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If you are trying to grow your email list (and you definitely should), you need a lead magnet – or a freebie or whatever else you want to call it.

A lead magnet is something that you offer on your website in exchange for the email address of your website visitor. The more valuable your freebie offer is to your audience, the more people will be willing to give you their email address and the faster your email list will grow.

You want to attract a lot of leads to fill your sales funnel, but…

Image Source: Single Grain

The problem with the concept of „valuable“

There are many tips on what you should offer as a lead magnet or freebie. Most of these tips are quite generic like: „You need to offer something of high value to your target audience“ or „Your freebie needs to address the pain point of your target audience.“

But the truth is that it is a little more complicated than that to create and offer a great lead magnet that converts hundreds or even thousands of subscribers.

What can go wrong with your lead magnet

Most bloggers have made this experience at one point or other: They offer a freebie, but no one seems to care. And here are some reasons why that can happen:

• Your offer is not convincing enough, For instance, a simple signup form without any “goody” in exchange for the email address is not going to work wonders for most bloggers who are not yet famous (That is a totally different story for an established blog like the Convince & Convert Blog)

• You address a problem of your target audience, but the problem or the formulation of the problem is so generic that you don’t inspire your readers to take action
• You promise a solution that your target audience is not looking for
• You offer what everybody else offers – even if yours is more valuable, pretty, actionable – if others offer the same at least some of your audience will go shopping there
• You solve a problem that your audience might have – but they have a lot more pressing problems that come first
• Your audience does not know and trust you enough – and you fail to deliver some (social) proof on your website or landing page
• Your headline or text is boring and generic
• Your call-to-action is weak

And even after you got people to give you their email address and subscribe to your email list a lot can go wrong:

• your lead magnet is not in sync with what else you have to offer – and want to sell
• your email sequence after the signup fails to catch the attention
• your email content does not speak to the same people that your lead magnet attracts

Obviously, there is a lot the can go wrong with your lead magnet.

But, how can you come up with an awesome lead magnet that will not only attract a lot of signups to your email list? A freebie that will also attract the right people that have an interest in the products and the information that you have to sell? Let’s be honest, if you can never sell anything to your signups you don’t want them on your list!

What a great lead magnet has and is

Make it easy to get and easy to consume!

The less hassle it is to get the freebie the more people will do it. Every unnecessary step will lose you some valuable subscribers.

Plus, make it easy to consume: Add structure and choose the content form that your audience loves. Often, in a lead magnet not necessarily longer and bigger content will convert better. If you have one question, you may rather want a short answer than a lengthy answer that requires you to invest a ton of time.

Focus on one problem

Don’t try to solve all your audience’s problems in one freebie. Focus on one problem that you solve. Don’t confuse or sidetrack – focus!

Here is a great example from Teachable: A Checklist for a launch

Offer change

People often say that you should not sell solutions, sell feelings, change and dreams. That should reflect in your offer of any freebie or lead magnet. People are in situation one and want to be in situation two. Your lead magnet is going to get them there!

Solve a problem that people know they have

Even if the problem actually lies somewhere else, you need to address the problem that people are aware of. For example, bloggers will realize they don’t have enough traffic – they might not realize they are posting the wrong stuff on social media. In that case, a freebie that offers a quick solution to a traffic problem will usually convert better than a freebie that explains how to post on social media.

Offer something unique

Be honest: If you offer the same thing that all your competitors and fellow bloggers offer as well, why should people get your lead magnet instead of theirs? Even if everybody else is offering a list of 10 tips a list of 15 tips of the same will most of the time not do the trick.

Rather think of something special, something all others forgot to offer, but that is essential. Or even better, something that only you can offer: maybe you have a trick on how you do something especially simple or quick.

Choose the name of the lead magnet with care

The problem with blogging, online marketing, and social media posting often is: people try to be too creative. You are not creating the title for the next best selling book. People don’t want to be entertained, they are looking for a solution. If you leave them to guesswork what it is they will be getting from you, they will most likely look somewhere else for the solution.

Keep in mind what you want to sell

You need to make sure that the lead magnet you offer leads to the product you want to sell later on in the customer journey. If you are selling a course on becoming a better writer a lead magnet with Twitter tips may simply not attract the right audience. Obviously, the people opting in for the Twitter tips are right now focusing on a different problem than their writing skills.

However, if you are selling a Twitter course a freebie with Twitter tips may convert like crazy if people love your Twitter tips.

Final Words on Lead Magnets

It is not enough to offer something for free to attract tons of signups to your email list. Only the right offer at the right time will grow your email list with the right people from your target audience. Also, keep in mind that it is easier to convert your subscribers into customers if your lead magnet or freebie already goes in the right direction and paves the ground for your products.

Never let yourself be lured into offering something that converts but you cannot deliver on your promise – that will hurt your reputation and destroy the trust you are trying to build with your audience.

The Email Marketing tool that we use is ConvertKit. We tried several email marketing tools before we chose ConvertKit but now we feel that we found the best tool for us as bloggers and online marketers. 

Do you want to start your email marketing? Do you need some help with the basics of list building and newsletter best practices?

Get our free ebook “Email Marketing Recipes” – and get email marketing tips that will help you start your email marketing the better way.

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