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What Makes a Great Lead Magnet and How to Build a Massive Subscriber Database Faster than your Competitors. 0

Have you ever wondered why some blogs and websites get email addresses pouring into their email database while yours remains stagnant?

It’s frustrating, that’s for sure.

After all, you’re creating all this amazing content, promoting, engaging, building relationships and getting traffic but your email list still doesn’t seem to get moving.

So what is it that these blogs and sites are doing differently?

They’re offering their readers a free download to entice them into signing up to their email list.

One of the most common names for this is the lead magnet, but you may have heard people refer to it as an opt-in bribe.

Every business owner wants higher conversions at a lower cost. Heck, businesses of all shapes and sizes offer customers and prospects an incentive or a thank you reward at some point in the lead generation cycle, but is it enough to move the needle? 

Consider these issues when offering an incentive or opt-in bribe to customers. 

• Do cash discounts "cheapening" or '"devaluing" your product or service in a customer's mind? 
• Is the promise of future discounts or free shipping on their next order enough?
• Is the incentive you are offering really helpful or beneficial to your customer? 
• Does the incentive offered have a meaningful, real or perceived value or does it reflect poorly on your brand?

At the end of the day, every business wants more customers and better lead conversion but what are the true costs to your business both financially and brand image-wise?

Offers like these can turbocharge your list building efforts.

It’s called a Lead Magnet, and if you don’t have one – or don’t have a good one – this article could literally change your life.

Lead Magnet –  noun – an irresistible bribe offering a specific chunk of value to a prospect in exchange for their contact information.

The goal of the lead magnet is to maximize the number of targeted leads you are getting for an offer.

Lead magnets don’t have to be lengthy. Or complex. Or time-intensive to create.

In fact, a long and complex lead magnet will likely convert poorly.

You simply need to solve a specific problem with a specific solution for a specific segment of your market.

Here’s the key…

Your Lead Magnet must be consumed by the prospect for it to have an impact.

The perfect lead magnet will offer tremendous value within five minutes of the opt-in.

White-paper reports and brochure-styled information guides can be effective for some audiences but many miss the mark and lack staying power.

Cheat sheets, quick reference guide's and handouts work well.

They have a different “feel” to them than reports or guides.

They are generally very short (two page or so) and cut straight to an ultra-specific point. You can deliver these as checklists, mind maps or “blueprints.”

Here’s an example of a cheat sheet used as a lead magnet…

Notice how the actual content is blurred out to build curiosity.

Your lead magnet needs to offer instant gratification. You don’t want your lead magnet to be a roadblock in your sales funnel, so ideally it should be able to be consumed or experienced in fewer than five minutes.

If the lead magnet is difficult to consume (a 300-page book, a 30-day email course) the conversion rates on this offer suffer.

Why a lead magnet will take your email list to the next level

Here’s the deal:

Most of your visitors will never return so if you don’t offer up a good enough reason for them to sign up to your list – they’ll be lost forever.

Offering “free updates” is not a big enough reason for anyone to stick around.

Sure, some people will and they’ll likely be super engaged but that will only be a hand full of people unless you’re getting an insanely huge amount of traffic.

Take a look at your competitors, those with the biggest email lists and see what they are offering. Chances are they’ll be using lead magnets to build their list.

Three important things to remember

Remember that your lead magnet is a tool to reach your ideal subscribers. That doesn’t mean that everyone is your ideal subscriber.

You also need to make it incredibly easy for your readers to access your lead magnet, otherwise they just won’t bother.

The content of your lead magnet needs to be easy to consume and helpful.

What if you just don’t have time to create a lead magnet?

Maybe you’re short of time or your lead magnet isn’t ready yet.

But whatever the situation, you can do something a lot better than just offering “free updates”.

So what can you do instead?

Have a look at our fast and easy solution to getting a killer lead magnet offer.

In as little as 5 minutes you could offer one of our valuable quick reference guides as a lead magnet for your business.

Over the past 35 year's we have been producing the best, most detailed quick reference guides on over 500 subjects. 

With over 70,000,000 copies sold, the name - Permacharts is synopsis with quick learning and value.

Now is your opportunity to offer our cheat sheets as an instant digital download to your customers. We handle everything so you can get on with running your business and monetizing that massive list you are now creating.

Lead magnets are a valuable and powerful way to reach and engage your audience on a deeper and more meaningful level.

Visit our page here to learn more or reach out to me directly to get started. Either way, I look forward to helping you reach your goals!