A lead magnet is a free offer that you give to potential customers in exchange for their email address or contact information. The goal of a lead magnet is to encourage people to sign up for your email list so that you can market your products or services to them.
There are many types of lead magnets, but some examples include ebooks, webinars, and free courses. To be successful, your lead magnet should be highly relevant to your target audience and offer something of value that they will find useful.
When used correctly, lead magnets can be an effective way to grow your coaching business by attracting new leads and building relationships with potential clients.
What is a lead magnet?
A lead magnet is a “bribe” of sorts that you offer potential customers in exchange for their email address or other contact information. By offering something valuable for free, you can entice people to sign up for your email list or join your social media community.
Of course, the key is to make sure that your lead magnet is actually valuable and relevant to your target audience!
As a coach, some possible lead magnets could include an e-book on setting goals, a PDF guide to starting a meditation practice, or even just a helpful blog post series detailing various coaching strategies.
Here are 5 examples of lead magnets business coaches could offer:
- A downloadable free report that outlines the top 5 Steps to Building a 6-Figure Business as a Coach.
- A video course on how to market and sell your products online successfully.
- An e-book containing expert tips on growing your business online.
- A mentorship program that helps entrepreneurs achieve success with their businesses.
- A free report that outlines the top 5 Steps to Building a 6-Figure Business as a Coach.
All of these items are valuable to the potential customer; they will be happy to “pay” for them by giving you an email address.
Lead magnets for a core element of our Growth Jetpack product which is designed to help you create valueable products fast. The product includes access to software that will help you generate a wide range of marketing materials. Want to learn more?
Can someone make lead magnets for me?
A lead magnet can be a very simple document, but if you want something that looks a little more polished and you don’t have the time or the skills to create it the best option is to outsource.
You can find lots of designers who will be happy to make files for you, however my recommendation would be to use the Beacon Done For You Service. If you’ve not come across Beacon let me explain what they do, it’s a website for easily creating professional lead magnets, opt-in forms and resource libraries.
It’s a complete soltuion and very easy to use, here is an example of a lead capture form (it works, go ahead and try it out).
The done for you element is an additional, optional, service for those who want high quality lead magnets regularly created.
For $49 per month you get 1 lead magnet design per month or you can pay $99 per month for 5 lead magnet designs per month.
I think that’s really reasonable as most decent designers would charge a minimum of $100 just for one item.
All you have to do is complete a short questionnaire. This will tell Beacon what you need and allows them to make each lead magnet a completely unique design that is exclusive to your account.
After submitting your information, you can expect the order to be completed in no more than 7 days, but they usually send the first draft back for your approval within 24 hours.
What if you don’t like the design you come up with? Then they’ll change it!
You get unlimited revisions for each lead magnet design, so we’ll keep making changes until you’re happy with the finished result. And that’s at no extra cost, unlike some designers who will only allow one set of revisions for free.
It’s worth noting that if you submit multiple design requests at a time, Beacon will only work on one design at a time, proceeding to the next design when the previous project has been signed-off by you.
Once you have approved the finished lead magnet it will be transferred to your Beacon account, and you can make any future updates yourself.
I find Beacon a very easy-to-use platform, but for those who have the ideas but would rather leave the lead magnet creation to experts I think this is a brilliant service.
How can coaches use lead magnets?
There are many ways that coaches can use lead magnets effectively. One common way is to set up a pop-up opt-in form on your website or blog, so visitors can subscribe to your mailing list and receive the promised freebie (i.e., the lead magnet).
Or, you might choose to get more personal and use lead magnets as part of a more thorough sales funnel in which case you would likely offer the free material and then follow up with an email sequence designed to warm up the potential client and convert them into a paying customer.
What is a sales funnel?
A sales funnel is a marketing and sales strategy used to increase the number of exposures to your product or service. It typically consists of five steps:
- Attracting leads,
- Converting those leads into paying customers,
- Nurturing those customers throughout their relationship with you,
- Extracting maximum value from them, and
- Closing the sale.
A lead magnet will attract people interested in your particular topic of expertise and by getting an email address you can send out a follow-up email sequence.
An email sequence is a series of emails that are sent to a list of recipients. The purpose of this series of emails is to promote or sell a product or service.
What are the steps in an email sequence?
As a coach, your goal is to convert interested visitors into paying clients. So your email sequence might be as follows:
- Introduction email with lead magnet
- Follow-up email asking what they thought about lead magnet, tease other free information
- Send other valuable information on same topic
- Introduce yourself and your coaching services
- Let the client know what they can expect from your service
- Reveal how you can help the client to achieve their goals
- Offer a free consultation to gauge whether this is the right course or service for the client
- Client converts into paying customer
This is a very basic example, but the idea is to warm the potential customer up before asking for payment, help them understand why they should trust you as a coach.
Types of lead magnets
There are three types of lead magnets that are most commonly used by coaches. These include PDF guides, free email courses, and webinars.
PDF guides are a great way to provide valuable information to your audience without asking for too much in return. You can offer a short guide on anything from time management tips for entrepreneurs to secrets for goal setting success. If you have an opt-in form on your website, make sure to link the PDF guide as the incentive for signing up. This will ensure that people who sign up are actually interested in what you have to say!
Free email courses can be another great lead magnet for coaches. Just like with PDF guides, offer something helpful and informative that will benefit your target market or ideal clientele. Email courses typically last anywhere from 3-7 days, with each day’s lesson being delivered straight to the subscriber’s inboxes first thing in the morning or evening (depending on their time zone). To sweeten the deal even further, consider offering a discount code off of your paid services at the end of the course as an added bonus!
Webinars are also becoming increasingly popular among coaches as they provide a more interactive experience than either PDF guides or email courses alone. Not only do webinars allow you to build relationships with potential clients through providing value upfront, but they also give you the perfect opportunity to “pitch” your products or services at the end without seeming salesy – because remember, people buy based on emotion and then justify it later with logic!
How to use lead magnets
There are a few key things to keep in mind when using lead magnets:
- Keep it relevant: Make sure your lead magnet is relevant to what you’re selling. If you’re a coach who helps people lose weight, for example, your lead magnet could be a healthy recipe book or workout guide.
- Don’t make it too long: People are more likely to opt in if the lead magnet is something they can consume quickly. No one wants to sign up for something that’s going to take hours to read or watch.
- Offer value: Your goal with a lead magnet is ultimately to get people interested in your product or service. To do that, you need to offer them something of value. Think about what would appeal most to your target audience and offer accordingly.
Pros and cons of lead magnets
As with anything, there are pros and cons to using lead magnets. On the positive side, lead magnets can be extremely effective in generating leads and getting people interested in your coaching business. They can also be a great way to build up your email list.
On the downside, lead magnets can sometimes be difficult to create and take time to develop. Plus you need the technical know-how to set up a system to collect email addresses and deliver the lead magnet. Fortunately there are a lot of options available, such as the excellent Beacon.
And remember that having a lead magnet doesn’t guarantee conversions; they may not always be completely successful in converting leads into customers or clients.
