A QUICK DEFINITION FIRST.
One of the most popular and most easy to use verticals (product categories) are SOI and DOI LEADGENs. To be fair, I shouldn’t even be calling this a vertical as it’s basically a “conversion point” or “collection method” that can be used in pretty much any vertical there is.
SOI stands for Single Opt In – so the user has to agree to something, opt in to something, and there is no need for a second confirmation – hence the name SINGLE. The most used way of expressing consent is by entering their email address into a collection box, or creating an account by going through some simple registration process.
In order to comply with anti-spam regulations and to reduce the amount of fake/bogus registrations, SOI quickly evolved into DOI, which means Double Opt In. All this means, is that there is one more step required, in order for the conversions to be considered valid. The users need to confirm their intent by clicking a verification link or typing in some code into a verification box. The verification link is sent to the user via email pretty much every-time, which serves as a way to verify their email address too.
WHY WOULD ANYONE OPT-IN FOR THIS IN THE FIRST PLACE?
In order for the people to give you their email address, or register at your site, you need to offer them something, this is called the BAIT. These are usually “temporary free memberships” to a paid members area, a chance to win something (iPhone, voucher, cash prize), or a chance to test/get some product for free. There are many variations of this approach that advertisers utilize and it’s not possible to list them all, but these are the most used ones.
A typical example would be a paid dating site, where you can create the basic profile for free. Or a “healthy living” e-shop that gives a free e-book about healthy food to registered people for free, or a sweepstake offer that gives people a chance to win an iPhone or a shopping voucher.
Basically any business can benefit from collecting SOI or DOI leads. Insurance companies offer free quotes delivered straight to your email. Leasing companies will prepare a leasing calculation for you, all you need to do is to ask for it and give them your email address. Banks, realtors, travel agencies … all of them will happily send an offer to you, or reach out to you … just show your interest and give them the consent to contact you by email or phone.
Leadgen offers, SOI or DOI, are all about finding people who are willing to give their consent to companies who want to sell them something – consent to approach them with offers. Leads are basically these possible future customers. Since these customers aren’t really obliged to actually buy anything, they are pretty easy to convert.
WHAT HAPPENS AFTER THE CONVERSION IS COMPLETED?
The first thing that happens, when a user enters their email address or completes the short registration form, is the launch of the so-called “auto-responder sequence“. This is a series of email’s that will be automatically sent to the email address used during the sign-up process. First one will be a “welcome” message along with the confirmation, these are usually sent even in case of SOI offers, simply to comply with anti-spam legislative.
The following emails are all trying to convert the user into a paying customer, either by becoming a paying member, buying some product of the advertiser or by buying some other’s vendors product or service – this is called up-selling. Every advertiser starts by trying to sell their own products first, but when they realize that the lead in not interested in it, they look for other monetization methods. They try to either resell the lead to someone else or directly promote products/services of their competitors or partners.
It is also not uncommon to see instant co-reg (re-selling) in action – which basically means to register a user at multiple platforms at once. For example, let’s say someone registers at a dating site for older people. After entering the email address, this user will get confirmation requests from 5 related dating sites at once. This means, that the first dating site actually resold the SOI lead to 4 more dating sites immediately, who now all want to up-sell to the same user. This process will obviously damage the quality of such leads as it just creates a lot of unwanted emails that annoy everyone.
WHY SHOULD YOU PROMOTE LEADGEN OFFERS?
As I already said at the very beginning, leadgen offers are very easy to convert, especially the SOI versions. User just enters the email, hits submit and bang, we have a conversion – more or less this way 🙂 It really doesn’t get much more easier than this. This makes these offers ideal candidates for any aspiring affiliate marketer, especially when working with paid traffic.
Another big positive is that there is a lot of legitimate leadgen offers out there to find. And since everybody want’s leads, it’s also possible to strike individual deals with pretty much any business you would like to work with. I have a friend who promotes a brand of fitness studios, using a variation of a SOI leadgen setup … the options are really limitless.
COLLECT LEADS FOR YOURSELF
This model is also the easiest to implement in case you have your own site or sites and want to make some money with it – in the most legitimate and ethic way possible. Offer something of value to your users and they will happily give you their email address. Then, once you have a product that you know they would benefit from, simply email them about it – in case it’s a good one, some of them will buy it. It’s that simple.
The key here is to build trust with your readers. Try to sell them some crap and spam their email with nonsense … and they will go away. Lie to them, they will figure it out and leave again. But, offer value to your readers and they will be coming back for more. This model can work extremely well in connection with writing reviews … are you an expert in some field? Review stuff that relates to it!
Show your readers that you really KNOW what you are writing about. Everybody want’s information from someone who is skilled and knowledgeable about certain subject. Collect leads by targeting people who understand you are an expert at something and they will definitely follow the advice you are giving. Do it in a honest way and you actually make solid money with it.
I think it would be a good idea to write a separate post about how to build and run a review site, what do you think (post in comments)?
To close this article : SOI or DOI leagen offers are a strong part of the affiliate industry. I would say every affiliate has promoted these at some point and I personally am pushing these a lot. You should definitely test them too!
Thanks for reading.
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