The entire point of creating lead magnets as list builders are to build your list with targeted customers who want and need the products and services that you offer. The people who think marketing with freebies doesn’t work usually are doing it wrong. You can avoid mistakes by learning the most common ones and not doing them.
- Your Lead Magnet is Too Expansive – A really good freebie is going to be ultra-focused on solving one small problem and even poke the bear a bit in order to soften them up to buy the big product you’re selling. Keep it narrowly focused to increase success. For example, if you are a weight loss coach, don’t give away the entire program in your freebie. Instead, focus on one thing, such as providing a checklist or app to help them.
- Your Lead Magnet Has No Reason for Existing – You need to know why you want the person who needs that information in the lead magnet or the app you’re giving away. Why does this lead magnet exist, and what does it do for the person who needs it? If you have no goal for it, it’s not going to work.
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- Your Lead Magnet Isn’t Targeted to The Right Audience – Your lead magnet cannot be targeted to your entire audience. It really needs to be narrowed down to specific people based on where they are in their buying journey. Try mapping your buyers’ journey to help identify points at which they need a little something extra to push or pull them to the next stage.
- You Didn’t Create an Autoresponder Series Based on The Lead Magnet – When your customer downloads the lead magnet, it’s imperative that they receive targeted messages based on their choice in the autoresponder. A welcome message, a confirmation message, a more personal email to check on them, and so forth, including asking for the sale if that’s what’s next.
- You Didn’t Cross-Promote Yourself Within Your Lead Magnet – People are downloading the lead magnet. You may as well take advantage of that fact. At the end or the beginning, tell the people about you and invite them to your social media platforms, events, and tell them about the other things you do.
- You’re Not Following the Laws for Your Country – Every country has SPAM laws. In general, most want you to get a double opt-in to avoid spam complaints. Plus, of course, what you say must be the truth. You can’t make promises that aren’t true.
- Your Lead Magnet Title is Boring and Not Targeted – When you title the freebie, you’ll want to make sure you use straightforward words that your target audience understands. However, you don’t want to be boring about it. Use action words and tug at their emotions in the title.
- You Don’t Market and Advertise Your Lead Magnet – The idea that building a lead magnet will attract your ideal audience without marketing and advertising is just not accurate. You do have to tell everyone about it just like you would your most expensive and compelling paid product to get people to sign up.
- You Don’t Create Lead Magnets for All Stages of The Buying Journey – Don’t just create one freebie based on awareness. Instead, map your ideal buyer’s journey so that you can identify areas when a freebie might push them to the next stage in their buying journey.
- You Neglected to Create a Landing Page for Your Lead Magnet – To get the most interest in your freebies, make a landing page for each. After that, write a blog post too. Then use that to market and advertise the freebie to your audience.
- You Ask for Too Much or Not Enough Information in Exchange for The Freebie – It really depends on your audience and the goals you have for them. But, at the very least, you need to ask for a first name and email address. But if it’s relevant to your audience, you may want to ask for other information to qualify for the freebie, such as business size or something else that is relevant to determining if someone is serious or not.
- You Failed to Welcome New Subscribers – When someone signs up for your freebie, whether they were already on your list or not, they should receive a welcome message or thank you message regarding their choice.
- You Never Ask for the Sale in Your Email Messages – When you create the autoresponder messages based on the behavior of your list members, don’t fail to ask for the sale or the conversion using a well-formed and targeted call to action.
Avoiding these lead magnet mistakes means that when you create a lead magnet or freebie, it will help you build your list with targeted audience members who really want and need your offers. You can only do this right if you take the time to get to know your audience as well as your offers so you can easily explain to the audience what you do, who you do it for, why you do it, and then demonstrate why you’re the best through your freebie.