Lead Magnets are the most powerful conversion tools on the planet.
If you want to build an email list, gain credibility, and attract prospects, use a lead magnet.
In this post, you will learn how to create and use lead magnets to help you build your business and generate cash. (Yes, that’s right, you don’t have to use only one.)
Let’s get into it!
Successful Lead Magnets Need this One Word
This word is the most powerful one in the world of business: FREE.
So, the first rule of using a lead magnet is to give it away for nothing.
Corporations have tested this, and free offers beat the competition hands-down.
One of the main reasons why free lead magnets work so well is that they lower the entry barrier. Most people are willing to take a first step as a customer or client if there are few or no barriers.
Lead Magnets are usually the second step in a marketing relationship.
The first thing you do is read a piece of content. After that, there is an offer to get a free lead magnet, like an eBook, in exchange for an email address.
It’s kind of like dating.
You meet someone at a party and then ask them for their phone number for a date (test run).
However, you don’t meet someone at a party and say, “Let’s go out, and you can buy me a discounted meal.”
You can see the barrier I’m talking about – right?
So, the rule is: First Level Lead Magnets = No Money.
(Later on, I’ll show you how to ask for money on your Second Level Lead Magnet.)
The Best Way to Use Lead Magnets
Your Lead Magnet does exactly what it says it does: It leads people. It’s important to think about how you are going to use it on the front end.
If you build a lead magnet without thinking and researching first, you’ll waste your time. Here are some things you must think about before you create your lead magnet.
What Path Will Your Prospects Take?
Are you going to use your lead magnet to entice prospects to your coaching program?
Do you want them to buy something inexpensive first and something bigger later?
Before you start creating your lead magnet, you must think this through.
I’ve read some excellent articles and books on how to create a lead magnet, but they usually get one thing wrong.
They tell you to write or create your lead magnet first.
That’s like shooting a gun before taking aim.
You need to know the path the bullet is going to take before shooting, right?
If your goal is to get more clients, then you need to think about how your lead magnet is going to help you achieve that goal first.
Here’s a step-by-step funnel you can use as an idea generator:
Online Post or Article → Your Website → Sign Up for Free Lead Magnet.
In this example, you write a post on a free site like Medium or Quora and link that post to your website’s landing page.
Your prospect reads the post and winds up on your landing page, which offers your free lead magnet in exchange for their email address.
Boom!
You now have a prospect you can send emails to whenever you want.
More Lead Magnets For You to Use Later
Once you have a batch of prospects who have given you their email addresses, what do you do next?
Many posts and articles will tell you to start pitching your products and services to your clients.
And in a way, that’s true.
You should always include a few words in your emails about your products and services, but usually, that approach doesn’t work too well.
So, here’s an advanced tip to help you acquire clients faster.
The next step is to create another lead magnet that they have to pay for.
I know I told you earlier that you should not charge for a lead magnet.
But think about this—do you think you will successfully acquire clients by giving them free stuff all the time?
Nope, that won’t work. With free lead magnets, most of what you’ll get are people who are “lookie-loos” (a nickname for people who aren’t serious).
Yeah, they’ll get your free lead magnet and toss it into their hard drives with all the other free material they’ve acquired.
But you won’t convert most of them, you’ll just get frustrated.
So, your next lead magnet should be one they pay for.
You can sell them an eBook, video download, or audio course that over-delivers excellent information.
But here’s the thing: you only want to sell it for $3 to $5, that’s all.
Once again, there’s a lot of research on why this pricing works. For one thing, it’s not about the money—it’s about the process.
If they take the time to pull out their credit cards or set up their PayPal accounts to give you some money, then they are SERIOUS prospects.
They have raised their hands and shown you that they are willing to pay money for help.
This will be the smaller crowd you need to focus on the most. Get it?
Use This Lead Magnet Tactic to Make Big Money
Now we’re getting to the part where you can start making good money.
Have you ever bought a product online and when you went to the checkout page, you found a sales page telling you about an upgrade or another product?
Once your customer has purchased the inexpensive lead magnet, the next thing you’ll need to do is send them to an upgrade page. Actually, that’s where you can make some serious money. The reason why so many businesses do this is that it works.
