In the dating world you often meet your ideal “match” for coffee or drinks before you jump into the commitment to date. Why do we do this? Generally meeting someone for coffee offers you the opportunity to meet them face to face with a short time commitment. If you realize quickly that they are not a fit for you, you can move on, no harm no foul, no one feels like they’ve wasted precious time.
In the online business world that first meeting often comes in the form of a lead magnet. A lead magnet is like meeting someone for coffee. It’s a getting-to-know-you step that is low risk. It opens the lines of communication and allows you to begin the first steps toward a REAL lasting relationship.
What is a lead magnet?
A lead magnet is a free offer you make in exchange for acquiring someone’s email address. This low risk offer allows someone to begin to get to know you and your service or product without the risk of feeling like they’ve wasted their time or money.
If you want to generate leads online, and let’s be honest everyone should want to generate leads. Leads are the lifeblood of every business. Then your business needs a lead magnet. Period.
Lead Magnets can come in a variety of options.
- Reports/Whitepapers with important industry facts and statistics
- Ebooks for comprehensive guides about different aspects of your business
- Newsletters with tips related to your area of subject matter expertise
- Min-Courses delivered via email
- A video or video series
- Assessment or Quiz
- Webinar registration for live (or evergreen) online sessions
- Podcasts for people who like to listen & learn during a commute or workout
- Free Education (in any format)
- Consultation services or booking meetings for someone to request your time or services
Why offer a Lead Magnet?
If you look at a sales funnel like dating, asking for the sale from a cold audience is similar to asking to marry someone before you’ve even met. First, let’s be real. That would be creepy!
More importantly, your conversion rate will be pitifully low.
Offering lead magnets is a vital part of content marketing that builds a more loyal audience, and in turn, effectively builds your business.
Why? Because email is a very personal thing. You know as well as I do that you’re only going to give your email address out to those that you really want to communicate with. And you would never give your email address (or phone number in the dating world) without a good incentive, even if you like the brand (or they way someone looks in the bar). As a business owner, it is your job to give them a compelling reason to open the lines of communication.
In doing so, you’re asking for permission to stay in touch. This is your opportunity to begin nurturing them, allow them to get to know you. This is your chance to start building a real and lasting relationship, to earn their trust.
This process can take time, but if done right you build an audience that comes back to you over and over, they become, as Russel Brunson puts it, your “cult”ture
What makes your Lead Magnet Irresistible?
Your ideal client is looking to solve a problem. Which means that you, as the business owner, need to know and understand what that problem is and give them a solution.
Ask yourself: what’s the one thing that would be insanely useful to my audience? You could probably even charge money for it, but won’t.
Understanding what your ideal client wants is essential. You want people to go through the lead magnet and learn something… gain something useful, experience an “aha” moment.
The bigger the effect of your lead magnet on your ideal client, the better push you have given them to connect with you.
Make sure your lead magnets are specific and the information contained is valuable to your ideal clients.
Know Your Ideal Client
Here’s the reality, you don’t want your lead magnet to attract everyone. The whole goal of “Dating” your ideal client, is that you have an IDEAL CLIENT. Which means that NOT everyone is going to sign up for your lead magnet.
Make the lead magnet highly specific to your ideal clients. Being ultra-specific is the best way to capture a specific audience. The more specific your ideal client audience is, the better able you will be to speak to them in a way they can hear.
You are able to connect with a large audience because you have a specific ideal client in mind. This makes your ideal client feel as if you are talking directly to them, which increases the likelihood that they will continue moving toward the ultimate goal of commitment (or closing the sale)
The next step in connecting with your ideal client will be allowing them to get to know you via a nurture sequence. More about that next month.
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