It is rare for a first-time visitor to a website to make a purchase during that first visit. Even if the sales process is completely successful with that visitor, they will most likely give it a little thought. Then, if there is no more contact from your sales process, the demands of your daily life will take over and completely forget about your interest in making that purchase. The best way to avoid that scenario, apart from having them make that purchase on the first visit, is to make sure you continue to communicate with as many stakeholders as possible. Also, since at each stage of your sales process you will lose some of your visitors, it makes sense to place your continuous communication request directly on the initial home page of your website .

Placing your request for contact information on the home page of your website serves two main functions. One, of course, is capturing as many as possible before you begin to lose them due to distractions or parts of your sales message that are not effective. The second function, in many sales funnels, is the exact opposite. This purpose is to filter out visitors who are not interested enough so that they don't waste their time or resources as they enter the most active parts of the sales process.

There are many ways to collect contact information, but when you reduce all lint, bells, and whistles to the essentials, you are left with only two approaches. One approach is to offer something of value on the landing page which will need to provide some basic contact information to receive. In this approach, the visitor is still free to continue exploring their offer more deeply in their sales funnel, even if they don't take advantage of that early free offer on their landing page. The second approach uses essentially the same tools, but they get in the way of the visitor and, if they don't act, they can't continue to explore your offering. Which method is correct? The general answer is a solid and unwavering: "It depends." However, I can say that with the offers that I have and the clients that I have had until now, I never use that first option (unless the client insists ... even then I divide the test to demonstrate the reasons for that choice). Every sales funnel I use or build for my clients makes it impossible for visitors to continue without taking the action of providing their name and email (and sometimes phone number) ... in other words, demonstrating a level above average level of interest this blog post .

The mandatory nature of the landing page contact information requirement means that you must accomplish three things before that point. First, their sales message so far must be intriguing enough that they really want to know more and feel some loss if they stop now. Two, you must assure them that they can cancel email messages easily and with just one click. Third, you must assure the visitor that their contact information will not be shared or sold. Finally, always ... always ... honor those guarantees! Don't even use their contact information to talk to them about anything other than the offer in this sales funnel or related knowledge. They will not see you as correct because it is still you and you did not share or sell your contact information. They will only see that they suddenly get information and offers that they did not request and their credibility will be tarnished. Treat them and their inbox with respect. They showed interest in this offer. They provided you with a way to continue talking to them about this offer (or whatever you promised to send them in exchange for your email). Show them the respect they deserve and keep the part of your mess in the inbox that you are responsible for, focused on what they wanted to receive from you.