Scale Up Strategies: The Business Podcast for Coaches, Consultants, and Speakers

Mastering Lead Magnets: Strategies for Growing Your Email List

• Laura Bashore and Mary Fain Brandt

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Ever wondered how to turn casual browsers into loyal clients with just a click? Discover the power of lead magnets and why they are a game-changer for your business. In this episode of Scale Up Strategies, we dive into the world of lead magnets, from their humble beginnings as simple PDFs to their evolution into indispensable tools for building a robust and controllable email list. Learn about the different forms lead magnets can take—eBooks, guides, checklists, and cheat sheets—and why offering truly valuable resources is key to making a lasting first impression.

But it doesn't stop there. We'll guide you through the entire process of creating and integrating lead magnets into your email funnels, ensuring you stay on brand and effectively distribute your valuable content. Understand the importance of nurturing email sequences and tracking metrics like open and conversion rates to refine your strategy. With practical tips and personal anecdotes, we aim to equip you with the knowledge to get started confidently. Stay focused, stay motivated, and above all, stay caffeinated as we journey together towards greater success! Cheers!

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Mary Fain Brandt:

You're listening to Scale Up Strategies, the business growth podcast for coaches, consultants and speakers. We're your hosts and business coach experts Mary Fan Grant and Laura Bay Shore.

Laura Bashore:

We're sharing all our insider tips from 20 plus years in business, including how we successfully scaled our businesses without losing our minds or our husbands.

Mary Fain Brandt:

Sure, you can piece it together and try to DIY your way to success. Or you can listen to us every week and learn the shortcuts, because we promise they're really awesome.

Laura Bashore:

So grab your favorite cup of coffee, tune in and let's start the show.

Mary Fain Brandt:

Welcome back to Scale Up Strategies, the business growth podcast for coaches, consultants and speakers. Hi everyone, I'm Mary Fane Brandt.

Laura Bashore:

And that must make me Laura Bayshore. And so, for today, we are going to be diving into the world of lead magnets or opt-ins, whatever you want to call them what they are, why they're essential for your business growth and how you can create the perfect lead magnet to attract and convert your ideal client.

Mary Fain Brandt:

Hey, Laura, before we go into the next part of this, how many lead magnets have you ever opted into? Like I have been to all kinds of lead magnets.

Laura Bashore:

Well, excuse me, you know you like to like. How do I say? You like to get the things that you're not going to use for a couple of years.

Mary Fain Brandt:

Well, I just like to learn. I'm like, well, what is that person doing and what does that list look like? And can I just like to learn? I'm like, well, what is that person doing and what does that list look like, and can I learn something?

Laura Bashore:

Yeah, I mean I'll do that too. If I'm like, okay, this is interesting, this has grabbed my attention, I'll opt in just to see what's going on Opt-ins that I used, or lead magnets that I've gotten into where it's actually driven me to purchase a product Probably six, yeah, but that's six leads, right.

Mary Fain Brandt:

So I feel like there's still power in the lead magnets or opt-in. I feel there's some specific things that you have to do to make them work. But you know before we get started, maybe some of our audience doesn't even know what a lead magnet or opt-in is or what they're supposed to do. Do you want to explain to our audience what they really are?

Laura Bashore:

Well, yeah, and I think a lot may not know, because this has evolved, you know, even since the eight plus years ago when I started my own business where I was using lead magnets in it, the way that you look at them and what needs to be offered has evolved. So I guess let's start with what is a lead magnet or an opt-in. Essentially, it's a free resource or offer given away in exchange for a prospect's contact information, and typically that's going to be their email address. The purpose is to obviously attract potential clients, provide some type of value or buy-in upfront and then to begin to build your relationship, which is why you're collecting that email address. It's not just to sit stagnant.

Mary Fain Brandt:

It's to grow your email list. It's the easiest way to grow your email list right.

Laura Bashore:

Well, anna, some of the top coaches that we both know and respect will reiterate this is how you control your client base, because you don't have control over any of the other social media platforms, so you need to make sure that you're controlling that information for you.

Mary Fain Brandt:

Amy Porterfield comes to mind right Email opt-ins, building your email list, because you touched on a valuable point. We don't control our audience on Facebook, instagram, tiktok or LinkedIn. You don't? I mean, those people can leave the platforms. The platform could break right. It could evolve to something that you no longer use. So how do you stay in front of your clients? You get their email.

Laura Bashore:

I love that, exactly in front of your clients, you get their email. I love that Exactly, and that's a good point, because you know X, Twitter that's had a lot of movement on it, right? So if that was your main way of connecting with your audience and your words, collecting their email address, you probably have gone through a lot of change over the last few years. But anyways, I digress. Lead magnets have also evolved over the years, so it used to kind of be like a basic PDF. Right, I feel like that's what I would see all the time is. Here's that PDF for you, but now they've changed into really targeted, valuable resources, and so you want to make sure that whatever lead magnet you create is something that your targeted clients are going to find value in, because this is their first impression of you. Um, According to HubSpot companies and I was shocked when you shared this with us, Mary companies with 40 plus landing pages get 12 times more leads than those with only one to five landing pages.

