Step 2, Lesson 2 The List Builders Lab Three Core Lead Magnet Strategies Hey there, welcome back to one of my very favorite lessons. We are going to dive in to the Three Core Lead Magnet Strategies. I do believe that this lesson sets List Builder s Lab apart from other list-building courses in that what I am going to teach you will help you to really understand which lead magnets you want to create and how you want to use them. Getting strategic with your lead magnets will definitely skyrocket your email list so much more quickly. I can t wait to dive in. Here s What You ll Learn! The Signature Freebie, Content Upgrades, and Promotional Freebies: What They Are and Why They Matter.! Best Practices for Each Freebie.! How to Decide on the Content for Each Strategy. We re going to get really specific and we re going to start out with the most important lead magnet that you are going to create. Signature Freebie! A signature freebie is your core giveaway.! It s the giveaway you put front and center on your main website and it s the one you talk about most.! It s a good representation of your brand and it has a wide reach with your target audience.! You can change out your signature freebie as often as you d like. However, if it s working for you and it s relevant, keep it! Page 1
When you ve been thinking about your lead magnet all along the way you likely, up until this point, have been thinking about your signature freebie, that one freebie that s going to solve the problem that comes up often with your target market. It s the one you feel really good about because it represents your brand. It s something you feel you can really talk about in a way that offers amazing solutions and you are really proud of the content as well. It s something you feel pretty good about. You could sit down and in a few days you would create it and it kind of flows easily out of you because it is your core content. That s your signature freebie and we all need to have one. Content Upgrades! A content upgrade is a giveaway (lead magnet) you add to your existing content.! Nearly 61% of U.S. consumers have made a purchased based on a blog post (Source: Social Media Today). That tells me right away that people will put trust in blog post if it s really good content. If they are buying from blog posts then they are definitely going to be interested in giving you their name and email for some valuable content. If they find it valuable, getting a name and email is a whole lot easier than getting a purchase. I feel this is a homerun for sure. Think about adding giveaways inside of your existing blog posts.! I use content upgrades inside my podcast episodes. When I do a podcast I create show notes that are just like a blog post. That s where I put these content updates. Let me show you what it looks like in action: This (on the slide deck) is one of my blog posts. It is actually show notes for one of my podcast episodes. But, for the sake of this training, just look at it as a blog post. If you scroll down, you will see that as you are reading the content you will see a gold bar. The bar says, Click Here to get Amy s Facebook ad targeting starter guide. If you click the gold bar, a pop-up box appears, called a lead box (I will teach you how to do this soon). People can opt in and get the freebie that I talked about in the blog post. Page 2
Let s go back a little bit so that you really understand how to make this work. I created a blog post around Facebook advertising and then I said, If you like this and you want to get started and you need some help, I created a starter guide. A lot of times, the actual content upgrade is going to dive deeper into what you ve been talking about in your blog post. You don t need to do this with every single blog post. If you want, you can think about it in terms of doing it for some epic blog posts. If you sit down and write a really juicy blog post with lots of examples and images and really put some time into that blog post and then add a content upgrade you can then drive so much traffic to that specific blog post and get a lot of opt ins for it. You might even consider running some Facebook ads to that specific blog post and I will actually show you how in the bonus all around Facebook advertising. But, I love the idea of adding content upgrades because they are very specific to one topic. It allows you to really start segmenting your email list and getting people to sign up based on really specific things they are interested in. Let me kind of tell you how to look at content upgrades:! If you like this, you ll also find this incredibly valuable. The freebie, the content upgrade, can basically compliment what you are talking about in the blog post.! If you like this, here s how to dive even deeper. This is how I usually do my content upgrades. If you want to dive even deeper, this is a great topic and you want to take action with it, then you ve got to get the freebie that s included.! If you like this, use this tool to take immediate action. Let s say I were to write a blog post all about social media automation. I might then create a really short mini video showing my audience how I use my favorite automation tool, Meet Edgar. That could be the freebie that I tack on as a content upgrade to that blog post, a quick little video showing exactly how I do something in my business to get results. That s another idea for a content upgrade. I love content upgrades because they are really specific and they allow you to dive deeper into the content, which forms a really great bond with your audience because Page 3
