How To Collect Up To 58% Email Optins From Lost Readers Using Your Old Content (And A Little Retargeting Wizardry)

This is Part 1 of a 3-Part series on dramatically increasing email optins and leads using Retargeting

• Part 1 – [You Are Here] – How To Create A High Value Asset That Attracts Your Audience And Build Desire To Take Action
• Part 2 – [Read It Here] – How To Use Hyper Specific Next Step Bonuses To Convert 15% Of Your First Time Readers
• Part 3 – [Read It Here] – How To Convert 58% Of Your Lost Leads Into Low Cost Subscribers On Automation

Want more email subscribers?

Sure you do!

I mean more Emails = more sales right?

In fact email is still one of the highest converting sales channels

But here’s the thing:

Most websites convert less than 2% of their audience…

So what can you do?

Do you just send more traffic to get more subs? (Nope)

We take the nerdy option instead!

Today I’m going to show you a method that’s helping to collect far more subscribers every day, all from the traffic we already have

Around 15% of first time readers… but it doesn’t end there

Even better?

The people who said no the first time around and didn’t optin?

Up to 58% of them are coming back and subscribing for pennies on the dollar…

All with a little retargeting automation

And I’m going to show you how to do the same for your business

Keep reading to learn how…

The ‘Candy Bar Conundrum’: How Content Marketers In Any Business Can Collect More Leads From Content

Last year I published a case study on how we helped an e-commerce company generate $18,750 in sales for $114 in Facebook Retargeting in just 48 hours

This case study did extremely well

In fact it ended up as one of the Top 10 posts of all time on inbound.org:

Hooray we were getting thousands of visitors per day to the site!

Unfortunately we had nothing in place to capture emails and so we rushed to try and fix this

You know the drill:

We tried pop ups, exit intent, header bars and more but nothing was working that great…

Maybe 2-5% optin’s on the site at most

But after adding part 2 of today’s method, our email optin’s shot up from around 2% to 15%

For every 100 visitors we would convert around 15 of them into email subscribers which was awesome

(Hey there subscribers if you’re reading this!)

Growing your email list is incredibly important to business growth

In fact email is still the highest ROI channel for sales to your audience:

Now most people would be happy with 15% optins right?

But if you don’t know already I’m a bit of a nerd and I love to test out new things

And the fact that we lost around 30,000 visitors before we had email software in place…well that kinda stings a bit

15% is great but how could we get even higher? (Hint its step 3)

And so after the craziness of the post died down we started testing some new techniques and looking at how we could use retargeting for email capture (Using some funky psychology tricks)

And so that’s what we did

We featured the exact same content and offer… but with just new methods to get optins

Its still in very early stages but the results?

Now before you call me out we are still testing this in other campaigns

I’ve seen 40% optins to high traffic sites with $0.20 leads…

And yes its only a small sample of data for THIS site

51 Visitors was not a huge audience but they were highly targeted

And yes this method needs more testing, but here’s the thing:

• I know that not all of you have HUGE budgets or even a massive audience yet
• And that some of you are small business owners who need every single sale you can get right?

Well that’s why this method is brilliant for even low traffic sites…

This method helps you convert lost leads from the traffic you already have, to make your traffic far more cost effective

The reason we only have 51 visitors to that page is that was the organic traffic to that particular article in a month

The traffic numbers were nothing huge or groundbreaking

You can probably relate to low traffic right?

But low traffic doesn’t mean you should also settle for low optins

I’m going to walk you through each of the steps and what we did

And you can do the exact same for your own business… even if you don’t have a fancy marketing degree, a huge budget or access to the influencer’s in your space

The 3-Steps To Using “The Candy Bar Conundrum” To Get Higher Email Optins From Your Current Traffic (And Lost Leads)

There are really just 3 simple steps to this method but they work like crazy…

I’ve put together a super simple, low budget video here for you to help you understand the process:

I wont lie-there is some work involved but if you see it through, you’ll get far more optins from your website than ever before

Step 1: Have a high value piece of actionable content that builds desire to take action

Step 2: Use a hyper specific ‘next step bonus’ to get much higher initial optin’s and give them an action to take

Step 3: Use consumer psychology to retarget those who read the post but didn’t optin and get them to come back and subscribe like never before…

So how does this work?

