Joomla's got a great thing going right now. There are currently 7.5 million + entrepreneurs using the CMS platform. This equates to about 2.8% of the internet. Surely it will continue to improve and carve out more market share. I wanted to ask you a serious question today: "Is your Joomla site optimized to receive the maximum amount of leads and sales?". What's your answer to that question? Every site needs to have a few things:

What's your answer to that question?

Every site needs to have a few things:

• A newsletter
• An auto-responder service to deliver any free giveaways and newsletter
• Opt-in boxes in appropriate places to generate those leads and sales

The importance of having a newsletter

It's a widely accepted fact that the majority of buying occurs after multiple exposures. That means you have to have a way to 're-market' to those potential buyers or leads. First, you've got to get their contact information before you can add them to your newsletter. In addition to re-marketing to your leads, you're going to run special promotions, deals, and offers in the future. It's easier to get a customer to purchase again than it is to acquire a brand new customer. That's where the newsletter comes in. You re-market to your list of buyers to gain additional sales.

Let's talk about auto-responders for a second

There are dozens of auto-responders out there. Honestly, they're all great. Some come with more bells and whistles, while others vary in price. Do your due diligence and find the one that's the most appropriate for you. Some of the top ones out there are: MailChimp, AWeber, GVO, GetResponse, and so on. The auto-responder is the technology that keeps the list of all your leads, let's you send out broadcasts to them, and sends our messages automatically without you having to be there. Most marketers will create a valuable giveaway and the auto-responder will send it out as soon as someone opts into your list and becomes a lead.

Does your Joomla site have opt-in boxes in the appropriate places?

There are three places you must place opt-in boxes. Can you guess what they are? First, at the end of every blog post. Second, in the right side bar of your site. Lastly, on your 'About Us' page. In order for these opt-in boxes to perform well, you need to create some powerful copy. Make sure you're targeting your persona, giving them an appropriate and strong call to action, disclosing your treatment of their contact information, and having a picture of the giveaway.

Let's use an example. Say you run a site that's all about dogs. You want to create a valuable offer that appeals to dog owners. Ask yourself this question, "What would a dog owner be most interested in receiving?". After you've figured that out, go to work in creating a small eBook/pdf that's less than 15 pages. Make sure it's jammed full of value. Reason being? This giveaway is your lead's first impression of you. If you give away a crappy eBook, then you can almost guarantee that any subsequent email marketing will have bad results.

Conclusion

Make sure you've optimized your site properly so that you get the maximum leads and sales it can pump out. You'll do this by putting opt-in boxes in the three places I taught you, having an auto-responder service in place, and creating a newsletter.