Episode Transcript
[00:00:00] Hello and welcome to the second episode of the Bullshified, where we talk about marketing, business and life. This podcast is for critical thinkers, savvy entrepreneurs, and curious minds of all walks of life. Here we worship no gods, nor celebrities. We learn, we laugh, and we think independently. Today, we'll discuss lead magnets in depth and we'll try to explain what they are, why you need them, how they help, and most importantly, how to easily create good ones. Well, easily. It's probably a bit of a stretch because every good lead magnet will require quite a lot of effort into it. But nevertheless, I hope that I will be able to at least give you tips which lead magnets would be right for your business. But first, what is a lead magnet? Well, a lead magnet typically can be any type of a digital, often asset that you have created in order to train to trade in exchange for customer details. It's not more complicated than that. You create a PDF and then you ask people to give you their names, emails and perhaps some more information in exchange for this document that they will want to download to help them achieve something.
[00:01:11] Lead magnets come in all shapes and sizes. Many people naively believe that every lead magnet is going to be a PDF guide, but you can do way better than that. If you have listened to my previous episode where I talk about the six different audiences that you will have as a marketer or a business owner, you will know that a lead magnet is typically something that you will create either for your second audience or those who have heard of you, or for your third audience, those who are considering buying from you because, well, typically somebody will need to find those lead magnets in order to get them. And those two audiences are going to be the most likely ones to find them on your website.
[00:01:49] Nevertheless, sometimes lead magnets are used as the entry point of a funnel that is used in a search campaign, and we'll talk more about that in detail when we go over to the next episode where we talk about funnels. But just so you know, you could be creating a lead magnet for somebody who has never heard of you in their entire life.
[00:02:11] The purpose of a lead magnet generally is to provide some value to your potential customers while simultaneously positioning you as an authority on the specific matter that your business is involved in. This is why you would want to create a lead magnet, to demonstrate your knowledge, your expertise, your ability to handle a situation.
[00:02:31] So why would you want to create a lead magnet? Before we talk about what types of lead magnets exist and how to create a really good one, we have to answer the question why? If the only answer that you have right now is because other companies have them, then you're not quite ready to create anything. Lead magnets sort of contain the main reason why in the very name of the thing you want them. Because you want leads. Leads turn into prospects and prospects turn into customers. So what is the difference, you ask? Well, a lead is someone who has heard of you or your audience. Two, and a prospect is someone who is considering you or your audience. Three, getting people to move from audience. Two, a gay from a lead to audience. Three, prospect is perhaps the hardest of tasks for many businesses and one of the reasons why we all spend billions on advertising and on a bunch of other strategies and techniques to get people to believe that our products are the right ones for them. But there's another reason why you want to create a lead magnet. It might be because your business is just starting out and you need to understand what type of customers you're attracting.
[00:03:39] Maybe you created this business because you wanted to serve stay at home mums, but then a few months later you might realize that it's the working mums that resonate more with your offer. Life is unpredictable and so is business. But having a lead magnet that you provide in exchange for some information can help you understand who you serve, who finds you, and then you can tailor your message and perhaps even products or services to make this audience very happy.
[00:04:09] Which leads us on to the next point, what you need to have. So creating a lead magnet makes sense.
[00:04:18] If you have never had a lead magnet before, you might have become somewhat excited by the idea already and be thinking that you will spend the afternoon or next morning creating one as soon as I finally spill the tea and tell you how to create it easily. But hold your horses, there is zero sense and I repeat, there is zero sense in creating a lead magnet if you don't have the following two things. One, a way to measure the data that you are getting from leads, which is somehow less important, and secondly, a regular email or a newsletter to communicate with them, which is an absolute musthave.
[00:04:57] Let's just quickly go over why you want to be analyzing the answers of your leads, although analyzing the information that they provide might be overlooked at times. And theoretically, you may want to get leads for the sake of just announcing that your email list is in the hundreds of thousands, you are losing on an incredible opportunity of connecting with your audience.