you are teaching them something they are finding highly valuable and really detailed and specific. You can t go wrong with that. I like to show you a lot of examples and not just use my own examples. This (on the slide screen) is an example from Melanie Duncan. I want to show you how she was able to align her blog content with her content upgrade just to give you one more example. Melanie wrote a great blog post all about how to get more comments on your blog using a blog giveaway. It s a strategy called a blog giveaway. In the article, she is talking about how the opportunity can really enhance your business. She is talking about some specifics and giving some details around the concept of a blog giveaway. She is basically painting the picture of the opportunity. Then, when you scroll down she gives you a checklist to actually put this into action. The blog post is all about the opportunity and setting the stage so that you get excited about doing a blog giveaway for your own business. She is selling you on the idea or concept. She then says, If you want to do this and are excited and inspired by this strategy, here s how to do it. That is the content upgrade, the checklist to create a successful blog giveaway is what you can get for free. I really want you to understand how to use your content in order to create a content upgrade and Melanie s example is perfect for that so I thought I would include that here as well. The next time you write a really good blog post, think about what you can give away as a content upgrade in order to build your list and to dive deeper with your audience. Promotional Freebies! Promotional freebies are giveaways you can use during your special promotions, launches, and campaigns.! A promotional freebie is a giveaway that is directly aligned with what you plan to sell during your launch. You use this freebie as a list building BEFORE you launch your program. Timing is everything here! Page 4
! If you use this strategy, you will likely only implement it a few times a year. It also works great for affiliate launches. Here s the concept: If you are going to launch a product, I want you to think about a really cool lead magnet that will be a perfect segue into selling your program, product, or service. The goal is to list build before you actually open the cart and before your program, product, or service is actually for sale. This usually works great if you are doing a live promo and you actually have a date that people can buy and a date that people cannot buy (there is a launch period with cart open and cart close). Before cart is open is where you would be using your promotional freebie. Let me give you an example to paint the picture: When I launched my webinar course, Webinars That Convert, I created a promotional freebie. The promotional freebie was Five Rookie Webinar Mistakes and How You Can Avoid Them. This was the freebie, basically a short guide to help you get going with your webinars and really get past those first webinar jitters. This freebie was a PDF that I created. I used it by creating an epic blog post. This is really similar to how I would use a content upgrade. I created the epic blog post and inside of the blog post I used the gold bar again (for the record, I totally stole that gold bar from Lead Pages because they use it too and it was their idea first). I said, Click Here to sign up for my cheat sheet 5 Rookie Webinar Mistakes (and how to avoid them). This is really similar to the content upgrade so you are probably thinking this is really the exact same thing as a content upgrade. Not necessarily. What you do after someone opts in can kind of change the strategy. First of all, I ran a lot of ads to this blog post. We spent a lot of money on Facebook advertising getting people to this blog post. I really wanted to find a target market for my webinars course. Everybody who went to the blog post was actually retargeted when I actually launched my program. Retargeting means that we knew they visited the blog post because Facebook tracked it for us. Then I put an ad in front of them about my webinar master class when I went live with my course. That was one huge perk there. Page 5
The second thing is, when someone opted in to get the rookie s cheat sheet that I created they would go to this page here (on the slide deck). I would send them the rookie webinar mistakes and then I would send them a few other emails because I was getting ready for my live launch. I would keep them engaged by sending them another webinar fact or tip or strategy, maybe telling them a quick story about my experience with webinars, and then I invited them to a master class, a webinar, all about how to do webinars. I sold my program in the master class. By doing this pre-launch promotional freebie, I was able to find my audience. I knew who they were, I knew they were interested, and I was able to warm them up right around the same time I was going to launch a program, product, or service. There are a lot of similarities to how I use this just as I would use content upgrades. But the followup looked different. Let me show you another example and actually show you the followup so that you really get it. This (on the slide screen) is a promotional freebie I did a year or so ago for another one of my programs. I talked about this in a video earlier where I got a bunch of experts to come together to give me their tips and tools all about creating a bigger impact online. Here s what it looked like (on the slide screen). Melanie Duncan, Ray Edwards, Sally Hogshead all contributed along with a bunch of other people as well. They gave little tips of advice for building your business online. Once I had it put together and it was designed well, I created an opt-in page for it. The opt-in page took about an hour to create because I wrote the copy for it and the bullets. We are going to dissect this a little bit in a coming video all about how to create your opt-in page. But I put this together and it took about an hour to put together. Once I had my freebie done I spent about an hour on the opt-in page and in just a few weeks I was able to generate 7,500 leads for this one opt in. Again, I used some paid traffic and a lot of free traffic and was able to generate 7,500 leads. Imagine what that list did for my launch. I could definitely reach out to my entire Page 6
