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List building is something that’s often neglected by bloggers. You’re so busy creating awesome content and sprucing up your social media feeds but the real asset you should be building is your email list.
Your email list is your direct line to your audience… and building a relationship with your readers through email can give you a huge boost and help you grow your blog’s income.
And if you’re looking to grow your email list, your lead magnet can either make or break you.
Maybe you’re just starting to think about your first lead magnet. Or maybe you already have one (or a few) but they’re not doing as well as you’d like.
Well, this article could be the game-changer for your blog.
Here, I’ll introduce you to the concept of “value gifts” which is our Blogging Fast Lane approach to creating lead magnets that convert. I’ll also share the top lead magnet ideas as well as tips for creating and launching a killer value gift that will make your email list blow up.
Read on to learn more!
What is a Lead Magnet
First off… even if you’ve not heard of a “lead magnet”, chances are you’ve come across them before.
If you’ve ever visited a blog or website and was enticed to give away your email address in return for access to a download, you’ve experienced what a lead magnet is!
A lead magnet is a marketing term that refers to a valuable download you offer to your readers in return for their contact information – usually their email address. It’s a way to qualify your readers as “leads” and assess how interested they are in what you offer.
Why You Need a Lead Magnet for Your Blog
Having a lead magnet offer on your blog is an excellent way to “capture” some of the traffic that lands on your blog.
Imagine this.
You’ve done all the hard work of doing keyword research and writing amazing blog posts that help solve your readers’ problems.
But how many of us land on a blog post, read it, and then bounce? A LOT.
Without a lead magnet, you can lose a large portion of readers who come to your blog for one article and then leave, never to return again.
But what if before they bounce off, they get a notification for a download that perfectly matches their interests? You could then convince them to input their email address, join your list… and now you have direct access to that person via email.
How amazing is that?
You can then further build a relationship with them by offering them content and solutions that meet their needs and solve their problems, creating a cycle of trust that will ultimately be a win-win for both you and them.
For them, they’ll receive content and recommendations based on their interests and needs. And for you, you can build trust with this reader (which in return can help you get more pageviews and affiliate income!).
This is a system that we call Trust Marketing in the Blogging Fast Lane. And implementing this system can have a huge impact on your earnings and growing your blog into an Affiliate Machine.
The Most Important Element of a Lead Magnet: Value
While the term “lead magnet” is often used in the digital marketing world, to truly be successful at growing your email list, we believe that there’s one thing that should be at the forefront of your mind.
Value.
You want to deliver as much value as possible with your lead magnet. And that’s why, in the Blogging Fast Lane, we refer to lead magnets as “value gifts”.
A value gift means an incentive or gift that you offer to readers, with the main aim of delivering extra value to them.
We’ve found that reframing it as a value gift can completely shift the way you approach the creation of a lead magnet.
It’s not just about capturing an email address.
We want you to be in the mindset of always creating and offering value to your readers – and that’s doubly important when it comes to a lead magnet where you’re asking the reader to give their email address in exchange!
Think of it this way. Many people (me included!) can still be pretty stingy about giving out our email address. When we give away our email address, we’ve giving the other party direct access to us and our attention via our inbox.
And so it’s absolutely crucial that you, the blogger, give your readers a strong reason to let you into their inbox.
Build Trust With Your Readers
Having a strong value gift is the first step in implementing email marketing and ultimately building your Trust Marketing system.
In our early years of blogging, we completely neglected growing our email list. We simply had one of those “Sign Up and Get Updates” forms which, as you might imagine, gave our readers no incentive to join our list!
Once we got smart about growing our list and started offering value gifts, our list grew super quickly… and we now have over 100,000 people on our list which is insane!
Having direct access to our readers is invaluable.
If ever I’m out of content ideas or if I want to know exactly how we can better serve our audience, all I need to do is send an email to our list and I’ll get feedback from our community.
Through consistent email communication, it’s easier to build a relationship with your readers.
In fact, we’ve found that because we’ve built trust with our readers, our email list is so engaged and it actually helps us to double or even triple our affiliate income!