[00:05:22] See, not analyzing the data you get means that somewhere in your mind and your business processes, there is the arrogant assumption that you know exactly what people are looking for exactly what wording they're using and what is the highest priority on their list and some other stuff. But I will be brutally honest with you, this is false for 100% of the businesses, your phrasing or the way that you describe your products and services and your priorities are not others people phrasing and it's not other people's priority. So instead of losing the opportunity to find out what people need, what they're looking for, and how they truly express themselves, aka what exact words they use when searching for your product or service, ask a question when offering a lead magnet and capture the answer. Here, I'm referring to the form that people will be using to enter their details so they can download the lead magnets. Ask them for their name. Ask them for a surname. If you think it's relevant, ask for their email address, obviously, so you can send them the lead magnet, but also ask them something about the problem that they're experiencing so you can understand them better. Ask them what wording they use to find information about that product or that problem. Ask them how they feel about it, how strongly they're willing to, how dedicated they are to solving it, how committed they are to solving this. If you're offering, for instance, for argument's sake, if you're offering a weight loss treatment, ask them how determined, how dedicated people are to actually losing the weight. Is it something that they're just considering, but not quite ready to spend two 3 hours a day thinking about it? Is it something that they're in the middle of? Are they disappointed already? Try to understand where your audience is at.
[00:07:14] If you're just starting out, let those first question be open ended questions with just a text box where people answer in their own words.
[00:07:23] When you have been around the block, when you've heard a few hundred answers, then you can summarize the most common ones, and then you can change that question to a drop down where people get to select a specific answer, but use their phrasing. Use their words. Use the way that your audiences expresses themselves as opposed to the way that you express themselves.
[00:07:47] But I digress. We will discuss this in more detail again in the following episode, where we talk about funnels and how to create them and what to do with them.
[00:07:56] Now, the second point that I made, the second thing that you need if you're going to create a lead magnet, which is a regular email.
[00:08:05] In modern days, advertising and sales messages are so overwhelming for all of us that we have found some very creative ways to avoid them. We all mute the TV during outbreaks, or at least the most of us. We pay for subscription services to avoid advertising. We completely ignore banners and this is called banner blindness and it's an actual term in psychology since I think 2007. We scroll past ads with lightning speed and we basically just do about just about anything to not have to sit through ads. And you probably do it too, and that's fine. We are all bombarded with messages left, right and center.
[00:08:45] Email communication, however, and believe it or not, is one of the least invasive ways to keep in touch with people. For one, they can easily ignore your email, delete it straight away if they want to. They can even unsubscribe, but they can also let it sit in their mailboxes. They can read it before bed, at night, or whilst on the toilet seat, or when traveling, or might even keep it for weeks or months as some of us do. But that's not everything that you will get out of regular email communication. And here are some perks.
[00:09:17] Firstly, email reputation. This is a bit technical, but if you don't send emails often these days, and definitely if you don't send them in a spammy way, you're likely to lose your good standing. Apologies if you don't send emails often, and if you send them in a spammy way, even if they're often sent, you are likely to lose your good standing with email servers of Google, Microsoft and the likes, and your emails might end up in spam or junk folders.
[00:09:48] The second benefit of sending emails often is the concept of top of mind. Now this is a marketing term that refers to the company that first comes to someone's mind when they think about a product.
[00:10:02] So regular communication in the quality one at that, will help you stay top of mind for leads and prospects. Or if you're new to the market, it might even help you become top of mind.
[00:10:15] Thirdly, authority. Since email is the most direct way to reach your customers and allows you to talk to them directly without an intermediary, you have the chance to build your authority on the subject you're working within without being interrupted.
[00:10:32] Real thought. It actually shows you who the real people are, although you may not realize it. Emails change, email addresses change is what I mean. People quit jobs, their emails get shut down, people abandon mailboxes. A myriad of things will happen to an email list.
[00:10:54] Keeping up with constant communication will allow you to filter out all bad emails as they become bad. And at any point of time you will have a clear picture of how many actual emails there are and how many of them are still alive, so to speak.
