you go out and throw up your Aweber or Getresponse (or whoever else) autoresponder code… read this article to get a few pointers on how to increase opt ins just a bit. FYI… I have both Aweber and Getresponse accounts and like them both… really Aweber is probably the one I’d tell people to use… but Getresponse does the job too.

Throwing Up An Opt In Box On Your Site

First of all, if you aren’t collecting email subscribers to a newsletter on your site (no matter what kind of site you have), you should start doing it today.  Even if you throw up a crappy opt in box and get 1 subscriber a week (as I did when I first got started)… that’s better than nothing!

Here’s what you need to do:

1. Head over to Aweber or Getresponse (they are the most widely used by Internet Marketers) and sign up for an account.  Once you’re in there, follow their directions to create an opt in box that captures just the Firstname and Email address (or just email… I’ll discuss later).
2. Take the code that they give you and, if you’re using Wordpress, go to the “Design” tab, then click “widgets”, and insert a “text box” in the right sidebar.  Paste your code into there and save it.

That’s the easiest and quickest way to get an opt in box up and running.  It might not be the prettiest… but it’s done and you are now at least ready to start collecting opt in subscribers.

I’m not going to go too much more into any technical details of how to do it… I’m going to cover other things based on a quick change that I made to one of my websites.

Making Your Opt In Box Appealing… and Boosting Conversions

As you might know, I finally got done launching the new design for a real estate investing website that I run (I am a real estate investor also… this site is actually what got me started in internet marketing).  I like Wordpress so that’s what the entire site is built from.

Anyhow, in the previous version I had an opt in box that looked like this:

This isn’t a bad form… but it didn’t produce a very good opt in rate.  You’ll notice that I give many benefits of what people will get by opting into my newsletter… had that “nice” red arrow drawing the eye over to the form… but it just didn’t produce the results I was wanting.

I’d love to tell you the conversion rate on this form, but I really have no clue (I know, a cardinal sin in internet marketing).

Then, we relaunched the new site design and updated the opt in box with a few elements that have shown a huge increase in opt ins (like… more than 500%!!).

The New Opt In Box – And Results

Instead of the same tired looking opt in box on every page of our site, I decided to mix it up a bit and vary the placement/look of the opt in box in different places in the site.

Here’s the new opt in box on our home page:

The home page opt in box is placed in the middle of the home page right at the bottom of the fold (I wanted it above the fold but it just didn’t work out that way… I’ll have to do some tweaking to the set up of the page.

Here’s the new opt in box on our article pages:

This opt in box is placed in the TOP of the right sidebar of all of our article pages.  It is of course ABOVE THE FOLD and really stands out to the eye.

Here’s the new opt in box on our blog home page:

Okay, for the blog I wanted the opt in box to be ABOVE THE FOLD also and be right in the middle of the page so people had to look right over it to see the articles below.  It’s right next to the “popular articles” section and is very prominently placed in the structured of the blog.

The Elements Of An Effective News Letter Opt In Box To Increase Conversions

There are a ton of elements that go into an opt in box that can make it convert more effectively.  I’m not a guru in opt in box creation (I actually made these ones myself… I’m not the greatest graphic or coding guy at all).

Here are a few elements I integrated that I think are leading to the 500% increase in opt in rate almost overnight.

• It grabs the eye much better - This opt in box has the nice medium thickness RED BORDER, the big red arrow, and the nice “eye candy” to draw the eye over.  If you don’t draw the eye over to the box the chances people will voluntarily navigate over there go down.  Think about those annoying inflatable things they have on car lots or in front of cell phone stores that move and draw your attention.  Same thing… first you need to get the attention… then give them something they want.
• Eye candy - Eye candy is the stuff that makes the opt in box look cool and professional.  I used the image of the software box and free report (to show that the things they are getting are real… and of higher value) as well as the big red arrows to jazz up the box and make the offer present as a higher value to the prospect.
• Give Them Something Specific – In the past I’ve tried to just get people to opt into my newsletters by telling them benefits they’ll get and things they’ll learn.  For me, that just didn’t work all that well.  What works well is by giving people something specific (the software and ebook downloads free) in exchange for their email address.  Imagine going into a restaurant and reading a menu that said “you’ll be satisfied, it’ll taste good, our price is good, and you’ll walk out happy”… but didn’t give you specifics on the food that you’ll actually get?  That would be weird huh?  How likely would you be to actually make an order?  Probably not too likely.  People like specifics, and like to know what they’re getting (exactly) before they make a move.

  So, give people a free report, an audio download, a piece of software, etc. that is of REAL VALUE and that could be sold on it’s own if you weren’t giving it away.

