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In the last post we discussed about creating a reader profile for your blog. A reader profile primarily identifies your readers so that you can write for them.
At the same time, the reader profile also gives you another very critical information which is one of the pre-requisite to creating a lead magnet.
In this post we will discuss about how to create a lead magnet for your blog.
If you would like to skip this post and go to the Show Notes and Resources, you can do so by clicking the below links.
Before we dive into that specific critical information that the reader profile provides, which can help us in creating our lead magnets, let us first understand what a lead magnet is.
This is what Digital Marketer says about a “Lead Magnet” –
Lead Magnet — noun — an irresistible bribe offering a specific chunk of value to a prospect in exchange for their contact information.
In simple terms, a lead magnet refers to a specific thing, tangible or, intangible that you are offering anybody who enters their contact information (email address, to be specific) on your website or, blog.
If you have browsed through the internet, I am sure you would have come across some or, the other type of a lead magnet. Because pretty much every website out there welcomes you with a pop-up asking you to enter your email address.
And in return, they will offer you something like an ebook, a discount coupon, a trial access etc.
Since the topic of our discussion is our blog, the lead magnets that we will be talking about in this post will be very specific to our blog and the niche that we are covering.
Also it will be about something that your audience is seeking more information about.
And this is the critical information that your reader profile will give you and which I was talking about a little while back..
Now another thing that we need to keep in mind is that something like a discount coupon will not and in fact, will never work as a lead magnet on a blog.
Why?
Because your blog is not about selling something.
And the people coming over to your blog is not there to buy something.
They are there on your blog for information.
That makes the obvious point on what is it that they would be enticed with and for which they would be ready to give away their email address – that is “information”.
Let us look at what are the best lead magnets to offer your blog readers.
The Best Lead Magnets for a Blog
Blogging is all about providing information. Hence it is obvious that people coming over to your blog is coming for information.
Now imagine, if they read about some specific topic that they were struggling with, on your blog and are satisfied with what they saw, would it make sense to offer them a report with additional information about the same topic?
Will they be ready to enter their email address in order to download that information?
Absolutely. They would.
And that is the core essence of the lead magnet. And in fact the best lead magnets for a blog.
Here are some proven lead magnets that always work.
A Simple Cheat Sheet or, Handout
A cheat sheet is what it is – a cheat sheet. It is usually a one-pager that can give a quick run-down about doing something, like a cheat-sheet on Blog SEO essentials.
Check out how Amy Porterfield uses cheat-sheets as a lead magnet on her blog.
Another important thing to note here is how she even segments her subscribers by offering different cheat sheets solving a different kind of a problem.
We will discuss about segmentation of subscribers in another post.
This one-page cheat-sheet can also be a checklist or, even a mindmap. Though personally I have never entered my email address for a mindmap because I never understood one, but that’s entirely dependent upon your reader profile and your choice of cheat sheets.
A Report or, Guide
A report or, a guide is a slightly longer form of a lead magnet. The primary drawback in such lead magnets is the lower attention spans to such freebies.
Let us accept the fact that “freebies” are always treated as that – FREEBIES. Quite often, if the information in what I am downloading is not something that can be consumed immediately, then the possibility of dumping it into a corner in my hard drive, increases. And then it will stay there and gather dust.
A lead magnet is an excellent medium to bring back your visitors. But that can only happen if the content in the lead magnet is consumed by the subscriber, who then is lured to come back to you for more.
So, if a report or, a guide is not consumed, then the possibility of them coming back for more decreases.
What can a report be?
It can be on anything. For eg: if you blog is about social media marketing, you can offer a report on how Instagram has changed over the years and breakdown of the audience who frequent on Instagram, in terms of the interests, engagement etc.
Something similar to the report is a guide. It can be a document that gives a detailed step-by-step instruction on how to do something.
For eg: a guide about improving the engagement on Instagram.
Audio Training
You can offer an audio training as a lead magnet. I do that in the DKSpeaks Podcast page. This can be an exclusive audio training that is otherwise not available on your website.
Marie Forleo also offers an extremely valuable audio training as a lead magnet. This also make sense because her primary medium of conversation is audio and video.
