9 Ultimate Lead Magnets & The Secret to Attracting Ideal Clients

PodcastMarketing

Aug 12

Episode 873: Show Notes

If you were to sit me down with a glass of wine and ask me what I think about lead magnets, I would give you a lot of detail about what I think is and isn’t working in the online business world today. Lead magnets have changed a lot in the past ten years and a huge part of that is because our entire creator economy has changed the online landscape. Ten years ago, knowledge databases for tech tools did not exist. YouTube was not this robust library and Google even left us with unanswered questions.

Today, it feels like you could Google anything, and if you can’t, you can just ask AI. So, why would someone want to give you their email address to hear what you have to say? I want to talk about it because lead magnets are still an incredibly powerful, critical tool in your ability to grow and build your email list. I have personally added tens of thousands of subscribers to my email list using a wide variety of strategies over the last six months. If you’re curious about how I’ve been building recently, I want to give you all of my strategies. But today, I want to talk about what’s effective for you!

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What Lead Magnets Actually Do

The majority of people who want to grow their email list understand that functionally, a lead magnet is there to be given away for free in exchange for someone’s email address. While that is true, it’s only part of the story! We want them to exist in the world to attract more ideal clients. We want to attract qualified leads, people who are financially ready and capable of taking the next step to work with us. That’s why it’s really important to understand who your ideal client is. Who do you want to work with? Who do you know you can give the biggest transformation to?

Usually, just before someone chooses your offer, they’re looking at a lot of free information that’s out there. That’s why you need to start thinking about what they are nosy about. What are the things that will spark their interest? How can you create a sense of wonder? Once they’re there, you get to wow them with what you have to say, and the lead magnet is your opportunity to earn their trust. Getting over the hurdle is why they want to work with you, but you being transparent about what it’s going to take is going to show them that you can help them get there.

One Thing Most People Forget When They’re Thinking About Lead Magnets

We want to think about who we do not want to attract! Who does not make sense to have in our network? Who does not align? This is how you get more targeted about the kind of person you can help. Sometimes it is the little things that make a really big difference. Who we don’t want to attract is someone who can’t afford what we offer. Including the phrase ‘on a budget’, or ‘free’, or ‘cheap’, is going to attract DIYers. If you are offering a service, you don’t want them to DIY it! You want them to realize that they’re going to need help. Making sure that you are attracting a person who can afford your product is a critical component.

A lot of people spend way too much time thinking about what could work, what might work, or how to position it appropriately, or if the language says the right things. Here’s the thing, regardless of what we’re ultimately marketing, the best way you are going to learn is by putting it out into the world. I’m planning to launch an email marketing course very soon. I wanted to have a lead magnet that made it clear that the people who got it were interested in growing their email list. But instead of putting together a list of ways to grow your email list, I wrote a case study about how I added nearly 10,000 subscribers to my email list in just six months. The content stayed the same, but the positioning made it much more exciting to the ideal client.

Simple Lead Magnets You Could Be Delivering in Text Only

Theoretically, this is just copy. It’s not any more complicated than that. Calling something a case study might not be so interesting, but the contents, particularly if they are you showing results, is always interesting. To be truly successful with a guide, you have to include your personal notes and takeaways. The reason someone will read a guide isn’t because they want to know how, it’s because they want to know your how. Another way to go about doing this is a workbook, which lets you be interactive in how you guide them through the process. You need to think about your unique differentiator. That doesn’t mean packing it with more. More is not necessarily more! Sometimes it means doing less.

How can you simplify what you are doing? What if they could do your workbook in five minutes or less? I once created a one-page document on how to start a business and people have downloaded it thousands of times! People can obviously Google a bunch of resources, but which ones are hidden gems? Which ones do people know less about? There may be a tool that you love that a lot of people don’t know about that would solve a huge problem for your ideal clients. Instead of just telling them what it is, you can package up the information in a lead magnet. If you take it a step further, you could even be an affiliate for that tool. People want quick! A cheat sheet or reference guide also works so well.

Complex Options That Might Not Take as Long as You Think

While these options might be more complex to create, they might not take as long as you think! That’s because you already have some of them. They’re a component of what you already sell. But we’re not taking the whole thing, we’re just taking a piece out and offering that for free. Some examples would include a template, a swipe file, or a calculator. Probably the most complex option that can bring a lot of people in all at once is putting together an activation. A lead magnet is typically providing someone some answers, but an activation is actually moving them through some sort of transformation. Doing something and actually seeing results makes it so much more likely that they will actually convert into that paid offer.

Maybe you feel overwhelmed with how to deliver on this. You’re going to want a service provider to help you. My personal favorite is Flodesk. They didn’t pay me to say this, I just genuinely enjoy their service. Their list is so long and includes people just starting out all the way to those really successful businesses. You can try it free and you can get your first year for 50% off right here. Once you have this, you can start out super simply by putting the contents into the email they will receive. This contains the information of the lead magnet. You can also use a Google Doc or a Google sheet. I have done this before! If you go to share a Google doc, make sure you have it on ‘anyone can view’ not ‘edit’. If you change the word ‘edit’ at the end of the URL to ‘copy’, when someone gets that link, it will immediately prompt them to copy it.

The Most Complex Way of All to Get Started

Remember, complex does not necessarily mean hard! You can build this out in something like Canva. We have templates for all of these, if you want to deliver it in an email, a Google doc, or a design program, we have templates for all of them at creativetemplateshop.com. And if you become a Co-Op Member, you get access to 1000s of templates to make this so much easier.

After you’ve thought about who this is for, you’ve come up with a compelling title, put together the contents, and figured out a way to deliver it, you need effective promotion strategies. That’s a whole other enchilada! I want to take this to the next level. I want to give you more meat, more action steps, and more ways to move forward. I want to talk you through promotion because that’s a really important step in how to get more leads. I’m putting together a brand new workshop, totally free, just for y’all. You can sign up for Leads on Autopilot, How to Get Your First or Next 10,000 Subscribers.