The first question I almost always get asked about Email Marketing is “how do I get more subscribers?”.

And the best place to start when it comes to getting more targeted, high value email subscribers is with a “lead magnet”. Some kind of report, checklist, template, “swipe file”, video or other free resource that will motivate your ideal clients to sign up for your regular emails.

But what makes a good lead magnet? Watch the video to find out…
 

Video Transcript

Welcome back to another five minute marketing tip. For the next few weeks I'm going to be looking at email marketing and, in particular, the first question I usually get asked about email marketing which is, “How do I get more email subscribers?” In the next few five minute marketing tips we're going to be looking at some best practices for getting more targeted ideal clients as your email subscribers. This first video is going to be about seven characteristics of the perfect lead magnet. In other words, an incentive you offer to people to subscribe to get your emails. See you after the break.

Welcome back. These days, it's no longer good enough just to throw a form on your website saying sign up for my newsletter and expect that you'll get a ton of subscribers. Unless you're already famous and you're Tom Peters or Richard Branson or someone like that. The only people you'll get signing up are the people who are already your fans, who already love you and want everything that you're going to produce. What you really want is people signing up who you can then build a relationship with, so people who don't know yet you can build a relationship with so that they do love you and they do want to buy from you.

A great way of doing that is to have some kind of incentive. A lead magnet, a report, a video, a checklist, some kind of copy and paste template that they really will want to get and so they sign up to get it and to get your emails at the same time. Now, in my experience with lead magnets, I've found there are seven characteristics of really effective lead magnets. I'm going to go through them with you one by one.

The first characteristic, and I hope this goes without saying, is that your lead magnet has to be of real value to your ideal clients. I'm sure you've been through this situation where you've seen something that looks really good, you've downloaded it, you've looked at it and you've thought, “Uh … Now that wasn't what I was expecting,” and it's not really been particularly valuable to you. Now, in that case the person who used that lead magnet may have got your email address but of course they've lost your trust and you don't want to do that. You want your lead magnet to not only help you get the email address of someone so you can follow-up with them, but also to build your credibility and trust and to give them a real wow factor so they're looking forward to hearing from you.

Giving real value means your lead magnet needs to solve a problem that your ideal client has or help them achieve a goal. Give them some real results quickly. My best lead magnet has always been my “21 word email that can get you more clients” because that does indeed help people get more calls and meetings with potential clients. Now, if you're in one of those fields where it takes a really long time to get end results then either you can focus on interim results so they can see some movement in the right direction or as long as you're giving them new insight and new ideas and a new perspective on their problem or their challenge or their goal, as long as they're reading it and going, “Oh yeah, that all seems much clearer to me now, that's great.” As long as they feel they've got value from it then you're good to go. Always sanity check any lead magnet you produce with examples of your ideal client to see that they really do get value from it.

The second thing you need, the second characteristic is that that value has to be obvious to your ideal client in advance of them actually using the lead magnet. Of course, most of the people that are going to come across your lead magnet are going to be casually browsing the web, looking at social media, maybe Googling. If they come across your lead magnet it needs to instantly grab their attention and divert them away from what they were doing to go and get your lead magnet. It has to be obvious to them what the value is going to be without them having to read paragraphs of text or multiple bullet points, et cetera. Ideally, the value would be obvious just from the name of the lead magnet itself. That's why my lead magnet has quite a long name, “The 21 Word Email That Can Get You More Clients”. It's obvious from that that it's short, it's easy to use, and it's got good end results, it can get you more clients.

The third thing is that your lead magnet, the value it gets, has to deal with a top of mind problem for your ideal client. Your lead magnet might solve a problem for your ideal client but if it's their number five problem or their number eight problem or their 12th priority, then again, when they're casually surfing the web or looking around for things it's not going to click. If it's not something they're thinking about all the time they're not even going to notice your lead magnet, it's not going to stand out. It has to be dealing the number one, number two, number three priority or problem that they have. It has to be really obvious to them.

Fourthly, it needs to give them new information about that problem or that goal. If someone downloads your lead magnet and it's the same old information they've seen on 100 blogs, you've got to have a vision to be a great leader, work smarter not harder, all that kind of stuff. If it's something they've seen a million times before they're not going to be impressed, it's not going to build credibility and they're going to feel let down. You need your lead magnet to be something new. Specifically focus it on all the things you could write your lead magnet about as it relates to problems that you can solve for your clients. Do something that's unexpected, that's surprising, that you do that other people don't do.

Now, if the real value you give your clients is you help them achieve things that's kind of accepted wisdom, it's already known, they just need to get on and do it and they're not doing it right now, then the best way of doing a lead magnet isn't just to tell them the stuff they already know but they're not doing, it's to show them now they can achieve what they know they should be doing but they're not right now. It's to put a different spin on it, to get them to actually take action. Make sure you're giving them something different that they can't get from other sources.

Number five, is that your lead magnet needs to build your credibility, not someone else's. What I mean by that is if you're using case studies or examples to help prove your point, to give more depth for the lead magnet. Make sure that your case studies and examples are from your clients so that someone reading the lead magnet is going to think not only, “Oh, that's a great idea,” but also, “Oh, they've done this. They've actually done this in the real world. Therefore, they're going to be a good person to want to work with to help achieve it for me.” If it's obvious that you've got a good idea there but you've just searched the web and copied and pasted from someone else's website and someone else's examples are commonly used examples, then it's not going to build as much credibility for you as if you're using your own or your client's examples.

Number six, choose the format dependent on the type of client you're going for. The most common format for a lead magnet is for when you're going for lots of people signing up and you're aiming for an audience that's browsing the web, looking at social media, doing searches, maybe coming from Facebook or Google Ads, and you want a large number of them. In that case, you're kind of interrupting what they're doing, they're in browsing mode so they need instant gratification. It can't be an 84 page War and Peace type tome. It needs to be something that's short and punchy and gives them value very quickly. The best things for that are check lists, they're templates, they're things they can copy and paste. My 21 Word Email is kind of like a hybrid between a copy and paste template of 21 words and a very short report that goes behind it that shows you how to use it. It's something they can get value from and consume very quickly.

Now, on the other hand, if you're going for a small number of, let's say, really high value corporate clients and you're not finding them because they're browsing the web. You're maybe writing to them directly or getting an introduction or a referral to them. Then, in that case it needs to be something more substantial to really build your credibility with them. Now we're talking about a much more in depth report, a benchmarking study, maybe even a copy of your book, but something substantial to build your credibility. Choose the format you use depending on the type of client you're going after.

Number seven, your lead magnet needs to logically lead to engaging with you more deeply. If someone goes through your lead magnet and it solves a problem for them, that problem should be the first step in their overall journey and you're the person who can help them best with the rest of the journey, either from a product they can buy from you, they're engaging more with your emails and your blog posts or maybe they could call you and talk about working together to solve the rest of those problems. Ideally, the problem you solve and what you show them in the lead magnet also opens their eyes to the other things they need to do to achieve their final goal, their final destination. That lead magnet itself really should be the first step in their journey, and the rest of the journey is the thing they do with you.

Okay, so that's it for now. Those are the seven characteristics of the ideal or the perfect lead magnet. Now, if you're a member of Momentum Club you'll recognize those because they're part of the training, The Master Class videos I've done on creating a lead magnet really quickly. With it goes this workbook. Now, if you're not a member of Momentum Club and you want a copy of the workbook you can sign up for that below. It's got the check list and then it's got a whole series of detailed instructions on how to go about building a lead magnet that meets those criteria very quickly. You can download that and get going with it. That's it for this week. See you next week with more tips on building your list, getting more of your ideal clients as email subscribers. See you then.