[00:11:10] And finally, you get to understand the real interest if someone hasn't unsubscribed for your emails, if they keep receiving your emails, if they keep opening your emails, if they keep clicking on your links, then they still have some interest in you. Sending one email today and then one email five months later will give you a huge spike in unsubscribed people because, well, who expects to receive an email five months later from a company?
[00:11:42] This doesn't happen. However, when you are regular with your communication, consistency tends to pay off in allowing you to have a clear understanding of how many people at any point in time truly care, even the little bit that you exist and to get back to where we left off. What is the point of getting emails if trading something in exchange for emails if you don't email people? Putting emails in an email list and doing nothing about it should truly be the business definition of insanity.
[00:12:15] And one final point. Many business owners are concerned about letting any knowledge they have on the matter that they're serving out into the public because they think that if everyone can learn the ins and outs of their business, they will become obsolete. They themselves will become obsolete. They believe that somebody will steal their information and run with it. But the thing is that this cannot be further from the truth. The truth is that in today's day and age, if someone wants to steal your trade and learn how to do something by themselves, they will do it. They don't really need you. There are millions of resources that we all have access to, and a dedicated person can achieve just about anything.
[00:13:01] But while this is true, it's also true that we as a society are more overwhelmed than ever with the sheer amount of tasks that we have to complete on a daily basis.
[00:13:12] The amount of information that we need to process is just insane. And for the majority of us, including the majority of your leads, perhaps 99% of them, the information that you provide will merely serve to establish you as a trusted authority, as a trusted resource, and in very rare cases, as a person to learn from.
[00:13:32] See, whatever lead magnet positions you, whether that's going to be someone to learn from or a potential supplier or a potential partner, that shouldn't worry you. Competition is going to exist anyway. And no, you will not create it by letting the world know about your business and how it should be done. The sheer fact that you are the first one to supply, to summarize and to supply some information about a topic is sufficient evidence of your superiority.
[00:14:05] Besides knowing that 99% of people will position you as a potential suppliers and supplier, and perhaps just a mere 1% of them will try to use the info to compete with you. Should be enough of a reason not to hold back.
[00:14:22] Now that I hope we have established why lead magnets are a great thing to make, let's talk about the actual creation of those.
[00:14:31] The most obvious thing is that a lead magnet needs to provide some value. It must be worthy of someone taking their time to read it, go through it, do it, whatever. Don't forget why you are creating a lead magnet. This is your opportunity to convince your audience that you know what you're talking about and that you can actually help them solve a problem. If your digital assets are a mere repetition of the things that people already know, you're not giving them any value. You're establishing yourself as someone who can bore people because you give them nothing new. You beat the same old and nobody wants to waste their time on a brand or a consultant who is going to tell them what they already know. So let's cover a few type of lead magnets that you can create that will actually have value for your clients.
[00:15:26] My favorite one is a quiz. As I said in the beginning, thinking that a guide is the typical lead magnet is a very old school thinking that will get you doing a lot of work and not craving much excitement in your audience.
[00:15:41] Now see, people of all ages and at all times in history have been most interested in themselves. So if you create a quiz that gives them personalized feedback on their circumstances, this is always going to be an absolute win. Why do you think people even nowadays have their astrological profiles being made? Because they want to read something about themselves. They don't want to read something about you.
[00:16:05] So a hairdresser, for instance, can create a quiz that offers different hairstyles based on facial shape. A builder can create a quiz based on the circumstances and financial readiness of prospective customers by helping them understand the average price for specific projects. And that sounds very complicated. But if you're a builder and you want to create a lead magnet quiz of sorts, you can ask specific questions about how ready your people are to dive into a specific project, whether they're ready to spend, I don't know, five or six grand, based on how much the average such project will cost. So a quiz like that will get your customers potentially excited. A gardener can make a quiz about, let's say, the type of garden that fits a personality. It could be based on color preferences. It could be based on the location of the garden. Is it south facing, north facing east facing, west facing, et cetera. Maybe the personal characteristics of the individual, such as level of introversion and extroversion. Perhaps a gardener can tie specific plants to an introverted or an extroverted personality. See, that would be an interesting result of a quiz. So if a quiz is your choice of lead magnets, you should know that there is generally two ways to create one, a simple one and an advanced one. Now the simple quiz a simple quiz will typically contain a few yes or no questions based on the number of positive aka yes questions, or the number of negative answers you will provide a specific outcome. For instance, if I were to create a quiz that aims to tell you whether or not you need a consultant to help you with your business automation, I might ask you the following three things. Question one is, are you a specialist in using Zapier? Question two, have you already automated at least five processes? And question three, do you spend at least a day on automating business processes per week?
