Okay gentlemen – most of the women reading this will nod their heads in agreement when I say…

Commitment is good

Now before all the guys out there panic and start running – let me clarify what I’m talking about. In the world of marketing and business it is a good thing to get your prospects to commit.

The goal is to entice prospects to give you their contact information. One of the easiest ways to do this is to ask for an email address.

Getting a visitor’s email is the single most important goal for your website

I keep talking about email capture again and again because it is THAT important to your social media and online marketing. When you get a prospect’s email, you get control and permission.

An email address gives you control of the marketing relationship. If you are relying on prospects to return to your website later on their own – you’re delusional.

In defense of prospects world-wide, it’s not their fault. They simply can’t keep up with the fire hose of information coming at them every day. Most people will welcome relevant and helpful emails targeted to meet their needs. Deep down, prospects want you to have control of the marketing relationship so they don’t have to think.

An email address also gives you permission to follow up. Each time a prospect subscribes to your email list – image them standing in a crowd raising their hand and saying… “I’m interested in your products and services.” They are giving you permission to market to them.

A few tips on getting emails from your prospects

• Be sure to have an email capture form on your website. The solution we use is Aweber. I’ve written a lot about using email opt in forms here and here.
• When using an email capture form – be clear on the value that you will provide in return for a prospect email address. Offer to give them a free report, video, download, coupon, etc.
• Many smart marketing professionals create print ads that send prospects to landing pages with email opt in forms on them. This is a great idea. The problem is – when prospects visit the web page many won’t enter their name into your email list. A better option is to provide an email address that prospects respond to that will automatically subscribe them to your list. This will result in 100% opt ins.

Imagine your business as a lead capture machine

Imagine the cycle of success you will create by inviting prospects to commit by giving you their email address – which in turn gives you permission and control in the marketing process.

With a solid email list you can alert people (who have already committed to you that they are interested) with new products and services.

Just think of the cost savings! By building an email list you are building a future database of potential customers.

Don’t forget that people value their emails. You can’t abuse the relationship with your prospect. Continually offer value in your emails. Look to improve the lives and businesses of your potential customers.

Today’s Action Step

Get signed up for an email service provider and place an email capture form on your website or blog. Make it enticing for prospects to give you their email address by giving away something free in return for the address.

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Joel Mark Witt is the Publisher of Folk Media and author of 21 Days To Twitter Leadership. He is a producer, author, speaker and social media marketing coach who consults with businesses and nonprofits on how to use social media in marketing and communications. Get more from Joel on Twitter or Google Buzz.

*Photo By Pacopus

We’ll show you how to use email to drive customers to buy what your selling.

Join us for a free teleseminar to learn the exact steps you can take to basically “print money” for your business using email.

[The live teleseminar is over - register below to download the slides and audio]

Here’s just some of the keys you’ll learn by attending this event:

• How to capture email addresses of prospects and potential clients.
• Why building an email list is a bullet proof business tool that can make you money even during recessions or slow periods.
• How to craft an email message that gets read (Hint: It has little to do with the actually message in the email).
• 3 Myths about email marketing and how it’s more powerful than any other online marketing tool you can use.
• If used right – email is a “sales machine.” The problem is most people don’t know how to set up and use it properly. We’ll cover the mistakes that you are most likely to make and how to avoid them.
• Plus: answers to all your specific questions. (In fact, feel free to ask some questions below).

On the call, you’ll be learning the same email marketing strategies we share with our private clients and that we’ve used to grow our own businesses.

What we’re going to focus on is a fast-start version of using email marketing for your small business that you can implement right after the call.

We’ll talk about the power of email, how to strategically use email to power your online marketing, the tools for managing your email marketing without sucking up all your time, and the step-by-step plain English instructions that you can start doing right away – without hiring any “guru” or agency!

Each teleseminar we do continues to grow and people from all over the world are calling in. People have joined us from India, England, Brazil, Canada, Australia, Indonesia and all over the United States.

On this call we have only 100 spots and expect to fill up fast. It is critical that you register for this free teleseminar now

After you register, leave your most important questions about Wordpress and blogging in the comments section below. We’ll answer them right here on the post.

You need a place to add people to your list

Having an email opt in form on your website is critical. Most people talk about getting traffic or visitors to your website. This is obviously very important. But it is more important to convert those visitors into prospects. A great strategy to do this is capturing their email address when they visit.

You may only attract a visitor once.

You need to be aggressive in your email capture. You need to do everything in your power to capture their email address. Someone usually comes to your website to get a specific piece of information. While they are on your site is the perfect time to get them to subscribe to your email newsletter.

The sooner you start collecting emails the better

Even if you don’t have a newsletter or process to follow up ready, it is still a good idea to capture emails now. Begin building your database for the future. A well built email list (one that includes prospects that know, like and trust you) is a business asset.

An opt in form is a simple email capture device

Most email marketing services will give you opt in form code

Aweber, for example, allows you to custom build the design and look of your form. Once you have it designed the way you’d like – simply copy and past the code onto your website.

