How To Create A Lead Magnet That People Actually Want
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How To Create A Lead Magnet That People Actually Want: In your search to find information about building a lead magnet to grow your email list, you’ve likely come across a few checklists, offering solutions in exchange for your email address.
That my friend is a lead magnet! But here’s what I know to be true.
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You don’t need another checklist. What you need most is a quick and easy guide that will allow you to focus on the most important components of lead magnet marketing, so that you can get going on the actual creation process.
So let’s give you the goods right here and now! In this post, I’m sharing the 8 most important lead magnet creation steps with you so that you can get going on creating your first lead magnet today!
How To Create A Lead Magnet That People Actually Want
How amazing would it be to create an opt-in freebie that was downloaded by hundreds of people on the day it was released?
If you’re trying to grow your email list, opt-in freebies will be your magic beans. 99% of my list growth has come through the opt-in freebies I offer on my website and social media.
What is an opt-in freebie and how exactly should you create them?
That’s what today’s post is all about…
What exactly is a lead magnet or opt-in freebie?
An opt-in freebie, aka lead magnet, is a free resource you give to someone in exchange for them joining your email list.
Your freebie can take a lot of different forms, including:
- A workbook
- A checklist
- A cheat sheet
- A video tutorial
- An email course
- A discount code
- A template
- A masterclass
5 Steps to Create An Opt-In Freebie Your Audience Loves
Every blogger should create an opt-in freebie to help convert readers into email subscribers.
In case you’re not sure what a lead magnet is, it’s a free offer or free gift that you giveaway on your blog in exchange for contact information from your readers.
Offering free resources in exchange for people’s email address is one of the best list-building strategies around!
Last week on my podcast we discussed what makes people want to open your emails and buy what you sell. And I’ve shared strategies for what you should do to build an irresistible offer.
And today, I want to dig into what makes a great lead magnet, in the first place.
The key to creating a solid freebie is to find a topic and format that your readers resonate with and that they’re happy to hand over their email addresses for.
How do you do that? Let’s find out.
Step #1: Market research & choose a topic
To create a freebie your audience loves, you need to know your audience inside and out.
What topics are they interested in? What do they need help with? Where do they hang out online?
If you’re not sure, do some market research.
Make a list of the places your ideal readers hang out. These could be forums, Facebook groups, or social media platforms.
Then head to those places and do some digging. Connect with people, ask them what they’re struggling with, or create a Typeform survey and have them fill it out.
Once you’ve generated a list of your ideal reader’s problem areas, it’s time to choose an area to focus in on.
Which problem best matches up with your expertise? In other words, which question are you most comfortable answering or which problem are you most confident solving?
That’s the topic for your freebie.
Step #2: Know What Your Audience Values
The real question is…Do you know what your audience wants and values?
What you do not want to do is start creating a lead magnet that is based completely on what YOU want to share with your audience because the truth is…they may not care as much as you think.
Instead, pay attention to what your readers mention in the comments, track which of your blog posts have the highest open rates, and even send an email or quiz to ask what information they value most.
Survey your audience!
Doing these things will give you a better glimpse of your audience’s desires and allow you to create a lead magnet of greater value.
Step #3: Choose a format & name
As mentioned above, your freebie can come in many different forms, from checklists to workbooks to videos and more. The goal is to make sure that the content in your freebie is perfectly suited to the format you present it in.
For example, a tech tutorial might work best as a video where you record your screen and talk through what you’re doing. If you’re sharing a long list of items to complete, you could create a checklist for your audience.
Take a few minutes to figure out the best format for your freebie. Then it’s time to come up with a fun name for it.
You want the name to be catchy, intriguing, and memorable, while still being simple enough for people to remember. Names are crucial, not just for freebies, but for everything in your business.
Step #4: Be Very Specific
The first thing you want to do when creating a lead magnet is to make sure that the focus on your lead magnet is very, very specific.
This means being specific in the topic that your lead magnet covers and specific in the audience that your lead magnet targets.
What you absolutely do not want is to try to create a lead magnet that is a “Catch All” for every segment of your target audience…and yes your target audience likely has segments.
Let’s say for instance, that your blog focuses on helping other people to launch their own money-making blog. You could:
- Create a lead magnet that shares helpful tips on starting the blog process
- Offer a lead magnet that helps your readers set realistic goals for growing their blog
- Offer a lead magnet that helps them to get more traffic to their blog.
These are 3 unique offerings that are very specific.
When you create a lead magnet, you will want to create a free offer of value that speaks to the desires of just one of these segments of your audience.
We’ll talk more about speaking to the desires of your audience below. Here are a few easy lead magnet ideas to get you inspired.
The more specific you can be, the more value you can give, the more well-received your lead magnet will be.
Step #5: Create your freebie
Now comes the fun part: Actually writing and designing your freebie! The design tool you use for this step will vary depending on the type of freebie you’re creating.
For recording a computer screen in a video tutorial, I use QuickTime. For creating checklists, workbooks, PDFs, or anything visual, I use Canva or Adobe Illustrator.
