Most online business owners believe that all you have to do is put a good-looking website up on the internet and the phone will start to ringing instantly with new clients. But internet leads and mailing list work best when you build a relationship between yourself and the online prospect.

The best way to do this is to create a document of interest that you know your visitors want, need or enjoy. A website that is offering something for free in return for their name and contact details. That way you can build the relationship with them over time and don’t have to win them over in the space of one website visit. But what should you offer them?

Offer – Key Information on a Related Topic to your business or Website

We will call this a spot-offer-article. This is usually a free report, a newsletter, a top ten tips sheet… something that is so interesting to your target market that they are prepared to give you their name and email contact details right there and then to get their hands on it.

The important characteristics of a spot-offer-article are:
•    It’s free
•    It can be delivered immediately
•    It’s relevant to your target market
•    It has a strong title
•    It’s only available in return for name and email address details

Example of a Spot-Offer-Article Ad on your website


What you are aiming to do with your spot-offer-article is to create a strong and immediate desire in your website visitors. Strong enough for them to give you their details on the spot and get their hands on your offer straight away.

So you must ask yourself, what does this online target market really want to know?

Often the best way to come up with targeted content is to think of the title first. You know that question that so often gets asked in surveys… ‘What’s your greatest challenge?’ The answers to that question regularly get turned into freebie offer titles.

So if your target market’s greatest challenge is: ‘How to make more income from home”, the article title becomes something like this: ‘Top 7 secrets of high-earning home businesses’. Then you write your top 7 tips. You don’t have to give everything away, but what you write must offer value. And so begins the relationship with another potential new client.

What’s the best format for a spot-offer-article?

Many online marketing professionals deliver a free weekly or monthly newsletter with additional tips as their spot-offer-article. Others send a free report or top ten tips list, I think you get the point that it cannot be lame nor have no value, good information is the key to return visitors and creating new clients.

In closing, the immediacy of a spot-offer-article is generally more appealing to an interested website visitor, so you will probably find that you get more sign-ups if you choose this format. On the other hand, a newsletter gives you the opportunity to build the relationship better by offering useful and interesting content on a more regular basis.
Good Luck!


Matt – Your SEO SEM GURU!!!!