Lead Magnet Ideas and Examples
So now that you know what a lead magnet or value gift is, let’s go into some of the most popular formats. Chances are, you can offer a value gift in at least one of the following ways!
Here’s a list of the various types of value gifts you could create:
- Packing/Resource lists
- Checklists
- Organizational Charts or Schedules
- Recipe Book/ Meal Planner
- Case Studies
- Photo Ebook
- How-To-Post
- Free Lightroom Presets
- Cheatsheets
- Templates
- Calendar
- Workbook
- Printables/Wallpapers
- Tutorials
- Bucket lists
- Sample Chapters/Video Clips
- Free coaching session
- Free Audit
These types of lead magnets are easy to create and they can easily be adapted for the blogging niche that you’re in. Most of all, with quality content, you can really provide great value to your readers in these value gifts.
The exact format of your value gift will depend on your niche and audience as certain formats will work better for your blog topic. For our travel blog, we’ve found that ebooks and packing lists are the most attractive types of value gifts.
Let’s go deeper into the top formats of lead magnets.
Short Ebooks / Mini Guides
By far, the most popular format for lead magnets is the short ebook or mini guide. This is a great way to repurpose your existing blog content on one topic in an easy-to-digest format.
Imagine that you have a parenting blog and you have a series of blog posts on how to care for a newborn. You could compile all the information into one ebook that tells your readers everything they need to know about this topic — and make their lives easier in the process!
One element that can really amp up the success of a lead magnet ebook is being super specific on the topic. The more targeted it is, the more that it offers a solution to one problem, the more likely your readers will opt in for it!
Here’s an example of specificity.
On Adventure In You, we specifically offer a diving-related value gift to our readers who consume our diving content.
In this way, we’re matching their interests and offering inspirational content that can help them get the best diving experiences in the world. This will also allow you to build segmented email lists… but more on later!
Checklists
Do you have lots of awesome “how-to” content on your blog? A checklist can be a super effective value gift, especially when it’s offered in a printable format.
You can simplify adapt your blog post content and condense the key points into a checklist that your readers can use. The information should be actionable, easy to follow, and offer a tangible result at the end.
Other than “how-to” content, you can also create checklists from resource or guide articles.
For instance, on our travel blog, we offer a Thailand Bucket List as a value gift when a reader lands on any of our Thailand blog posts.
Think about how you can apply this format on your blog.
For food blogs, you could offer ingredient checklists for your most popular recipes. If you have a personal development blog, your checklist value gift could be related to daily habits for productivity.
Templates
Templates that can help your readers do something more easily is another awesome lead magnet idea.
With a template, your readers will get a starting point for completing a task or item. Typically, you’ll find templates in business-related niches but it can definitely work in other niches as well.
Check out this example from Nerd Fitness. When you subscribe to their list, you get access to a bunch of free resources including free templates that can help you reach your fitness and nutrition goals.
Case Studies
The case study is another format you can consider when you’re brainstorming lead magnet ideas.
We’ve used this format on our BFL blog. Check out our case studies here, if you haven’t already read them!
Case studies as value gifts are effective for several reasons.
Firstly, they provide real-life examples of why your service or product works. Showing is better than telling, and with a case study, your readers get a more complete picture of the value you can provide.
Secondly, they’re excellent for positioning you, the blogger, as an authority in your field. After all, here’s detailed proof of your success!
And lastly, they can be persuasive in terms of converting a potential buyer into a buyer. For anyone who’s on the fence about what you offer, giving them a case study can be the push they need to make the purchase.
As you can imagine, case studies work best in a business context.
Worksheets
Here’s another lead magnet idea: worksheets.
A worksheet a downloadable resource that provides prompts and includes space for the reader to complete them. Think back to your worksheets in school; it’s a similar concept but way more fun than homework!
This is an awesome value gift as it gives your reader a chance to apply what they’ve learned from your blog post into their own situation. It provides massive value to your audience as they’ll learn from doing and actually accomplish something by completing the worksheet.