How To Add An Email Opt In To Your Site

5 Easy Steps To Creating Aweber Email Opt In Forms

I currently use Aweber for our business for its robust email marketing software. I am going to walk you through a how to embed a web form using Aweber. You don’t have to use Aweber and most other email marketing services are similar. I am showing this example to illustrate how easy this is.

1. Login to your Aweber account
2. Click “Web Forms” in the top navigation menu
3. Click the green “Create Web Form” button
4. Fill in form details
5. Name your form
6. Select “in-line” radio button
7. Type in your customized “thank you page” address (or use aweber’s default url)
8. Click “Next”
9. Preview form – If it’s to your liking, click “Save”
10. Click “Get HTML”

Now copy and paste the HTML code  where you want it to appear on your webpage.

Today’s 10 Minute Exercise: Go find your code & Embed it

You will need a piece of code

You assignment is to log into your email service provider and find the HTML code you will use to embed the on your website.

Embed that code on your site.

Take your HTML and place it on your site. If you don’t know how to do this get your webmaster to do this for you.

Remember, it is critical that you begin capturing the emails of everyone who visits your website or blog. You have most likely gone through a lot of hard work to get people to your site. Don’t waste your efforts.

Now go take action.

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Toolset Note: While there are many email marketing services out there, we use and recommend Aweber email marketing software. They are inexpensive, have great customer service and will help you build an effective email marketing list quickly.

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Joel Mark Witt is the Publisher of Folk Media and author of 21 Days To Twitter Leadership. He is a producer, author, and speaker who consults with businesses and nonprofits on how to use social media in marketing and communications. Get more from Joel on Twitter or Google Buzz.

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Why you need a solid plan to capture emails & leads

A few years ago it was far easier to get folks to subscribe to your email lists. A simple “sign up for our newsletter” could be placed on your site and it would attract people to give you their email address. But that soon changed as the volume of emails people were receiving multiplied. Add to this the massive increase in spam and other unwanted inbox messages and you can see why people guard their emails like gold.

You have to give people a compelling reason to subscribe

These days, you don’t have the luxury of slapping up a simple subscribe box. You need to give prospects and customers a good reason to subscribe. Not only does it need to be a good reason, but you have to sell the value of your newsletters.

What to write to get people to subscribe

It is important to create a compelling sign up form on your website. By choosing the right words, people will gladly give you their email address.

Write up reasons why someone should subscribe

List the benefits a prospect will get when they subscribe to your newsletter. Write out all the free advice and resources you are going to be giving them. Think about your email newsletter as a product that people are “buying” with their email address. What value are you going to be giving them? Make a big long list. You are going to use this document over so don’t scrimp on this.

How to write your subscription pitch

Be clear and value driven with you subscription appeal. The idea here is to take your massive list of benefits and create a very attractive “pitch” to draw in new subscribers.

Find the value hot buttons around pain

Identify a pain point that your newsletter solves. For example, if you have a fitness website and your newsletter helps people with meal choices and menus, make sure to spell out the problem of high cost complicated meal planning. Then write out the specific and actionable solution to this problem and how your newsletter solves it. Do this for each pain point you can identify.

Overwhelm the reader with value

Next, write out all the value that this newsletter will provide. Don’t be afraid to give away one or two of your best techniques or bits of advice to email subscribers. Make sure this content is worth actual money and GIVE it away for free. In doing this you are showing your future customers that you know what you’re talking about, you are willing to take the first s

Assure them you won’t abuse their email address

When I use my email to sign up for something online I am taking a huge risk that my address will be passed around to various companies I don’t want sending me information.

Be clear about how you are using a prospect’s email address. Use language like “we will never rent or sell your email address to a third party.”

Today’s 10 Minute Exercise: Write your subscription pitch

Choose the main problem you solve and make that the headline

Your headline should grab attention. Think carefully about the main problems you solve for your prospect. Make this the main headline.

For example, at Folk Media we say… “Learn the keys to marketing your business using social media, Twitter, podcasting and Facebook.”

Stack on the value

Be clear about what they can expect to learn or get from you.

We offer a free report “7 Ways To Use Online Media To Market Your Business” when someone gives us their email.

Brainstorm some pieces of valued content you can give away

• Ebooks
• Reports
• Audio files
• Videos
• Teleseminars
• Transcripts
• Blog posts
• Articles
• Software
• Worksheets
• Consulting calls
• Event tickets
• Private invitations
• Case studies

Your next step is to put all these elements together on your site and begin collecting emails from prospects. As you build your list your building a marketing tool for the future and will be able to help more and more people.

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Toolset Note: While there are many email service providers out there we use and recommend Aweber as our provider of choice. They are inexpensive, have great customer service and will help you build an effective email marketing list quickly.

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Joel Mark Witt is the Publisher of Folk Media and author of 21 Days To Twitter Leadership. He is a producer, author, and speaker who consults with businesses and nonprofits on how to use social media in marketing and communications. Get more from Joel on Twitter or Google Buzz.

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*Photo by boff2