Lead Magnets That Build Your Email List

Why are your lead magnets important to your business?

Email marketing gives you many advantages, whether you have an online business or a brick and mortar business. While some business owners want to build a “list” of followers on social, it's not the safest or most effective way to do business. Social followers are great, but make sure you have strategies in place to add those followers to your own email list. Click To Tweet

• You don't own your followers on social media. The social media platform you are using is, in effect, your middleman – you are on their territory. That's not the best business strategy. 
• When someone follows you on social media there's less commitment than when that same person has decided to subscribe to your email list. In other words, your email list is warmer than your social media followers list.
• Email provides you with a private relationship to your potential customers. You can segment your email list and make special offers to some prospects or to existing customers if you want to. You can better qualify your customers. 

Don't use this one thing as a lead magnet!

Don't use an offer of a newsletter as a lead magnet. While this converted people into subscribers in the past it doesn't work well now. People don't see the value in a free newsletter. Instead, imagine yourself sitting across the table from someone, and you want to see if that person is a viable lead for you. What can you offer that person that would make her sit up and take notice? Would would sound enticing and useful? What would make their life or business better? What would this person want? 

Examples of lead magnets that build your email list

Templates

• Canva templates
• Templates for organizing social media
• Template for keeping track of money
• Zoom backgrounds
• Email templates (prompts or fill-in-the-blank templates)

Guides or reports

Guides or reports can work to convert people to your email list, but only if they are brief and offer truly useful information at the very beginning. If you develop this type of lead magnet make sure that your advertising for it gives bullets of benefits to the reader. Keep in mind that guides and reports don't need to be lengthy to be useful. 

PDF's 

Shorter PDF's convert well. 

• Quizzes
• Video mini-series (short videos)
• Checklists
• Cheat sheets
• Journal pages
• Content calendars
• Resource lists
• Swipe files (these could be email titles that work, for example)

How to plan out lead magnets that will work for you

The secret to a lead magnet that works is to make it very specific to your best customer. Click To Tweet Broad and general doesn't convert well, but specific and timely does. Think about your customers. What do they need the very most? What would benefit them right now, that they could use easily and quickly? What helps you establish yourself as the expert to them?

Example: A nutritionist who wants to work with clients to track their nutrient intake might offer a one page guide to foods that are rich in micronutrients. This would be useful to people who already understand what micronutrients are and are committed to tracking them. A less useful lead magnet would be “why you should track your micronutrients” which is broader, and only attracts people with a mild curiosity about the topic. This nutritionist wants to attract those already sold on the idea. 

Related article: 5 Good Reasons to Use Email Marketing

Remember that your goal is to use lead magnets strategically, to attract subscribers to your email list who are truly interested and open to buying what you have to offer. Don't waste your time trying to get just anyone on your email list – attract those who have strong interest in the types of products or services  you offer. That means less time from meeting someone to having them purchase from you, which is, after all, one goal of your business. 

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