When Derek Halpern hit the internet marketing scene with his Social Triggers site he completely blindsided everyone.
The IM Niche is one of the toughest markets to crack. But for Derek, he broke into it like a kid ripping into a pack of smarties. Going from relatively unknown blogger to doing keynotes for marketing conferences.
Derek is a bit of a rebel when it comes to most things – including how he grew his email list. Going from 0 – 15,000 subscribers in about 10 months.
And while most people are giving away eBooks, reports, whitepapers, webinars, coupons, giveaways etc to grow their list.
He’s doing something totally different.
And it’s working.
Don’t Offer Any Incentive (Opt-In Bribe) to Get People Onto Your List
You read that right.
Derek doesn’t offer any type of bribe to get you onto his list.
Sure he uses some smart use of testimonials to build credibility and a colourful image to get your attention. But really, aside from that – his optin forms aren’t very sexy.
Here are some examples of what I’m talking about…
The Feature Box (aka The Halpern Header)
Here's a look at his sidebar opt-in form...
The Sidebar Opt-In
See. Nothing really spectacular going on here. No sexy opt-in forms for Derek.
So how did he do it?
How did he go from absolutely no subscribers to 15,000 practically overnight?
By offering extreme and interesting value on his blog.
There’s three key things that you begin to notice after reading social triggers for a while. Key elements that really have propelled his growth and fame.
1. The information stands out
2. It can be applied right away
3. He has a completely unique style.
His site is sticky. It’s based around a hot topic (the psychology of selling online – think Robert Cialdini’s Influence for the digital age).
And Derek gives and gives and gives.
So what can you do?
What’s interesting for Derek is that his main focus is on content marketing. Developing and churning out consistent quality content.
I’ve been on his email list for a while. He doesn’t really have an autoresponder sequence setup. He doesn’t blast affiliate offers day and night (just every so often). And he pretty much just sends out messages that are tied back into a recent blog post that he wrote.
And that’s a fantastic tactic by itself.
Nurture your current community by offering valuable content that your readers want to consume. And once you get their email address treat it like gold.
So how can you take what Derek’s doing and apply it to your business?
Here’s 4 ideas to play around with and try out:
1. Find your unique voice
2. Choose a relevant (read hot) topic that people are interested in and come at it from a different perspective.
3. Give your readers great information that’ll help them grow their business
4. Make it obvious that you have a newsletter to opt into
Now I’m not saying it’s going to be easy to implement these four ideas for your business. I’m saying that it’s going to be worth it.
It has been for Derek.
Hope this helps.
The MyBizMailer Team
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