You Want Your Prospect’s Email Address? Here’s How To Get It

What is email capture and why is it important? When visitors come to your site, they’re generally not ready to throw down their credit card. If someone comes to your site who is not ready to make a purchase at that moment, you must have email capture in place to ensure you don’t lose them forever.

Email capture just means a way for your website to “capture” a visitor’s email address, instead of letting them leave your site without providing any information that would allow you to contact them in the future.

So, how do you get people to give up their email address?

Tell your visitors exactly what they’re going to get in exchange. Discounts? Information on new products? Tips and tricks? Insider information?

Just remember that this content needs to be targeted for your audience. Too many entrepreneurs make the mistake of emailing content about their own industry. You need to make sure you’re not giving industry updates that your colleagues would be interested in, but updates that your prospective buyers are interested in.

Another option to sending regular updates is to provide an initial bribe. A bribe is when you ask people to give up their e-mail address in exchange for downloadable content. It could be a checklist, a worksheet, an audio or video interview. It can also be a coupon or a freebie or a discount.

Whatever content you choose, remember to keep it simple! People want something that’s easy, short, and actionable. Don’t provide general information; translate it into a how to.

To squeeze or not to squeeze?

There may be a time where you’re marketing a specific product and you use a squeeze page as the product’s homepage. However, I would strongly recommend that you do not use a squeeze page as the homepage for your main website.

The reason it’s called a squeeze page is because it squeezes out your prospect’s information. There’s nothing else to do on the page: no navigation, nowhere to click. Your website visitor is forced to input their information before they can learn more about your business.

Particularly when you are aiming for magazine and television press, producers are not going to waste their time submitting their information just to learn more about you. So stay away from squeeze pages as a way to build your email list on the homepage of your site.

TIP: Wondering what provider to use for your e-mail list? I recommend AWeber. AWeber is affordable and has advanced functionality such as split testing, list segmentation, and fine-tuned day and time delivery settings. Even if you think you don’t need advanced email marketing capabilities now, you’ll want to have them ready to go when your list grows.

– Laura