It sounds so simple, doesn’t it?
- Create a fabulous freebie.
- When someone gives you their email address, you give them your fabulous freebie.
- Everyone lives happily ever after.
Sadly, there are many ways this process can go south. (I know because I’ve made pretty much every mistake possible.)
Do any of these feel familiar?
Which of these common lead magnet* issues feel familiar for you?
___ I don’t really understand what a lead magnet is.
___ I feel spammy even offering a lead magnet.
___ I’ve been working on my lead magnet for weeks/months/years.
___ The whole process of delivering my lead magnet seems so overwhelming.
___ My lead magnet just hasn’t “clicked” with my audience.
I’ve experienced every single one of these. Thanks to fabulous training (such as The LEVERAGE Conference), and a bit of trial-and-error, I’ve learned how to create effective lead magnets that serve my people.
Don’t make the same mistakes!
In hopes of saving you time and anguish, here are four action steps to help you avoid my lead magnet mistakes.
1. Solve your people’s problems.
My 1st Lead Magnet Mistake: For years, I offered people what I knew they needed. What I expected them to want. What I wanted to tell them.
Catch the over-used pronoun?
I.
My lead magnets were all about me. And every lead magnet I created from that perspective bombed because I was making things nobody wanted.
Action Step 1: Start by getting crystal clear about your audience’s felt needs. Then, select one felt need to meet.
Need help discovering your audience’s felt needs? Kathi and Michele did a couple of great podcasts on this very topic: How to Discover What Your Audience Needs — Part 1 and How to Discover What Your Audience Needs — Part 2
Example: To create the “To the Speaker Who Says ‘I’m Not a Writer’” manifesto, I crowd-sourced via Facebook. Many of the words on the landing page and in the manifesto itself are direct expressions of my audience members’ felt needs.
2. Give your people a “quick win.”
My 2nd Lead Magnet Mistake: My original lead magnet was a 50-page e-book. Can you say, “Information overload”? While the content was accurate and excellent, it was overwhelming.
Action Step 2: Give your people an immediate solution to one aspect of their problem. Make it short, sweet, and doable.
NOW. When someone downloads your freebie, make it your goal for them to take action within 5 minutes and experience results within 10 minutes.
Example: The “Am I a Highly Sensitive Person?” self-quiz available at Sensitive and Strong. By the end, many women discover that they are, in fact, HSPs—which is often a huge relief.
3. Match your medium to your message.
My 3rd Lead Magnet Mistake: For years, the lead magnet on my speaker site was a 50-page e-book.
Let that sink in: I offered a 50-page e-book on my speaker site.
Oops.
I’m now replacing it with a short video of me speaking.
Makes so much more sense, doesn’t it?
Action Step 3: After discerning your audience’s felt need and selecting the “quick win” you’re going to provide them, choose your freebie’s format.
Here are some common options:
___ PDF
___ Cheat Sheet
___ Checklist
___ Quick-start guide
___ Quiz
___ Manifesto
___ Cut-outs (scripture cards, permission slips, gift coupons, etc.)
___ Email sequence (3 short emails in 3 days, max)
___ Audio File (5 minutes or less)
___ Video (5 minutes or less)
Example: At Grit ‘n’ Grace, subscribers receive 12 permission slips to help them learn to break bad rules. This freebie connects directly to the subtitle of our podcast: Good Girls Breaking Bad Rules.
4. Have your lead magnet professionally designed.
My 4th Lead Magnet Mistake: I did it myself. Even though I know I’m entirely non-visual and non-techy. But because I tried so hard and poured so much time into my lead magnets, I convinced myself they were beautiful. Or at least good enough.
They weren’t.
They were hideous.They screamed “amateur.”
Action Step 4: Hire (or barter with) a professional to design at least the cover of your lead magnet. Ideally, have them design the cover, the entire PDF, and a separate image of the lead magnet that shows its value.
If you absolutely have to DIY? Listen to this interview with Nicki Koziarz with fabulous Tips for the Non-Graphic-y. And check out Julie Landreth’s article too.
Which lead magnet mistake are you ready to not make?
(* If you’re asking, “Exactly what is a lead magnet?” A lead magnet is a freebie that you exchange for someone’s email address. Another common term is bribe to subscribe.)
Cheri Gregory is co-author with Kathi Lipp of Overwhelmed: How to Quiet the Chaos and Restore Your Sanity and founder of Write Beside You author coaching and manuscript development services. Connect with Cheri via Voxer (cherigregory), Facebook, or Email (cheri@WriteBesideYou.com).
And yet again, she’s in my head! How else could you know I needed this? Thanks for simplifying the lead magnet process. (And please tidy up a little bit while you’re up there! ?)
Excellent tips.
Great article, Cheri! I’m working on my next lead magnet today. One thing I do that works well is to offer “content upgrades” in the body of my blog posts. A content upgrade can be additional info not covered in the post, a checklist to accompany the post, “homework” around the post’s topic, or even a printable PDF of the post.
I add a content upgrade lead magnet to almost every post, even in guest posts by other people that I publish on my blog. I learned just how valuable it can be to include them in guest posts when one of the world’s top Facebook experts retweeted the post AND included it as the featured link in her newsletter. Her generous sharing resulted in a bunch of new signups to my list.