Mary Fain Brandt:

That is a lot of landing pages, bigger company, but the landing page. You know, if you have 10 different services that you offer, you could probably have multiple lead magnets for those services. I'm just saying.

Laura Bashore:

I know, I guess that's true, you know. So really thinking about what is the value behind creating these? How can you do that simply and effectively so that you're getting the results that you want? Because that's always my thing, I'm willing to put in the work if you can show me how I'm going to get an ROI. So what are some of the different types of lead magnet that we can use to drive that?

Mary Fain Brandt:

Oh, there's so many different types of lead magnets, especially right now, so two that come to mind are eBooks and guides, right.

Mary Fain Brandt:

So, you know, ebooks are great you can make it into a PDF and they can just download it and these are more in-depth lead magnets that are really providing some valuable insights, tips and trends or a solution to a specific project or specific problem. You know a 20-page guide on the top AI tools for a small business and when, why and how to use those, or checklists and cheat sheets. So I love eBooks and PDFs that deliver value. I don't want just a quick checklist. I feel like those quick checklists is where opt-ins and lead magnets maybe started. You know it was like a one pager with a checklist. I feel like those quick checklists where is where opt-ins and lead magnets maybe started. You know it was like a one pager with a checklist five things to do before you go live on LinkedIn Like that would have been a really simple checklist. I do. I have some quick reference guides that are only a couple pages long, like I have the LinkedIn success checklist that goes over what you should do daily, weekly, monthly, annually. And then for my AI clients, I have the top AI tools for business owners and that's valuable right now, today, right, yeah, other kinds of lead magnets that you might not be familiar with or you might not categorize them as lead magnets are webinars and free workshops, right? Not everybody thinks of that as a lead magnet, but if you're doing a free webinar or like a free mini workshop, that again the key word there is it's free, right, people are coming to you to learn something specific, so these are really good lead magnets. But you just have to have everything dialed in on the back end. When you're done with that free webinar or free workshop, you're going to be providing valuable content, tips and trends to an engaged audience through those. So you know, like a webinar, how to leverage LinkedIn for lead generation. I just did a webinar how to create 34 pieces of content in 20 minutes. So that was that was my lead magnet, right.

Mary Fain Brandt:

Then you have some of those templates and swipe files. Swipe files are sometimes they can be AI prompts. They used to be like email swipe files. Grab my email swipe files for your introduction email or your sales email, and they're ready to use swipe files where you just have to plug in your information. But the template's all done. So you know email sequences, sequences, quizzes and assessments, right? So take my quiz to see if your business is bulletproof. I just made that up, but it sounds good, right. So you know, a quiz or assessment can be a really valuable lead magnet for your specific audience. What's your brand personality, right? That's a that's a good one, I like that one.

Mary Fain Brandt:

And then there's free trials. So you might have a program, a SAS product. You can offer a seven day free trial. That is a lead magnet because they're going to come try it and hopefully they're going to like it. If you have a product and I'm doing this with my hands, if you're only listening, I'm like touching my hands here Like if you have a product like makeup samples, that's a lead magnet. You're giving someone a makeup sample or a taste of ice cream or a mini cookie right, they're getting a sample of your product, which should entice them to come back and buy more. So we don't always we always think it's online, but there's lead magnets when you're in retail, right, right, I like all those ideas. Now I want to like those ideas.

Laura Bashore:

I like those ideas and I like you know I will say those sometimes with the quiz. Like I will go all the way through a quiz and then, when it wants my information and to give me my answers, I'll stop. I get frustrated. I do that with my.

Mary Fain Brandt:

So just recently, um, a lead magnet on Facebook was uh, your hair type. And this takes work. You guys, if you're watching the video, like I have this frizzy, wavy hair and so I'm looking for the product that'll turn it into the nice curls, not the frizzy ones. So they have you take a quiz on what your hair type is and then to get the results you have to put in your email. So I'm getting value because then it's going to determine what product I should get. Right, but I haven't bought it yet. But that is a lead magnet.

Laura Bashore:

I took a quiz on what my hair type is so they can tell me what product I should use exactly and I mean one of the things you want to caution with, too, is that, while a certain type of lead magnet might sound enticing or good to you, you really first want to figure out who your target audience is and what their pain points are, so that you're tailoring the magnet to them, because you don't want to put all this work in on something that your natural clients or your targeted demographic is not going to be interested in opening or downloading or sampling. So a great way to do that is to conduct surveys. You know and be very upfront about it that you're looking at getting a couple of offers out. So throw your surveys out there and get some engagement as to what people would be interested in hearing from you, because too many times we create things and we're just thinking about what we're interested in instead of turning it around and talking about clients.

