Creating and growing an online business has been broken down into a bit of a science: grow an audience, warm the audience up, create a product they need, sell to them, repeat. It sounds simple, but each individual step of the process is just that, a process. Sure, some people strike internet fame and manage to build an audience seemingly overnight. But, for the rest of us, there’s a bit of leg work that goes into it. But, we’ve seen so many successful online entrepreneurs build their audiences and create careers for themselves online. What does that mean? We know what works and what doesn’t. And nearly every single successful entrepreneur has a lead magnet strategy.
As per our Digital Marketing Terms Glossary, a lead magnet is: bonus content given to people typically in exchange for their email address. This could be in the form of a free downloadable e-book or access to a special video.
For example, if your brand is around sustainable living, you can create an ebook walking people through the top 10 easy ways they can reduce waste in their home.
You’d gate this content so that they only way it’s accessible is through signing up for your email list. It’s a win-win. Your audience will get your awesome guide. And you get to add them to your email list.
To help you get started, this blog post will cover:
You’ve heard it before: getting started can sometimes be the hardest part. You know you should develop a lead magnet strategy. But actually figuring out what is worth offering to your audience is another battle entirely. But, don’t overthink things.
Think about your niche and your area of expertise. What are the most basic things your audience will need to know?
For example, if your brand is around reducing personal debt you might want to create a lead magnet detailing:
Or if you’re planning on creating an online course teaching people how to clear up their acne, you might create a lead magnet on one of these topics:
Think of your lead magnet as a primer for your paid products. In other words, what does your audience need to know to be qualified to take your online course? Or what can you offer your audience to get them excited about learning more from you?
Another thing to consider when you’re deciding upon a lead magnet strategy: how to format your lead magnet. Lead magnets come in all sorts of shapes and sizes, and different formats are better for different types of offerings.
Let’s take a look at a few examples:
The key here is to balance: what you have time to create and fulfill for your audience and how you can provide the most value for your audience.
Here is where things can get tricky: You have a great idea and you know how you want to package it. The big question here is how do you actually create it? The answer: It depends on how you plan on formatting it.
Like mentioned earlier, ebooks are one of the most popular content types for lead magnets. They’ve been around for forever and they’re easy to create. The process will look a little something like this:
Given our affinity for online courses here, we’ve already written an entire blog post detailing the process of creating a mini course to support your online business.
Shopping lists are one of the easiest lead magnet types to create. They can easily be made on Google Docs, and even shared through Docs, too.
Creating a shopping list with Google Docs:
Video guides are a bit more time consuming to create. However, they have got a huge impact. First, decide if you want your video to be slide-based or an actual recording of you teaching something.
If you choose to create a slide-based video, feel free to download our free slides you can customize to fit your brand. If you’re recording a talking head video, this blog post can help you set up a DIY recording studio. Once you’ve decided on your video type, create an outline or script so you are prepared when it comes time to film.
We often see people create content upgrades and then promptly forget about them. This is fine if your content will never become outdated (i.e. guitar strumming techniques are an evergreen skill). Yet, if your lead magnet is talking about making money through affiliate marketing in 2018, make a note to yourself that you’ll need to update the information for 2019.
Ultimately, a solid lead magnet strategy doesn’t have to be complicated. It all comes down to pin-pointing a need, deciding upon a formate, and getting it done.
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