How to Create Top-Performing Lead Magnets

Welcome to the Small Business big mindset Podcast, where we dive into tactical strategies to grow your business. And to make an impact on this world. A huge part of success is keeping your mindset and vision on track. So this is a major part of our process. And this podcast, let's do this. Hey, Erin here, welcome to the Small Business big mindset podcast. This week, I wanted to talk about how to create top performing lead BACnet. So they're called different things. Sometimes they're called lead magnet, sometimes they're freebies, sometimes they're opt ins. But essentially, this is content that is gated, meaning people get access to it after giving you their email address, I always like to require at least their first name and the email address, because then when you do start sending them emails, and they're on your list, you can personalize the email with their first name, I also don't recommend requiring too many fields for them to fill out because each additional field is an extra barrier to entry that users may when they see a long form, they may not even want to deal with it. But of course, it depends upon your industry. And what is typically required there. So having a lead magnet is pretty critical to growing your email list. So as you know, I'm a huge proponent of having an email list is those are your people, that's your, that's your community. Totally more so than those on social media. Because as we know, we don't own social media. So if something were to happen to that platform or to your access, there goes your access to your, your community, and how awful would that be. So I always teach people to create and grow their own email list. And doing so with a lead magnet is a great way to do that. So we're going to go over some tips on how to create a great lead magnet in order to grow your email list. So there's a few things to consider first, so you might want to ask yourself, what are like the top things you're asked, right? Like, as you know, who your ideal community is? Right? So I've talked about that in numerous podcast episodes, we actually talked about it on the latest power hour show, which I co host every Thursday morning on LinkedIn, you know, with ways to identify your ideal customer, your ideal community, right? Because that's really at the foundation of everything. If you don't know who you're talking to, or, or who you're creating content for, you're kind of do a right, so I'm assuming that you You do know who your ideal community is at this point. If not, then check out my earlier trainings, or the power hour that we just did in September. Okay, so you want to look at what the top three questions that you're constantly asked by your ideal community? What are you asked about? when they find out what what you do? Right? And like, what is your ideal communities? Like, what's their biggest pain points? And also, what are their desires? So you don't necessarily always have to focus on the negative, like, what are the challenges they have? But what do they want as well? What are the positives? And you then you want to make content that's like so valuable that your, your ideal community would be like, this is exactly what I needed? How is this free? This is so valuable, right? So those are some ways like, especially looking at the the questions that you're usually asked and the pain points of desires, your community has, if you build content around that, that's going to be, you know, a way for them to be like, Oh my gosh, yes, I do want this. So you also want to look at like, what is your community need to be aware of, right? What are they? What do they need to believe in order to want what you're offering, okay? So a few ideas could be like a starter kit, you know, for whatever niche that you're in, via like starting your own business, or, you know, creating cupcakes or baking here, that sort of thing. Maybe a quickstart guide, right? could be another one, a step by step guide. Maybe like a content creation guide for women in business, that sort of thing. You could do worksheets, exercises, you could do cheat sheets, you could do like a five day guide, right? If you do survival kits, these are all different tools that you can give to your your community. And then you're going to want to embed that lead magnet in your content, right? So whether it's a podcast like I've given you guys content on the summary pages, the show notes for podcast episodes that correlate with that podcast episode, but you could embed them in a blog post, you could create your own landing page for them, that sort of thing. So once you figure out what kind of lead magnet you're going to create for your audience, you typically I'll create a PDF. Okay, so I typically use Canva. To design design it for myself, obviously, you can use a designer tool, but I actually have a lot of fun using Canva. So I will create a PDF using Canva. And then I will upload it, we use Amazon s3 to upload it to host it. So you could in Canva, you can create, you can select the size that you want, it could be like a magazine cover within documents for the cover of the lead magnet. If you have a cover, it could make it look a little more professional. I have actually used PowerPoint in Canva formats that I have purchased from people on Etsy so they're beautifully designed already and I just upload them and then I'm on my way and I edit them with my own content. So when you're in Canva though, you can select a background image or you can upload your own images you can select text and then I have already selected you could do a brand kit in Canva with your brand colors and your fonts so I have those all ready to go so when I create something in Canva those are already there for me is that all my content will follow my brand guidelines. So you can select your text and you know you make heading subhead that sort of thing, you can add new pages, right so you can as you're going along, just add like an additional page as you go depending upon how long your your PDF is going to be. And they have templates to write so I've I've purchased from Etsy I've created my own and then also Canva has templates that you can use and you just kind of duplicate those and you are on your way. And then when you're done, you can click download and then click PDF standard and Canva is free. I do pay for the pro account, it just gives you more access to more of the images and fun features. And then you're going to want to put your, your lead