• Use Our Preprogrammed Colors – I’m not all that sold on my choice for the use of the red submit button.  But, with this button… I have it programmed to turn green when someone hovers over the top of the button (head over to the site to check it out in action).  With our society the color green means go… and people are more apt to gravitate toward taking a specific action when they are given “permission” to go with the green color.

  I’m going to test out using a different color as the default color (other than red) to see if it makes a difference… but I’ve seen in other tests that the color red w/ a green color change upon hover works well.  We’ll see after I get done testing.

• Make It As Easy As Possible For Them – It’s been a debate recently among internet marketers whether or not it is better to collect firstname and email… or just email.  Technically, all we really need is their email address to send to them; however, the firstname helps us to personalize the message to them… which is pretty darn effective as well.   But, I put in just the email so it would be as easy as possible for people to submit.  They only have to enter one thing and click submit… and don’t need to fret over giving their real name… or making up some fake name (like a lot of people do).

  Some people argue that the firstname is necessary… I disagree.  While the firstname is good to have, you can write very personal emails to people that give your personality that don’t include their name.  Think about it… when you’re writing to your close friends, do you start the email with their name?  I don’t.  Also, having their firstname can backfire sometimes… like when people put in a fake name… their last name… their firstname in all capitols, etc.

  What’s worse, writing an email full of your personality and not including their name?  Or writing an email that starts with, “Hey VERIONICA,” or “Hey asdfatl,”?  I’d venture to say that I’d rather put no name at all than blow my cover and SHOW THEM that this message isn’t personal at all.

Revamp Your Opt In Box Today

Okay, that kind of gives you a good idea of what you can implement in your own opt in boxes today to squeeze some more subscribers into your list.  Sometimes the smallest changes can be huge (like my 500% increase in opt ins)… sometimes it may be small.  But, changes might only take an hour to do and will feed extra customers into your funnel every day of the week forever.

If you need any help getting your opt in box up to snuff… let me know and I’d be glad to give you a few pointers.  I’m not accepting any new clients until the end of August because of my workload on my own projects and the clients I already have… but if you have a project you want me to look at quickly let me know.

Chat soon!

Recently Mark Joyner shot all of his affiliates (which I’m one) an email that he’s launching a thing similar to simpleology … but to teach integration marketing to help people grow their businesses.  If you used Simpleology… you know that Mark provides huge value (especially since most of Simpleology and this new Integration Marketing thing are free!). 

Anyhow, I was watching Mark’s videos for the Integration Marketing re-realized just how important it is to use integration marketing in today’s business (both online and offline)… but too many people still don’t do it!

If you have an online (or offline for that matter) business… and are looking for the quickest way to instantly add new revenues to your business in less time than it takes to make a PB & J sandwich (maybe a bit longer than this… but not much)… you need to learn about “integration marketing”. 

I’ve heard the term integration marketing a few times but really didn’t understand it fully until I met Mike Filsaime and heard him speak in Orlando at Rich Schefren’s event this past February.  When you hear about integration marketing you’ll be wondering why you hadn’t been doing it already… and be counting up the bucks you could have earned if you had implemented it just even a bit.

What Is Integration Marketing?

In simple terms, integration marketing is simply where you take your current business and integrate other products/services/offers, etc. (yours or someone elses) into your current sales and marketing funnels. 

Here’s an example:

Let’s say that you own an online dog toy store and your current sales process looks like this.

1. Person lands on website and browses through products
2. Person finds a product they like, add it to their cart, and click “check out” to purchase
3. Person fills out the purchase form, clicks submit, and are taken to a nice thank you page where you say how much you appreciate their business and hope to see them again

That’s a pretty standard online sales process for most businesses… don’t you think?  Let’s say your average sale in this process is $25. 

Now, how about a little bit of integration marketing infused in the process:

You have the same dog toy store. Here’s the new and improved sales process.

1. Person lands on your website and you offer a newsletter to get discounts, free products, and an informational package on “how to train your dog to be smarter than Lassie”. 
2. Person opts into the newsletter and gets a thank you page that says something like, “Thank you for subscribing!  To show our appreciation, we’d like to give you a one-time coupon for $10 off of a purchase of $40 or more… but this coupon expires in 24 hours.”  Then give them a link to browse the popular products.
3. Person browses the products (w/ this coupon in hand) and finds the products they want… but it only adds up to $25.  So, naturally… they realize that for only $5 more they can get $40 worth of stuff.  No brainer.
4. Person goes to check out with their $40 in products (of course they have the $10 off coupon), enters their coupon code, and completes the purchase.
5. Person is taken to a one time offer page (thank you + another offer) for an in-depth ebook and 60 minute DVD that normally sells for $37… but is on sale “this one time only” for $19… on “How To Train Your Dog To Do Tricks In 3 Days Or Less” (not your product… it’s someone elses!)
6. Person sees how great of a deal it is… and with one click… they upgrade their order to include the training product.
7. Persons order is now complete and they are taken to a thank you page with a message that says, “Thank you for your order!  It will be in your hands in no time flat.  Since you love dogs, we thought you’d also like these websites and products.  Check them out!”.