And what the heck does it have to do with chocolate or candy?

Let me explain through the medium of metaphor…

Have you ever been walking around the supermarket and you are just killing it?

Buying all the right healthy foods, weaving between the aisle hoggers and finish at the checkout in record time

Great success! ( your choices are going to keep you in shape)

And so you stand there waiting to load your groceries and you see it in the corner of your eye…

That candy bar is just staring back at you all sultry and seductive, tempting you to add it to your shopping

But you can resist this!

You’ve passed exams, ran marathons or built a business

You’ve faced greater hardships and shown resilience. Your mind is a fortress!

But then you think…

“Well I’ve been so good with the rest of my shopping”

…and so you can’t resist adding it to the basket

I mean its only 1 chocolate bar and you could have got soooo many other bad things right?

Don’t worry if this is you

I feel your pain and snaffle far too many chocolate bars

But why do we give in?

It turns out its our psychology and how we interact to the situation or environment that our brain is in at the time…

There are ‘2 states’ of thinking and we’re going to appeal to both of them:

Our brain works very differently when walking up and down the aisles compared to how its working while standing in the queue

At the aisle or on social media?

We are highly susceptible to saying yes… especially if we have already resisted and said no before

…and that’s the exact same way you’re going to get more email optin’s from your lost leads

You’re going to dangle a ‘candy bar’ in front of their eyes like a hypnotist with a watch so that they cant resist

So lets break this down further

Say you went to the supermarket and you resisted that candy. Good for you!

But the thing is your willpower is a finite resource

The more you stress it the weaker it gets

Suddenly you start seeing that thing you said no to everywhere you go. The more you resist the harder it gets until…?

Boom

You eat your weight in chocolate

Its almost impossible to resist right?

Well we’re going to use these same principles to help you get more leads

Now this guide is a beast and broken down into 3 stages to help you set all this up

(Also because you really need all 3 elements together for this to get such a high response)

In step 1 you need to create a High Value Asset that attracts the audience and builds desire in them to take an action.

Even better you’re going to give them a very specific action to take

(I’ll show you how to do this with old content also so you don’t need to write anything new!)

Think of this content like the supermarket.Its attracting people to you and they come to you wanting something…

Then in step 2 you’ll learn to create and deliver a High Value Next Step Offer. This helps captures a high percentage of emails from first time visitors

Think of this like all the bad stuff you see as you walk up and down the aisles. Sometimes you say no and sometimes you just can’t help yourself

Having this in place can capture up to 15% of your audiences emails right away

Pretty cool eh?

Well in step 3 we take it one step further…

We set up a retargeting campaign to target the people who read the content but said no to the optin offer this time

The campaign shows to them and them alone because these guys are just on the fence to opting in

Getting their email is far easier and cheaper than a cold lead

And because of this end up saving you money AND converting them at a ridiculously low cost per lead ($0.20 leads anyone?)

The campaign simply re-offers what they said no to, playing on their willpower to keep saying no.

At this moment in time almost 1/2 of those people who said no are coming back and opting in and becoming a subscriber

This is the candy bar.

This is their conundrum…

“Do they keep saying no, or do they give in and take it”

Its all on automation. It doesn’t matter when they see the content today or a year from now, they get delivered the campaign

Even better?

It stops running to them once they optin or after a set period of time

Can you see the power of this and how it can change your subscribers almost overnight?

I told you its a little nerdy but have no fear. I’ve got your back

I walk you step-by-step through every detail.

