Free Reports, Opt-in Offers, White Papers, eBooks For Your Online Business

Asking readers to subscribe to your weekly newsletters may not work for your business unless you are Oprah or Dr. Oz. Most readers have an inbox full of newsletters and are not about to subscribe to another unless they know the value.

Your opt-in offers can come in several forms. It could be a 10-12 page free report, eBook, white paper…whatever you call it they are almost the same. The most important step is to create a solid opt-in strategy. Craft an offer that exceeds expectations and compels your ideal client to leave their email and first name. The key is to build a highly targeted opt-in list.

In the past few months, a bulk of my writing has been in creating opt-in offers for businesses. Your free report does not have to be a few hundred pages. It has to be a short compact free report of about 10-12 pages that provide tons of value to subscribers.

A recent client wanted to offer a free report of 30 to 50 pages and he was not even thinking of the cost. He was willing to pay for the free report. But as a writer and one who has been writing free opt-in offers, I suggested against it. Mind you, that was a huge paycheck for me.

I took a pay cut for a smaller free report. Reason, I believe in serving my clients and helping them grow their businesses just like my own. That said, how do you decide on the type of offer and the length of your free report?

The whole reason for a free report is to provide value and to introduce the core of your message to your ideal clients and lead them to the next product or service you provide. After all, you are in business for profit, even if you are a non-profit organization, you need money to run your organization as well.

There are exceptions to everything. For some companies, a report of 30 pages or more may be important to achieve the next level or attract the best clients. Most importantly, you have to know your ideal client.

Who is your ideal client? What are they looking for when they visit your site?

Sometimes as experts in our field, we forget the fundamentals. I was just thinking about a conversation I had with someone the other day, when “Africa” was discussed as if “Africa” was a country and not a continent. Then there are other conversations where “processed foods” were considered quality healthy foods. For some of us who prefers natural products, it is definitely wrong to consider “processed foods” as quality healthy foods.

One thing is certain: we need to know where the ideal clients are at and ‘speak their language’. Speaking to a 15 year old is different than a 4 year old.

Writing and creating a free opt-in offer can be time consuming and overwhelming to some business owners. It requires marketing strategies and copywriting skills. After writing a free report, business owners need to have a way to capture the email and names, a sales page or squeeze page to place the opt-in offer and an auto responder series of emails.

Are you an overwhelmed online business owner looking for ways to create your own lead generation system? Maybe you are struggling to come up with a free report and need some help to figure out what to do and have someone to write that free report.

We have written many free opt-in offers and know what it takes to make it work. For more information, please contact us. Would be glad to offer a free 15-minute phone consultation to help you through the process.