Okay, that was actually a pretty simple integration marketing strategy.  Did you see what happened?

Here it is…

Right off the bat the prospect was funneled to your newsletter (so you can keep in touch with them more easily) and given an incentive to order today… and to increase the overall order over your average order.

Then, the prospect did end up increasing their order a bit because “it’s a no brainer”… which gives them more value and gives you a higher average sale.

Then, the customer isn’t just taken to a plain ol’ thank you page… but instead to a “one time offer” that let’s them grab a highly related product (not your product… it’s an affiliate product) for a big discount. 

Last, they are taken to a thank you page that nicely shows them more resources that they would probably be interested in anyway… and of course… you have found a way to monetize these resources by joining the affiliate programs for each company in case your customer goes through to purchase a product from their site.

The Integration Marketing Results…

In this case… of course this is an example… but you added several new revenue streams to your sales process… without hardly any extra effort or cost.

1. You made an extra $5 (of course you have product costs involved) on the initial purchase and gained goodwill
2. You made a 50% commission on the ebook and DVD sale, so that’s another $9.95.
3. Then, let’s say 1 out of every 25 customers clicks through the thank you page and buys something generating an average revenue for you of $5.

Following this example, you would have increased your average revenue per order from just $25 to between $35 and $45.  That’s an increase of about 40% to 75% in revenues with no extra costs involved other than the cost to pay someone to add in that extra page or two (which shouldn’t be more than $100 in total). 

Can You Use An Increase Of Revenues Of Mid To High Double Digits??

That’s kind of a stupid question isn’t it? 

Well… it really is a no brainer… and the process of integration marketing is pretty simple.

1. Instead of having a plain ol’ thank you page for your purchases and email list opt ins… make the thank you page a “one time offer” or something that provides something to your customer that is very high value for the price… and that they can only get that ONE TIME (there has to be scarcity involved or it won’t work very well).
2. Look for products and services that are complimentary to yours.  Talk to the product/service owners and strike up a deal with them where you show their product on your thank you pages… and you split the revenues.  Who would say no to that?
3. Always give your customer/prospect a chance to “upgrade” to something a bit better... for small price difference.  If you offer a service that costs $500 a month… create an extra bonus or two (30 minutes of time w/ you, etc.) and create a platinum version of the service for just $699… then give them the option of upgrading for that small price difference. 

Really, it doesn’t matter how you choose to integrate your other products… or products from other people… into your sales process.  But, the important thing is that you DO IT. 

Here’s Your Action Plan

1. Look at your current sales process and find out where you can offer people something complimentary (or an upgrade).
2. Find products that people would be likely to use before or after purchasing your product… and see if you can strike a deal with them where you show their product on your thank you page (preferably for a small discount or w/ an extra bonus involved)… and have them show your product on their thank you page (or offline equivalent such as an insert into the shipping package, etc.).
3. Rinse and repeat

Enjoy!

I’ll go over some more specific examples of how integration marketing is used on some real world websites here in the next few weeks. 

——————-

One quick note… Mark Joyner (one of the top online and offline entrepreneurs I know) just put out a great free “Integration Marketing” tutorial and business package for you to use in your business.  I’ve signed up for a free account and love the info in there including the free Integration Marketing ebook he has in the free members portal.

Check it out… it’s well worth it!

Okay, as you can see… I’ve been away from my personal blog for quite a while now (wayyyyy tooooo loooonnnggg).

Really, there’s no good excuse.  But, let me fill you in to what the heck I’ve been up to that has pulled me away from my personal blog.

Just a quick note:

I’ve said it time and time again that your own personal brand is possibly even more important than the brand of your company (not in all cases).  If you are a consultant, marketer, employee, etc… your personal brand is huge and should be constantly built over time.  As you see… I’ve neglected my personal brand in exchange for building the brand of another company of mine… and to tell you the truth… it feels terrible!

Okay, What The Heck Trevor Mauch Has Been Up To…

Don’t pay attention to my "3rd person" title.  Every now and then the 3rd person just seems to fit right.

Anyhow, over the past month or so I’ve been crazy busy.