email list but I had this really segmented list of people that I knew were interested in getting more sales online. The first email I sent was Here s the Product Maximizer Guide I promised you. That was the subject line. You opted in for it and I gave it to you. The first thing you have to do is tell people what you are delivering in the subject line and mentioned whatever it is that they just signed up for. Don t worry, we ve got a whole video all about sending the instant followup once someone opts in. I ve got you covered there, this is just a little teaser to that. The second thing, make it really clear that this is what you promised them, I m thrilled to share with you my brand new guide, The Product Maximizer: 4 Smart Ways to Sell More Products Online. Click here to download it instantly. I then went on to say, I created this guide to help you turn your online business into a selling powerhouse by setting up no-frills, easy systems that not only make you more money, but make your clients lives better. From there you can download it again. I like to include multiple links to download anything when I am sending them what I promised. Here s the kicker, P.S. I m pretty determined to help you discover new ways to make more sales using social media. So, in just a few short weeks I am going to expand on what s inside your new guide with an in-depth free, LIVE Master Class. I ll make sure to invite you to it so look for my personal email soon! Being able to tease what you have coming down the pipeline is a really valuable email marketing strategy. Again, we ll talk about email marketing in Step #4 when we get there. But I didn t stop here. Then, depending on when you signed up for the freebie, I sent you another email that says, Just last week you signed up to get my new guide, The Product Maximizer. (I received rave reviews for it, so I hop you loved it too). I created that guide to help you see some new opportunities that already existed in your business. Today, I wanted to share another insider tip to help you SELL MORE while making an even bigger impact in your clients lives. Would you be surprised Page 7
This was an invitation to my master class where I would sell the program that was related to The Product Maximizer. Again, these are advanced marketing strategies and are not strategies I want you to do right from the get go. I want you to grow into this and as you have your signature freebie and as you do a few content upgrades, then start thinking about how to use lead magnets in your launches and promotions and campaigns. The key here is getting out way in front of it and creating the freebie that will come way before you actually launch but that are aligned. This is some really powerful stuff when you do it right. The Pursue Simple Rule for Your Three Core Strategies Prioritize! Lead Magnet Priorities! Start with the signature freebie. It s most important and the one tool you will use consistently. Like I said, you will talk about it the most, it s going to represent your brand the most, and it is the one that you have likely been thinking about as we go through the problem/solution strategy, as we talk about what would be a really good irresistible offer, that s your signature freebie.! Once your signature freebie is converting for you, create your first content upgrade. You may even like this strategy so much you do a few of them! I have to say, I have implemented the content upgrade into my podcast, as I mentioned. My list has skyrocketed. And, even more importantly, my list has become more responsive because I m constantly putting out new content in front of them so they are expecting the content and they are opening my emails even more. I love the concept of content upgrades. It works really well.! When you ve got your signature freebie up and running and you ve experimented with a few content upgrades, test out a promotional freebie! Maybe just commit to doing one promotional freebie this year. Remember, you ve got to get way in front of it so that you actually have some time to build the list before you open your cart and launch your program, Page 8
