The day you start your business, you can begin to collect leads.
Leads are e-mail addresses from potential customers who may be interested in your product or service. You can begin to collect e-mails on the first day you launch your landing page or website.
Once a lead has joined your email list by providing their information, they become subscribers. You can continue to communicate with your subscribers by regularly sending emails with valuable information, special offers or other incentives to stay subscribed.
When you have delivered value and created a position of trust, you can market to your subscribers, and encourage them to try the product or service you have to offer.
E-mail lists can be managed manually. But as your list grows, you will probably want to use an automated e-mail service provider to do the work for you.
These applications manage your e-mails to your organized preference, and provide features for sending scheduled emails, email sequences, lead magnets and other features. You also get automatic unsubscribe buttons which are required for direct email marketing.
There are many e-mail service provider companies – AWeber, Constant Contact, ConvertKit, Infusion Soft, Mad Mimi, and Mail Chimp, to name a few.
Providers like ConvertKit and Mail Chimp are free to start, and begin charging as your email list grows.
This article focuses on using ConvertKit, which is one of the top providers for creators.
Ready to set-up your email service provider? Sign-up for FREE at ConvertKit and get started today.
Before You Start
You will collect e-mails through a form or landing page. If using a form, you will need a location for hosting the form, such as a website page. If using a landing page, the host can be ConvertKit or your own website.
When preparing to collect e-mails, think about your subscriber’s journey. When someone sees your form or landing page for the first time, you have just made a ‘first impression.’ Decide what you want to say to your prospect.
Do you want to provide a brief overview of your offering, give an incentive to sign-up like a cheatsheet or how-to guide, introduce yourself, or all of the above?
ConvertKit has default forms and landing pages, but you will still want to think about how you would customize these forms for your business.
If someone takes the next step to give you their email address, your copy or offering is strong, and you have gone even further with the initial connection.
You have the most extraordinary opportunity of your business lifetime – a chance to deliver value that will hold that potential customer on your email list for a long-time to come.
Take advantage of ‘capturing’ the email by making sure your subscriber enjoys the initial interaction with you, and receives value.
Decide which path you want your subscriber to follow after providing you with their email:
Do you want to provide limited or detailed information?
Capturing the e-mail only after providing limited information usually involves a form. NOTE: the form could be on a website page that provides detailed information, or you could redirect the subscriber to a page after they sign up.
Capturing the e-mail after providing more detailed information is usually a landing page.
Do you want subscribers to re-confirm their e-mail? You will have to decide:
After submitting an e-mail, do subscribers have an additional confirmation from their email or will you auto-confirm?
If you require the additional confirmation, will you use the default sign-up acknowledgement or create a customized acknowledgement message?
Do you want to immediately send another message or offer?
After confirming, will you send them an incentive like a lead magnet (cheat sheet or how-to) to download, redirect to another URL like a page on your website, or leave the default settings.
In all cases, you can leave the default settings, and test the options at a later date.
1. Login to ConvertKit
If you have not yet set-up your free ConvertKit account, click here.
2. Click Landing Pages & Forms
The default front page is your subscriber list.
3. Click Create New
You will be taken to the first selection page.
Ready to set-up your email service provider? Sign-up for FREE at ConvertKit and get started today.
4. Choose form or landing page
The next part of the instructions covers creating a form.
To jump straight to creating a landing page, start at #12.
Create a Form
5. Choose a Form Display Format
The display formats appear exactly as they look like on the selection screen. Choose one that you prefer. If you cannot decide, think of how you feel when you see these types of forms on other websites, and decide which experience would work best for your business.
Inline – the form will appear ‘inside’ the page wherever you place it
Modal – the form ‘hovers above’ the page
Slide in – the form ‘arrives’ in a corner of the page
Sticky bar – the form is permanently placed at the top of the page
6. Choose a Template
The template you choose will define some of the functions that are initially available, but all can be customized.
7. Name Your Form
Create a naming convention that will make it easier to find your form in a long list.
For example, for Case Lane World (CLW) or Ready Entrepreneur (RE) I include the date and type of form as a reminder for example: CLW 2020 Book Giveaway
Click the edit pencil to change the name.
8. Edit Form
Click anywhere inside the form to edit the text or images. Additional edit options appear on the right side.