Mary Fain Brandt:

Yeah, stuff that we want, like of course everybody wants a linkedin checklist, or of course everybody wants this, you know, or a career assessment. You know when I was doing career coaching, yeah, so we tend to create what we think our audience wants and then it fails miserably. So, laura, that is a great point. You need to do your research. So, case studies, surveys, market research, get on a call with some. You know potential clients and you know, put it out there. Do a poll on LinkedIn, hello, that helps too.

Laura Bashore:

Absolutely. And then thinking about when you're creating that compelling offer yeah, so you need to be able to have that. You are the person who's going to provide continuous or future guidance of this If they continue to buy into your content and or services. Right, yeah? And then design and visual appeal it's very important, it's got to look pretty, people want the pretty. And the problem is appeal. It's very important, gotta look pretty, it's gotta look pretty, people want the pretty. And the problem is is that it's so easy now to make something look attractive that if you don't take the time to do that, people will think that what you're putting out is not quality.

Mary Fain Brandt:

You do have to have a quality visual to go along with the quality information that you are delivering like in my, it was too much information and it was just a google sheet that really didn't help me and I was like wait, is this what I'm?

Laura Bashore:

gonna get if I work with you? Yeah, a bunch of data for you to have to sift through.

Mary Fain Brandt:

Yeah, I can't even remember what it was, but I opened it and it was just a link to like that was their lead-in, their opt-in. I'm like there's no thought put behind that, it just they should have. If they can't do it because you've got Canva and stuff, they should have hired a designer to make it look nice and on brand right yes, on brand is huge.

Laura Bashore:

Um sidebar, talking about being on brand, I was just watching, um, you know we love our historical fiction, right? So I was just watching the serpent queen last night because I'm a little sick, so I was just binging it and um, one of the things that the queen says is she's about to get coordinated with her, with her soon-to-be king husband, and he's having a long affair with some chick and he's, um, he comes down and she goes you're wearing her colors. And he says, oh well, yes, she thought this would be a good fit, so he was wearing the colors of the woman he's having an affair with. And so, while it's historical fiction, we do know that even back in medieval times, you gotta be on brand.

Laura Bashore:

You had your crest, you had your colors, like. These are real things. So this isn't new um, it's something that's tried and true. So you've got to have your brand so that people can identify you I love that you're tying branding into historical times.

Mary Fain Brandt:

This cracks me up, but you've got a good point. Like he came out and he was not on brand and the queen was like, no, that's not going to happen, because what are people going to think? Because we, immediately, when we see something, we immediately come to a conclusion of what it is. Do we like it? Do we not like it? Does that? Do I understand what that is? So we immediately come to a conclusion and put it in a category. So you have to be on brand with your lead magnets.

Laura Bashore:

Exactly. And then, once you have all of that figured out, now you have to think about where you should be placing these. That's one thing to have a lead magnet, but then how do you use it? Where do you use it? So yeah, um, thinking about, you can embed it into your website, it could be a pop-up, you could have your own landing page or, as we mentioned, uh earlier in the podcast, have 40, apparently.

Mary Fain Brandt:

So that's for those big companies. I don't think you need 40 but I do think that you probably need multiple ones. And you know, I have three freebies on my new website, just three, um, and they all they do go to somewhere else where you put in your email and then you know yeah, I have two.

Laura Bashore:

I have two on mine as well, so yeah.

Mary Fain Brandt:

So should I go ahead and talk about integrating the lead magnets and your email funnel, because creating the lead magnet is step one right.

Laura Bashore:

Yeah, I think this is something that people definitely need to care about, because a lot of small business owners, too, are very afraid of taking on creating a funnel, but it really doesn't have to be that hard right not now, not with the ai.

Mary Fain Brandt:

You know email email, uh, an AI, email marketing assistant. So once you get your lead magnet designed right, you have this great lead magnet that's going to help build brand awareness, grow your email. You're going to control your potential clients and you can nurture them. Well, the best way to do that, obviously, is through an email funnel. So once they download that lead magnet, you need to already have your email sequence built out. So what does that look like? You know? First, hopefully, you have an email platform. So MailChimp, convertkit, active Campaign I mean, there's a ton of them. I think I've used four in the span of my business. I'm now falling on convert kit. And who do you use, laura?

Laura Bashore:

um, I'm using agency rm or amplify. So yeah, it's um, it's got it built into it, which makes it a lot easier for me yeah.

Mary Fain Brandt:

So you need to, you know, have your email platform whatever you're using, and then you need to, you know, have your email platform whatever you're using, and then you need to just create that nurture sequence. So, and I have to say, with AI you can do it in about five minutes once you have your AI email assistant set up.

