For the first ten years of my career I worked in Fashion, and at the company I worked for, we knew the importance of growing our email list. It’s where the majority of our sales came from.

Now what is different in the fashion world, is that you didn’t really need to promote your list and give incentives for people to sign up.

You just needed to say, ‘Join our email list to receive Latest Offers, Sales and News’ and poof you had them at, hear about our Sales.

When I first started my service based business I didn’t know what an Opt-In was, but I kept hearing it everywhere.

What’s your Opt-In? How many Opt-In’s do you have? To which my face was drawing a big blank.

When you are starting out there are lots of things you’re not going to know and this was one of mine. So if you’re reading this post because you too were clueless, then allow me to enlighten you and shine a light on Opt-In’s.

What the hell is an opt-in?

An Opt-In is an incentive ‘Freebie’ for you to give your online audience a reason for signing up to your email list, they are giving you permission to email them.

Now your Freebie can be anything that you feel will give value to your audience.

For instance if you’re writing a blog about Making Clothes (using my Fashion background here) then your Freebie might be, ‘10 Things You Must Buy Before Making Your First Garment’ - fabric scissors, pattern cutter, tape measure etc.

My readers want tips on how to create beautiful brands through their websites and photography, so I wanted to break that down into a checklist for people who are just starting the process…

My Opt-in: Launch Your Website Checklist

From buying your domain to picking your photographer for your website shoot, it takes you on the entire journey of creating your new and beautiful kickass website.

Why Do You Need One?

You need an Opt-In because you NEED to grow your email list. It doesn’t matter what you’re doing on social channels, you may have huge followings but you do not own those people’s details. If something were to happen with them one day, you’d have no big audiences anymore - look at MySpace as an example. Now I’m not saying Facebook is going to disappear but having your own email list is crucial in growing your business. If you have any new programs you’re launching or an online course you can’t wait to share with the world - it’s your email subscribers who will be the most excited to buy, buy, buy. They’ve signed up for your list because they like you, they want to hear about what you have to offer them. Right now you may not have a program, a course, a retreat but you will do in 6 months, a year - two years, so get that list started today.

Here are my list of Freebies you can create for your Opt-In, followed by an example of how to use it…

1. Tools and Resources

eg. 5 apps that you couldn’t live without to grow your business

2. Checklist

eg. Launch Your Website Checklist

3. Cheatsheet

eg. Laundry Stain Cheatsheet

4. Tracker

eg. Monthly Finance Tracker

5. Email Responses

eg. 5 Pre-Written Email Responses for Website Designers to use with Clients

6. Secrets

eg. 5 Secrets To Booking Your Next Photography Client

7. Book sample or a short form eBook

eg. Get Chapter 1 of My Book On How To Grow Your Email List Rapidly

I’d love to hear what Opt-In ideas you have, please comment below and help future readers of this post who are looking for inspiration. Maybe you have another Freebie example, Inspirational Screensaver for instance? Boom and there’s your Bonus Freebie from me ;-)