To paraphrase Kant very liberally:
Always treat people as people, never as cash bags to shove into a sales funnel.*
Opt-ins are important. They are a way of exchanging something for someone’s email address and permission to contact them.
Finding your opt-in sweet spot
Finding the balance with an opt-in is important. You want something that’s valuable for your subscribers, establishes you and who you are, and gives them a bit of a taste for what you do. You’re building a rapport with them.
But you also don’t want to overwhelm people either. Something that sounds enormous is not helpful. Like 120 Yoga Principles to Integrate into Your Life ebook might be jam packed with value, but people might feel like it’s just too much.
Keep it manageable, but…
Don’t rip people off.
Okay, so I get pretty riled when an opt-in page promises a whole lot and then the gift is nothing more than an extended sales pitch. Yuck.
I recently opted in on someone’s site for a pdf about e-courses. The content was pretty much useless and nothing but an extended sales pitch for their services. I felt cheated and unsubscribed. It’s a cheap tactic to try and give me “just a little bit of information but make me need to buy your thing”. That’s not sharing, that’s just shitty.
It’s not a nice way to treat people or get their email. I’ve never stayed on anyone’s list who treats me that way and I’ve NEVER bought anything from them. You’re basically saying to your subscribers that they are nothing more than potential buyers to you. It’s an off-putting vibe. You want to create a community first. Be genuine in your interactions. I’m not a business coach by any means, but I do value the connections and the friends I’ve made through my business.
*I’m almost 100% certain that this is exactly what he meant. 😉