Have you wondered how people who don't already know about you find your website?
Some people find you via a Google search, others by seeing advertising you've paid for, and others by some type of promotion you did.
And you might have even gotten some website visitors via word of mouth from people aware of you.
Most of those methods are passive or require an investment of time and/or money. They're all “hit or miss” because it's not easy to target your ideal customer this way.
In addition, it's not easy figuring out how someone ultimately found your site so you can learn what works and what doesn't.
Today, I want to tell you about a method that can work more effectively (in both cost and time) than those other methods.
It's a thing called “lead magnets”.
A lead magnet is just something of value that you offer for free in exchange for an email address.
The form it takes depends on what your business provides. Types of lead magnets include…
Checklists
Cheatsheets
eBooks
Free coaching / tutoring sessions
Free trial of your service
Guidebooks
Infographics
Newsletters (like ours!)
Resource lists
Sample chapters from a course you offer
Samples of your creative work (photos, art, music, etc.)
Spreadsheets
Templates
Tutorials
Videos
A lead magnet is often something you already have (or can create easily from existing content).
You set up an account at an Email Service Provider (ESP). We recommend ConvertKit, but some other ESP's also handle lead magnets.
You build a simple landing page to describe your lead magnet and capture email addresses.
You load your lead magnet into the ESP account.
You promote your landing page.
As people sign up, the ESP automatically sends them the lead magnet.
The answer is “wherever you think your potential clients / customers are”.
That could be on various social media platforms (Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, Pinterest, etc.).
It could be on other people's blogs, podcasts, YouTube channels, or other places where you partner with someone to write a guest post, be interviewed, or otherwise share information (including your lead magnet) useful to the partner's audience.
And if you are OK spending some money, you can use pay-per-click (PPC) campaigns on Facebook or Google to promote your lead magnet.
They work for three reasons.
First, people like getting things of value for free!
Second, you get to demonstrate your expertise and knowledge about your industry.
Third, you put yourself on people's radar and start building your company's name recognition.
Now that you've started to build a list of people you know are interested in what you offer (since they asked for your lead magnet), you have a few options.
At a minimum, you should reach out to them periodically at whatever time interval makes sense to you (weekly, monthly, quarterly, etc.).
That outreach could be a simple email telling them about your latest offerings, providing a discount code, or sharing useful information.
You could invite them to join a newsletter to stay up-to-date on your company's products or services.
Or you could put them into an email “sequence” where the ESP automatically sends them emails you've “pre-written”. These emails could be a series of tips, lessons in a course, or any other content that is better consumed in smaller chunks.
Lead magnets are a cost-effective way to attract people to your website and begin a hopefully long-term customer engagement.
Get in touch with us if you'd like more information on how to create a lead magnet, set up a landing page, and manage an email list.