Are you efficiently building a database of prospects for your landing page or website? Are you capturing your visitors to turn them into buyers?
Unfortunately, many marketers underutilize effective direct marketing principles to ensure prospects give their email address.
The starting point is to have a powerful incentive on a floater (on every page) and fixed tease offer in logical areas on every page.
An incentive that’s worked for many of my clients is offering a free bonus report…
A bonus report is a 2-30 page white paper on a specific topic your company may specialize in.
If you own an online pet food company, for example, it would be tips on some aspect of pet care. If you run a financial services company, it could be about a specific area of retirement planning.
Bonus reports are an exciting, value-added way to increase your likelihood of capturing an email address.
The fat is, no prospect wants to give their name and email address to a website without a good reason. They think, “Why should I?”
You need to answer this question. Why should they?
You need to appeal to them with something that’s in their self-interest. An incentive that will make them want to give their email address. A free bonus report is the answer for many reasons.
It gives your prospect the feeling of added value. It creates credibility since you’re positioning yourself as an expert on a problem It’s a gift that’s a sales piece. What could be better?
The key to making a bonus report a motivator is an enticing title. Give them an itch they have to scratch.
Here are some examples of must-have, mouth-watering teases:

  • The 4 Ways People Dash Their Retirement Plans
  • 10 Foolproof Methods to Win the Refinancing Game
  • Avoiding the 6 Red Flags that Guarantee an Income Tax Audit
  • The Unbreakable Rules of Starting a Successful Small Business

Incidentally, many marketers will call these “white papers.” Never call them white papers. White papers conjure up boring, data-heavy copy. Call them special reports or bonus reports.
Here are several floaters I created for clients:

Think about your audience. Think about what they need and provide them with a solution to their problem… with a bonus report.
Your website could be capturing double or triple your current amount of email addresses. Creative Direct Marketing Group can work with you to find the areas of your business that could benefit from a special report.
Call me at (310) 212-5727 or email me at [email protected]. We can help you put together a series of bonus reports that could build your customer and prospect database.