What's a Lead Magnet and How Can You Use It to Grow Your Email List?

One of the best ways to grow your reach and get more clients is to cultivate a relationship with your audience over time. When was the last time you purchased a service online the very first time you heard about it? If you're like most people, you probably want to get more familiar with the service provider or business before you give your hard-earned money or time to work with them.

It's the same with the people that you're hoping will sign up for your mindfulness classes, courses, programs, or coaching sessions. As a mindful marketer, you want to provide them with value upfront.

This give you a chance to nurture relationships over time. It ensures that when your potential clients are ready to bring more mindfulness into their lives, you'll be one of the first people they think of.

But how can you continue to stay in front of your target audience without always having to rely on social media? Email marketing offers an answer - and contrary to what you may be thinking it can be done mindfully.

Ultimately it's all about being client-centric in everything you do, including giving them something of value in exchange for their email address.

Growing your email list with a value-providing lead magnet

In days when most of us are getting waaay more email than we might like, most people are only willing to share their contact info in exchange for an incentive.

While some websites hope to gain subscribers by asking people to "sign up for the newsletter," this tactic often doesn't lead to nearly as much success as providing something of value upfront.

One of the most effective ways to provide value to your audience with your mindfulness wisdom is through a lead magnet.

So what exactly is a lead magnet? It's a freebie that you offer to your target audience - often in exchange for their email address. It can take the form of written, visual, audio, or video content. In either case it's something that your audience would find interesting and valuable.

What are some examples of lead magnets you can create?

You’ve probably come across many different kinds of lead magnets. The great thing about them is that you can get creative about how you will share valuable content with your audience. Here are a few examples:

• E-books (short PDFs)

• Brochures or whitepapers

• Guided meditations

• Webinars

• Masterclasses

• Mini-courses

• Templates

• Workbooks

As you think about a lead magnet that you would want to put together, there two things to keep in mind. First, the focus should always be on your audience. What kind of content are they most likely to prefer based on their demographics and psychographics?

Second, consider what type of content you most enjoy creating. If you're someone who enjoys writing, perhaps you'll enjoy putting together an e-book, brochure, or a whitepaper. If, one the other hand you love recording guided meditations or being on camera, an audio or video file (such as a webinar or a mini-course) might be a better option.

Lead magnets are common across all industries, including in the mindfulness space. As an example, here's a lead magnet that Sharon Salzberg offers on her website - a free meditation:

How lead magnets help you get more clients (and grow your impact)

Here's what makes lead magnets such an effective tool for helping you grow your reach:

• Connect you with people who are already interested in learning more about mindfulness

• Allow you to share your knowledge and establish yourself as an expert

• Save you time as you put in the work upfront and automate the rest of the process

• Help you build trust with your audience as you provide value upfront

• Drive more traffic to your website and help future clients sign up for your services

When you establish trust and credibility through providing value upfront, people are much more likely to feel comfortable trading their time or resources for working with you. This is the best way to build up your brand - way more important than your brand logos or color schemes.

If you're a mindfulness teacher who loves to share your wisdom freely, the lead magnet is a great way for you to do that. As a result, you help more people. Some of them will then turn into paying clients which can free up your time and resources to create even more value for a larger audience.

Consider the last time you downloaded free content online to help you solve a challenge or answer a question. Were you more likely to view the person or business who created it as someone who could help you in that particular field?

It's the same with mindfulness. If someone comes across your valuable mindfulness tips/ebook/video/webinar, they're much more likely to think of you the next time they want to learn more about mindfulness.

How to make your lead magnet more effective for your audience?

An effective lead magnet should:

• Provide a quick win with actionable insights or tips

• Speak to your target audience and help them overcome challenges

• Be easy to digest

Think about why you sign up to download those free PDFs or e-books. It’s because you're already interested in a certain topic...or because it promises to help you solve a problem or a challenge you’ve been facing.

Similarly, the key to making a lead magnet the most effective is to know your target audience. (Not clear on your niche or how to reach them? Read more here.)