1. Relaunch Of The REI Brain, my real estate investing website – I started The REI Brain (The Real Estate Investors Brain) back in 2006 as a little hobby.  First it was a crappy little website that I designed myself and threw up there with information that I’d learned in my own real estate investing endeavor.   Actually, Alexa still shows the old crappy design as the image for my site (how long does it take for the image to be updated… anyone know?).

   Anyhow, for the past several months I’ve been working on launching a new redesign of the site to bring it up to date now that there’s a good bit of traffic to the site now (over 70k pageviews a month).  Well… we just launched the new design (with the help of two awesome wordpress designers)… and right now I’m just working out the kinks and selling ad space like crazy.

   Check out the site << … and let me know what you think!

2. Finalizing Projects With Consulting Clients –

   Technically, right now most of my income comes from my consulting projects.  Small to medium sized companies who already have websites… but are struggling to make them drive the new clients in the door like they want, hire me to dissect their overall web presence, develop a plan to effectively market their website online (using a lot of "Web 2.0" stuff), and execute that plan.

   Anyhow, so I can focus more on my own projects I’ve decided to cut back a bit on my consulting so only about 25% of my income is consulting… and the rest is from my own internet ventures.  I’ve heard it said a few times before… the best SEO’s don’t consult… they can make more money optimizing their own websites than they can getting paid to optimize other people’s websites.  This is sooooo true.

   To me, for an internet marketing and SEO consultant… I make way more money when I apply what I know to benefit my own online businesses.  The economic model just isn’t working for me as well as a consultant unless I were to hire a staff to run the consulting company… so I could spend more time on my own projects.  I’m not sure I’m ready for that.

3. Golfing Waaayyy Too Much –

   Well… I guess I shouldn’t say way too much.  You can never get too much golf… can you?  I’ve been volunteering at a local municipal golf course here in Lake Oswego (Oregon) in exchange for free golf.  I work only 3 hours a week… but get free golf the whole summer.  Pretty good trade off for me… and I get to meet a ton of new and interesting people.

   The other day I recorded a bunch of video with my Flipcam while I was at the driving range to see what I could correct in my swing… man… after watching that video I found a couple things that will instantly change my game… I’ll keep you posted.

4. Family Stuff –

   If you don’t know me… I’m married (2 years this year) and don’t have any kids yet.  My wife is graduating from graduate schoole next month so I’m helping her wrap up some things with her school and helping to plan a little lunch get together for family after graduation.  That doesn’t take all that much time… but it’s definitely high on the priority list.

   Also, I just got back from camping in the high lakes of Oregon with cousins… and am heading to the Oregon Jamboree next week… heading down Bend and Roseburg, Oregon to go on job interviews with my wife (she’s graduating as a Physician’s Assistant) in two weeks… heading back down to Southern Oregon to camp at Emigrant Lake with family again… then after that it should be quite for a bit (I hope).

   This is what entrepreneurship is all about… doing what you want… when you want.  I wouldn’t ask for anything else.

Other than that… I’ve just been doing some "behind closed doors" projects that we’ll release later in the year in the real estate investing world.  I’m really excited about that… I’ll let you know when it’s time.

Whew!

Okay… to tell you the truth.  I really don’t expect you to care about why the heck I’ve been a slacker on this blog.  Bottom line is that I’ve been slacking big time and there’s no excuse for it.

I think a big reason for the "slackage" (I’ve trademarked that word… don’t use it is that I haven’t focuses the topic of this blog down enough. It makes it way harder to write great content when I really don’t have a specific aim behind the blog other than to promote my own brand.

The Future

The future of this blog will be two fold:

1. To further build up my own personal brand
2. To chronicle my entrepreneurial ventures, ramblings, and "life wisdom" that I pick up as I go

In the past I think I tried a bit too hard to be everything to everyone as far as marketing and the internet goes.

Guess what!  I’m not all that great at a ton of things!

So I’m going to stop writing about things that don’t put that fire in the pit of my stomache… those things that other people are way better at and that I’m just mediocre at (like web design, offline marketing, etc.).

From now on, I’m ONLY going to write about things that really inspire me and get me out of bed in the morning.

Things like:

• Entrepreneurship and helping others break the entrepreneurial hamsterwheel
• Internet marketing for honest, ethical, and cool people
• A bit of search engine optimization advice (since I’ve had a pretty damn good track record of cracking competitive search terms effectively)
• Life success ramblings as I learn the "game of life".  People can always learn from the mistakes and successes of others… so I want to share mine with the world to see if I can help to make a difference (no matter how small) in someone’s life

That’s it.

Be on the lookout… over and out!