Even if you’ve never ran a campaign before, you’ll have it set up by the end of this guide and look like some kind of super genius/marketing wizard

So lets start at the beginning…

Step 1: Have A ‘High Value’ Piece Of Content To Leverage

In theory you could add a ‘hyper specific next step’ optin offer to any page on your site

And you would probably get some optin’s due to how well they work

But nowhere near as many as you get when you use it alongside high value content

In fact I’ve tested that EXACT same optin offer on other pages on our site

How did it do?

It dropped to only 5% optins!

But when you can get a hyper specific offer paired WITH high value content that is made for each other…

Its a 1-2 punch combo for higher traffic and optin’s

Especially when you position that hyper specific bonus as a ‘next step’ for the audience to take

There’s a few reasons for this:

When you have high value content its usually around an area that your audience is stuck on

It might be something they search in Google, it might be part of a content funnel or it might simply be an asset you use to teach your audience and help them get past a problem

They have a problem right now and are looking for a solution and help

This means the content they need is usually highly actionable and valuable and helps remove a pain point that they have (or at least some of it)

This content builds huge trust and authority and provides a great customer experience

The thing is though that your audience will often have another problem or pain point after reading your guide…

And so they need help with the next problem

Or worse?

You’ve teased the solution to help them in your content and now they want to take action

The biggest problem is most content doesn’t give a next step to take…

You always have to give them a call to action

But the best call to action?

The best CTA is when you give them a ‘hyper specific next step’ positioned as the next logical action for them to take…

The problem is this only works incredibly well when you accompany it with high value content

You’ll get more optins for sure

But if you can make your content high value and actionable then the results are much, much higher…

The 9 Elements Of ‘High Value’ Content

Creating high value content doesn’t need to be difficult

In fact we can break down what actually makes content successful by looking at research of content that has already proven to work

(There’s a killer guide to it here where they reverse engineered the 9 Viral Triggers to high performing content)

I’m going to simplify the 9 elements for you here

Then you can add these elements into a previously written post and turn it into a ‘High Value’ asset:

Viral Trigger #1: Content That Builds Trust + Authority

Perception is everything and its easily taken advantage of

We all know we shouldn’t judge a book by its cover but that’s exactly what we do

Simply writing longer content can give the perception of authority in a subject

Write content that’s 1500-3000 words or longer and your audience will see the scroll bar and assume its higher value

The added bonus of course is that the content has a higher change of providing value and will probably rank higher in google for those other terms

Longer content is proven to get more links and shares so write longer content!

How?

You simply go into fine detail and hit trigger #2…

Viral Trigger #2: Content That Is Useful And Has Value

We want to share things of value with those around us

It helps raise our standing among our peers

Content that is image rich and provides step-by-step value or a solution is an incredible asset for your business

By simply explaining in detail a problem and how to get past it, your content becomes valuable for your audience

This guide by Sujan Patel is literally a how to from start to finish of how to solve a problem his audience will have…

You’ll be surprised how easy it is to take an old post that’s shorter, and turn it into a 3000 word high value guide, simply by explaining and walking through how to do what you are talking about

Add move value in your content by taking the time to walk them through the solution step by step

Here’s another great example by Bryan Harris over at Videofruit

Notice how he walks the reader through each step so that they can take action

You need to do the same in your content to build value with your reader but also desire

Desire to act. To do something specific

By adding those steps in they are engaged and want to implement asap. This is what helps them optin for your hyper specific offer

And all you need to do is just make it nice and easy to follow

(Oh and images really help)

So that’s a very simple way to add further value to your readers

But the thing is we’ve all seen ‘ultimate guides’ and not all of them get comments and shares

The next trigger changes all this…

Viral Trigger #3: Content That Tells An Empathetic Story And Connects Emotionally

Another type of content that gets a lot of shares and links?

Content that connects emotionally with the reader

It causes them to remember and share it more often. It motivates them to take action

Often you’ll either have a dry piece of content that’s valuable (step-by-step) or you’ll have an emotional piece of content with little value other than the emotion

Here’s a fantastic emotional story by the one and only Jon Morrow:

Its clear that adding emotion is huge for your content to do well

But if you can add emotion AND give actionable value?

