A mailing list is the soul of your internet based business. If you had a targeted list of prospects to contact each time you have a new product, you will be able to save a lot of effort by marketing it to your existing list of targeted prospects. The adage “the money is in the list” cannot be more accurate.
By providing a relevant download on your website, you can actually create a targeted list of potential customers who are interested in your products. Let’s take a look at apple.com as an excellent illustration. They will ask you to fill out an optional name and email form when you download the free Quicktime and iTunes software from their website. This is so they can send you offers on songs that you can buy from — you guessed it — iTunes!
In point of fact, you are not required to provide such a “heavyweight” download as iTunes or other software with all of its features. A simple report, a free wallpaper, and other high-quality freebies are all effective ways to entice customers. The most important thing is that the prospect will be willing to give their email address to get your download if it provides enough value.
In any case, rushing out a straightforward download and putting a connection on your site won’t be sufficient to draw in qualified possibilities. In order for your lead-generating mechanism to work well for you, you will need to do some homework.
Your download form must first be prominently displayed on your website. Ideally, you should give it its own page and link to it from every other page on your website. This way, your visitors won’t be able to find the download page, and when they do, some of them will become your prospects!
Additionally, you must promote your download with some effort. The benefits of the download and the reasons why visitors should download it should be explained in greater detail. You might wonder why anyone would want to give away a freebie, but the majority of your visitors wouldn’t bother to download it because most of their downloads just sit on the hard drive, collecting virtual dust. Therefore, it is essential to demonstrate to your visitors why they ought to download your freebie.