22. Opt-in Page Copy - Funnels 101

Today, we’re heading to the very top of the funnel and talking about opt-in pages, what they’re actually for, and how to make sure they’re doing their job.

I’ve been in marketing long enough to work inside thousands of funnels, from Fortune 100 companies to my own six-figure business to the funnels I build for clients today. And while the tactics change, the structure stays the same: attract, educate, sell.

Your opt-in page is the bridge between attraction and education. It’s designed to move someone from problem unaware to problem aware and earn enough trust that they’re ready to hear more from you.

In this episode, I break down what belongs on an opt-in page, what’s non-negotiable, when to add extra sections, and how to keep the entire experience frictionless.

Next week, we’ll talk about thank you pages and why they might be the most overlooked sales asset in your funnel.

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Transcript

0:01

Hey friends, and welcome back to Copy and the marketing podcast where I help you write copy that sounds like you, but converts better. My name is Sam. I'm the founder and lead copywriter here at Nomad Copy Agency, and today. Class is back in session. Welcome to class number two of Funnels 1 0 1, where we're talking about what you need in your funnel. The last episode I talked about what is a funnel and some of the vocab that goes around funnels. We've got funnels in value ladders and top of funnel, middle funnel, bottom of funnel. What does it all mean? So if you're like, Sam, I thought I knew what a funnel was and I'm not entirely sure, go back to the last episode. Check it out. I've got answers for you there. Today we're jumping into what I consider the tippy top of your funnel, and that is opt-in pages. Let's freaking go. So I went to marketing school and then I went to a career in sales. And then I moved my career into sales copywriting. So I have been part of thousands of marketing funnels at this point. Both the ones where clients were coming to me, as well as now as a copywriter. The ones that I am creating for my clients and funnels look the same from micro businesses like mine that is making six figures to the companies that I worked for, which were Fortune 100 and 500 companies. We still. As salespeople tracked our sales funnels obsessively, actually. So when I say top of funnel, the first piece of copy is probably not actually your opt-in page. Specifically, I would work with Litchfield Media, with Melissa Litchfield, or with Kujo, at the art of online business. If you have questions about ads, those are the people that I would go to. Why? I wanna start with opt-in pages. Is because your opt-in page is what you're driving people to, whether that is through paid traffic, IE ads or organic traffic, which could be anything from referrals to the stuff you're posting on social media. You have to send them somewhere. Where do you send them to your opt-in page. So what is an opt-in page? An opt-in page is. A very simple page that probably lives on your website. That gets people to opt in to learn something from you. We spoke in the last episode about different levels of awareness within your funnel. Whatever they are opting into should take them from being problem unaware to problem aware, potentially even start moving them into. Solution awareness if you are going to teach them something. So we wanna take people from existing out in the market to making them interested in what you have to offer. Typically, opt-ins, whatever it is that you're giving them, is going to be highly educational and it's going to solve the first step of a much larger problem. But much larger problem is what paid working with you solves. But the opt-in is just that first step. For example, we might see PDFs that are checklists or workbooks or something like that. We may also see that be a webinar where we teach them something or a workshop where they get to do the first step where you. It may also be an opt-in to a challenge. I see challenges kind of coming back. I haven't seen as many challenges in the last few years, but a challenge would be take the first few steps and I will hold your hand and I will guide you. So an opt-in typically educates people, but we need them to opt-in on the opt-in page. So what goes copy wise on an opt-in page? Like every page. It has an above the fold, which, if you've been in my world for more than 12 seconds, you've heard me say that an above the fold should accomplish three things. It should tell people what it is that they're getting, why they should want it, and how to get it. That. How to get it is your call to action button. It should be large, it should be clear, and we should know what happens on the other side of an of that. CT. A CTA is called to action that button. So we should know what happens on the other side of it. So it might, there might be text around it that says, if you're ready to know more, and then it says, get on my calendar. Or it may say something like, you deserve this information at your fingertips. And the call to action button might say, download the PDF now. It may say something that's a little bit more transformative. You've heard me talk about Veronica Romney's book Identity Marketing and that people want to identify as somebody who has done the solution. It's more identity based rather than action based. So we may say something like, become or start doing the thing on that call to action button. Again, I have other episodes on all the different parts of the