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Converting More Free Downloads To Paid Customers
by Sean Cohen

Do you give website visitors the opportunity to download a free trial of your product or service with the intention that they will come back and purchase? How are you following up with these visitors? Asking them to fill out a form and immediately giving them the download on the next page is not the best way to generate a quality opt-in list. Collecting accurate opt-in information from these visitors is essential to follow up education and making the sale.

Download giveaway opt-in conversion is extremely simple when done with the correct process. Unfortunately many businesses are leaving significant profits and subscribers on the table by using the wrong methods.

Wrong Way

A visitor comes to your site and they fill out a form to request your free download. Upon submission of the form they are taken to your thank you page where you provide the link to download.

This person has been given your download but you have not given them a reason to subscribe to your list. They might have given you a fake e-mail address and in all likelihood did give you a fake e-mail knowing that they just need to get to the next page to receive your information. Since you can't follow up with them you might have lost a sale.

Correct Way

On your "thank you" page (or redirect page) they are taken to after they fill out the form you need to provide information on verifying. Verified opt-in allows you to ensure that the person subscribing did so with his or her own e-mail address and didn't provide a fake or malicious e-mail. Let the visitor know that they should check their e-mail Inbox. Tell them what the subject line of the email says so they know what to look for. Convey that they must click on the link inside to verify and receive the download link to your product.

In the autoresponder they receive after verifying, give them the download link. Since they are subscribed to your list and have confirmed that the address they provided is valid, you can effectively follow up providing more information about using the free or trial software, training tips, and further benefits or features earned by becoming a customer.

Using these techniques you are sure to increase your sales when converting free downloads to paid customers.

Sean Cohen, Director of Client Relations & Development of Newtown, PA based AWeber Communications, Inc. an opt-in e-mail service provider. With 7 years managing opt-in follow-up and newsletters for small businesses.

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