You Can Even Do This While Selling Mushrooms
Next year, I want to start selling mushrooms at a farmer’s market, so I decided to learn how to grow them.
I went to a very reputable company online that had many videos showing how easy the growing process is.
Once I placed my order, I was taken to a sales page that had a video on how I could take their $500 course to profitably grow and sell mushrooms.
(Of course, it was discounted to $150 because I was making a purchase.)
Once I approved the course, I was quickly sent to a barrierless payment page where I could quickly complete my transaction. Boom! They made an additional $150 from me.
I’m sure it doesn’t happen all the time, but if it only happens to a quarter of the transactions, then they are doing well.
And the Hits Just Keep Rolling In…
I forgot to mention this, but on the last checkout page, there was another offer to join a mushroom spore of the month club.
Wow! I could get discounted prices on their products every three months! Yaaaay!
The yearly subscription could be paid at a discounted price if you choose their 3-year plan.
See how that works?
If you were a life coach or a copywriter, you could make an offer to mentor or consult with your paying customers on the final page. Of course, you would charge a significant amount for those services.
The main principle behind this idea is that the people who buy from you are the easiest to sell to again.
And if you can strike while the iron is hot, you can sell upgraded products and services to them too.
I’m Assuming You Have This Already Figured Out
One thing I want to make clear: if you don’t have a target market clearly established in your business plan, using a lead magnet is going to be difficult.
If we were going deer hunting and I noticed that you were loading up fishing gear into your truck, I’d ask you what the hell you are doing.
And as ridiculous as that sounds, wannabe entrepreneurs of all kinds try to create a lead magnet for their businesses before they have a clear picture of who they are going to market to.
I detailed the process of how to identify your target market in another post that you can read called ‘Email Marketing for Life Coaches’. (I know the post is tailored to Life Coaches, but any kind of business can use this process to identify their target market.)
Once again, this is a task you need to do before you start writing a single word of your lead magnet.
Set Your Lead Magnet Goal(s)
I talked about this earlier, but what do you want your lead magnet to achieve?
Do you want to use it to:
- Sell bigger and better products?
- Get prospects onto a subscription?
- Sell your counseling services?
- Build an email list?
- Establish authority and trust with your target market?
- Promote your content?
- Diminish cold contact efforts?
- Have people sign up for your emails?
You could use your lead magnet for any of these purposes or a combination of them.
But the bottom line is you must know what your lead magnet will do for you and your business.
Decide on What Kind of Lead Magnet to Build
Okay, now it comes down to where the rubber meets the road. We are now going to start building the lead magnet.
But wait!
What kind of lead magnet are we going to build? There are so many options to choose from that you will probably get confused. So, here is a list of the most popular kinds:
eBooks
These are similar to long podcasts, and it doesn’t take a rocket scientist to make one. However, you need to make sure that you know exactly what your target market is looking for before investing time in writing one.
Upside:
- Easy to make
- Familiar to everyone
- You can include images, links, and other assets
- Easily distributable
Downside:
- Time-consuming to write
- Many people won’t take the time to read them
- They can get lost on people’s computers
Email Course
I like this idea the best among all of them because I am a teacher and I like email marketing. Not only that, you are killing three birds with one stone. You are sending fresh content to your email list while establishing your authority as an email copywriter. It is also a lead magnet that few are giving out.
Upside:
- More attractive than most lead magnets
- Not everyone is doing this
- People on your email list will look forward to your lessons
- You can get subscribers to forward your lessons to other people
Downside:
You should know a little about teaching and building a course
It’s important to plan and structure the lessons, and you will need to know how to do that.
You need an email platform like MailChimp to automatically send out your lessons on a schedule (You can do this with MailChimp’s free version)
Free Consultations
I think this is one of the best ways to get clients, especially if you are a professional coach or are selling a service of some sort. The reason why I like them is that I’ve done them in the past, and they are very effective.