• Who are you speaking to?

• What are they struggling with and needing right now?

• How can you give them a quick win?

• What would help them understand the value of bringing more mindfulness into their life?
  

Being a mindful marketer means having a full focus on your clients in every piece of content you put out.

So what's a good length for a lead magnet?

It depends on the content. If you're putting together a checklist or a template, a one or a two-pager might suffice. If you're putting together an e-book or brochure with mindfulness tips, 5-10 pages (including photos and graphics) is a good general guideline. As far as audio or video content, anywhere between 3-30 minutes may be effective.

It's generally better to have a short and simple lead magnet than none at all. But you also want to make sure that the lead magnet does what you promised it will in the title or headline.

Again think about your audience. If they tend to be more analytical types, they might appreciate something more in-depth. If your audience is busy professionals, you might opt for more concise writing with statistics over a 30 minute guided meditation that someone who is retired might appreciate.

How to create and where to post your lead magnet

Once you've decided you want to grow your email list by offering a valuable piece of content for your audience, here's how you can go about making this happen:

1. Put together the content or copy for your lead magnet. Not sure what to write about? Get some ideas here.

2. Depending on whether you’re delivering a written piece, an audio, or video, you need to integrate the content into that form. For the written form, it’s generally best to write it in a word document first and then package it as a PDF so it looks nice and clean. You can create great-looking PDFs on websites such as Canva or even in Word (and then "Save As PDF"). If you're recording a meditation audio or video, it's also best to write out the content first and then use the necessary tools or hire someone to help you put it together from a technical standpoint.

3. Once you’ve got the lead magnet put together, you will upload it to your website or email marketing provider. Then you'll create a subscribe form where you will provide the lead magnet after your website visitor enters their email address. One of the most common places to put the lead magnet is right on your home page. Instead of asking them to "subscribe to my newsletter," you can incentivize them with something like "download this freebie plus receive helpful mindfulness insights in your inbox."

If you happen to have more than one lead magnet and it's particularly relevant to a blog post that you've put together, then you may also want to place a subscriber box directly in the body of that blog post.

Here's an example of a Free Content Creation Calendar template I have linked to a blog post about planning out your content creation. The lead magnet download form is embedded directly into the blog post to make it easier for readers to access it.

How to automate the delivery of your lead magnet ?

Once you have your form put together, you need to ensure your readers can easily download your freebie. There are two ways to do this:

1) As a link or attachment in a welcome email

2) Direct them to the page with the lead magnet right after they enter their email

Generally, the first approach tends to be more effective. It gives you the chance to welcome your new subscriber to your email list and to provide more information about you or your services even as you deliver the freebie they signed up for.

By going in their inbox to open the email from you, it increases the chances your new subscribers will open your emails in the future. If your email initially goes into their junk/spam box, they will need to put you on their “white list” to be able to open it. Once they do this, your emails are less likely to land in their junk box in the future.

Both of these two strategies can be automated through your website or email marketing service provider.

The great thing is that once you set this up, you don't have to do it again - your lead magnet will literally be working for you even while you sleep!

How to use a call to action to get more sign-ups for your services

Ultimately, you want the lead magnet to be a logical stepping stone for people to want to learn more about mindfulness and who want to work with you. Whether you’re teaching mindfulness live online, offering one-on-one coaching, or whether you have pre-made mindfulness courses, they will experience the most transformation by actually signing up for your services.

• Does your lead magnet invite them to take the next step and schedule a call with you?

• Does it send them to your website to learn more about your upcoming group class?

• Does it provide an incentive for them to come to your next meditation drop-in so they can get to know you a bit better?

Think about what step you want your audience to take after enjoying your lead magnet. Don't be afraid to ask them to take that step at the end of your free PDF, meditation, or video.

Would you rather have me create your beautiful new lead magnet for you? Schedule your free discovery call with me here and let's chat about the best lead magnet strategy to help you grow your mindfulness business.