If you’ve crafted the perfect worksheet, it could be a strong advocate for your products and services.
For an example of this, take a look at the blog Rock Your Homeschool which offers worksheets (among many other resources) when you sign up for their list. Parents who are homeschooling will find this invaluable, immediately incentivising them to opt in.
7 Tips for Creating An Effective Lead Magnet
Now that you know what a lead magnet is and have some lead magnet ideas based on the most popular formats, you’re probably raring to go create your own.
Here are 7 things to remember so that you’ll create a value gift that will be attractive to your readers.
Tip 1: Provide Value to Your Audience
Considering how we refer to “lead magnets” as “value gifts”, this first tip should be no surprise to you.
Value. Value Value.
Your lead magnet should be chock-full of value for your readers, regardless of the format that you choose. You should be in the mindset of “how can I further help my readers with their problems and make their lives easier?”.
The challenge here is to make it a complete no-brainer for your reader to input their email address in return for the resource.
Let’s look at the BFL case studies as a value gift, for example. What’s the value of them?
These case studies:
- Give an insider look at how we ourselves apply BFL principles on our own blog.
- Offer an in-depth look at how we run our blogging business
- Show BFL strategies can be applied, especially since we include tips and learning points for our readers.
- Highlight how effective BFL strategies can be.
They also have a persuasive element as potential students may be more interested in joining the course after seeing BFL strategies in action.
Our case studies essentially aim to answer the reader’s question: “Does BFL really work?”.
So, when you’re creating your value gift, take some time to get into the minds of your ideal reader and figure out what would be most attractive to them.
If you get this first tip right, you’ll have no trouble growing your email list!
Tip 2: Aim to Solve a Problem
The secret to an effective lead magnet is to provide a solution to a real problem faced by your readers. If your readers don’t see a need for the information or resource, then it’s likely they won’t want to download it.
In the section above, you’ve seen how each of the popular lead magnet formats are able to solve the reader’s problem.
An ebook can teach them something new, a template offers an easy-to-follow way to accomplish a task while a case study shows a real-life example of how to solve the problem.
What problems do your readers have and how you can solve one of those problems with your value gift? That’s one of the questions to ask yourself when you’re creating your lead magnet.
Tip 3: Build Segmented Email Lists
Your lead magnet should be focused on a super specific topic so that you can target your audience effectively. This will allow you to build segmented email lists.
Ideally, you want to offer different readers different value gifts depending on the blog post they’ve landed on. You can control this type of targeting with a tool like OptinMonster which gives you control over placements of the sign-up forms.
This means you have to hone in on one specific topic for each value gift.
In the example of the AIY Thailand value gift, it only appears for readers who land on our Thailand content. Readers who view content on Cambodia, for instance, will get a different Cambodia-focused value gift offer.
So a reader will only receive an opt-in for a value gift that’s based on their interests… and they’ll only be added to that interest-specific email list.
Why is segmenting your audience so important? By grouping your audience based on their specific interests, you can better meet their needs and desires and tailor your emails to them.
For our Thailand travel email list, we can direct them to our other Thailand content and provide recommendations on activities they can do there. It wouldn’t make sense to send that content to a different list where the readers signed up for a diving value gift!
With specific value gifts and segmented email lists, you can always be sure that you’re providing value to the readers on your list instead of just spamming them with irrelevant content.
It’s all about building trust, remember that!
Tip 4: Offer a Quick Win
In enticing your readers to sign up for your value gift, you’re essentially promising them a quick win. Thus, the content of your value gift should help your reader achieve something once they’ve downloaded it.
If it’s an informational ebook, they should receive the key information that was promised to them. For templates or worksheets, the value gift should provide guidance on how to complete the indicated task.
This element of offering a quick win is important in the process of building trust with your readers.
Tip 5: Ensure It’s Easy to Digest
When it comes to value gifts, remember: less is more.
