“What is a mouse-trap?” you ask…
For our purposes, a mouse-trap is a Squeeze Page (or Capture Page)
What’s that mean?
This is your method of getting people’s contact information so you can follow up with them.
Remember the “Pinball Machine“?
Well, this is where your “ball” (prospect) bounces when you score in your Pinball Machine…
People have checked you out, decided you’re OK, and are now going to leave their contact information because you’re offering something quite enticing.
This is your “mouse-trap.”
Offline, this is the equivalent of getting people’s business cards to follow up with them, whether it be on the phone or through email.
But, once again, this can be done much more efficiently online, by getting people to “opt in” to your email autoresponder.
*It is very important that people VOLUNTARILY opt-in to your list… Otherwise you have NO relationship with them (at least not a very good one) and they won’t buy anything from you.
So what is an autoresponder?
You probably know them as the automatic messages people send through their email providers to inform others when they are away from their computers and unable to answer email for a while.
And yes, you are correct.
But for our purposes (marketing), an autoresponder is set up through a reputable service that has a high deliverability rate (aka won’t be marked as spam).
What you do is write a series of emails that add even more value to your prospects – while also pre-selling them on your product(s) or service(s).
And the best part is that these are sent automatically whenever someone opts in to your list.
Furthermore, it doesn’t matter when they opt in – everyone gets the same emails, in the same order.
So in this age of too much information, overflowing email inboxes, and not enough time in the day…
HOW do you get people to give you permission to follow up with them regularly?
Good question – you make them an offer they can’t refuse…
You set up a “mouse trap” that has an enticing offer that is just too good to pass up.
That’s right, you give them a little bribe ;)
Give them a REASON to give you their contact info… because offering more emails just isn’t that enticing.
{Oddly enough, I’ve found that mice seem to prefer peanut butter over cheese, but maybe that’s just a Tucson mouse thing?}
Who knows, but the point is that you need to figure out what your mice like, what your target market is looking for.
This is a big one because, even if you “get” all the other stuff we’ve talked about so far, you STILL won’t be successful if you don’t understand this concept.
I see it all the time… businesses are building awesome blogs, Facebook Pages, and websites… but they don’t give people a good enough reason to opt in to their mailing list.
They’re not exchanging value for value.
Because, make no mistake about it, people’s email addresses ARE valuable… It’s a privilege to be able to communicate with them because that means they’re taking the time out of their day to read what you have to say.
So you want to make sure you give them something they would be willing to give some of their (precious) time for.
This could be useful info they’re interested in, or coupons, or specials, etc…
Kind of like what we offer here at OnTop ;)
About Derek Alvarez
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