Email marketing and lead magnet are two words causing a lot of buzz in the blogosphere in recent times. Almost every marketing guru emphasizes on creating an email list through a blog and almost every blog nowadays has a pop-up inviting people to join their email list.

There are many ways to grow an email list. One of the proven and cost-effective methods to grow an email list is to create an option or lead magnet. In this post, we are going to talk about how to create a lead magnet and how to use it to grow an email list.

LEAD MAGNET TO GROW AN EMAIL LIST
You’ve got mail!

WHAT IS A LEAD MAGNET?

A lead magnet is a kind of favour or solution to a problem you offer for free in exchange for an email address. For example, you write about how to manage life smoothly with school-going kids. As you know your readers’ pain point with kids, you can create a PDF file curating your most popular tips for them.

When you offer that PDF in exchange for an email address, people will happily exchange it because they know that that file will help them with kids. That PDF file, my friend, is your lead magnet.

So, a lead magnet is a way to help your readers besides your blog posts and in doing that, you create an email list for your most loyal readers.

Anything and everything can be a lead magnet. The first rules of a lead magnet are:

  • It must help people in some way
  • It is a small file, easily downloadable
  • It can be free or low priced.

EXAMPLES OF LEAD MAGNET

A lead magnet can be anything, albeit it helps your readers to overcome an obstacle or solve a problem. Here are some of the popular and easy to create lead magnet ideas.

FREE COURSES

Courses are an amazing way to capture emails aka leads. It is also applicable to any niche. For example, for a food blog on regional cuisine, you can create a series of 3-5 blog posts teaching the basics. Now, you can convert these blog posts to an email course as a lead magnet. Similarly, if you blog about makeup or fashion, you can create 3-5 video tutorials and offer them as a lead magnet.

How to use the free course as a lead magnet? In every blog post, you have; you can add a banner introducing your free course. The banner can be created on Canva with details about your course.

EBOOKS/ GUIDES

You can repurpose the same thing as PDF guides. Guides are the most popular lead magnet. They are easy to create, easily downloadable and takes half the amount to create. To create a guide, you can repurpose the most helpful blog posts (preferably on the same topic) and convert it to a PDF file.

How to use guides as a lead magnet? Write a tutorial or ultimate guide on the topic. Now, add the banner featuring the pdf after a few paragraphs or at the end of the post. You can also add the banner and the link to download the guide in any of your related posts.

CHECKLISTS

If you write about food, travel, fashion, yoga, shopping, parenting, budget, technology, blogging, money-making, social media, checklists are an effective way to build your email list. You can offer a checklist for almost anything. For example, you write about budget travel, you can create a checklist to create a budget for any kind of travel. Similarly, if you write about food, you can create a checklist for ingredients.

LEAD MAGNET TO GROW AN EMAIL LIST

How to use checklists as a lead magnet? If you are thinking to start an email list immediately, the checklist is the easiest lead magnet to start. You can put it anywhere in your posts. Just make sure you highlight it enough to attract eyeballs.

CHEATSHEETS/PLANS

A cheat sheet or plans generally guide to solve a problem. It is a step by step process to complete a task. This lead magnet can easily be created, time savvy and applicable to any blogging niche. Particularly, if you have a fiction blog, you can offer a plan to create a character or plot. Similarly, you can offer meal plans, travel plans, social media plans, blog plans, yoga sessions, practically for anything that involves planning.

How to use cheat sheets/plans as a lead magnet? Use it in the banner of your blog posts. You can also add it at the end of a blog post.

Once you have done your research and begun to understand your audience, you will figure out what kind of lead magnets will interest them. Then you can use them effectively to convert your visitors to a long term audience and give back an appealing takeaway.