You know of them. And you probably follow them. The business owners who generate an obscene amount of content every week. And on top of their podcasts and multiple videos or blog posts, they’re also creating a separate opt-in (freebie, downloadable, whatever you want to call it) for every piece of content they put out via their main content avenue.
I used to try to do that too. Aaaannnd I didn’t last very long.
Don’t get me wrong: I applaud those business owners who can create that much content at a high level. I wish I could. Heck, I did! But then, I found (for me) that it just wasn’t sustainable.
Eventually I decided that it wasn’t in my business’s best interests (or mine, for that matter) to try to keep up with the Joneses. And that I needed to spend my time on other things in my business.
Sure, I love to deliver free content to my audience. I put out weekly emails and YouTube videos, plus regular blogs and social content. All of it with the aim of educating my audience and building a relationship with them.
But to develop and design an additional piece of content for every blog post? I felt like that was too much and that it wasn’t doing anything for my business to continue creating that content.
Here’s why:
The fewer opt-ins you create, the more time you can spend on the ones you do create.
And with that, the better the quality of those freebies. When creating a separate freebie for every piece of content is a mandatory part of your workflow, you may have to force it from time to time because there just isn’t a freebie that will fit with your content. And forced content just doesn’t feel good to anyone.
[click_to_tweet tweet=”The fewer opt-ins you create, the more time you can spend on the ones you DO create.” quote=”The fewer opt-ins you create, the more time you can spend on the ones you DO create.”]
Instead, decide what your big messages are in your business–the main things you want to create content around. I call this your Zones of Genius and this also becomes your list of categories on your blog. Once you know what you’re going to share with your audience, create one quality freebie for each of these zones or categories. And when you write a blog post or share a podcast about that area, include the opt-in form for that freebie.
The more you create, the more you have to track.
Who doesn’t love a minimalist design at home? Less clutter and less to keep organized. (I’m in!) The same goes for your business. When you have 10, 20, 50 different downloadable freebies…that’s a lot to keep track of! And when each of these freebies needs to connect to a welcome sequence for your new subscribers?
Depending on which email service you’re using, your forms can get pretty messy if you have too many. Some providers don’t allow you to group them into different folders, and multiple forms means you need to track multiple avenues of new subscribers.
[click_to_tweet tweet=”The more content you create, the more content you have to track. That’s not necessarily a good thing.” quote=”The more content you create, the more content you have to track. That’s not necessarily a good thing.”]
And here’s the important thing to remember:
What you really want is to encourage people to subscribe to your list. You don’t need them to subscribe to your list 10, 20, 50 times. Once gets them on the list. And if you’re doing your email marketing right once they’re on your list? Well…Then they’ll stay there! No multiple opt-ins needed!
Interested in learning more? I’ll be launching a One Week to Your Welcome Sequence challenge in just a few weeks to help you learn more about nurturing your audience through a killer opt-in and a valuable and informative initial sequence. Gain access to my FREE Content Bank now and you’ll get all the details when they’re available!