Upside:
- Not everyone offers these
- It’s easier to sell your services when people meet you
- You can now do them online or on video cellphone
- Prospects can see your professionalism firsthand
Downside:
- It’s scary for most people to do at first
- If you have a big following, it will be hard for you to talk to everyone
- You need to have a prepared schedule
- Qualifying prospects before you meet is important
Video Course
One thing I know for sure is that if I want to learn how to do something, I head on over to YouTube. Why? Because I learn so much faster from watching videos. Not only me, but almost everyone I know has watched video clips to learn how to do something. In my opinion, it is the best digital marketing tool on the planet…But that’s just me.
Upside:
- You can make these quickly and distribute them all over the internet.
- You can post the links on social media, blog posts, and in email messages.
- People can get to know you better by watching your videos.
- Easy to take hard-to-understand subjects and turn them into step-by-step visual instructions.
- All you really need is either a laptop or a cellphone to make videos.
Downside:
- You need to buy some editing equipment (People with pauses and mistakes are annoying to watch)
- You will still need to write a script for your video if you want it to look and sound professional
- You need a place where your subscribers can go to watch the videos
- There is always the tendency to make quick, subpar videos
Podcasts
I’ve been on several podcasts with clients in the past, and they can be a lot of fun to do. If you are good at carrying on a conversation without making a lot of mistakes, they can be made very quickly. Just like any other online content, podcasts can be made and reside online forever. As a lead magnet, you can offer a mini-course of action steps that people can listen to at their leisure.
Upside:
- Podcasts are on-demand content; your audience can listen to them from wherever they are
- Anyone can download them and put them into your cellphone or a small MP3 player
- You are not relying on algorithms from search engines or social media to get your content in front of listeners
- It’s easy to have guests on your shows who have clout in your industry
Downside:
- Just like any other lead magnet, these can be time-consuming to make
- There are some technical skills you will need to master before making one
- There are monthly fees for hosting your podcast
- You will need to buy a decent microphone and editing software
The Quick List of Lead Magnets
I could review all the different kinds of lead magnets there are, but to make this move a bit faster
ElmoCopy Alphabetical Listing of Lead Magnets:
- Blog Post Downloads
- Case Studies
- Cheat Sheets
- Checklists
- Discounts and Promo Codes
- Early Access
- Email Courses
- Event Tickets
- Face-to-Face Field Marketing
- Free Quote or Consultation
- Free Shipping
- Free Tools
- Free Trials
- Giveaways
- How-To and Examples Content
- Idea Generators
- Influencer Collaborations
- Original Data Reports
- Partner Referral Discounts
- Podcasting
- Product Comparisons
- Product Pickers
- Templates
- Webinars
- Newsletter Referrals
I’m sure you could probably come up with more ideas of your own. I came up with a few other off-road lead magnets that I have created and used in the past.
Video course – I have private access to one of these that I give to special subscribers.
Instructional Infographic – This is another creative way you can teach someone the basic steps of a skill or idea. I use Canva and Venngage to create my infographics.
Most people create infographics to visually convey complex information in an easy-to-understand format.
Audio Book – This is different from merely downloading a free eBook like all your competitors are.
You can get a free recording program like Audacity to record your voice and read your book right into the program.
Once your recording is finished, you can convert it into a downloadable MP3 file with just a few clicks of a button.
The challenge is having a downloadable place on your site for people to go to. I would suggest putting the file into a free Google Drive and giving an exclusive link that only the people who sign up for it get. (You could also use a free Dropbox account to do this.)
Creating Your Lead Magnet
Once you figure out what kind of lead magnet vehicle (eBook, podcast, whitepaper, etc.) you want to use, the next step is to decide what kind of content to give to your readers.
But wait a second!
You shouldn’t merely hand out information; everybody is dishing that stuff out, and it sucks.
I know that sounds rather shocking, but think about the tons of crap people are writing these days.
eBooks…
Blog posts…
Email newsletters…
It’s a crapload of stuff.
As a matter of fact, the proper term for all this writing is called information overload.
Remember back when I told you to do deep research on your ideal prospect?
(I also told you that there was a blog post that had a way to do the research. I left you the link above to go to it.)
