How To Create a Lead Magnet in 19 Minutes or Less
Written by Michael Cheney. Posted on 9th March 2021
Knowing how to create a lead magnet is a key skill for any entrepreneur. This free guide shows you how to turn simple content into lots of email subscribers for your email list.
If you're in a rush, here's the fast low-down for you...
How To Create a Lead Magnet
1. Pin-Point Your Prospect's Pain Point
2. Create the Best Lead Magnet Title
3. Choose the Correct Type of Lead Magnet for Your Business (Report, Audio, Video etc.)
4. Create the Lead Magnet in Minutes Using Free PDF, Audio and Video Tools
5. Promote Your Lead Magnet on Pages, Socials and Stationery
Now let's dive into the specific steps you need to take to create a lead magnet quickly, easily and for free...
Knowing how to create a lead magnet which actually works and gets people on your email list involves knowing the pain point of your audience.
Nobody will take action on a lead magnet offer unless it helps them solve the problem they currently have.
While it's true that people will take action to move towards a desire, they will take action more readily to get away from pain or discomfort.
It's your job to understand your target market so well that you know what keeps them awake at night;
- What problems are they struggling with?
- What issues do they have that they would love to solve?
- Do they complain to other people in this niche, about the same type of issues?
You can find this information quite easily in a number of ways...
Way #1. Are You a Customer in This Niche Already?
You may already be a member in the niche, you are trying to target.
This is the easiest way of all because you already know the problems and pain points, the audience has way number two.
Way #2. Look at Customer Reviews
You can quickly jump over to Amazon and do some research on books and other resources in your target area.
Take a look at how people talk in the reviews and how they describe their problems.
What type of language do they use, which phrases do they use, and what type of words are repeated.
Way #3. Research Forums & Social Media Groups
You can also take a look at online forums.
You can even dive into Facebook groups and see how people are describing the niche that you're targeting.
All of these ways help you step inside the shoes of your prospect to really understand what they're struggling with most.
You need to create a lead magnet which helps solve your prospect's core problem.
It doesn't need to solve all their problems, though.
And it doesn't need to solve the main problem absolutely forever.
But it needs to move them away from point A (where they are now), towards point B (where they want to be).
Getting a person to enter their email address is not as easy as it used to be;
- You need to offer something which is really jam-packed full of benefits.
- You can't second-guess this.
- You need to know the problems your target audience has.
Once you've done that you can move on to this next section...
If you've correctly identified a key pain point of your audience, creating the best title for your lead magnet is relatively easy.
You can use this simple formula;
HOW TO [WHAT THEY WANT] WITHOUT HAVING TO [WHAT THEY WANT]
You can make it even more specific by adding a timeframe of how long it will take
You will get lots of subscribers joining your email list and requesting your lead magnet, if you make your title specific.
If you can also tap into curiosity, you will get even more opt ins.
You want to show people exactly what they will get from your lead magnet, but not reveal so much, that they don't bother downloading it!
You need to suggest the outcome they will get, but NOT the method in which they're going to get there.
Another powerful way of titling your lead magnet is to use the simple numbered list approach.
For example;
"7 Ways to Achieve ABC."
"The Top 10 Methods for Using XYZ."
"5 Little-known Secrets of ABC"
Combining curiosity, pain, a solution and a timeframe makes your Lead Magnet irresistible.
It's something they cannot scroll past without wanting to get.
Don't underestimate how important this is.
The content inside your lead magnet takes second place priority to the name and title of the lead magnet.
You can have the best content in the world...
But if you come up with a boring title, that doesn't excite, interest or evoke curiosity, nobody will want to get it.
Okay, let's move on to the next section...
There are various options for creating the lead magnet itself;
- You might want to create a written report
- You may wish to even give away an E book or a chapter
- Perhaps you want to give away an audio recording
- You may even wish to give away a video or series of videos
- Perhaps you're choosing to give away access to yourself with a free consultation or time on the phone
How to Create a Lead Magnet Which Suits You and Your Prospects?
To decide on this, think about the way in which your prospects normally digest their content.
If you're targeting people who spend most of their time on Instagram, for example, it's clear they are very visual.
A huge long written report is unlikely to resonate with the Instagram crowd.
By the same token, if your target market is used to reading lots of written content quickly, they are unlikely to be enamoured with having to sit through videos.
So do they prefer written content, audio or video?
Your business may be best-suited to offering your time up, or the time of your staff.
Or perhaps you can give them a free tool or software as your lead magnet?
And don't just think of your prospects - it needs to be something which is also best for you.
If you hate being in front of camera, then of course videos, not for you.
You can create lots of content quickly just by hitting record on your cell phone.
This doesn't need to be a video.
You can use a simple transcription service, or even the inbuilt one in Google Docs, that will transcribe the spoken word into written words.
On this note, let's talk, in the next section about how to...
Now you've got the best title for your lead magnet.
And you also know the key pain points of your prospects.
It's time to actually create it...
The first thing is to think about the content inside the lead magnet.
Don't get bogged down in the details, you're not creating some in-depth white paper here!
This can simply be a list of bullet points with a paragraph for each, or maybe a 5- or 10-minute audio recording.
This is something you're giving away for free.
So, as long as people get two or three nuggets of information, which they've never heard before, you will be building good rapport and trust with your audience.
If you're struggling for the content itself just spend 10 or 15 minutes doing some research;
A few simple Google searches, or checking out industry-related forums can quickly give you lists of items, key takeaways and content ideas you can repurpose to create a lead magnet.
When it comes to creating the digital download itself, you have a number of options.
Don't be tricked into paying money for lead magnet creating tools when you get them for free
You can create a lead magnet, simply using Microsoft Word and saving as PDF.
You can also do the same using Google Docs.
You can create a free audio file using the audacity software.
Or if you prefer, you can create a screen capture video, which records your screen, as you're talking over it.
The easiest type of lead magnet to create is one where you're offering your time.
You simply describe the offer free consultation, exclusive free coaching etc.
Of course, delivering this type of freebie is the most difficult.
It is not scalable.
You are best to spend more time and effort in advance, creating a digital lead magnet, rather than something which requires your input on a regular basis.
This way, you can just have it on your website and forget about it.
Every day, it will be getting you new subscribers for your email list, without you having to devote any more work to it.
And be sure to study these thank you page examples so you have active subscribers.
Of course you may occasionally wish to update if new material comes out or you wish to add further value to it.
But that's not required.
So with a little bit of research and using one of the free methods I've outlined here, you can quickly create a free report, free video or free audio as your lead magnet in just a matter of minutes.
So the next step is, to...
Of course, you're not going to get any subscribers joining your email list, unless you promote your lead magnet.
The way I do this, is to have a timed pop up that appears for desktop visitors to my website.
This offers them the lead magnet after around 20 seconds.
I also offer the lead magnet inside the content that I create and also as a call to action at the end of the content, as you'll see in this article itself.
But that's not all...
You should also dedicate a page on your website, specifically for your lead magnet.
This way, people will click on it from the navigation and also so you can promote it from External links.
You could even buy a separate domain name, and put your lead magnet on there.
This way, you can update your social media profiles and have links to your lead magnet from Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, YouTube and so on.
If you use business cards, you should also have the URL to your lead magnet on there too.
Of course, driving traffic is a huge area in itself but if you want some ideas on getting it free using Facebook check this article out.
Conclusion
You wanted to know;
How to create a lead magnet?
Hopefully you have now got the answer - you can now create a lead magnet of your very own to grow your email list.
Next, I strongly recommend you check out how I create my lead magnet and the follow-up email process...
You can do this by grabbing this free training right now;
