You have a grand vision to grow your email list by 1000 subscribers. Maybe more. Or perhaps you've focused on list building as we move through the current climate to help your business continue to grow. Problem is, how do you create a lead magnet that converts consistently?
Because we've all been there, having put time and energy into creating a lead magnet or opt-in offer that no one wanted. We've put together a polished-looking PDF, a content-rich audio recording or a beautifully edited video series. We've designed a landing page. We've set it up to connect to our email marketing system and written our nurturing automated email sequence. We've designed a persuasive sales page.
But when we attract people to that lead magnet, nobody signs up. So what do we do to create a lead magnet that will convert consistently for us? There are three things you can do.
Listen To Your Audience
The first thing to do when you're looking to create a lead magnet that other people want is to first listen to your audience. Too many times we jump in with both feet because we have this excellent idea we think everyone else will be just as excited about. But the problem is, we've focused in on what makes us look good in the eyes of our peers or something we ourselves want. The problem is, our ideal client doesn't want it.
There are a few ways to listen in to what they truly want:
Comments You Receive
Look at the comments on your blog posts or social media content. What are people saying? What are their pain points? What is it they most need from you?
If you've just panicked reading that because it's been a while since anyone engaged with your social media content, then look to other people's social media groups or profiles where your ideal client hangs out. Even the comments on other people's blogs can be useful.
Existing Clients
If you already have clients in your business, you can look to the discovery calls or complimentary consultations you have with clients before they begin working with you.
I take copious amounts of notes when doing those discovery calls to listen into the language they use, the pain points they have and the outcomes they most want. Some of my best marketing copy has come from those notes, pulling out the lines my ideal client used that I never would have thought of myself.
One such line was: "I feel like I'm throwing darts at a marketing map".
Discovery calls can also highlight patterns. You may notice people have similar challenges. You can take that one challenge and create an opt-in offer on that.
Google Analytics and Google Search Console
Google Analytics may be one of those platforms that completely overwhelms you when you log in. You're not alone there. However, once you know how to navigate it, you'll uncover some valuable information to improve your business.
With your lead magnet, Google Search Console (often easier to read when connected to your Google Analytics), can help you see the keyword phrases people type into Google which help people find you.
If people are searching for certain keywords, the next question is: Are you delivering that to them on the page or blog post they land on?
If not, then there's an opportunity for an opt-in offer. Or, it could be a piece of content that naturally leads to an opt-in offer.
Conversations with clients
Have an in-person or virtual coffee chat with a current client - someone you'd love 10 more of in your business - and find out what their pain points are and the challenges they have that you could create a solution for.
This one little exercise is something we all put off doing. It's something even my best clients sometimes struggle to do. We don't do it because it takes time. Or we don't want to bother other people.
However, this one small exercise can pay dividends in your business, because you'll be creating the exact thing people want and will exchange their email address or money for.
Create something that adds value to their life
You'd think creating something that adds value to your most aligned client's life would be a given, right? But if we go back to the beginning of this blog post, I highlighted how often we get caught up in cool ideas that make us look good.
If what you're creating doesn't add value to my life, then I'm not likely to sign up for it.
You need to create something your ideal client will exchange their email address for. We need to think about other people's email addresses like we're asking them for money. People are protective of their email address now. They're not just going to hand it over for any ol' thing. They won't sign up for noise or something that wastes their time.
If what you're creating isn't of value, the headline doesn't capture their attention, or you're not using the language gained from the exercises above to capture their heart AND head, then you'll miss out on the email address.
If we can't get the email address, it blocks our entire marketing sales funnel.
Expand your keyword research
With all the work you've now done, you want to take it a step further to ensure you're creating THE best opt-in offer possible by expanding your research to see what people outside of your sphere want.
For example, one of my opt-in offers that hasn't been working particularly well, is my Business Storytelling Map.
It sounds fancy. which is actually half the problem. People don't understand what it is or how it can be of value to their business and marketing. My fancy language has prevented people from wanting to opt-in.
Now one of the blog posts attached to the opt-in attracts some of my highest website traffic, but is among my lowest converting lead magnets.
