One of things I like most about having a business online is the ease with which I can experiment with new things. I see the internet like a sandbox and I want to get in and play around and see what I can make. I think it’s helpful to maintain a sense of excitement about technology and innovation. As we learn more about how people access information online we’ve got to respond accordingly in order to stay relevant and it helps to be curious and unafraid of change.
I started While She Naps 11 years ago, in May of 2005, and for the first eight years I didn’t have an email list. When I would do craft shows or have my work in galleries customers would say, “Add me to your mailing list,” and I would sorta nod and take their information, but the truth was I didn’t have a mailing list. I didn’t think I needed one. I had a blog! Wasn’t that enough?
By 2013 marketing gurus were making it very clear that email was vital so I committed to figuring it out how to have a mailing list and guess what? It’s been totally worth it. My weekly email newsletter is one of the best things I create and I would say without a doubt that my email list is my business’s most valuable asset.
Once you have an email list you want to grow it. About a year ago I noticed marketing gurus were preaching the power of the popup as the most effective way to do that. I was suspect at first. Then one day I was reading a blog and a popup slid in asking if I’d like to sign up for the email list. Despite having visited this blog many times, I’d never noticed that there was an email list. I signed up right away and then thought, “Hey! That was nifty.” The popup was HelloBar and I decided to try it. Sure enough, I tripled the number of signups I was getting each day.
Why are popups effective? They force visitors to make a decision. Yes or no. In or out. It’s important to make people choose.
Now, here we are in June of 2016 and everyone is talking about lead magnets and content upgrades – essentially bribes you offer visitors in exchange for their email addresses. I’ve never had one of these. I’ve grown my list to 9,700 without one. My theory has been if my weekly newsletter is interesting and helpful that should be enough – no bribes necessary.
Then, on my run on Friday morning I listened to episode 35 of the CreativeLive Podcast with Tim Paige, the Senior Conversion Educator at LeadPages. Tim’s job is to help people understand how to use LeadPages, a specialized software that allows online publishers to send out lead magnets and content upgrades, among other things. Hearing him talk convinced me to give LeadPages a try.
I got home, showered, and wrote a lead magnet and signed up.
So here’s what I’m going to do with LeadPages.
- Create an exit intent popup. When you’re about the leave the page, a popup will appear asking if you’d like to get my Top 5 Resources for Growing a Creative Business Online (that’s the lead magnet). If you enter your email address you’ll get it (and I’ll give it to all my current subscribers this Wednesday in my newsletter). Once you’ve seen the popup once, you won’t see it again for a while.
- Offer content upgrades on my most popular posts. Consistently my most popular posts are free patterns. Over the next few weeks I’ll format each free pattern as a PDF and put a button on those posts asking if you’d like to get the patterns as a PDF. When you click the button a box will pop up asking for your email address. Enter it and you’ll get that pattern emailed to you.
Tim made a really interesting point about incrementally building to “yes.” When visitors click the button indicating that they want the pattern as a PDF, that’s the first commitment and it’s a tiny one. When they’re asked to input their email address, that’s the next level of commitment, but you’re building a pattern of “yes” behavior. So interesting!
LeadPages isn’t cheap and learning to use it isn’t easy (at least not for me!), but here’s what I’ve noticed about myself when I get new software that gives me new capabilities – all of a sudden new ideas open up. It’s like getting a new super power. Now that I can easily offer extra goodies, ideas for extra goodies come to me.
This week I’m watching all the LeadPages tutorials and working on configuring everything. I’ll make note of my average daily subscriber numbers and see how they change (or don’t) once my LeadPages are up. Let’s get some sand between our toes and see how this whole thing works.
Thank you for the very helpful post! I always appreciate how you explain the business end of everything.
