Hello again! Good to have you back. Hope you have a wonderful day today.

You have decided to offer a reward or an ethical bribe to your visitor when he subscribes or signs up but what should you choose?  The one-off short report or e-book, or the series of e-letters?  Remember that the purpose of building up your list is to create a relationship and you should think carefully about how you want to maintain your relationship once it starts.

Each method has its advantages and disadvantages.

The one-off report or ebook gives instant gratification which may be more attractive to your visitor but she  might read it and then forget about your site.  When she receives a promotional email from you later on she may not remember who you are and so not bother to open your email.

To counteract this your report or ebook will need to have impact.   Although you do not want to give away your most valuable knowledge and techniques, you can afford to give away a secret or two to tease the visitor into wanting to continue her relationship with your site to find out more.

The email or e-letter series has the advantage of keeping your site in your visitor’s ken over a longer period without any direct input from you once you have scheduled them on your autoresponder.  The challenge here is to make the emails interesting enough to make your visitor bother to click on them and open them once he is up to number five or six.

To recap, offering an ethical bribe is a good tactic to use to convert a visitor into a prospect but be aware that the different methods available nurture the relationship in different ways.   And don’t forget to make sure that you deliver on the  promise made in your offer so that you maintain your credibility and can eventually convert the prospect into a buyer.

There is so much free stuff out there these days:  free ebooks, reports, videos and/or email series, that it has become the accepted norm to offer one or more of these as a sweetner to encourage your visitor to sign up to your opt-in list. This is sometimes known as the ethical bribe.

You set up your please subscribe or opt-in form with a message along the lines of:

• If you would like a free copy of xxxxxx (or free series of 10 eletters on xxxx), please subscribe now
• Subscribe now and receive your free copy of xxxx (or free series of 10 eletters on xxxx)
• We value your subscription and will send you a free copy of xxxx (or free series of 10 eletters on xxxx)

As a relative newbie I always look to see what bonus or freebie is available when I land on a site.  Such goodies are valuable to me as a way of building up my knowledge for free and many of your visitors will see the same advantage.

Apart from being almost a business necessity now to use these bribes because there is so much competition on the internet, it’s good psychology. First of all you are pushing the greed button because everyone likes to get something for free and, secondly, you are pushing the curiosity button because the free gift is hidden at this stage and your visitor is intrigued and wants to know what it actually says.   The “What’s in the Box?” Effect.

As to the gift itself, it does not need to be anything outstandingly new or original but it must offer perceived value to the visitor.   You can offer a short report of from three to five pages or a longer ebook of about twenty pages. Then there is the option of a series of from seven to ten emails or newsletters. You can build up this material from articles you have already written and published.

Whichever route you choose, make sure you keep things interesting and informative.  You need to be useful to your reader while keeping him or her intrigued enough to check out your next communication.

You’ve got your visitor to stay awhile.   Now you have to hold his interest and convert the visit into a sign up to your email list or your RSS feed.   Whether your visitor signs up or not depends upon the quality of your content, not only what you have to say but how you say it and how you display it.

Taking the display first;  make sure you leave lots of white space around your posts and  other text so that your message stands out.  Keep your paragraphs short and use a double break between them.  For your font, don’t pick some quirky font which is difficult to read and do use at least 12 point or even 14 point.  Bolding and italics help to make your points stand out.  Most people will want to spend less than 10 minutes on your site for a casual visit and a simple layout helps them skim your post for the gist and still have time left to look at product reviews or your other monetising content which is what you want them to do.

As to how you write your content, try and keep it conversational in tone – you don’t want to preach or talk down to your reader.   An informal approach with the use of the pronoun you increases the feeling of  a relationship between you and the reader.  You will find that it helps you if you build up a picture of your visitor and imagine yourself talking to him or her.  You can tailor the register of your language to your visitor.  You wouldn’t want to use long stuffy words when talking to the average fourteen year old with an acne problem nor would you want to use street slang when talking to a grandmother who wants a solution for her hearing problem.

Finally, the quality of your content itself:  is your content worth her attention?   Is it informative and relevant and, therefore, useful?  Does it deliver on what was promised when you first attracted her to your site?  If it does, good!   But have you leavened the heavy facts with some humour?   Is your writing entertaining and interesting?   Does it pique your visitor’s curiosity and make her want to find out more?   Most importantly of all, does it make her want to start a relationship with you?  If so, you’re on to a winner and she will take up your invitation to subscribe to your emails or your RSS feed.

Well done, your list building is going great – you’ve just added another name!

You’ve done everything right.  Your visitor is now taking your site for a test drive.  From now on it’s up to you to foster this new relationship, build up her trust with good content that’s entertaining and useful.  If you do all this, your new colleague will not only buy one of your used cars but may eventually upgrade to the season’s latest model.  When it comes down to it, it’s all about establishing that first trust and then capitalising on it by giving good value in return for your visitor’s interest.

As  an internet marketer one of your most important tasks is list building.  Your aim is to get every visitor who lands on your site to opt in or sign up for your emails or RSS feed.  So, let’s back up a bit.

Let’s suppose your visitor is  looking for a used car and your site is a car showroom.  So far you’ve managed to get him to stop his car at your site.  But does he  even get out of his car and walk onto your forecourt to have a look?

Does your visitor  take one look and think “dull” or “scruffy“.  “Ugh! This is not for me. I’ve definitely made a mistake in coming to this place?”   I hope not because she will reverse out  of there faster than you can say, “Jack Robinson”.

You have just two seconds at the most to convince your visitor your site is worthy of his  attention and to entice him  to stay at least long enough to have a look around.  It’s been hard enough to get this visitor to pay a visit in the first place and you don’t want to lose him  now you’ve got him  hesitating on the threshold.

Good.   Your visitor doesn’t get back in her car.   She is interested enough to see what’s in it for  her.   She has rapidly assessed your site and is impressed by its air of  being well-maintained.   The paintwork is fresh, the colours attractive and there are no cracks in the tarmac.   She likes its clean cut layout.   There seems to be a definite order and purpose here and she feels she could trust you to sell her a reliable secondhand car.   She has  confidence in the authority of your business.   Perception is all  and she feels she is safe here.

So far, so good.  You’ve attracted the visitor to your site,  he likes the look of it and he’s willing to spend some of his precious time having a look at what’s in your showroom.  What will he find?  Will you be able to convert his casual visit into a subscription to your list when he steps into the showroom?

If you found this interesting and want to find out how to get your visitor to take a test drive,  read the next post.