Lead magnets help you grow your email list and are a necessity for every business. Learn how to create a lead magnet that converts into a thriving email list.
IE 353: Creating a Lead Magnet that Converts with Julie C Butler
Julie C. Butler has been in business for 16+ years. She worked for the Canadian government but administrative work was not something she wanted to do forever.
She transitioned to becoming a travel agent and fell in love with photography while traveling the world. She used her photography skills to become a well-known wedding photographer.
She discovered that her true purpose was to work on brand photography for female entrepreneurs.
She created a stock photo membership, Stock by Jewels. Her business Julie C. Butler and podcast target women in business.
What is a lead magnet?
A lead magnet is something that helps you grow your email list and the first thing you should do in your business. Some people call it a freebie or a lead generation tool.
It is a lead generation tool that can be in any format. It does not have to be time-consuming.
You create something to exchange in return for their email address. People consider their email address to be sacred so to receive their email, we want to give them something valuable.
Why do you need a lead magnet?
Social media is not our best choice for connecting and communicating with our audience. It doesn’t belong to us and could be shut down at any time.
We could have global outages of certain platforms. We may not want to hang out on social media all the time.
Also, we have no control over who is seeing our posts or how often.
Social media can be a playground to show up and have fun, share, serve, and be alive. But it is important not to build your business on “rented property” (or social media).
An email list is crucial for your business. You want to create a highly converting lead magnet that is in line with what you want to be known for and your positioning in business.
What makes a lead magnet convert?
It is important to know who our audience is and what their problems are.
Oftentimes, it is something that we have gone through, or overcome to get to where we are now, or an answer that we have gone looking for.
Look back to see what helped to get you where you are.
A lead magnet has to be something that will not take a lot of time for someone to consume to get a quick result or quick win.
For example, Julie uses templates because that makes sense in her business. Templates are good lead magnets.
Examples of lead magnets are meditations, checklists, or mini workbooks.
It needs to be consumable in about 30-60 minutes at the maximum. It needs to be actionable to get a quick result.
You want to show that person that you can help them. By doing so, they can know and trust you to move them to a place they need to be.
Lead magnets need to be in line with your core offers. For example, if you are teaching someone how to build a business, your lead magnet would not be a meal plan.
It has to be in line with the ultimate goal you want to lead them to. Is that one-on-one coaching, joining your program, or buying a particular product?
Your freebie needs to lead them to that goal like a stepping stone that will make them comfortable purchasing what you are offering.
You want to give them a transformation that helps them solve a problem that they have.
Keep it simple without a lot of fancy words or titles. Say exactly what it is and how it will change their lives. What will it fix?
Sometimes, we create lead magnets that don’t convert the first time. Don’t give up or get rid of it. You might simply need to change the copy or adjust the title or tagline.
Your audience may not need it right now but you can repurpose it and use it another time.
People forget that when it comes to a lead magnet, you have to get many eyes on it. You cannot expect that if you share it with ten people and no one buys that it isn’t working.
Conversion rates are 2-7% for what people act on so it is important to know your analytics and get it in front of more people.
You also need to understand that it takes multiple times for people to see it before they convert.
While occasionally, you will get a hit lead magnet immediately, it takes testing and time to produce the perfect lead magnet. It can change over time as we evolve and change.
The landing page that shows your freebie needs to be fairly easy to navigate and opt into.
Use your tagline for highlighting the results. You also need a button and a way to contact you.
What are the steps to creating a lead magnet?
Most of us already have something we can repurpose and use. Before you create a full website, you can create a landing page with your lead magnet to capture emails.
It can be one chapter of a course or book you already have, a template, or something you create quickly. A planner is a good example.
You can use little portions of workbooks or guides you already have. It can be a checklist or shopping list.
As a blogger, you are creating content all the time. You can look at the content you have created and figure out how to make it into a bite-sized piece of consumable content that could be your lead magnet.
- What are you getting the most traffic from?
- Why are people already coming to you?
- What can you pull out of your current popular content and create a lead magnet from it?
People don’t care about the many details of something. They want the basics of what they need to do to improve and have a quick transformation.
You can use Canva to find a template that works for you. Change the fonts and colors to match your branding and get it done quickly.
What is the biggest mistake when creating a lead magnet?
Not having a lead magnet is going to be your biggest mistake.
Also, make your lead magnet simple. It does not need to be fancy, complicated, or go on and on.
You only need a one-page landing page. Having a lead magnet that has been overly designed or has too much content can be overwhelming to your audience.
While you can over-deliver slightly, you do not want to give them too much or they will not consume it.
Julie C. Butler’s Beautiful Profitable Business Freebie Vault
Must-have resources in a freebie vault, including Canva templates, stock photos, a workbook on how to create a high-converting lead magnet, a guide called “How to Show Up Like a Pro,” desktop wallpaper, and a toolkit.
Action Steps:
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