Most people who’ve been in the business have no trouble spotting a lead. Potential leads flood the market like bees hovering around a hive. Identifying a lead who has a high probability of turning into a prospect, however, is another matter entirely.
Snagging a legitimate lead is a challenge for beginners and well-versed experts alike. After identifying a lead and communicating with them through whatever channels (be they phone calls, emails, or advertisements), finally getting them to buy from you is where the rub actually lies. Only at this definitive point do you actually start seeing green.
So when someone is offering to provide, or better yet guarantee a whopping 55, 60, or 65% opt-in rate, just hold your horses, because something certainly smells fishy. More likely than not, an excessively elevated opt-in rate of 60% is being promised to lure unsuspecting victims to choose their shady service instead of a legitimate one that has realistic promises.
The Perils of Lead Stuffing
While the allure of acquiring a high opt-in rate is nice, the risks generally outweigh the possible benefits. Lead stuffing practices are frequently led by dreaded bot traffic. Bots not only distort your numbers, but may also produce pestering spam and irrelevant comments with no return of any real value.
More importantly, having fake emails on your list can reduce your ability to hit the inbox of those that asked for you to email them. If an email address is never opened, your emails don’t get read. If your emails don’t get read, it’s impossible to transform the lead into a sale. Plus, having a large amount of the people you send email to never open the emails you send becomes an indication of the quality of the messages you’re sending. In other words, the people that signed up for your list because they want to hear from you may stop seeing your emails and your messages can be sent straight to their spam folder.
Getting tied in with false leads sucks up precious time and, at the end of the day, results in nothing more than a waste of email list space. Stay clear of lead stuffing. Don’t gamble your time and reputation on flashy numbers.
Spotting a Good Opt-in Rate
A myriad of factors determine what a “good” opt-in rate should be, which is why there is no golden standard. It is reasonable to believe someone is trying to dupe you with an unrealistic opt-in percentage. On the average, opt-in rates range from 20% to 40%. Anything above 30% generally means you’re doing well and any percentage below 20% means you should consider making drastic changes.
How to Increase Opt-in Rates
You should take measures to increase the opt-in rates of your leads instead of turning to lead stuffers. Of course, a common strategy is to utilize a squeeze page, which is a landing page other than your normal home page that your traffic gets sent to. If you just had a lead capture area on your home page, then you should seriously consider using a squeeze page as well. This is where all paid traffic should be sent to if possible.
A squeeze page only exists for one reason: To capture names and email addresses. The advantage of a squeeze page is that it can be dedicated exclusively to a particular deal or product you sell.
A squeeze page allows you to centralize your offer while avoiding unnecessary distractions or even unwanted confusion. The page provides the kind of clarity and intention people can appreciate. The entire page is dedicated to making an offer in exchange for the prospect’s name and email address. Opt-in rates for such pages are generally 20% to 40%.
Another way to boost opt-in rates is to employ pop-ups that open every time they visit your website. Leads who are interested can immediately choose to opt-in by clicking on the pop-up, and those who are not can just as easily close it. Pop-ups can be irritating to some, but the payback is worth it. Anyway, most people are so accustomed to pop-ups that they are quickly forgotten by uninterested parties. If you can pull a 10 – 15% opt-in rate from a pop-up, you’re doing well.
The final option is to simply be more diligent about collaborating with high caliber copywriters who are capable of thinking outside the box and consistently delivering top-notch sales copy. It’s more work, but the effect is potent and long-lasting. Hey, whatever gets the job done, right?
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