product, or service. You ve got to get really strategic about what the followup looks like as well. That s why I want you to get really good with your signature freebie and your content upgrades first and then we will move on to this more advanced strategy. Make sense? Content Distinctions I thought it would be really helpful to give you some content distinctions across all three strategies:! Signature Freebie: Highly desirable, wide reach, brand-focused. I have said this already three times in this lesson so forgive me, but your signature freebie is going to be the one that really represents your core content.! Content Upgrade: Topic specific, a deeper dive, action focused. You will dive into one area that you really feel will be valuable for your audience. They should be able to do something with this right away as it pertains to the blog post you wrote or the video you created that introduced the content upgrade. Really, the key word here is a deeper dive or topic specific so they really feel it is around one area.! Promotional Freebie: Opportunity specific, product aligned, sales focused. You are going to focus on an opportunity to get people excited about what is possible for them. Of course, you want it to be product aligned so that it 100% is linked to what you plan to sell. Earlier on in this training, I talked to you about how important it is to create lead magnets that are aligned with what you plan to sell. But when it comes to a promotional freebie, there needs to be no question. It needs to be crystal clear that the promotional freebie could almost fit inside your paid program, product, or service. Actually, you could take something out of the paid program, product, or service (a nugget of something you have already created that you are selling) and make that a promotional freebie. It s almost like they get a little taster of what s included in your product. That is just something to think about. Of course, it should be sales focused. We are totally focused on selling so the followup after a promotional freebie needs to quickly, over a week or two, lead to actually introducing them to whatever it is that you plan to sell. Speak to that audience, the audience that signed up for your promotional freebie, in a way that you know they signed up for this so they would be really Page 9
interested in that. The communication email marketing can be really specific about them downloading your freebie just like I showed you in my example. Where You Might Get Stuck It can be tough to come up with content ideas. Get creative here and push yourself to do the work! You may not feel you have enough content to do signature freebies, content upgrades, and promotional freebies. Right now, as you are just getting started with list building, of course you feel that way. That s why I ve made it my mission to give you as many content ideas or ideas to at least spark that creativity when it comes to content. You are going to hear me say this a few times, but I have definitely had content roadblocks where I think I don t have anything else to share, I have shared it all. I look at my patterns and habits around those times when I am getting those blocks and realize I am not really reading that much. Books really give me a lot of content ideas. I m not getting out there and talking to my customers and once in a while going to networking events or am not really listening as much as I should be. I usually know when I m not doing the little things in my personal life that I need to, to get those content ideas. We ll keep talking about content, but just know that I know that s an area where it is easy to get stuck. You ve got to push yourself beyond it. Use Your Target Market Cheat Sheet One of the things you can do is use the Target Market Cheat Sheet I created for you. I gave you the Target Market Locator in the Step 1 video all about finding your audience, your avatar. I have actually created it again for you here with just a little bit of a twist to give you 15 content inspirations to help you attract your target market. Going back and looking at the questions you should know about your audience will actually spark some ideas for blog posts, lead magnets, and videos and all that good stuff. This is me repurposing some content I ve already given you but having you look Page 10
at it in a different light. We are no longer looking at this as needing to learn more about our target audience but now we need to create content that our target audience will find really valuable. Download this cheat sheet (included where you are watching this video here) to get those ideas flowing. The Art of Finding Ideas One more thing I want to share with you in terms of finding ideas for your content and your lead magnets, I read a really great article by Copyblogger. This is what I learned and I m going to give you a link to the article because I want you to read it: Idea Generators From Copyblogger! There are no new ideas. There is no need to reinvent the wheel.! Research, read, and steal. They actually use the word steal. I like that the article says you can steal the idea but you are going to make it your own by putting it in your own voice. When you need to, you need to give people the respect they deserve by citing them, of course, but you can get so many ideas from so many different places. You ve just got to put yourself out there.! A writer should not look inside, but outside, at external sources, stories, events, and emotions. There are ideas everywhere. You ve just got to change your mindset a bit and start looking for them in different ways.! Check out: www.copyblogger.com/find-ideas. This is a quick read and it just kind of put me in the right mindset to remember there is no such thing as a content block. There are ideas everywhere. I like their little take on stealing ideas and you have to read it, it s not unethical, I promise. But, if you re stuck, this is where I want you to start. Next Steps Focus first on your signature freebie. If you already have one, make sure to run it through the lead magnet checklist to ensure it s converting optimally! Page 11
If you don t have one, that s where I want you to focus. Get your signature freebie done because soon we will move into actually putting your freebie together and then getting an opt-in page put together so you can get it out there and start building your list. I will see you in the next video. Page 12