You’re welcome. I’m figuring it all out, too, so why not learn together 🙂
We are on similar paths with exploring online marketing tools. You have been exploring longer and are younger than I so the chances are you will have more time “to play in the sand.” I’m a bit envious. However it is not in my nature to spend much time wallowing. There is too much relationship building to do and too many lessons to learn and to teach. I’m starting a school called SCCandA (the School of Custom Clothing and Alterations) to help dressmakers and sewing and design teachers earn more and reach greater heights in their careers by the time they reach retirement age so I am building systems to help them and then teaching anyone who wants to learn how to use the tools. I recently signed up to participate in a 30 in 30 challenge through Thinkific.com the site I use to host my courses. (30 in 30 means selling 30 course enrollments in 30 days). Last Thursday’s webinar was on guest blogging. The Monday prior was on preparing a Lead Magnet. Before that it was writing a Sales Page, an exercise that sent me back to the drawing board when I realized I needed to return to teaching pants design online as my next move versus teaching menswear alterations. That put me a bit behind in the challenge, but onto a path more in sync with those I want to serve. You are so right about new ideas opening up as we explore the latest in software tools. I love the beach especially building castles in the sand and feeling the sand between my toes! Keep up the great work (and play) Abby! You continue to inspire me.
P.S. Tonight’s webinar was on podcasting.
Hi Abby,
I’ve really been enjoying your “Did You See This?” section, and Thanks so much for the Free Guide today!
Question: Do you think Board Booster would be effective for me if I tend to carry a lot of OOAK or have changed up my offerings frequently? I’ve used Pinterest for my shop, but don’t find a lot of buyers coming from there. I tend to think it’s got a lot of DIYers who just want to try to copy my ideas. If something like Board Booster would bring more of the right kind of traffic, I’d be willing to try it if it’s not going to put up old pins that I”m not selling any more. I delete old items, but leave similar items up to still drive traffic to my shop, even when the OOAK angels have sold out.
What do you think?
Hi Cindy,
You ask really good questions. Here’s how I think about this-
If you’re posting images of what you make online you’re running the risk of DIYers copying your ideas. So, if that’s a huge concern then it’s best to simply not have a website. If you do decide to have a website you likely want to drive traffic to it. Google and Pinterest are the two largest search engines today, and Pinterest is the visual search engine. Pinterest has the potential to drive tremendous traffic to your site (it’s consistently my #1 referrer of traffic) so it’s absolutely worth spending time on. As for one of a kind items, I spoke to an art quilter recently who had a pin of her quilt go viral on Pinterest. It has hundreds of thousands of repins. Even though she sold that quilt long ago, she’s gotten almost a dozen commissions from that pin and her work has been featured in a magazine as a result, too. So I would say keep the one of a kind items on Pinterest and don’t worry that they’ll be copied or sold.
So glad you’re trying this, Abby!
Since starting to offer “content upgrades” (I use ConvertKit, because I have a looooot of different lists for classes, interests, etc) I’ve created a new download for every podcast episode (ie, every week!) and my people, both old and new, really love it.
Above all, it gives me the opportunity to make each individual thing I want to create REALLY easy to deliver, instead of emailing my whole list to say: “I made this for you, go here to get it” (and then how to new subscribers find it 2 months from now?)
Like you mention, it opens up a whole new superpower: How else can I give awesomeness to my people? How can I PDF-ize this goodness into something keep-able?
(Plus – huge leaps in my list)
I’ve been using Leadpages this way too for about 6 months, it’s worked well. I like the ability to send out many different PDFs, which Mailchimp couldn’t do. I’m using ConvertKit as well, which is very powerful for segmentation, but sadly not very pretty, email-wise. Next in line: email funnel. Phew!
I wish Mailchimp had this functionality (or, if they do have it already, that it was easier to set up). I’m already paying them $900 a year and although I know it’s totally worth it, I feel like sending out multiple content upgrades could be part of their offerings.
P.S. What did you use to create your PDF? It’s really pretty!
Thank you! I hired Lindsie Bergevin to turn my Word document into something lovely. She’s the best.
It’s gorgeous. Great idea!
I listened to the same podcast and I’ve been waiting until I was finished working on another big project to give it a try. The time is now! I’m working on this next week and I’m eager to see how it works. The tutorials look a little daunting. I hope you’ll share the results of your experiment after it’s had a chance to run a while.
So far it’s terrific and well worth the money. You have so many free tutorials, Wendi. I think you’re going to love Leadpages.