Then your content is gangbusters

Compare the previous post by Jon with the latest post on his new blog

The previous post has already done phenomenally well, but it is almost 4 years old so you can expect a lot of shares and comments over time

But look at Jons latest post that’s only 6 days old…

So Jon’s new post has 1,000 shares and 112 comments in only 6 days…

Why has it done so well?

And why is it on track to beat the post that he is arguably most known for?

Because he manages to both connect emotionally AND give actionable content:

Understanding your audiences problem and relating it to them in their own words (mirror language) is incredibly powerful

Take the time to understand your audience and write to connect with them in your content

Address their problems and goals in the solution will help your own content be more successful

Another simple way to improve the value of your content is to give proof to what you are writing…

Viral Trigger #4: Content That Gives Proof (+ Context)

Prove it. That’s what kids say right?

Well its also what we subconsciously think

We all want data, resources, references and more

It helps prove a point if we need to reference it (Or it can even help argue a point)

But by adding proof it helps build authority in your content:

In your own content be sure to take the time to add images and explanations to help provide context

Back up those steps with references and resources

Notice how many images are in this post already?

It breaks up the spacing and it also cites resources that prove what we’re talking about…

You can also add testimonials or case studies inside the content that they can relate to

Linking out to other resources helps build authority and provides even more value

And value in advance helps build reciprocity…

Viral Trigger #5: Content That Builds Reciprocity

We can’t help but want to pay back those that help us

Heck we feel bad even if we’re given something we don’t want…

…we feel the need to give back something in return

Helping someone in advance is one of the most effective ways of getting your reader or customer to take an action or give a referral, share or link etc

Reciprocity can be incredibly powerful

You’re given a flower or a book in the high street and the next thing you know you’re donating $35 per month for 3 months to some random charity

We received in advance and so want to give back in return (Often many times over the original gift we received)

Even the act of creating high value content for your audience helps you build reciprocity with them…

Dr Cialdini’s book is one of the few books I buy copies of and give to colleagues its that good

(You have to ask what reciprocity does this give me in return for giving this book eh…)

By providing step-by-step solutions in your content it helps build reciprocity

By giving them the next action to take with a specific bonus?

Even more reciprocity and curiosity…

Viral Trigger #6: Content That Teases Our Curiosity

We find it hard not to finish something we start

Its like our brains are computers holding files

We can’t help but remain attached to a story or content that builds curiosity…

Open loops, teases, transitions, cliffhangers etc

Your ‘next step upgrade’ is a huge benefit to this. It helps to build curiosity for them to take the next action

By also adding open loops and transitions in your content it helps pull them through and keep them reading

The ‘next step bonus’ is an open loop all of its own. They were already interested in solving the problem, you’ve shown a solution and the next step helps them take action

How can they possibly resist right?

Sidenote:
If you want a masterclass in open loops and curiosity building, then go check out my buddy Andre Chaperons stuff here >>

You’ll get a look at a true master at work

Andre is the boss at email marketing and uses similar methods of psychology for his email’s

Seeing as you’ll be collecting far more emails from this very guide, you might as well learn how he uses email to converts 46% of his email list into customers!

Warning: He may be an actual Wizard and his open loops will have you on his email list in no time at all. If you do buy any of his stuff he’ll pay me in high fives and maybe donuts at no added cost to you but remember I warned you… he’s real good at this

Take the time to learn transitions and curiosity and your audience will devour your content

Learn how to add open loops and you’ll have them coming back for more and more…

Viral Trigger #7: Content That Builds Controversy

Another type of content that we share is content that is ‘controversial’

Now this doesn’t mean that it needs to shock and awe

In fact its usually because the content is both well researched and holds a strong opinion that resonates with our own

It can be simply content that takes a stand on a particular viewpoint.