magnet on your website. And so typically I create, you can use in a number of ways I will create a landing page that has a form on it that requires the first name and the email address of the person. And then they get an email from me with a link to the PDF that way so that's just how I do it. And if you have any questions on that, let me know because that could actually be its own podcast episode. But within your PDF, you do want to make sure that you clearly define the pain point or the desire that you're you're going after and you want to make sure it's focused on one idea and again that it's very clear and it's a value to your ideal community. Ideally you're you're going to use language that's used by your community so that they immediately connect with it. And then I think two episodes ago I went over headline so I agree empowering, have more powerful headlines so that's another thing you're going to want to do is a headline that tells what it is. And subtitles only if only if needed. So I'm gonna put a link in the show notes to that and so kind of the layout that I typically use for a lead magnet is like you have a really catchy headline maybe a subtitle that supports it you know and it can it should say like kind of what's in it for them a conversational bullet points and maybe you're gonna want to get specifics of what they will get from the lead magnet more benefits than like exactly what they're going to get right so they're they're more interested in what they're going to get out of it rather than you know it's two blog posts or three videos you know, they want to know more about it and it's if you're talking to one person so try not to use language where like you're talking to a group of people like hey guys are that sort of a thing you want to say like you like you may be thinking like this is sound like you that's sort of a things they feel like you're speaking directly to them. And a quick note to imagery is really important on these pages as well. I typically I might stick a photo of myself in there, but I also use resources like social curator they have really good stock photos that is a paid membership or there's free ones like unsplash right and then you want to make your button copy actionable so when they put in their first name, their email address you're gonna have a call to action button I typically make them actionable yet fun. So you could you know instead of just like download our you know, you could put like give it to me or download now or get it now or I'm ready You know, that sort of thing. And then you know, depending upon my my opt in pages are typically pretty short. But if it's pretty long like if you have if you're including this on the sales page or something, then you can have the opt in box on kind of multiple spots on the page in some cases Having a testimonial can be a nice touch, right? So maybe they're more apt to download something from you if there's some comments on the page from other people who really value your work. And then there's stuff that you can have at the bottom of the page, like your privacy policy and that sort of thing. Some platforms like I use kajabi, they have a standard one that I kind of edit for our own use. You can also do pop up box boxes for the first name and email I typically don't I typically just use the end page, but that is an option. And then when they put in their first name and email address, it's going to automatically redirect them to a confirmation or a thank you page. So typically, this page, I let them know to go check their email, because that's the way that the PDF will be delivered to them. And then they can be added to my kind of welcome sequence. And then you can also include a link to your podcasts or your website within that page too for them to check out other things. So I would say check out kajabi ConvertKit. A lot of the website platforms have opt in page templates that you can use. And then your your thank you page copy, it should be very simple. So you want to, again, direct them to their email to get it, you want to confirm that they're like confirm, like what they requested, like you've read really say the name of the PDF like Hey, thanks for you know, grabbing whatever PDF right? And that it's on its way, right? So it's come with like a thank you and a confirmation page. And one, you could I've seen people do this, I haven't done this yet. But you could include a video to add another way to connect right? If you have you saying like, Hey, thanks for downloading this, you know, that sort of thing. Try to keep it under a minute. And it's just a quick greeting to your community. And basically lets them know, like, hey, say thank you like what they can expect, like, go check your email, that kind of thing. And for that delivery email, again, keep it super simple. You want to grab their attention, though. So the subject line should be descriptive, like here's, here's the guide you requested or you know, here's your free download, or that sort of thing. So they know like, Okay, this is exactly what I just asked for. And they'll go and click on that and grab their stuff. And then in the email as well, you can remind them, why they downloaded it and why it's going to be helpful for them kind of like what's in it for them. And then you can also place the link to that download their freebie a few times throughout the email, depending upon how long your email is. And then he could include another call to action, right? So what's their next step, they download it but then maybe you could also say, hey, come check out my podcast, my blog, as long as it's relevant to the piece that they just downloaded. So that is a very, very quick, top level view of how to create a top performing lead magnet. I might do separate episodes that kind of dive in deeper to each of these parts because there's so many different steps. But I hope that this gives you a great jumping off point and we will see you next week. Thanks for tuning in to the Small Business big mindset podcast. To keep the fun going. Check out our Facebook group start and scale an online business For even more free trainings and resources from fellow entrepreneurs. If you haven't already, head on over to Muscle Creative COMM And click subscribe and join our email list for weekly updates. And if you've enjoyed this podcast episode, check us out on your favorite podcast platform to follow us and give us a review. As always be authentic bring an insane amount of value and keep crushing it