So, if your blog is more of video content or, even if you are a podcaster, then it really makes sense to put together an audio training or, even a video training (which we will discuss in a while).
Audio trainings are very effective (thanks to time crunch) and is consumed well by the audience. The only hard part in creating an audio training is to plan how you will bring back the subscriber to your blog for more.
Video Training
I simple love videos. In fact video marketing is responsible for more than 45% of my overall revenue.
You can use video trainings for your lead magnet. You can record a simply video by using a screen – recorder like Camtasia Studio or, Wondershare Filmora, both of which are extremely good tools.
People love video trainings because they can learn things by watching how it is done.
Videos are have the benefit of longer attention spans and you can also almost immediately bring back the subscriber to your blog and make him take an action like buying a recommended product.
Resource Kits / Toolboxes
There are a lot of internet marketers who use these as lead magnets. But I have personally never felt like entering my email address to grab one of these.
If you have a very strong resource list or, toolkit then a subscriber might enter his email address, but then you need to ensure that the list is indeed that valuable.
Some examples of resource kits are a list of essential free wordpress plugins, list of guest posting blogs etc.
Workbooks are another good variant of resource kits. It is simple to create and is very useful for the person downloading it as well.
Check out how Melyssa Griffin uses workbooks as her lead magnet. Again, something to note here is that she also segments her subscribers based on the kind of problem they are trying to solve.
While a lot of internet marketers suggest using simple segmentation in their lead magnets, personally I have found that if you give a lot of options to your visitors, they are often confused and end up leaving without taking a decision.
If you are planning to do something like this, then you might want to try it out and continue with it if it works for you.
Now that we discussed about the various types of lead magnets, the obvious question that arises is, How do I create a lead magnet if I am not good at creating and designing one.
How to Create a Lead Magnet for Your Blog
A lot of people have a problem with creating a lead magnet. They are not good at copywriting, editing, designing etc.
I too had a similar problem. I wasn’t good at any of these but I learnt each one of them.
Now that’s because I had an interest in learning. If you do not, then you don’t need to.
You can still do it.
Create a Lead Magnet Yourself
If you run a blog, then I am sure you have written a lot of posts on related topics. But not all of them might be in the first page of your blog and your visitor also might not have seen all of them.
Why not offer them a free guide offering related information from one of these blog posts?
You can easily turn your existing blog posts into PDF guides by using a simple software like Designrr or, Sqribble.
I personally prefer Designrr because of its simplicity and the many features that you have at your disposal. It is available for a low one time cost of $27.00 and is a steal at that price.
Outsource the Lead Magnet Creation
You can get somebody to work on creating a lead magnet for you. You can give these people, a topic and they will go out there and research about the topic and then write a guide/report/cheat-sheet for you.
Some good places to outsource your work will be Upwork, Freelancer and Fiverr.
Fiverr is a good and economical place to get things done. There are a lot of good freelancers who can do the job for you for less than $15.00
PLR Products
PLR is not always bad.
In fact this is one of my most preferred ways of creating a lead magnet. There are extremely good PLR websites like IDPLR, which has a collection of some extremely valuable and good PLR products.
I would usually go out there and search for PLR products on a specific topic. Once I find a few products, I will pick them and read through them.
Then I extract all the good points from these and combine them to form a lead magnet.
I have created cheat-sheets, reports and guides using this method and they have provided immense value to my subscribers.
Closing Thoughts
What’s your favorite lead magnet type and what method do you prefer to create your lead magnet?
Do comment below and let me know your thoughts.
If you want me to create a lead magnet for you, you can get in touch with me using the contact button here.
Show Notes
Here’s what we discussed in today’s episode –
- What is a lead magnet?
- How your reader profile can help you in creating a lead magnet?
- What are the different types of lead magnets?
- Which is the most effective form of lead magnet and why?
- How to create a lead magnet even if you have no experience in creating one?
Resources
Here are the resources that we discussed in today’s episode –
- Designrr
- Sqribble
- Freelancer
- Fiverr
- Upwork
- IDPLR
- Thrive Leads
- Camtasia Studio
- Wondershare Filmora
Thank You for Joining in
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