Women in Ecommerce™ Tuesday Tutorial: How to Create a Lead Capture Page Using Open Source Software
Today during the weekly Level Up Networking event one of the business issues discussed was creating an opt-in page for your website. It came up because we were talking about the effectiveness of using email to market to a list. And of course the keyword here is LIST. Without a list, email is inneffective. It does not necessarily have to be a massive list (although in most cases the larger the list, the better your chances of response that is, if the offer is really good).
Most marketers give something away for free in exchange for their visitors email address. While it is not mandatory to offer a give-away, it has been proven that give-aways definitely increase conversion rates or number of people who will leave their email address in exchange for something they consider of value. The key here is value. You can give away an e-book, series of articles, audio, a tutorial, ecourse or something that has a perceived value in the marketplace. If you are a brick and mortar business, giving away coupons exchange for the e-mail addresses works.
(SEE the program: Cashing in on INFO Products for some great examples).
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While researching opt-in pages, I found the above video tutorial on YouTube that goes into the mechanics of creating an opt-in page using free software from NVU Web Authoring Software. It is 100% free (open source) software you download and can add opt-in boxes to your website. As you can see from the NVU website they are giving this away because they are promoting Intuit’s turnkey web authoring system an excellent example of giving something away in exchange for contact information. Once you know what people want and you give them a taste of what you offer, it is much easier to build a relationship with them. People who buy your products and services are much more likely to buy from you again. So why not give them a sample of what you can do then create ways to give them more of the same by creating marketing messages that will close the deal. As someone once said it is much better to go out and create the market than it is to find the market and then try to sell to them.
How one company used Opt-in:
“PDF (Portable Document Format) was introduced in 1990 as a way to reliably view, print, and share information with other people. Regardless of the computer’s operating system, PDF was reliable and consistent, displaying and printing the same every time…” “Invented by ADOBE Systems and refined for over 15 years, individuals, businesses, and government agencies across the globe have grown to trust and rely on PDF to communicate information and ideas.” They promoted the technology by giving away the Adobe PDF Reader. When other companies started creating PDF software ABOBE realized they had an opportunity to keep market share by giving away their PDF READER . This software has been downloaded more than half a billion times. Which in turn created a larger market for their products. Now people can download the software without even giving their name or email beforehand.
The key is to know your audience, understand their “pain” and offer the prescription for that pain. When you do that successfully you fill your funnel with qualified people who WANT to do business with you. You build your “list.”
This video tutorial shows you HOW TO Design a lead capture page using NVU. It is ideal for anyone who is not techie, is new in business, needs to build a list and wants to create a new lead-generating list in which to market their wares online.
For more tutorials visit: the Free Online Tutorials in the Business Resource Center . For more information about how Women in Ecommerce can help you do more business on the web Check out our WHY JOIN FAQ. Check out our upcoming events at the Women’s Online Calendar.
