What makes an ‘irresistible’ lead magnet?
If you want to grow your mailing list, you need a freebie, also known as a lead magnet. Find out what makes an irresistible lead magnet.
When we first launched Talented Ladies Club in 2013, it was easy to get people to join your mailing list. All you needed was an invitation on your website to sign up for your newsletter and people would willingly give you their email address.
But nearly 10 years on, with the explosion of online businesses and e-commerce that has taken place since, things are very different.
Today we are overwhelmed with emails on a daily basis. Almost everyone we have ever given our email address to is regularly sending us newsletters and sales emails. And while this makes sense, and is good marketing practice from a business’ perspective, as a consumer it’s all quite overwhelming.
Especially as we don’t want nor have time to read many of the emails we are bombarded with regularly.
So no wonder it has become much harder to entice someone onto your mailing list. To the extent that many small businesses and freelancers struggle to add subscribers to their newsletters.
But there is a way you can attract the right people and encourage them to join your list – and that is with an irresistible lead magnet.
What is a lead magnet?
A lead magnet (also sometimes called a ‘freebie’) is an incentive you offer in return for someone joining your mailing list. It is literally a magnet for leads.
A lead magnet can take many forms. For example, it could be a guide, video, checklist, trial subscription, sample, white paper or even free consultation.
Usually a lead magnet will have a sign up page; a simple page with an image, short descriptive text and a sign up box (like this one), or it will be a pop up on a website. Once people submit their contact details they will be sent the lead magnet or details on how to get it.
Over the years we have created dozens of different lead magnets, from guides to making money from your passion and SEO quizzes, to pricing checklists, email formulas and even free challenges. With a quiz builder, you can easily create interactive quizzes and collect valuable insights with ease.
Our lead magnets have helped us add over 42,000 people to our mailing list over the past few years, and enabled us to share our courses with loyal customers who know us and value, want and need what we share.
What makes an irresistible lead magnet?
Like many things in life, not all lead magnets are equal. As you will know if you have used to them to grow your mailing list, some will have people joining your list in droves, while others will barely add a couple of people.
So what is the difference between them? What makes a lead magnet irresistible to your ideal customer or client… so irresistible that they can’t wait to get their hands on it?
What matters more than the format of a lead magnet is the content. Here are three vital things that make a lead magnet irresistible:
- The type of problem it solves
- The amount of time and energy it requires
- The name you choose
Get these three things right, and you will have a brilliant lead magnet that will help you to grow your list with people who actually want to be there.
Get them wrong, and you will just waste time, and possibly money, creating and designing a dud. Or you will attract people who join you list for your lead magnet and then unsubscribe straight away as they are the wrong people for what you offer.
Our ‘best’ lead magnet was a big fail
This is a lesson we learned early on when I created what I thought was our best ever lead magnet. I spent hours digesting a popular business psychology book into a 30-page workbook, creating my own lessons and exercises, then paid to have it beautifully designed.
I was convinced this lead magnet would have people joining our mailing list in their dozens, and even paid for a Facebook ad campaign to share it.
But when I released this brilliant lead magnet to the world… no one was interested! We had less sign ups for this lead magnet than we have had for any other – including simple, one-page checklists.
To find out why, and how you can avoid my basic mistakes, join us for a free, five-day list building challenge starting Monday 14 November.
How to join our free challenge and create your irresistible lead magnet
Over the five-day challenge I’ll personally help you create your own irresistible lead magnet. I’ll show you how to find the right problem to solve, how to choose the perfect format, how to name your lead magnet and what to include in it.
And at the end of the challenge you can join a live class (recorded to watch later in case you can’t make it live) in which I will show you how to bring your lead magnet to life, and how to get it in front of your perfect customers or clients.
All you need to join the challenge is an internet connection and a spare 30 minutes a day.
This is the fastest, easiest and most fun way to build your mailing list, and it is completely free. To book your place just click here and you’ll get all the details you need to join.
I can’t wait to help you create an irresistible lead magnet and grow your list with your perfect customers or clients.
Join our free, five-day list building challenge now and start growing your mailing list with our help.
