5 Keys to Creating an Irresistible Lead Magnet

Learn 5 key elements in creating an irresistible lead magnet and how to create an effective marketing plan to sell your books.

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Creating an Irresistible Lead Magnet

A lead magnet is a free digital gift you give away in order to grow your email subscriber list. People have to enter their name and email address in order to get access to the free training.

It can actually be many other things. Lead Magnet can be a:

• webinar
• checklist
• challenge
• video
• audio
• printable
• coloring book page
• and the list could go on and on.

It should also be digital so that it doesn’t require you to pay shipping and other costs.

I’ve been coaching authors since 2010 and many authors I meet are resistant to creating a lead magnet and growing their email subscriber list. If you’re still not sure what a lead magnet is and why you should have one, make sure to read this post first.

I also found some authors who are creating lead magnets, but are not doing these five things that I’m going to share with you today.

So let me share with you these five keys on creating a Lead magnet.

Key #1: Know Your Target Audience

How well do you know your target audience?

Creating a lead magnet without targeting a specific audience is like shooting in the dark.

This is actually a work in progress. I’m still narrowing, defining, learning, asking questions, serving, and doing different things on an ongoing basis to get to know my target audience (you!) better.

The better you know your target audience, the better you’ll know what to create for them. It will help you understand what is going to attract them and make them want to enter their email address for your free gift.

There is so much noise and so much other stuff going on so you really need to have something valuable. The only way to do that is to know your target audience.

I taught an entire training on how to really narrow in your target audience in my Platform Challenge. So, if you have not taken that challenge yet, it’s free.

It’s a two day of the Author Platform Challenge at ShelleyHitz.com/PlatformChallenge.

Key #2: Have a Hungry Market

What is the pain point for your audience?

I’ve heard someone asked before, “does your lead magnet, product, or your book, pass the cry test?

What is the cry test? The cry test is a measurement to know the value that you are offering to your audience.

What’s keeping them up at night? What is their problem, their intense issue or their pain point? And does your lead magnet pass the cry test?

I worked as a physical therapist for 12 years and I worked with patients in chronic pain. I dealt with patients suffering from pain, day in and day out. They would have given anything to be out of that pain.

So you have to ask yourself, “What is the pain point you’ll address with your lead magnet?”

Key #3: Easy to Consume

Previously, people used to enjoy a free eBook, even if it was 60 or 100 pages.

Now, there is so much information bombarding us. There’s information overload.

So you want to make your lead magnet easy to consume. Make it short and sweet.

For example, I created a lead magnet called “Five Tools I Use to Publish My Books.” It’s a simple PDF, and just one to two pages long. It is short, sweet and to the point.

That is just one example. You can also create a list of tools that you use for your niche or genre or checklists. Checklists are really good and are very easy to consume.

Every day in my WritingWeek.com 7-day challenge, you get a short video a few minutes long and then you have some text, action steps, and there is a place to enter comments for accountability.  It’s short and to the point.

You want to think of your lead magnet as your first date with your audience. It’s like asking them out and when they subscribe to your list, that’s when they say “yes”.

However, if they do not consume your lead magnet, the free gift that you’ve given them, it is like a dead end.

You want them to “go on a second date” with you. Your lead magnet is your opportunity to get committed followers.

Make it an opportunity for someone to get to know you and your product and eventually commit their money and finances with you. That’s when they will take the next step with you and buy your products.

Key #4: It Gets People Results

Is your lead magnet going to help people get results?

You could include action steps, journaling prompts, or a prayer of commitment, which will help them take action on your content.

In my WritingWeek.com challenge, I give people access to a lot of good stuff that will help them in writing their book. They get $27 worth of software for free, tracking sheets, excel files, PDF and word files.

If participants set aside seven days to complete this challenge, and apply what I teach in the Writing Week lessons, they will definitely get results.

So think of a lead magnet that will help your subscribers get results. Then they will to wonder what else you have to offer and how else you will be able to help them.

You would want them to start thinking about taking the next step with you.

Key #5: Take it to the Next Level

What should be the next best offer after this lead magnet?

When I say lead them to the next step, your next offer should be related to the topics of your book or your product.

Let me take the WritingWeek.com challenge as an actual example. This is how my system is set up for this lead magnet.

Around ten days after you sign up for the seven-day challenge, an automated email will be sent to you, inviting you for a webinar. It’s about the “3 Proven Book Writing Formulas Every Non-Fiction Author Needs to Know”.

It all correlates. So after the 7-day Writing Challenge, a follow-up webinar is offered. In this webinar, you will be provided with tons of value. We will figure out your book topic, outline your book and you’ll get a lot of practical training that will help you write your book.

The next step then will be to write and publish your book, which is what I can help you with in AuthorAudienceAcademy.com.

You don’t have to have such an extensive system. But you have to remember that there are systems and tools that you can use to help you in this process. I want you to work smarter, not harder.

This is why I am creating the Author Automation System. It’s inside Author Audience Academy right now and we already have some of the modules ready.

So many times we are caught in a hamster’s wheel. It’s like we have been doing and doing and doing but you’re not really getting the results you want.

I am not saying that this is an instant pill or the easy button that you just have to press and everything will go your way. But if you invest time into really setting up a system, with the strategies that I’ve taught you today, you’re going to start seeing results.

If you don’t, then you can tweak it! No sweat. I have things that don’t work too, and I just tweak them. I try something else. Try again!

It would take a lot of work, to be honest. It does take some time, sweat equity, and energy, but it worked.

I have people signing up now for Writing Week, buying my $10 product on my thank you page, signing up for my webinar, and then joining Author Audience Academy. And the only thing that I’m doing is giving the live webinar.

Everything else is happening behind the scenes, because I’ve set it up, and I know that it works.

People are getting results. They like and enjoy that lead magnet and it really is working.

So, what can you do? What can you have? What can you create as a Lead Magnet? What can you offer as something of value to your target audience?

I made a compilation of all my lead magnets and it is now available on my website at ShelleyHitz.com/Free.

That’s a great place that you can go and look and see all the different types of lead magnets that I have. There are webinars, PDFs, videos, challenges, and a multitude of different things, checklists, tools, etc. So, you can check out all the different free training at ShelleyHitz.com/Free.

I hope you found value in this training and if you did, please share this with authors who you think can benefit from it.

I love sharing free content with you and I would also love to serve you in AuthorAudienceAcademy.com. I’m 100% committed to that group, and I really love helping my members.

So, if you need someone to help you brainstorm or problem solve I encourage you to check it out.

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