Form Your Own Futre: 5 Keys To Creating An Irresistible Lead Magnet

Put your hand up if you want a bigger email list.

I can confidently say that no matter how many people you have on your list, you want to grow your list even more. If you have 500, you are looking to hit your first thousand. If you have 8000, your goal might be 10,000. And for some people, it could be one hundred thousand or more.

The reason why everybody wants to add more people to their list on an ongoing basis is simple: the amount of revenue you generate in your business is directly proportional to the number of people who have given you permission to email them.

Generally speaking … the bigger, the better. Of course, it depends on the quality of people you attract and your relationship with these people but I’ll say it again: the bigger, the better.

So that being said, how do you grow your list? Offer people a lead magnet, of course! And everybody knows how to create a killer lead magnet, right? Wrong.

Keep reading to see if you have skipped any of the following keys to creating a perfect lead magnet.

1) Start with your ideal client

The first key to creating an irresistible lead magnet or a freebie offer is to get crystal clear on who you want to attract.

You need to know if you want to do business with men, women or both. Does your ideal client live in a particular geographic location? How old are they? And what are some of their problems you can help solve?

Then you need to go deeper and find out what are the things that are really important to this person. Money? Family? Lifestyle? What are their values? What are their secret fears and what are the things they are too embarrassed and ashamed to talk about.

Now that you discovered their pain points, you are armed with critical information and can confidently create a lead magnet that is so irresistible that nobody can pass it up.

For example: You know that your ideal client is a business owner who is struggling to grow their business and you can help them with their marketing. Here’s a lead magnet by Naomi Dunford of Ittybiz to inspire you and get the creative juices flow.

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2) Determine how they consume information

The second most important thing that can make or break your lead magnet is something that hardly anyone pays any attention to: the format. Here are some of the questions you need to ask before deciding on what your freebie offer will look like.

How do they like to consume the information?
Do they prefer watching a video?
Would they rather read?
Do they prefer just skimming for information?
How busy is your potential client or customer?

If you are targeting busy moms or executives for example, you might want to create a freebie that will appeal to time-starved people and is super quick to consume. A cheat sheet, checklist, template, list of resources, or a short video works best. Give people hacks or shortcuts to do something and you have their attention. How complex is your topic?

If your topic requires some in-depth explanation, it’s best to stick to a format where you have the tools to do this. This can be a webinar presentation, an email course or a report. What’s the price point of your offerings?

Always keep in mind that you want to attract your ideal ‘clients’ or ‘customers’. You aren’t necessarily looking to attract fans or readers (although they can help spread the word about your business and send business your way even if they don’t buy). This means that you want to attract people who are willing and able to invest in your services.

If you want people who are serious about solving a substantial problem, you need to qualify them by offering something a bit more robust than a quick download.

You want them to consume information that takes a bit more time. It can be a webinar, a video series, a live seminar or an audio download. If it makes sense, you can offer a free consultation as your lead magnet to qualify people. Keeping in mind these three points, you can decide on the easiest and quickest way to deliver your content. For example:

Amy Porterfield has nailed it with her opt-in offer. She sells a course teaching people how to create profitable webinars and it’s priced at a thousand dollars. She wants to attract those people who are interested in creating and hosting webinars to generate big profits in their business. Hence, her own lead magnet is a webinar.

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3) Choose your topic wisely

If I ask you to brainstorm a list of topics you could create a lead magnet around, I bet you could come up with at least 10 topics. What you might struggle with is how to choose the right topic.

I have a simple fix for this dilemma. I want you to create a lead magnet that is aligned with your paid offers. What does your prospect need to know, understand or believe in order to buy your product or service? Create a lead magnet around that.

Another way you can approach this is to start with your most popular service or product. Splinter a piece off it and offer it as a lead magnet.

Make sure your free offer paves the way for your paid offerings. Your paid offering should be a natural next step for your email subscribers. For example:

In the example above, Amy sells a course where she teaches people how to use webinars to sell their products or services. Her lead magnet is spot on as it leads people into her offer.

This is another example where Russ Ruffino sells a program called ‘Clients on Demand’. Hence his lead magnet is a webinar that leads into his paid offer.

Lead Gen

4) Make it really specific

Now that you know the person you want to attract, the format to create your offer in and the topic, it is time to supercharge that lead magnet. Now what I am about to say is bound to make you feel nervous at first, but it will give you immense relief as well.

I bet you were thinking I was going to ask you to spend hours creating this freebie and make it the best offer you can create.

Yes to making it the best freebie offer but no to spending hours creating it. If you are feeling confused how it can be done, then pay attention: Make your opt-in offer super specific and solve ONE problem. That way it will still be really good but you won’t need days to create it.

I’ll say it one more time. Once you have your topic, make sure it is not generic or all-encompassing. When you go for mass appeal, you attract no one. When you make it really specific, not only do you attract your ideal, perfect audience but you make it easy for yourself.

You can focus on covering a specific and create the lead magnet in a short amount of time. When you give information that is on point, you do your readers a big favour because they actually consume it.

Here’s a perfect example. Carol Tice wants to help freelance writers make a decent living. She offers an ebook ‘100+ Freelance Writing Questions Answered’ to do just that.

Blog Plan

5) Help them with a quick win

Could you help your ideal audience solve a specific problem and do it quickly? Now I understand it’s impossible to fix a life-changing problem or something that requires months of working with you in a short amount of time. I’d like you to stretch yourself and try to create something that gets your new subscribers a quick win. You’ll convert these people into prospects and advocates.

The perfect example of a lead magnet that gives instant gratification or a quick win is the 60- Second Blog Plan by Digital Marketer. Just look at the headline on their opt-in page and you’ll see what I mean.

In conclusion, always ask; Is your lead magnet thoughtful and helpful at the same time? Does it communicate that you understand how people feel? Can they see that it makes perfect sense for them to say yes? And does it help them get a result no matter how big or small?

If they can see that you get them and are offering something that is highly valuable, they’ll happily give you their name and email address.

If they don’t, no worries, start over again (and this is another reason not to spend a ton of time on your lead magnet). Test another offer with your warm audience before you start sending paid traffic to it or spend any money making it look pretty. And you are sure to find your perfect lead magnet.