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What is a Lead Magnet, And Why Do You Need One?

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So I’ve been working on something.

I have dedicated the past few weeks to building a lead magnet and, even further, a lead funnel. Don’t worry; I’m going to define those in a minute. But I have been investing so much time and energy into doing the education, creating this piece of content, and tying it all together with a marketing strategy, that I was so excited to share what I’ve learned with you!

One of the many reasons I love this podcast is that I can share the things that I’m focusing on to market my business and share that with you! So hopefully, you can start implementing something like this into your business and reaping the results with me.

So, let’s talk about lead magnets.

What is a Lead Magnet?

A lead magnet is a piece of value-filled content that you deliver to your customer in exchange for their contact information.

A lead magnet could be an e-book, a downloadable PDF, a checklist, a tutorial, a guide, templates, or anything of the like.

Why Are Lead Magnets Important?

What’s great about lead magnets is that it collects the prized JEWEL of digital marketing–an email address.

Contact information is GOLD because you can communicate with them via email, show up in their inbox, and create a relationship with them. Email marketing is such a powerful tool because people have literally raised their hands to hear from you. They want YOUR content.

Compare this to social media, where a whopping 3% of your audience sees your content due to the algorithms; you have a much higher chance of your audience reading your email in their inbox.

Not to mention, your email address list is something that you OWN. You don’t own your Instagram followers. You don’t own your Facebook group. If those platforms go down tomorrow, you literally have no way of communicating with your audience.

Okay, I am getting off my soap box of email marketing and getting back to why lead magnets are such a great marketing strategy for small businesses.

People may not be ready to buy something from you yet, but they may be willing to download something of value in exchange for their email address. This is where you can NURTURE your customers to the point where they feel ready to make that purchasing decision.

So how do you create one, how do you market it, and how do you get customers from it?

I’m about to tell all!

What is a Lead Funnel?

First and foremost, before we get started, I want to share the bigger picture of why you would create one in the first place and how it all goes together to form a marketing strategy:

      1. Someone shows up on your site to read a blog post, learn more about you, or see the services you have to offer
      2. Their scroll is stopped by an inciting popup that features a free guide that addresses their EXACT problem
      3. They are intrigued, fill out their information, and click submit
      4. You then deliver the lead magnet (usually via email and/or page redirect)
      5. You then have a series of emails that get sent afterward building and nurturing a relationship.
      6. You then send an email that asks for a sale. You want them to schedule a consultation, purchase something, subscribe, or buy your service.
      7. Meanwhile, they have been reading your emails, maybe followed you on social, returned back to your site to read your latest article, and, eventually, they know, like, and trust you enough that when you do make the ask, they are already primed up and ready to buy.

    See how you can follow the customer journey with this lead funnel? From awareness to consideration to purchase?

    That’s the bigger picture, but now let’s talk about how to actually create this.

    How to Create a Lead Magnet

    The first step you want to do is really hone in on your target audience. Your ideal customer. Ask yourself these questions:

    • Who are they?
    • What problems do they have?
    • Where do they go to get their information?
    • What do they care about?
    • What keeps them up at night?
    • How does your business solve those problems?

    This is a great exercise for any small business owner to do anyway: to get to that deeper level of what your customer really suffers from and how you are able to swoop in and save the day by with the solution to their problem. This is how you can structure all your marketing messages. Everything should be geared towards what problem you solve and how you make your customer’s life better.

    Now that you understand your audience, pick their most agitating problem.

    Your lead magnet needs to solve this for them.

    Examples of Lead Magnets

    Here are some examples:

    • 5 Steps to Create a Healthy Bedtime Routine for a sleep consultant
    • 10 No-Equipment Exercises for a personal trainer
    • 10 Reasons Why Your Website Isn’t Converting (my lead magnet)

    By the way, you can go grab that here.

    So now, you have your target audience in mind, the problem they suffer with, and the topic of what you want to actually create for your lead magnet.

    Caveat: You want to make sure this is something of value, and the content that is inside is VALUABLE. You don’t have to give away all your secrets, but you do have to be intentional about the value you are giving people. They are GIVING you their email address. To them, that’s worth something. You need to respect that choice and reciprocate the value they are giving to you.

    Even if you do give everything away, the odds are: people don’t want to do everything themselves anyway. Instead, this becomes an opportunity for you to upsell them. 

    If they are the DIYer, then you’ve given them value-filled content, and now they may be grateful to your brand and go tell their friends about you.

    When it comes to actually building it, I designed mine on Canva, the graphic design platform that I live and die by. I ADORE Canva, and my life has never been the same since I discovered it. it. Canva is a free graphic design software that you can use to design things like PDFs, infographics, checklists, social media posts, and more. You can also just do a simple word doc or a slideshow that you turn into a PDF.

    How to Promote Your Lead Magnet

    Once you’ve created one, it’s time to promote it!

     Add It To Your Site

    The first step is to add it to your site! Here is where you can place it:

    • Put it on your site as a popup
    • Find appropriate blog posts and link to it
    • Put it on your home page if it is appropriate and representative of what you do
    • Make a header banner
    • Add it to your footer

    If you are getting any sort of traffic to your website, you want people to be able to find it and download it in that moment.

     

    Promote the Lead Magnet

    Now it’s time to advertise it! Here’s how:

    • Social media posts
    • Stories
    • Facebook groups
    • Paid ads on Facebook
    • Send it to your referral partners

    The Key to a Successful Lead Magnet: Email Workflow

    You’ve created it. You’ve promoted it. Now you need to actually get customers from it.

    The way you do this is through email communication.

    The key to a lead magnet and any sort of lead funnel is to have an email workflow that goes with it.

    You need some sort of welcome sequence to deliver the freebie, introduce yourself, and gain that know-like-trust factor to the point where they would buy from you.

    My email sequence looks like the following:

    1: The freebie

    2: Why they should download the freebie

    3: What can happen if they follow the advice

    4: Who we are

    5: How we can help solve this problem for them

    6: What they are missing out on by not working with us/implementing the freebie

    7: What is possible if they work with us


    You definitely don’t need as many emails in your workflow. For my email marketing platform, I used something called Flodesk. I love Flodesk because you can create beautiful emails QUICKLY, and it has all the functionalities a small business needs: workflows, audience segmentation, and data.

    You can Get 50% off your first year of Flodesk using our link! 

    Wrap-Up

    So there you have it.

    First, you create a lead magnet that stems from your audience’s problem. Something that would help improve their lives.

    You then put it on your site and start marketing it

    All the while, you have built an email nurture sequence that keeps the relationship going.

    What is your lead magnet going to be? I’d love to hear your ideas! feel free to connect with us on social media or email us if you want an opinion or tips!

    Until then, keep succeeding small.

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