[00:18:14] If you answered yes to just one of those questions, I would perhaps say that you are missing on an incredible amount of possibility, and you certainly need a consultant who can help you optimize your business. If you answered with yes to two of the questions, I would say that you may have the knowledge, but perhaps you don't have the resources that it takes to truly take advantage of automation. And then working with a consultant would be greatly beneficial for you. If you answered positively to all three questions, I would say that you are on the right path and only really need to work with a consultant if you want to speed up the process. And if you answered negatively to all three, I would say that you first need to gain some knowledge of what automation is and how it helps a business before you reach out to a consultant, because the likelihood of getting scammed when you have little knowledge is quite high.
[00:19:07] So this is a simple quiz. You assign an outcome based on the number of answer. Now, the negative side of a simple quiz is that you have to craft your questions in a way very specific to the purpose of your quiz, which can sometimes poison it by creating bias where people inevitably answer in a way that's not quite correct in this particular instance. For example, the first question, are you a specialist in using Zapier? Will get you very confusing answers based on people's general lack or presence of confidence in their own skills and abilities.
[00:19:45] Not to even mention that gender will affect the outcome as well. It's a known fact in psychology that women tend to underestimate themselves and their abilities, whilst men often will overestimate their skills.
[00:19:59] So what about advanced quiz? Well, an advanced quiz can help you solve the problem with bias in the questions, but it will pose another challenge which will be in analyzing the results and providing feedback. If we use the previous example and we took the same question, so are you a specialist in using Zapier? You would rephrase the question and ask how confident do you feel in understanding and using Zapier? Now this will remove the bias from your question. Then your answers could be a scale, for instance, one to five or one to ten. Or it could be a few possible answers. Now first answer, first possible answer could be I have never heard of Zapier. Second answer will be I've heard of Zapier but have never used it. Third answer can be I have used zapier once but find it very confusing. Fourth answer could be I know how to create basic zaps but don't feel confident with advanced automations. And then the final answer that the top of the scale would be I use Zapier on a daily basis and feel very comfortable using it. Now in an advanced quiz you would have a different feedback to provide to your leads based on each of the answers that they give you. As you would imagine, however, creating this type of quiz will require either an advanced quiz maker tool such as quiz Gecko or type form which comes at a monthly cost. Or you will need to use some other automation tools. And in all fairness, you're probably going to need other automation tools, almost certainly.
[00:21:34] So if you're just starting out, you don't maybe need to fully automate the process. You can create a quiz using whatever tool you have for free and then manually create the responses that you will email back to the clients. Surely it will take you a little bit of time from receiving the answers to sending a personalized feedback, and in this case you will lose the ability to give your leads that instant gratification that everybody is seeking for these days, or the ability to read an answer of a quiz right away.
[00:22:06] But also you will then gain the opportunity to provide very personalized feedback. Nevertheless, this isn't going to work at scale, so be very mindful of how many of these you can realistically process per day.
[00:22:22] Now the second type of a lead magnet that you can create is a nostradamus paper or a prediction piece.
[00:22:30] The future of construction or skills you need for the next ten years of dentistry and other similar titles have always been and always will be a win. Although these pieces are not my personal favorite because I believe that they cause more anxiety than deliver value. They always perform well. The lead magnets what you should really be mindful of, however, is that if you're about to create an ostradamus piece for your audience is that unless you base it on research data from at least two reputable sources, you might end up sounding like a prick. Prediction pieces rely heavily on actual information and the economic and societal pulse. And unless you feel really strongly and confident about the information you're publishing, I would steer clear from those.
