Summary: A lead magnet is something you offer to viewers of your website or visitors to your brick and mortar business in exchange for their contact information. That information then makes them a "lead" ... a prospect for future business. A lead magnet is one of the most important components to marketing, both online and offline. If your business is online, leveraging the 24/7 availability of the internet to generate leads is one of the most essential actions you can take. This is how to create a lead magnet, based on the process I used to create mine. To get my Do-It-Yourself Blog Guide, type your email address in the header above ... or click the picture below. 1. Take a survey. This can be informal (i.e. taking stock of what the most common inquires you receive are) or formal, like the reader survey I put on my blog a few months back. My reader survey helped me pinpoint the general income level of my audience. That allowed me to recommend services in my lead magnet that they could easily afford. I also saw that one of my most popular podcast episodes was How To Launch Your Blog with Maximum Impact. Remember, anyone can plot a course with a map or compass; but without a sense of knowing where you are, you won't know which road to take. 2. Jot down what you wish you had known ... and create that as a resource. For me to do anything with passion, I need to know why I'm doing it. Knowing "why" helps me press through the messy middle. This is how I wrote my table of contents ... just random things I wish I had known. Then I organized these in a linear fashion to make life simple for my readers. I also added screencasts and templates for convenience. 3. Answer this question: "What do I want the user to be able to do?" Make your content practical and actionable. If your reader actually accomplishes something as a result of your resource, you will have won a loyal prospect. If you need lead magnet ideas, download my DIY Blog Guide. I share about 5 ideas for lead magnets there. 4. Write the content piece by piece. Creating longer content is difficult. I'm used to writing shorter blog posts, and having the satisfaction of finishing something rather quickly. Doing this project was like growing something in a greenhouse ... little by little over the course of several months. Towards the end, I had grown so sick of working on it that I pushed through to get it out of my life! In all, I estimate I spent 100 - 150 hours on it. Phew. 5. Cut content. There were extras parts I was going to put it, but realized those would only make the guide nominally better. The trade off in time wasn't going to be worth it ... moreover, it would have been "out of bounds." My guide had one purpose: to be an all-in-one blueprint that takes people from zero to launch with their blog. If you struggle with cutting content, take comfort in this quote by director Harold Ramis, "The cutting room is where you discover the optimal length of the movie." 6. Make it prominent. To feature the fruit of my labor, my designer and I created the opt in form above. I sent it to my current email list, leaked word of the DIY Blog Guide a few weeks earlier on Facebook and Instagram, and asked a few friends to help me promote it. Finishing the product isn't enough, you've now got to tell people about it. Make sure you don't forget to market what you've spent so much time creating! 7. Create associated content. This blog post and podcast episode is related to the DIY Blog Guide. There will be more content related to it in subsequent weeks. I want to make sure I get the most out of what I put into it. You should do the same with your lead magnet. You've put so much into it ... it's time to put the same effort into getting the most out of it. Announcements: Special thanks to Caleb Suko for a review this week on iTunes! If you have an idea for a podcast you would like to see or a question about an upcoming episode, visit mikekim.tv/question.
