🕵️‍♂️ How to build a lead magnet that grows your list

Welcome back thieves,

In case you missed it or are new around here, I'll be away for the next few days (for my honeymoon 🍾)

To cover for my absence, I've asked a few friends to guest post for The Steal Club. And they came through!

Today's email is a guest post from Jeff Felten from Humans Sending Emails.​
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One of the most knowledgeable people I know about building and monetizing email lists is Jeff.

He proposed sharing an in-depth piece about lead magnets and how to use them to grow and monetize your list.

And of course, I said YES! The floor is all yours Jeff!

Thanks Alex Hormozi.

His webinar earlier this summer got every marketer on the internet talking about lead magnets again.

And I’m more than happy to keep that conversation going 🙂

So you may be thinking:

“Cool, guys. This stuff works for you, but my lead magnets are collecting dust.”

Or you may be thinking:

“I’ve never actually read any of the lead magnets I downloaded. Why should I believe you?”

Both valid questions!

So here's the deal...

Yes, lead magnets still work. And yes, you can have a good one, too.

So today's edition is about HOW to create a lead magnet that sucks in ideal clients like a vacuum cleaner.

If you wanna bring in more high quality leads effortlessly, follow these steps:

1. Identify your target audience
2. Choose ONE offering to lead them to
3. Help them take the first step for free
4. Make it something usable or interactive
5. Position your offering as their next step

Now, we're gonna break this down step-by-step.

You can build from scratch or you can start with your existing lead magnet and improve it.

Ready to dig in? Let's go.

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STEP ONE: Identify Your Target Audience

It always, always starts here.

The WORST lead magnets try to corral too many potential audiences, but small, specific qualities can make massive differences in positioning and framing.

Focus on attracting more people like your favorite client ever

You should be highly in tune with:

• Their specific pains/problems
• Their specific desires/aspirations
• Their specific hesitations/beliefs
• How they prefer to engage (DIY, DWY, DFY)

Here's why this matters:

• If you create something that your ideal clients don't want, they won't be interested. Plain and simple.
• If you're rethinking an existing lead magnet, is it ideal for your favorite clients of all time?
• If not, consider starting from scratch. Not sure yet if it's the right fit? Get your target audience dialed in and keep reading.

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STEP TWO: Choose ONE Offering To Lead Them To

Many creators/solopreneurs have a handful of different ways to serve their customers.

• Multiple services offerings
• Memberships
• Products
• Courses
• Etc

But a great lead magnet ties in perfectly with ONE of your offerings...not all of them.

And I'd bet that ONE of your offerings is the best fit for your favorite clients.

So choose the one offering that's best fit for them to tie into your lead magnet

If you're rethinking an existing lead magnet, does it connect perfectly to the offering best suited for your ideal clients? Or does it feel disconnected?

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STEP THREE: Help Them Take the First Step for Free

If a lead magnet is going to be profitable, it has to do more than just gather a lead. The content must start them on the journey toward your offering.

The best way to do that is to reverse engineer the offering. Here's how:

• What is the ultimate payoff of your offering?
• Now, if your ideal client were to try and achieve that payoff on their own...
• What would be the very first step to take?

This is your answer. Take that first step, turn it into something actionable, and give it away for free.

It must be easy and it must make your offering a no-brainer next step.

• Example offering is a course on how to grow & maintain a vegetable garden.
• An example lead magnet for this would be a free mini course w/ a cheatsheet on how to start veggies from seeds in your kitchen.

See how we did that? The course is the perfect next logical step up in the journey.)

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STEP FOUR: Make It Useable or Actionable

Action leads to more action. Instead of creating a free "info-product", make your lead magnet useable...something we can physically use (check boxes, etc)

Help your subscribers DO something, don't just tell them how or give them a few tips. Here're a few ways to do that:

• Quizzes
• Planners
• Templates
• Checklists
• Swipe Files
• Cheat Sheets
• Free Workshops
• Video Mini-Courses

DON'T MISS THIS: Remember to make sure this action they take is in the direction of your offering from Step Two. Otherwise, there won't be a clear journey from freebie → spending money.

Next-level tip: When you deliver actionable content, follow up with emails to make sure they actually USE IT. I like to dedicate the first 3 emails of a welcome sequence to ensuring people actually use the content. Otherwise, what's the point?

(Here are my copy templates to help you do exactly that)

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STEP FIVE: Position Your Offering As the Next Step

If you've done the first four steps, this one should be pretty easy.

✅ They've taken action in the direction they want to go.

✅ You've positioned yourself as the go-to authority/expert.

✅ AND you've positioned yourself as their trusted leader because you helped them.

Now, it's time to start positioning your offering as the next step in the journey.

If they took step one (the actionable lead magnet), they should be hungry for more.

Conveniently, you already know (and have) what they need next to achieve the big payoff they want.

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Look, if you want to really build a solopreneur business with leverage...

You can't be hustling all the time for leads.

Start creating multiple streams of leads.

It's okay if some leads are outbound, and it's great to get referrals.

But there's no reason you shouldn't be attracting high-quality customers, either.

If you build a lead magnet the way I just showed you how, you'll do exactly that.

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Whew! That was a lot wasn't it?

It is. I know.

Look, start from the top.

Set aside time to do this.

Give yourself space to really think.

I hope that this gives you some great ideas, but you'll need time to execute.

Lead magnets aren't just another piece of content.

When done right, they're incredibly powerful.

And if you need some help, just shoot me a reply.

I've got a couple of spots left open this week to help you nail something down.

To better businesses 🥂

Jeff

This section includes steal-worthy gems from all around the internet.

​

→ Audience building

🕵️‍♂️ Rethinking your X/Twitter approach? This might be what you are looking for (link)

→ Monetization

🕵️‍♂️ Anatomy of a $10,000 course launch (link)

→ Content Creation

👉 How to write stories your audience will love (link)

→ Newsletter Recommendation

The Ideas Newsletter by Janis Ozolins Ideas for creative minds. Shared weekly with over 9,000 people. Subscribe​

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*Links that start with the 👉 emoji are ads or affiliate links. Book your slot here.​

I spent a few hours this weekend learning about cognitive biases (aka what gets people to pay attention and buy stuff).

There are endless ways to apply those biases to your business and content.

But I’ve found 4 that are at the core of what every creator should know about human psychology. This is what they are and how to steal them for yourself 👇

And that’s it for this week! What do you think of today’s email?

​👍 Great​
​🙂 It was okay​
​❌ Do better​

See you with new thefts next week!

Alex Llull, Chief Thief

​The Steal Club​

PS: Looking for more help on growing and monetizing your audience? Here are a few ways I can help right now 👇