It doesn’t have to offend anyone, just simply give an argument for one position over another (Or even give data to help someone else build that argument)

This recent guide by Backlinko and Buzzsumo detailed the argument that you should only ever create long form high value content

(And opposes the short form content people)

Controversy or opinion can help build trust, value and authority with your audience

Even those against you will respect you more for taking your stand

We like to know and trust people. Understanding your view points helps us do that (It also helps us self identify with you)

But this content can also be supportive of a method not just controversial

It can help provide data to support an argument (Just like I’m doing right now with the afor mentioned  Buzzsumo guide!)

And if it is controversial it can be as simple as “for one thing and against another”

In previous content of my own I’ve shared that I’m not a huge fan of 3rd party software to set up retargeting

Its my opinion that you are better off saving funds and creating the campaigns yourself directly on the platforms first

But that’s my working class upbringing…

I don’t want people to waste cash (especially small business owners) and I also think that you can learn more about your campaigns by setting them up yourself

That was my stand

It doesn’t upset anyone but it does connect with those who think the same way…

So how can you make a stand in your content and add value to your audience?

How can you help them prove that they are right and have the right idea…

Viral Trigger #8: Content That Holds Commitment To ‘Self Identity’

As humans we want to interact with people like us

We also want to commit to actions that we feel represent us…

The clothes we wear, the books we read, the groups we follow and even the companies we buy from

If you can help people self identify in your content you can help build a connection far more powerful than price

Writing in the first person and as you talk helps readers become engaged

You can then take this further with mirror language by using the words and phrasing that your own audience uses to describe them problems, goals, fears and aspirations

If you can also help connect with their goals and reasons for actions then that’s even more powerful

For Example

I know you all want more emails and that’s why your reading this

• But I also know that you might be a marketer who wants to get better results for their clients so their job is less stressful
• Or you might be a small business owner who knows that if they can just get a few more leads that will mean you can take off more free time with your family and not feel so overwhelmed right?

Making sure your content connects with your audience makes it incredibly valuable now, and in the future

These examples are all reasons, goals and language I know that are important to you, simply from listening to you guys in your comments

(See I DO Listen!)

OK so you’ve got 8 of the elements to help you provide high value content

The final element makes the difference between people remembering or forgetting you…

Viral Trigger #9: Content That Holds In The Memory

Lets be honest here

You might read 15 blog posts this week alone…

…the chances of you remembering each one is very slim

We can only store so much information on those brain-pooters that we have in our heads

But why do stories and fables last for hundreds of years?

The use of story, emotion, metaphor and context helps to stand out in the sea of content

Its even been proven BY SCIENCE!

Scientists tested peoples memories of events and stories during a controlled event

Those who had an emotional connection remembered with more detail and for far longer

If you can include an emotional connection and story in your content, then the chances of it being remember rises

Jon’s post we shared earlier still gets links and shares 4 years later

Its an incredibly powerful story

So much so that I remember it and show it to friends on my phone

Oh and not by just linking to it or sharing on social media…

I actively search for it to share with them, years after I first read the post…

If you can help your audience understand better, connect emotionally and stay in their mind then your content will be shared for years to come

You can do this with metaphors, analogies, personal stories and more…

Here my story so that you remember this guide:

• Do you know why this post is so long and detailed?
• Or why we get such high optins now?

Because when you launch your new website and get 50,000 visitors that’s awesome.

Its so scary putting your content out into the world and getting a success like that is amazing!

But when you lose 30,000 of them due to not setting up any optin forms

You make damn sure you get better at collecting emails

But it does mean I can share this with you today so…

The Next Action To Take

I would be missing out on these very steps if I didn’t give you an action to take next

Now I’m not saying you need to go write a brand new post to do this method

In fact you can take an old post that’s doing well and improve upon it

By going ahead and making those changes to your content, you will have a highly valuable asset

Its important you have a highly actionable and valuable post to implement the next 2 stages

It can make the difference between 5% optins and 58% optins

A quick overview of the changes are:

• Long form content 1500-3000 words
• Step-By-Step definitive solutions
• Add images, references and resources to provide context
• Add emotion, mirror language and ‘stand for something’
• Use open loops, curiosity and transitions to pull them through the content
• Use metaphors, personal stories and experiences in the content to help them remember

So which post should you choose to improve?

