3 Lead Magnets to Grow Your Email List
If you are looking to grow your email list then you are going to love this post.
I am going to share with you a NEW outlook on lead magnets and how you can use them to exponentially grow your blog or side-hustle.
I’m sure you are familiar with lead generation and how it can help you to grow your email list. If you’ve been around for a while then you probably know that it used to be much EASIER to grow your list of subscribers.
Now, people aren’t as willing to give up their email address UNLESS you have something super juicy to offer them (more on that soon!).
You may have heard people say:
“Lead magnets are dead…”
In a sense they are, but when you approach the concept a bit different, you will see that they can still work for you.
Introducing…. Evergreen Lead Magnets.
Sounds fancy, but when you break it down your focus needs to be on providing value and creating something that your audience will use again and again, hence evergreen.
What are lead magnets?
A lead magnet is a marketing term for a free item or service that is given away for the purpose of gathering contact details; for example, lead magnets can be trial subscriptions, samples, white papers, e-newsletters, and free consultations. Marketers use lead magnets to create sales leads.
As a blogger, this means you create some kind of free item like a PDF, Guide or even a workbook and incentivize your website visitors to give them your email address in exchange for the lead magnet.
Why are lead magnets important?
Having an engaged email list is crucial to your business and long-term success because it is your direct line of communication to your audience.
A really great lead magnet will help you to quickly grow your list full of people who are ready to take the next step with you (ie. make a purchase).
What kind of lead magnets should you create to grow your email list?
This is where I want you to really take time to think about your audience and how you can think differently about using lead magnets.
I don’t want you to just slap some kind of freebie up on your blog and call it good.
This is where the term content upgrade came from because it is essentially bonus content that people can get access to once they land on your blog posts.
It’s called content upgrade because it is an upgrade of the content they were reading. Which means, it is relevant and valuable to your blog post and NOT just a random freebie that you offer.
A high-converting lead magnet:
Immediate value - you want your readers to be able to get immediate value from your lead magnet and be able to put it to use.
Reference back to often - THIS IS KEY. A good evergreen lead magnet encourages your email subscribers to come back and use it over and over again.
Quick to consume - let them get to know you and your expertise, but also give them a quick win
It is evergreen - this means that your audience can continue to use it or it is still relevant to them (be sure to keep it updated too!)
Here’s what you need to do to create an evergreen lead magnet:
Step #1 - Understand your audience
You NEED to understand what your audience wants and give it to them. Most people assume they know what their audience wants and then wastes so much time creating something that no one actually downloads or needs.
Don’t make this mistake.
Take the time to learn about your audience’s desires and struggles. I am sure you’ve heard people talk about creating an audience profile or avatar, but I don’t want you to just guess.
Talk to your audience.
Ask them what they are struggling with.
Hone in on their needs BEFORE you create your evergreen lead magnet.
You need to be solving a specific problem that your target audience wants to be solved.
*If you like this, you’ll also like: How to Create Evergreen Content for Your Blog
Step #2 - Map out your audience’s journey
To have a profitable blog you need to be making sales. Think of your evergreen lead magnet as the beginning of your audience’s journey.
What are you leading them to in your business?
Do you have a digital product?
Do you offer a service?
Before you create your lead magnet, map out the journey they would take through your business.
This is a REALLY important step because you want your lead magnet to be LEADING them to a sale so it needs to be relevant to your offers.
Step #3 - Make it valuable and specific
You are no longer just creating something to get people on your email list. It NEEDS to be valuable and ONLY attract people who are a good fit for your blog.
I wasted so much time trying to attract everyone to my blog, Frugal Fanatic. I used to just create a general freebie to increase the number of email subscribers on my list.
This was a huge waste of time because those people weren’t a good fit for my content or products I had to offer.
Once you have figured out what your audience wants, make sure that you create something that will be extremely valuable to that specific audience.
I mentioned above that you want it to be something that they will reference often or implement again and again. This is what will make it evergreen.
What are the best lead magnets?
Here are the top 3 evergreen lead magnets you need to create for your blog.
#1 Swipe Files
These are great because they help your audience save time and the work is already done for them. The whole point is that you took the guesswork out of it and they can just use your swipe file to copy and paste.
Examples:
Social media caption swipe files
Headline swipe files
Sales page swipe file
#2 Templates
Trust me when I tell you that your audience will love templates because they are the ultimate shortcut. Create something that your audience can use to just fill in the blank.
Examples:
Design-templates
Budget template
Resume template
#3 Resource Library
This can include several different lead magnets in an easy-to-use area that your subscribers can reference often. My resource library always has the highest conversion rates.
Keep in mind that you aren’t just compiling a bunch of resources, but offering your audience several different solutions to their problems that are all still relevant to your content and your offers.
I don’t think lead magnets will be going away, I just think that you need to position them differently and make sure that they are solving a specific problem for your specific audience.
Always schedule time in your calendar to audit your lead magnets and make sure they are up to date and still relevant.
You will also enjoy reading: How to Create Content Faster.
Comment below and tell me if you use lead magnets with your blog or business.