[00:23:23] Now, a typical prediction piece will have four key sections. Section one is the past, so you have to lay some background to your story. Section two is the present, where you describe what the situation is in the present moment.
[00:23:38] Then you go into section three, which is the future, aka your prediction, where you have to link what you have already outlined for the past and the present into the section in the future and say how these things are going to change. And finally, the fourth section is the section of how to prepare if you are writing a piece for dentistry, make sure that you tell them how to prepare, what information they need, what courses to search, what qualifications they require, et cetera. Don't forget this last section. For one, this is going to be the section in which you can pitch your products and services and explain how they can help your audience. Mostly, however, you want to make sure that you offer actions and ways for people to handle the upcoming changes.
[00:24:25] Because we all like a solution maker, we don't like a troublemaker. And as unfortunate as it is, prediction pieces feel like a future trouble outline, aka yet another set of problems that we are going to have to deal with.
[00:24:41] Then let's move over to the third type of a lead magnet or a how to guide. Now, one of my personal icks in business is the ultimate guide to something. In my experience, no piece I have ever come across has been the ultimate guide to whatever.
[00:24:59] If anything, those so called ultimate solutions generate more questions than answers. So please, if you can help it, don't call something the ultimate guide too. Now, if you must call it that, however, please drop the duh. This makes me feel like the character that played Sean Parker in the social network, but I believe that not enough people were paying attention during this scene. The D is not necessary, so you can just call it ultimate guide. It doesn't have to be the ultimate guide because it's never going to really be the ultimate guide if we have to be completely honest. But with that out of the way, how to guides are a wonderful lead magnet because they tend to offer a solution to a problem that your audience is facing here and now. And usually by solving someone's problem, here and now is a great way to establish yourself as an authority in your market.
[00:25:52] Here is what not to include in a how to guide if you really want them to be helpful. Firstly, lose the fluff. Here are the things that shouldn't be in a how to guide let me repeat this. Here are the things that shouldn't be in a how to guide.
[00:26:11] Why this is important section if someone is looking to learn how to do something, they already know why it's important. So please don't waste people's time.
[00:26:21] Historical context unless it helps people understand why an action should be performed in a specific way, history is never a reason someone downloads a how to guide.
[00:26:35] Thirdly, statistical information. Again, unless it is necessary for people to make a decision on taking a path to solve a problem, don't waste their time with statistics.
[00:26:46] And fourthly, your entire business story. Just know, just no, right? Let's move on to what to actually include in a how to guide. Firstly, step by step instructions. This is quite literally, how to guide should be structured. Secondly, the necessary tools and materials. Think of it as a recipe for cooking something.
[00:27:11] Let people know what they need and what costs to expect. You can include links to suggested materials if you want to. Thirdly, the expected results be as specific as possible for the outcomes that people should expect after completing the steps of your how to guide.
[00:27:30] Fourthly, alternative solutions. Now, everything can be achieved in a few different ways. If you want to truly be seen as an expert, offer alternative solutions, even if it means that people will not opt to work with you immediately. Don't, and I repeat, don't underestimate the power of trust that this will create.
[00:27:52] And finally, the fifth section that should be included in a how to guide is the risk factor sections. Don't forget to mention risk factors or completing the how to guide. Everything has consequences, and everything can have negative consequences as well. Even this guide that you are currently listening to. If you create too good of a lead magnet, you might end up with way more work than you were able to complete, and you could create a bad first impression to your potential customers if you ignore their requests because you're overwhelmed by them. So bear that in mind.
[00:28:34] The final type of lead magnet Allen that I will discuss today is a data paper, aka statistics and analysis. Often overlooked, a statistical piece can be an incredible lead magnet, particularly for anyone who is serving in a business to business environment. Gathering data and presenting it to your audience is an incredibly powerful way to create a connection and get someone to stick around. As an additional bonus, if you run an annual, quarterly or any other duration research, you will have enough data to create content for a very, very long time.