In a bid to attract readers to sign up, some bloggers offer lead magnets that are hefty… we’re talking 100-page ebooks or workbooks that are 30 pages of exercises.
While offering more value and deeper information can be super appealing when it comes to paid digital products, it doesn’t quite work that way for value gifts.
A lengthy value gift is likely to overwhelm your reader.
Imagine how you’d feel about reading a 15-page ebook versus a 100-page one from a blogger that you’re not familiar with? Chances are, you aren’t willing to give that much time away!
Keep the first 4 tips above in mind and remember that with your value gift, you’re really just trying to solve ONE problem, not ten!
Tip 6: Make It Visually Appealing
There’s nothing that screams low-effort like an ugly value gift.
It sounds harsh but we’re visual creatures and we’re attracted to things that look good. If the presentation of your value gift is lacking, most people are just going to make the assumption that the content is lacking as well.
Besides, there’s really no excuse for a bad-looking lead magnet because there are so many tools out there that can help you create a great-looking one… without having any design skills!
I personally love using Canva to create our value gifts.
With so many features and tools, it’s simple to just drag and drop elements that you want on your value gift. Plus, with pre-designed templates, you don’t even need to have a good eye to create a gorgeous lead magnet! (You can read our guide to Canva to learn how to use it effectively.)
You can never go wrong with a clean, minimalist design in your blog’s brand colors. But if you have a creative flair and love making things look pretty, then go all out to make a value gift that will catch your readers’ eyes.
Tip 7: Offer Immediate Access
Last but not least, an effective lead magnet has to be immediately accessible to your reader once they sign up.
In the digital world, it’s all about instant gratification. If your reader is looking for a solution, they want it right now!
Luckily, with the right tools, it’s super easy to set things up so that your value gift will be delivered to your reader upon sign-up. This is typically done with an email automation and you’ll need an email marketing tool that supports automation for this.
Want an illustration of how to apply these 7 tips? Let’s go back to the example of AIY’s diving value gift.
- Provides value by educating the reader about the best diving destinations in the world.
- Solves readers’ problems by collating a list of ultimate diving experiences in one ebook so that they can refer to it the next time they want to plan a diving holiday.
- Super specific as it’s focused on just one topic and it is only offered to readers who visit our diving articles which allows us to build a segmented list.
- It’s a quick win as they get information related to their interests in one go.
- With only 10 experiences listed, it’s easy to digest.
- Along with descriptions of each diving experience, we also included beautiful photos of the location and marine life found there so that it’s visually appealing.
- The ebook is immediately delivered to their email address when they sign up!
As you can see, with a bit of thought, you can easily hit the 7 tips I’ve shared here and create a beautiful and effective lead magnet for your blog.
Lead Magnet Tools
Congrats, now you know exactly how to create your first lead magnet or value gift on your blog!
Once you have it ready to go, it’s time to launch it.
There are a variety of email marketing tools out there but we personally use and recommend the following:
- ActiveCampaign: We’ve tried a few different email marketing tools so far but our favorite is ActiveCampaign. It’s excellent not just for normal email campaigns but also for email automations which are the backbone of our email marketing system.
- OptinMonster: This multi-purpose software offers a host of solutions to make it easy for you to level up your email marketing efforts. We use it to create and manage various types of forms for our value gifts and it gives you more control over which forms to use where. It also integrates well with ActiveCampaign.
Regardless of which tools you’re using, there are a few crucial things to set up before launching your lead magnet:
- Upload your lead magnet on your website
- The form where interested readers can sign up and which style you’ll use (in-content, pop-up etc)
- A thank you page – this is optional but it depends on how your email marketing tool works.
- The email they’ll receive upon sign-up (which includes the link to download the value gift)
We also recommend that you nurture these new readers with a series of emails that share more of your/your blog’s story as well as links to your other content that are relevant to their interest. This way, you can start building trust with them.
… and that’s it – you’re on your way to building your Trust Marketing system on your blog!
To learn more about how we built our blog into a 6-figure business, check out our FREE training where we share our strategies on how to build an Affiliate Machine.
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