You can also add additional fields by clicking the plus sign. The menu on the right changes to new options. As of now, only email and first name are available fields.
9. Customize Form
On the right side, you will see the customization options. Click on the menu icon to see the available options.
Styles
You can change the features such as background color.
Settings
You can enter a specific domain where the form will be hosted, or choose the default ConvertKit domain by clicking ‘Choose a Domain.’
You also have the option to send a sign-up success message or redirect your subscriber to another page such as to information on your website.
Incentive E-mail
ConvertKit provides the option for subscribers to reconfirm their sign-up. If you are concerned about spam, you may want to leave this option checked. If you do not want your subscribers to go through the extra step, check ‘auto confirm.’
Re-confirming, or double opt-in is best practice. This means that the email holder has a second chance to say ‘yes’ they want in, and helps cut down on spam reports. This also provides another layer of permission to your lead capture. If the subscriber does not want to finalize with one extra click, the person may not be a good prospect.
Advanced Settings
This option allows you to decide where to direct return subscribers. You may not want them to see a form they have already completed.
Also on this page you can redirect to a thank you page as another outreach step.
You can also activate reCAPTCHA as an additional security step. That is the option to ensure a subscriber is ‘human’ by adding an additional confirmation.
10. Save Form
The form now exists in ConvertKit.
Ready to set-up your email service provider? Sign-up for FREE at ConvertKit and get started today.
11. Add Form to Your Website
To put the form on your website, you create an integration using the ConvertKit plugin for WordPress.
Download the ConvertKit plugin from the WordPress.org site.
On your website, install the plugin and complete the integration steps.
From your dashboard, the plugin functions will usually appear under Settings – ConvertKit. Select the form as a default for all posts and pages. Based on the display format you selected, the form will automatically appear on all your website posts and pages as that display.
You can also have a different form on selected pages.
When editing a page or post, this box will appear at the bottom. You can select a different form for a specific page or post.
Create a Landing Page
12. Choose a Template
ConvertKit has a variety of different templates to choose from. You can select the template by type of function like newsletter or event, or from the list of all available.
After selecting the template, you also have the option to add a Thank You page by selecting the plus sign.
13. Name Your Page (and Thank You Page)
Choose a name that follows your naming convention. Remember to name the Thank You page also since you will want to be able to find it separately.
14. Edit Your Page
Click anywhere on the page on the left, to make changes directly in the text, or to replace images, and use other options in the menu on the right.
Text can be edited directly on the page
15. Customize Your Page
Use the menu navigation on the right to make additional changes to the landing page.
Styles
Change text and backgrounds on the Styles tab
Settings
In Settings, choose the default domain or set-up a custom domain for this page.
Default Domain
Selecting this option makes the page live immediately. Choose your ck domain and add a specific page name in the URL field.
For custom domains:
In your website administration, create a new sub-domain for your top level domain, for example, page.mywebsite.com.
In ConvertKit, go to Account Settings – Custom Domain, and select the domain. NOTE: the landing page becomes the home page for your selected sub-domain. You would not typically use your top-level domain for this purpose because the landing page would be the home page of your website.
To activate the new domain, you will need to obtain the DNS records from your website hosting provider. The instructions for GoDaddy, BlueHost and Host Gator can be found by clicking here and scrolling to the end.
Incentive E-mail
You can require a double opt-in reconfirm for all entered emails, or auto-confirm new subscribers.
Double opt-in is recommended to prevent fraud and reduce misunderstandings and spam reports.
Advanced Settings
This option allows you to decide where to direct return subscribers. You may not want them to see a form they have already completed.
Also on this page you can redirect to a thank you page as another outreach step.
You can also activate reCAPTCHA as an additional security step. That is the option to ensure a subscriber is ‘human’ by adding an additional confirmation.
SEO & Analytics
You can track the performance of this page by adding your relevant tracking ID.
Ready to set-up your email service provider? Sign-up for FREE at ConvertKit and get started today.
If this information was helpful, please subscribe below to join the Ready Entrepreneur community, and receive more tips and strategies for aspiring entrepreneurs.
For questions or comments, leave a comment below or send an email to contactcase(at)readyentrepreneur(dot)com.
Ready to Start Your Online Business?
Click the Image to Learn More…
