Growth building lead magnets are hands down the best way to grow your email list for your online course or business.
What is a growth building lead magnet?
A growth building lead magnet is a valuable free asset that you offer in exchange for someone’s email address. This can take many forms (ebook, mini-course, quiz, checklist, etc,).
Its purpose is to attract the reader’s attention so they sign up for your free gift. You can then build your email list, create loyal fans, and convert those fans into paying customers.
However, you don’t just want to concentrate on growing a big list. Your goal is to attract the ideal, right-fit customer for your online business.
The right-fit customer:
- Is actively seeking a solution to a problem your online business solves
- Can be nurtured from interested audience to eager customer because they want the service you provide
The wrong-fit customer:
- Takes up space in your CRM
- Is a lurker not a potential customer
A small list of aligned fans who are eager to make a purchase wins out over a large list of unaligned people who will never buy any day!
How do you choose the right lead magnet to attract the right audience?
To attract the right audience, the first step is to make sure you understand the true problems your audience faces.
If you are guessing their pain points, but don’t really know for sure, conduct some audience research. You can do this by asking them in person, through a survey or to respond to you in an email.
Once you are clear on their problem, look at your online course or product. Your lead magnet should be aligned with what you are eventually going to sell them.
If your course is “How to Raise Resilient Kids” but your lead magnet is “Recipes That Even the Pickiest Kids Like,” you have a disconnect.
While you might attract parents, your list will likely be made up of parents who want their kids to eat better rather than build resilient children. When you pitch a course for resiliency, you aren’t solving their problem, so they are unlikely to purchase.
The next step is to ask yourself is how you can solve one simple, first-step problem for your ideal audience.
Three things to consider:
- What is something they need to know before taking your course?
- What is one small step from inside your course you could introduce?
- What is a belief they need to have that is related to what you teach?
Ideally, the lead magnet should lead them into future teaching that you plan to do, so that it is a logical beginning that sets them up to want to learn more.
How to determine your lead magnet format
Once you have selected the logical first step, you will then determine the best way to present that information to your audience.
The actual format depends on your online course or business and your audience.
For example, if you teach something that needs to be demonstrated like yoga, art, or fixing small appliances, your lead magnet will most likely be a video so your audience can watch what you are doing.
If you teach meditation or mindset, you might opt for an audio lead magnet that your audience can listen to anywhere.
If you want them to take action, you might choose a workbook that walks them through quick steps for a quick win.
Questions to consider when choosing your lead magnet format:
- How will my audience learn from me in the future?
- What will provide them with an easy to consume, quick win?
- How much time do I have or want to spend on creating my lead magnet?
- How simple can I make the outcome for my audience?
- Which format will best serve my audience and what I plan to teach in the lead magnet?
What if you don’t create the right lead magnet the first time?
Don’t despair. It’s highly likely that you will have some trial and error until you land on your growth building lead magnet. It takes the right offer at the right time in the right place to grow the right audience, but the only way to know is to start putting a lead magnet out into the work and find out the results.
That’s why I recommend over time to create different lead magnets that solve different problems (all aligned to your online course or business of course). This way you can test your offers.
Also remember that your audience will be coming to you at different places in their customer journey from just being aware that there is a problem to actively seeking a solution. Different lead magnets will hit them differently based on where they are.
You can also experiment with the format. For example, say you start with an ebook, but that doesn’t land with your audience, you might reuse the same information and create a cheat sheet, mini-course or a workbook. Once you have the basic information ready, reformatting it is quick and simple.
The planning and researching your growth building lead magnet actually takes more time than creating the actual lead magnet. But taking that time is crucial so you can create an amazing growth building lead magnet and attract the right-fit audience for your offer.
Join me for the Irresistible Lead Magnet to Attract Your Ideal Audience 5-Day Challenge on Feb. 27-March 3. In just minutes a day you’ll walk through each step of creating a lead magnet and leave with a completed lead magnet– all for FREE!
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