Once you figure out who your ideal prospects are, you should have a better grasp of what they are looking for.
Hack for Getting Content Ideas for Lead Magnets
Here’s a hack if you are having problems trying to figure out what your lead magnet should be about:
Figure out who your closest and top competitors are and then see what they are offering as a lead magnet to their visitors.
Next, sign up for it and download your free copy.
After you’ve done that, read and analyze what they have written and make it 10 times better.
Yep, that’s all there is to it.
Use Amazon to Get Lead Magnet Ideas
Also, you could go to Amazon and use their search engine to see what the top-selling books are in your niche.
If you see a book with a subject that’s close to what your niche is craving, take a look at it.
How do you know if people are interested in a book/topic?
Look at the books that have the most comments.
Think about it.
Someone looked over the book…
thought about it…
Plunked down their money…
Read the book…
Went back to Amazon to leave a review and commented on it.
Those comments are super important because people will tell you what they liked and hated about it.
So, books on Amazon can help you identify topics.
You can also look at the chapters and see what topics are covered and create a lead magnet based on the topic in one of those books.
The Best Content Guideline for Lead Magnets
There are a lot of ways you could research the best content for lead magnets.
But I’m going to give you the best piece of advice you will read in this post (or any other post, for that matter).
Here it is…Drum roll please.
Don’t write information, give your readers a result they want.
To be even clearer: Don’t create a lead magnet that dishes out merely information, find out what desire(s) your target market has and give them the solution(s).
There, that wasn’t hard, was it?
If you’ve helped someone reach their goals, supported a client in getting real results, or made a positive difference in someone’s life, you have what it takes to create a good lead magnet.
If you are passionate about helping someone achieve a dream or give them a desired outcome, then you have the basis for a good lead magnet.
That’s all there really is to it.
All you have to do is share this knowledge with people who want your lead magnet.
Make Sure Your Lead Magnet Has a Hook
In case you’re not familiar with the term, let me explain what a hook is.
(You’ve encountered them throughout your life, even if you didn’t realize it.)
Imagine you’re driving in your car and you hear a catchy tune in a song. It’s so memorable that you end up humming and singing it all day long.
That’s a musical hook.
Hooks are also present in stories, movies, and various types of books.
Within a lead magnet, a hook is an opening that captures the follower’s attention.
It could be a thought-provoking question, an engaging scenario, or an intriguing fact.
The purpose of a hook is to make a strong first impression.
It sets the tone for the rest of the writing, whether it’s an essay, a story, an article, or any other form of writing.
Examples of Hooks in Books
Now, here are some instances of effective hooks in book titles:
- The 1-Page Marketing Plan
- You Can’t Hurt Me: Master Your Mind and Defy the Odds
- How to Win Friends and Influence People
- Think and Grow Rich
- Fast Food Nation
- The Psychology of Money
- The Subtle Art of Not Giving a _______: A Counterintuitive Approach to Living a Good Life
- The Power of a Positive Attitude: Your Road To Success
- The 4-Hour Work Week
As you can observe, each of these non-fiction books features captivating hooks to entice you to read them.
And what they are conveying to you is: look, I’ve figured it out. I have a better way to resolve what’s troubling your life.
How Direct Market Copywriters Capture Your Interest
When I eventually decided to learn copywriting, I discovered that the most effective way to sell something was by narrating a story. The story almost always revolves around how something in your life was problematic and how you managed to fix it.
Let’s take the example of selling Darn-Tough socks (my favorite socks ever). I used to buy cheap cotton socks from the store, and within a few months, they would start tearing and developing holes.
My son-in-law, who worked at a shoe store, got me these socks that never wear out, known as Darn-Tough Socks. This sock brand was so confident in their product that they offered a lifetime guarantee. If your socks wear out, you can send them back, and they’ll replace them (this promise is right on the sock packaging).
Who wouldn’t take up an offer like that, right? So, I tried the socks, and they’re amazing. Just as the label claims, they are nearly indestructible. Additionally, they don’t lose their shape like cotton socks do.
Now, I have a drawer filled with these socks, and I’m addicted. I won’t buy any other kind of socks.