above the fold, and I'll make sure that those are linked in the show notes. Your opt-in page needs to have an above the fault telling people what it is, why they should want it, and how to get it. Honestly, you could leave your opt-in page there. You do not need to have more than that. Why? Because we've seen people opt in based on a footer on a website. We see people opt in from popups, so your popup and your above the fold text could be very, very similar. However, there's nuance to this as always. Where that nuance comes from is how did people get to your opt-in page? If people came from ads, they might not know you. They may be a cold audience. If they came through list swaps, they might also be a cold audience. A list swap is where somebody else sends out information about you and encourages their list to get on your list. If you're only promoting through social media, people might already know you, so you may not need a section about you on your opt-in page, so above, below the fold. What do you need? You may want to add something about who you are. This is not, this is Sam, and she's in Nomad. She's visited this many countries and she's really fun and has great hair. No, this is What is your authority to teach them this thing? People love statistics. A great way to do this would be to say something like. We will say Chelsea is a launch manager, we'll say, after managing over 30 launches in 2025, Chelsea realized one thing was holding people back from having successful launches. Click here to learn what that is and how you can prevent making the same mistake in your launch. That's an about section. We just built her authority and then drove people back to the call to action. Other things you may wanna have on an opt-in page are a little bit more details about what they're receiving, especially if this is an educational event such as a webinar masterclass, something like that. We may wanna build out some information on this opt-in page, telling them what they're going to learn, maybe a few key points so that they can be sure that this is for them. However, anything more than a few scrolls is too much for an opt-in page. Why? Because they're opting into something that is free if you do a bunch of value adding and talk about what the investment could be. If you're adding a bunch of information about what's involved and how much it's valued at it's gonna end up seeming too good to be true. People are going to get lost in that page and they're not going to opt in. You want this to be as frictionless as possible. You simply want to get this person's information so that you earn the right to sell to them in the future so that you can send them emails and reminders and invite them to the event if that's what you're doing. I have a few examples of this on my website, and I'm gonna link it in the show notes below. But I have an opt-in copy bot that will write your opt-in page for you. And honestly, it asks like five simple questions, as long as you know what it is and why people should want it. It's gonna write that opt-in page for you in a matter of minutes. Also on my website, and I'm linking these below. I have three templates for different kinds of opt-in pages. So if you have a webinar or a masterclass that you're running, I've got a template for that one, for just a freebie. That's a download, typically A PDF, and I have a third one that is for challenges specifically if you are running a challenge. There's so much nuance here, so I've got a template for you there as well. These will all be in the show notes. This is the top of your funnel, so hopefully you are bringing in hundreds of people. From your opt-in, you wanna drive as much traffic here as possible and make sure that people are actually opting in when they get on the page. This is a super important page to track your conversion rate on so that you know if people are falling out of your funnel. I want you to get eyeballs on this, and I want you to get conversions from this page, so definitely grab the opt-in copy bot. It's in the show notes below. Feel free to grab one of those templates as well if that's helpful for you, What do people see once they have opted in is they're going to see a thank you page. I think this is one of the most underrated and overlooked pieces of copy in your entire funnel, and we're gonna talk about how to turn it into one of your best salespeople. See you next week when we talk about thank you pages. Hey friends, me again. I am here to kind of backtrack on something here because I realized I left out a very important piece of copy that goes on your opt-in page, and that is the actual form so that people can opt in. So when we talked about the above the fold, you should still tell them what it is, why they should want it, and how to get it, that call to action button. However, right above the call to action button, you should have the form that has at minimum first name and email address. We want this to be as frictionless as possible. So the fewer questions the better. I don't typically ask for a last name. I don't typically ask for their phone number unless you have a real reason for needing it. And sometimes there's a market research question that I would encourage adding in there, but I will talk about that in the next episode. So, to recap, this little addendum is that yes, we want everything that I said previously, however, if at all possible, put the. Form right above that first call to action form above the fold. We want opting into your email list to be the easiest thing they do all day.