The best post to start with is those that are getting organic traffic so far

Why?

Because this content is getting steady traffic each week, its clearly around an area that your audience in interested in

The fact that it has traffic already means you can easily make the changes, test the new email optins and see a quick result

And because you are going to both improve it AND set up advanced lead capture, it means that this article will now start collecting leads for you from all that organic traffic

Pretty cool eh?

An added bonus is that you will probably improve the organic traffic to the post over time with these improvements (It may start to attract more organic traffic via the Google gods)

How To Find Your Content To Improve

Before you get started, be sure to make a note of the current traffic and the future traffic for the content you are improving

This way you can measure the impact and you can leave a nice note in the comments section below

Go ahead and log into your Google Analytics by clicking here  (This will open in a new page)

Also bee sure that you are logged into the correct account

(I know my partner often checks her gmail and so when I can’t find my analytics its simply because my account is not logged in)

Next go across to the search bar at the top on the left

You want to find the results for separate pages on your site. In the search box write the word ‘pages’ and you should see the option Behavior > Site Content > All Pages

Click this option to load up a new page showing all the pages on your site so far

We want to ignore the home page (shown as /) and look for the top traffic blog post only

We don’t care about landing pages, sales pages or squeeze pages, so be sure to find the top post you can

In our example below its our post on the Facebook Fishing Formula

This would be the best article for us to use, as it gets the most traffic for our site

Because this post has already had the high value changes made to it, it gets the most traffic out of our entire site…

(Almost 3x the traffic that visits our home page)

Your top traffic article may be lower down the page at around 5 or 6 position so keep looking for it

If your not sure which page name relates to what content then you can easily check

Simply click the little symbol next to the page name to open that page in a new tab:

Remember to make sure you find the top traffic article and not a sales page/squeeze page or anything

This will be the post that you can make the improvements on for Step 1

Next you need to go ahead and make these changes to your content to make it highly valuable

(We have a checklist and guide for this in the download bonus for this post, along with a video of how to implement stages 1, 2 + 3)

• Make sure your content is more ‘Long form’ by increasing it to 1500-3000 words (or higher)
• Fill out that extra content by going into fine detail with Step-By-Step definitive solutions
• Add images, references and resources to provide context and proof
• Build emotion by using your audiences mirror language, give analogies and personal stories and if its relevant ‘stand for something’
• Use open loops, curiosity and transitions to pull them through the content and tease the end goal and results

And that’s all you need to do for Step 1

It takes work but those edits alone will make your content become an asset for your business

Now if I tried to show you an example of how to do this in this post, then this chapter alone would be 15,000 words…

Which is why in the bonus section for this guide I have a video walk-through example of me taking an old article and improving it (Alongside extra bonuses for parts 2 and 3)

Now I’m a HUGE fan or the Daily Stoic

I’ve taken one of my favorite blog posts on their site and made the 9 content edits to attempt to turn it into a High Value Asset

(The original post was already great, I just want to show how you can tweak content like this to turn it into an asset that captures far more leads)

You can only check out this video in the bonus section so be sure to click the link below to get access to that

But that’s only Chapter 1 complete!

We still have 2 more Chapters to go:

• Chapter 2: How to capture more leads from first time readers then ever before in Chapter 2
• Chapter 3: How to use retargeting and the methods in Chapter 2 to convert those who said no the first time around into brand new subscribers…

So lets assume that you’re content is now all improved and awesome and makes your reader want to take an action

Well now its time to take this one step further

Its time to learn how to start collecting far more leads with your content than ever before…

Click Here for Chapter 2: How To Use Hyper Specific Next Step Bonuses To Convert 15% Of Your First Time Readers