With the GDPR being earnest about asking for permission to go further down in conversation with passers-by on your web property, you just saved a lot of effort.
Bare with me for a moment.
The new data protection regulation is hell-bent on making sure you give clear and straightforward information to people.
Be it for operation purpose or marketing purpose; you owe it to people to make sure they are aware of what you do with their data and in case of marketing activity that they gave you an unambiguous “yes” to do all your marketing magic with them.
So let’s say that a somebody just landed on your oh so well crafted lead magnet landing page.
And you made that white paper so compelling that she thinks she has a strong urge to read it.
Now, from there, you’re supposed to follow up with a bunch of emails to make sure you won’t miss an opportunity to convert to the next step.
Or you just pixel track her to make sure you can show your facebook ad in her feed.
Not so fast.
Before you can do any of this — follow-up or pixel tracking— you ‘ll have to ask if it’s ok.
This is where your copywriting skill will be put to the test.
Depending on how you come across trustworthy? Straightforward? un-gibberish? People will or will not decide to continue their relationship with you.
And this is where qualification happens.
We all know and have read that buyers research solutions online, without any prior conversation with vendors.
Once there are on your page, there’s a good chance they already have seen your name/product/solution somewhere else.
So at this moment asking for explicit permission is a way to know if this person who is reading your article, downloading your lead magnet want to talk further with you or not.
Why bother sending loads of email to someone who will never interact with your content again?
Or who knows that no purchase decision will be made before the next 6 or 12 months
Or who has no call about what gets to be purchased?
You’re skewing your conversion rate.
And if sales happen through a dedicated team, it’s a long way before this person has a chance to be sales qualified ready.
So why not, with the permission asking, having a micro conversation about “when do you want to hear from us next? One week, six months?”
“what is your timeframe to make your buying decision?”
“how could we help you decide if our solution fits your needs”…
Let’s get creative with what can be answered by clicking just one radio button.
You still need your passerby to check a checkbox positively to let you email her.
But while she’s at it let’s ask for one more tiny-teeny little more: 1 more click on a radio button.
And that’s it.
You may downsize your mailing list quite a bit, but in the meantime, you made sure you’re only talking to people who want you to.