[00:29:11] But a statistical piece doesn't need to be based on your data. Even Gartner, Reuters, Harvard Business Review, the national statistics Organization of any country, all of these release a massive amount of information every year. Some of it is paid and some of it is not. So you have a large choice of information.
[00:29:31] If you can draw conclusions, and particularly if you can combine data from different sources and you can see correlations, aka relationship between one data and another data, you're going to be able to create some fabulous pieces. Don't shy away from having a conversation with your local university, for instance, to see if there is any research currently being conducted on a topic that interests you. You will be surprised to know how much information is being gathered and analyzed in university for various projects, only to then be left on a shelf somewhere and never see the light of day. You can also print a small request for data and research and you can pop it on a board in your local university inviting people to come to you. Students can benefit from the interaction with a business by seeing what their research could look like in a real life application, and you can get the data chewed and ready for you to consume.
[00:30:27] And finally, the format of your lead magnets now that we've covered most of what you need to know about lead magnets, let me point one last thing.
[00:30:37] Milk yours.
[00:30:39] Throughout my career, I've seen so many businesses create lead magnets only to use them for one particular thing and never truly take advantage of them.
[00:30:47] But the thing is, if you have listened carefully so far, you will have realized that a lead magnet is not an easy task. So why won't you milk the results? Use your lead magnet to create multiple shorter pieces, infographics, PowerPoint presentation, LinkedIn carousels, podcasts, videos, short videos, video courses, anything that you can think of speeches. Create anything that you can think of from the lead magnet that you've created. Once you spend the time to dive deep into a specific topic, break it down into multiple formats and use it across your social media channels, your website, your business profiles, any way you can. Really don't follow the assumption that people will have already seen something for a large chunk of your audience. Every single social media post, a podcast, a video, or something else might be their very first ever encounter with you. So create each piece as its own piece of completely finished content. But just don't forget to hint that if someone wants the full report quiz or whatever, they can find it there and there and link over to your website or wherever you've hosted at.
[00:32:00] So let's summarize. The one major benefit of creating a lead magnet that I haven't really mentioned so far is the fact that while creating one, you get to put yourself in the shoes of your competitors and your customers. What am I saying? In the shoes of your customers, not your competitors, and ask yourself, what do they really need? Whilst it is often overlooked, this is perhaps the main reason you should want to have a lead magnet, particularly if you're a small business owner, or if your marketing team really needs to up their teamwork, put them together. Or put yourself into a room and think of the lead magnet that will truly be beneficial to your audience. That will be an incredibly good exercise.
[00:32:45] So let's go over everything that we just covered. Lead magnets are designed to help you increase your email list and are typically created for those people out there who have heard of you or those who are considering your products and services. Although it may be created for the general public as well, in which case it would be tackling a specific problem that would usually be a how to guide type.
[00:33:12] There is no point in creating a lead magnet if you don't plan on having regular email communication with your leads. Let me just repeat this one more time. There is no point of creating a lead magnet if you don't plan on regularly sending emails out.
[00:33:28] If you can't be bothered to email regularly but still want to create lead magnets, might as well give them in exchange for social media follow, or just simply let people download them without the fuss of gathering their emails. And finally, if you have decided to create a lead magnet, ensure that it provides value to your potential audience. Create either a quiz that provides personalized results, a prediction paper, a how to guide, or a data paper. If you can come up with something more creative, do that, so long as it actually is worth someone's while.
[00:34:02] Don't forget that content, any type of content will always have one of those three purposes and they are purpose one, to inform and educate. Purpose two, to entertain and purpose three, to provoke. Add any two of these to your content piece and you will most certainly be helping people.
[00:34:26] I hope you found that useful and I will look forward to you joining our newsletter list or to subscribing to the podcast you can get around and stick for the next episode where we'll talk more about funnels.
[00:34:41] It was a pleasure. Bye.
