No matter if you’re scaling the ranks of search engines or your paid advertising is sending thousands of visitors to your site every day, if you aren’t capturing visitor data, you’re leaving money on the table.
As a business owner, you know that nurturing leads you already have is far less expensive than acquiring new leads. Email marketing is still one of the number one ways to communicate with interested prospects, and growing your email list can cut advertising costs significantly.
But, if you’re not capturing leads in the first place, you’re throwing money into advertising that does the bare minimum.
You absolutely need a high-powered (and actually compelling) email lead capture strategy.
Let’s take a look at how to skyrocket your opt-ins with psychologically driven copywriting.
Make it Worth Their While
First, you need to make it worth it for your customer to provide you with their personal information. The number of people who will sign up for your email list just for “news and updates” is low. Especially because they know they’ll be going into your funnel and marketed to.
Offering something of immediate value makes opting in more alluring.
Creating a lead magnet such as a free ebook, checklist, video training, or other actionable freebie will attract far more opt-ins than a simple “join our email list!”
You know that acronym WIIFM (what’s in it for me)? That should absolutely be in the forefront of your mind when it comes to lead capture.
When writing copy for your opt-in forms, focus on the immediate benefit of signing up.
For example,
“Learn how to improve your opt-in rates in just 15 minutes” vs.”Download our lead generation guide.”
Or
“Skyrocket your sales page conversion rates [free video training]” vs. “Take our free sales page conversion training.”
The copy in the first sentences sounds a lot more attractive, right?
Use Social Proof
Social proof is a phenomenon in which we tend to do things our peers are doing.
You’ve heard the phrase “if all of your friends were jumping off a bridge, would you do it, too?”
While you might not jump off a bridge, if all of your friends were buying bridges, it’s fair to say you might be curious what all of this “bridge buying” was about.
Social proof in marketing works the same way.
Consider the copy for the following opt-ins:
Version I:
Vs. Version II:
The difference between the two is subtle. Learning to create killer social media captions sounds great either way, but the addition of social proof (“join over 12k business owners”) gives this opt-in an element of social proof.
If 12k+ other business owners are doing it, it must be working, right?
Be Strategic With Your CTA Buttons
Your call to action should be just as powerful for your lead generation forms as they are for your sales pages.
“Sign Up” or “Opt in” are just lazy copywriting, and don’t inspire much enthusiasm in your audience.
Spice up your calls to action with an “Agreement CTA” or a “Reward System” CTA.
An Agreement CTA leaves your customer saying YES, and the “Reward System” CTA gives your audience that instant dopamine hit.
For example, look at the table below.
| Agreement CTA | Reward System CTA |
| ARE THESE THE RESULTS YOU WANT → | GET INSTANT ACCESS → |
| ARE YOU READY FOR RESULTS?→ | CLAIM YOURS → |
| IS THIS WHAT YOU CAME FOR?→ | IT STARTS NOW→ |
Strategic Copy Makes the Difference
Subtle shifts in your copy make a massive difference in not just the number of opt-ins, but the quality of your leads. By focusing on what’s in it for your audience, utilizing social proof, and sealing the deal with a powerful CTA, you’ll see your opt-in rates grow exponentially.
