Elements of the offer

Using Twitter your offer starts as a message that consumes 140 characters and includes a link or command to click on your profile link.

From there the reader is taken to a page that provides more information relative to the offer with an opt-in box (like a newsletter) or to a squeeze page (like Tweetmaxi.com). The squeeze page works better.

Which ever you prefer simply presenting an opt-in box is not as effective as writing copy to describe the benefits. There is no specific length of copy, the copy should be long enough to fully describe the offer and will no doubt consist of bullet points, highlighted paragraphs, graphics and perhaps a video thrown in for good measure nowadays – but each element has to do the job of causing the reader to moveon down the page to sign up.

If you use bullet points, put the best first and last.

You will get more people to sign up the fewer questions you ask, if you ask only for the email address, your emails may appear impersonal. Ask too many questions and you could blow it. Ask two – name and email address. If you need more questions answered, ask them later, or on the very next page…