The dark clouds have lifted, and the sun is shining.
This narrative I just shared is the basic story pattern that most direct response copywriters utilize.
And when you’re planning your book, you should consider its overall purpose in the same way.
Major Problem or Challenge –>You Stumble Upon a Solution –>The Solution Proves Effective –>Here’s How You Can Obtain or Achieve What You Need
The nature of the issue doesn’t matter—whether it’s weight loss, relationship troubles, or a method to organize plastic bowls in a cupboard, or anything else.
The key thing to avoid is bombarding your readers with excessive information or a lecture.
The Simpler You Can Make the Solution, the Better
Imagine I told you about an email marketing system that’s already “ready to use” and can be set up automatically.
Would that catch your interest?
Alternatively, would you prefer me to outline 53 complex strategies supported by extensive data, along with numerous case studies explaining their viability?
All seekers truly desire is someone who says, “I stumbled upon the solution accidentally, and I’m here to share it with you.”
By the way, did you happen to notice my use of the word “accidentally” while discussing the solution?
I believe that describing the discovery as accidental is more effective than claiming it was a result of figuring it out.
The phrase “figured it out” might make it seem like you’re exceptionally intelligent, leading people to think, “Well, he succeeded because he’s smart.”
On the other hand, saying you stumbled upon the solution by chance suggests that anyone could have done the same thing.
Right?
The 5 Essential Elements of a Lead Magnet
1. Lead Magnets Must Be Simple and Specific
Make sure that your lead magnet is specific. Remember, you want to address one thing only and keep it as simple as possible.
If you try to address more than that, your readers will become overwhelmed. So, make sure the problem you address is straightforward and focused.
Years ago, I bought a book from Men’s Health titled “The Men’s Health – Big Book of Nutrition.”
This book had cooking recipes that helped you maintain your health and weight. The first several pages dissected various fad diets like:
- The Mediterranean Diet
- South Beach Diet
- Adkin’s Diet
- Paleo Diet
- Raw Food Diet
But here is where I got hooked on this book. The reason why they critiqued these diets was to show you how complex they were.
They also said that these diets were not practical in the long-run with people.
Men’s Health said that there was only one diet plan that would work, and here it is: “Burn more calories than you eat.”
When I read that simple answer to my dieting problems it was a moment of clarity.
I purchased the book, and shed 36 lbs. in about 6 months.
2.Lead Magnets Must Be Easy to Use
One of the most used lead magnets I have on my computer is from the uber-blogger Jon Morrow.
His “52 Headline Hacks” lead magnet is straightforward yet powerful. It has headline templates applicable to any blog post.
Over the past 5 years, I’ve used it daily. It gives me access to headline templates, making it easy to write them fast.
3.Your Lead Magnets Should Be Actionable
You must give your prospects a way to quickly achieve results and build confidence.
So, a lead magnet that prompts immediate action is crucial.
I recently viewed a video by Alex Harmozi, where he gives 28 actionable steps to stay in poverty.
(Yes, it’s a form of reverse psychology.)
The reason why I referenced this video is because it is a perfect example of giving actionable steps.
4. Lead Magnets Should be Precisely Targeted
I went over this earlier, but it bears repeating.
You must understand your target market and what their biggest concerns are.
If you know exactly what will benefit them the most, creating your lead magnet will be easier.
5. Make Your Lead Magnet Easy to Deliver
Drop any barriers obstructing the delivery of your assets to prospects and followers.
A seamless and rapid delivery system is of utmost importance.
Most email platforms have tools to make this process simple.
They have applications to process email addresses and distribute lead magnets. Also, WordPress blogs have plugins that can get this job done as well.
Conclusion
Before I conclude this guide on how to create lead magnets, I want to leave you with one more important piece of advice.
When you do your brainstorming sessions for creating your lead magnet, you’ll come up with a lot of ideas.
Don’t throw them away, because you can use them later.
There is no law in the marketing universe that says you can only make and use one lead magnet.
It doesn’t matter if you have 20 good ideas, keep them on file for a future project.
Hey! Please leave a comment in the section below this post, it would really make my day.