You see, I have a lead magnet attached to nearly every blog post I write and many of those attract email subscribers every day.
It's a great way for me to grow my email list, without having to invest in Facebook ads. Now I'm not against doing Facebook ads, and I work with a lot of clients to help set up their Facebook ads to grow their email lists. However, if I gain organic traffic from people searching for specific keywords and then they sign up to my list, that's money I don't have to spend. And that's what I want for you too.
Facebook ads and organic traffic together can be highly valuable to your business and can help you grow much quicker.
So going back to my example of my Business Storytelling Map, I needed to figure out exactly what it was people wanted. Fixing it is part of my Subscriber Project - a challenge to help grow my email list.
The Business Storytelling Map was really a series of business storytelling prompts to allow someone to come up with stories to use in their marketing.
The first step was to take the keyword - business storytelling - and put it into Google suggest. This is simply the process of slowly typing a keyword into Google and it will "suggest" a series of words it thinks you're trying to type based on the behaviour of other people online.
When I typed in business storytelling, the queries that jumped out were:
- business storytelling template
- business storytelling training
- business storytelling guide
These are words people type into Google to help find a solution to using business storytelling. If I create an opt-in offer around business storytelling template or business storytelling training, I'm more likely to get the email subscriber.
I can write a whole blog post around using a business storytelling template to create your stories for your marketing. Then I can offer the template they can download and start writing business stories with.
Another option is that I already have a "map" that I could repurpose, add more around "how to write stories" and title it as a "guide".
This is the option I've taken, as it fits with the particular blog post I want to attach it to. Repurposing your old opt-ins allows you to start converting leads more quickly, without spending a lot of time creating new opt-in offers.
Keep tweaking the headline of what you already have. Ask:
- How are you being too clever and repelling the people you most want?
- How can you blend the keyword with a title that's unique to what else is out there?
- Are you tapping into what your ideal client actually wants through the headline?
NOTE: So far, by changing one word in my opt-in offer title, I've slightly increased email subscribers. I'll provide a more detailed update once there's more analytics to report on. But think about what even ONE extra email subscriber a day could do for your email list. That's 30 extra email subscribers a month or 365 each year.
How to create a lead magnet
Once you understand what it is you will create, THEN you can look at the delivery method. In my experience as an online marketing coach, I've seen too many people START at this point. They first decide it will be a PDF document or a video series, before even understanding what the content will be. Then they're puzzled why their Facebook ads aren't working.
Before you decide what the packaging will look like, get clear on what the contents will be through your above research steps.
Let's take my three keywords identified above.
Keyword 1: business storytelling template
This would naturally be a PDF document. However, you could enhance it by making it digitally fillable so they don't have to print it out.
Keyword 2: business storytelling training
Training can come in the form of a video series, a one-hour webinar, an audio series or a short audio. You can even call that training a workshop or a web class. However you package it, the contents remain the same.
Keyword 3: business storytelling guide
Naturally, you'd want this to be a PDF document. It can be as long or as short as you want, as long as it provides value. Some options are for the guide to be short form, with links that lead off to more detailed online content or even video trainings. Or it could have all the content they need in one document.
Want more lead magnet ideas? You can find more lead magnet types here to help inspire you.
When you're looking through the lead magnet ideas, think about how your ideal client likes to consume content. Are they readers, listeners or do they like visual? This will help determine your best delivery type for your opt-in offer.
Next time you find yourself saying "I should do a webinar", first stop and do a little research to determine the best lead generation strategy for your business and ideal client.
Whether you have an existing lead magnet you can improve or a new opt-in offer you want to create, first look at the topic your ideal client is being challenged with by listening and research.
Take the top keywords you have and use Google to figure out specifically what opt-in offer you could create around that keyword that people are already searching for.
Then determine the best delivery method to wrap your content in that aligns with how your ideal client likes to consume content.
And that's how to create a lead magnet! Simple steps to ensure when you create a lead magnet, you're creating something people genuinely want.
Need To Effortlessly Attract Ideal Clients To Your Lead Magnet?
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[…] Promotional, with things like client testimonials and case studies, calls to action to your sales pages or sales calls, or sharing of your lead magnets. […]