Here are a few tips to keep in mind when creating your freebie:
- Incorporate your brand fonts and colors to improve recognition
- Add your logo and domain name so people know where the freebie came from
- To save time, design social media graphics to promote your freebie as you’re designing the freebie itself
If design really isn’t your strong suit, take a look at the Ultimate Lead Magnet Builder from Basil & Bark. With over 50 design templates to choose from, there’s sure to be something in here for your next freebie.
When it comes to the content inside your freebie, it should be specific, actionable, and straight-to-the-point.
People are busy, so help them achieve a quick win and encourage them to take action immediately.
Once your freebie’s looking fresh, it’s time to set up the automated delivery.
Step #6: Give Instant Gratification
Imagine you walk into a new restaurant that all your friends have been telling you about.
You sit down, take a look a the menu, find some awesome description of a dish that has your salivary glands watering, and as soon as you place the order, your waiter informs you that the dish will take 3-4 hours to prepare.
OH NO WAY! This is likely what you think to yourself, right?
Well, the same goes for your lead magnet. You want to give your readers instant gratification to consume whatever lead magnet you choose. They don’t want to wait for the goodies. They want it ASAP!
The lead magnet should include highly valuable content that is easily digestible. This likely means steering clear of 100 page eBooks and 5-week long online courses.
While you might think you are delivering a lot of value in these longer materials, your reader may be overwhelmed by it, not to mention the gratification period is anything but INSTANT.
Consider a short ebook or pdf workbook. Printable workbooks actually work great as lead magnets! The point is to keep your lead magnet short, relevant, and as simple as possible.
Once you have collected your reader’s email address in exchange for your lead magnet, you can follow-up with longer more in-depth information – and offer THAT for sale.
Step #7: Deliver your freebie
Next up, you’ll need a way for people to sign-up and receive your freebie. One of the reasons I love ConvertKit is because they give you customizable sign-up forms and landing pages to use for your freebies.
I also use LeadPages, which I love, to create pop-up boxes and landing pages. You can get a free trial of LeadPages here.
In terms of freebie delivery, there are a few different ways you can deliver your freebie to new subscribers when they sign up.
You can set it up so that the freebie is included in the welcome email your new subscriber receives from you.
Or you can create a password-protected Resource Library that houses all of your freebies and then send the password to new subscribers in the welcome email.
Because I use ConvertKit for my email list, let me quickly walk you through how to deliver your freebie with ConvertKit.
1. Create a ConvertKit Form for your new freebie.
2. Create a new Sequence in ConvertKit and name the sequence after your freebie.
3. In the first email in the Sequence, welcome the subscriber to your mailing list and then share the freebie with them, either by attaching it to the email or sharing it as a link via Dropbox or Google Drive.
4. Set up an Automation rule so that when someone subscribes to this Form, they’re automatically subscribed to the Sequence.
5. (Optional) In the same Automation rule, you can set it so that your new subscriber is also tagged with the name of the freebie, so that you can easily keep track of who’s signed up for what.
Although the process of delivery will vary between email service providers, most platforms will have an easy way to deliver your freebie to new subscribers.
Step #8. promote your new freebie
You’ve created an awesome freebie and now it’s time to get it out there.
There are a million ways you can promote your freebie, but here are a few of my faves:
- In social media posts
- In your social media bios
- In blog posts
- In your sidebar or a smart bar on your website
- In Facebook groups
- In forums or other places your readers hang out
- In guest posts you write for other people’s websites
Make sure your freebie doesn’t fall to the wayside after you create it. The worst thing you can do is spend weeks researching a topic and then creating your freebie, but then not spend enough time promoting it. Get creative with how you share your freebie with your audience and potential customers.
What’s the Easiest Way to Create a Lead Magnet?
As I said above, creating a workbook or an ebook to give away to your audience is probably the best way to create a lead magnet.
Don’t worry. There is a really easy way to accomplish this.
I recommend that you use Canva and these predesigned lead magnet templates to create a lead magnet.
Your end products will look like it was created by a professional graphic designer!
But How Do I Deliver My Lead Magnet?
Once you have created a lead magnet, you can automatically deliver your lead magnet using your email provider. ConvertKit is a great option for delivering lead magnets.
Simply create an automation in ConvertKit, so that an email will automatically send as soon as someone signs up to your form. The email should include the download link to the freebie.
If you want to take it one step further and make sales from your free lead magnet, you can set up a tripwire page that presents a limited-time offer to one of your paid products every time someone signs up.
How To Create A Lead Magnet That People Actually Want – Conclusion
There you have it – five steps to get you started with creating an irresistible lead magnet for your audience!
A simple, 5-step system for creating the perfect opt-in freebie that your audience will go crazy for.
To learn more about creating and earning with digital products, enroll in Sales Funnel Solved, and download my list of 45 lead magnet ideas – for free!
Did you enjoy this post on how to create a lead magnet?
What type of freebie are you going to create next? Do you have any questions about this 5-step process? Let me know!
Read this next: 5 Fixes If No One Signs Up For Your Freebie
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