Mary Fain Brandt:

But you know you want to have the welcome email like hey, thanks, mary, thanks for grabbing my LinkedIn success list. Take a look over that. Let me know if you have any questions. Blah, blah, blah. And then you want to drip right. So you set up the sequence. So maybe it's the next day, two days later, like hey, what was your biggest takeaway, right? What action are you implementing? What step are you doing next? Hey, then your next email, so you don't ask for anything yet. Then that next email is like hey, if you're stuck and you want to jump on a call, or hey, if you're ready to take LinkedIn or AI to the next level, I've got a special offer for you. That's when that comes into play.

Mary Fain Brandt:

But you do need to have that email sequence set up. And then you need to track the metrics, because doing something just to do it is silly. So you need to learn how to read your open rates. And then, if they're not good open rates, is it your emails? Is it your? Is it the lead magnet? Like all they wanted was that lead magnet. And then they dumped off, you know, drifted off your email list. So you want to check your conversion rates, the open rates, the click-through rates and your unsubscribe rates. And don't be afraid, once you have a lead magnet, if they've gone through it and then they unsubscribe. And also, when you're setting up these email sequences, you have to end it right. So you know, after so many, you just need to turn that funnel off.

Mary Fain Brandt:

I think a lot of people forget to do that when they're setting that up. So something you know. Just a personal tip. I just went through a rebranding and when you go through a rebranding and you have new colors, you have to update all your templates and all your opt-ins so that you're on brand. You want to make sure that they're organized and they're kept somewhere where you can find them. So I have them in a template folder and I have them in ClickUp so my assistant can grab those and I want people to remember to give it away. Grab those and I want people to remember to give it away. Don't be afraid to give things away in your opt-ins or freebies, because people buy the implementation right.

Mary Fain Brandt:

So, the webinar or the workshop. Don't be afraid to go deep and provide a lot of value, because people don't buy the process, they buy the implementation. You can teach them exactly what to do. Probably 85% of people are not going to go take action and do it themselves.

Laura Bashore:

They're going to hire you to do that right yeah, yeah what was your first lead magnet that you created.

Laura Bashore:

The first one that I created is one that I actually still use today, so it is how to nail your interview. So it's just really easy. Had the 10 questions that you're typically going to be asked within an interview, but then it had little paragraphs below each one to say here's how you should be looking to answer this, because that's where people get confused. That's one thing to see the questions, but you want to know how are you supposed to answer those. So it was really nice. It was just a just a PDF that has a great cover to it, and then it has the second page that has the information. It has my contact info on it, and not only am I still using that today, but I also have been able to use it as a takeaway or a worksheet when I'm doing a webinar or an in-person workshop or training around the subject. So it's something that keeps on giving you know, and I can use it in different ways. I love that.

Mary Fain Brandt:

And a lot of people don't think about that when you're doing a training, a webinar or workshop of having an actual either email or a handout or both. You know, because people consume content and information in different ways, so we have to remember that. Yeah, I used to do my branding. My branding opt-in lead magnet was something that I would hand out when I did branding workshops, so I love that.

Mary Fain Brandt:

Well, we hope that this episode on lead magnets gets you to think about what lead magnet should you create. Maybe you need to update one, because what I see is irrelevant lead magnets out there, right, so yours is still relevant, but a lot of times, business owners create one or two and they just leave them, and maybe it's not a full revamp. Maybe it's just adding some new data to it, or adding a new question, or updating it in your new branding colors. Just saying so. We talked about the different types of lead magnets. I think people tend to not think about webinars and workshops as one, so webinars are a great way to get in front of your ideal audience. We talked about how to create them. Canva, adobe, adobe Spark is an easy one. How to integrate them with an email funnel.

Mary Fain Brandt:

I believe that that is probably a part that some people tend to overlook. They do attract and convert your ideal clients. So what I'd love, what Laura and I would love to know from you guys what is your favorite opt-in that you have? Or lead magnet? Why don't you send that to us so we can take a look at it and then share one from someone else that you thought was really great Cause I'd love to see some really new, unique lead magnets. I think that would be great, and let us know if you have any other questions on how to create a lead magnet, what tools to use, because there are some really great tools that you can use to create lead magnets more efficiently these days. Absolutely, it no longer has to be an overwhelming process.

Laura Bashore:

It's more about get started Absolutely. It no longer has to be an overwhelming process. It's more about get started.

Mary Fain Brandt:

Hey you guys, don't forget to subscribe, rate and review our podcast, and until next time, here's to good coffee, great conversations and even greater success Cheers. If you enjoyed the podcast, show us some love. Please rate, review and subscribe to our podcast, and if you have any feedback, go ahead and share that with us too, because we wanna hear from you. Until then, stay focused, stay motivated and stay caffeinated.

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Mary Fain Brandt

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Laura Bashore

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