By If you want to build a mailing list then you’re going to need lead magnets. A lead magnet is what you offer people for free in return for their email address. It could be a guide, ebook, software, app, video course, podcasts. Anything that they’d find useful and is related to your niche.
But they should be good.
Too many people have created low quality products that offer absolutely no value. They request people to opt-in to get the low quality information and then bombard them with offers and emails about other low quality information where they get bombarded by someone else with the same thing.
I work on a single principle…
You should be able to sell your lead magnet for at least $47
If you couldn’t sell your lead magnet then you shouldn’t be offering it for free. Ask yourself if you would pay $47 for what you’re giving away. If the answer is No then you need to make it better.
Stick to this rule and you’ll find that people who optin to your mailing list are actually pleased they’ve done so.
If you haven’t yet got an idea for your lead magnet then you should check out this post. In it I go through what makes a perfect lead magnet.
And once you’ve got your idea you then have two possibilities:
- Make it yourself
- Get someone else to make it
Without a doubt the best option is going to be to make it yourself. Assuming you’re working in a market that you know and are experienced in, nobody else will be able to make your lead magnet to the same quality that you will.
It’s not because there aren’t people out there with the skill to. Just that it doesn’t benefit an employee to have a good lead magnet or a great one. You’ll pay them the same whatever happens. It does benefit you though.
However sometimes it’s just not possible to make your own lead magnet either due to time constraints or because you’re simply marketing in a niche but have no knowledge of it itself.
In these situations you need to get it made for you, and today I’m going to give you a simple process to make sure that you get people to make you the best lead magnets possible.
Now that you have your idea you need to break it down. Let’s say you’re going to give away a guide to becoming a super-affiliate.
First of all you need to determine the main sections. For example…
- Introduction
- What is a super-affiliate?
- Choosing an autoresponder
- Making an FUS
- Finding products to promote
- Different Traffic Sources
- Driving Traffic
- Scaling Up To Be The Biggest
- Where To Go From Here
It doesn’t matter whether you wanted to make a written, audio or video guide. The process would still be the same.
These sections can be considered chapters. They’re the top part of the chain and each of them will have sub-sections.
Bookmark this page now and write down the main sections for your lead magnet.
When you’ve done that you want to take the first one and break it down further into the sub-sections.
Doing this is a simple process of asking yourself:
What do I need to teach in this section to make sure everything is done correctly?
Take number three from above, this could be broken down into…
- Choosing an autoresponder
- What is an autoresponder
- Why you want to collect emails
- The two main types of autoresponder
- The top ten autoresponders
- How to know which you should choose
- Setting it up, what you need to know
Repeat this process for each of your main sections and you will have a strong break down of your lead magnet and what needs to be included in it in order to effectively teach whatever it is you’re teaching.
We’re not quite finished yet. Go and do that now, then come back for the final step.
Once you’ve finished creating your sub-sections you now need to write a two to three sentence summary under each section about what needs to be in it.
For example…
- Choosing an autoresponder
- What is an autoresponder
A complete description of what an auto-responder is and how it works - Why you want to collect emails
Explain the importance of collecting emails, how it can make a difference to your revenue because of being able to repeatedly email contacts, how it builds a long-term business and provide examples of what a big mailing list can generate in terms of revenue. Show examples of how much it costs for a click on different traffic sources and how many clicks you can create if you have your own mailing list. - The two main types of autoresponder
Look in detail at autoresponders that are based lists, how they work, how people are added to different lists and how they can be moved. Look in detail at autoresponders that are based on contacts and tagging, how they work and how you can segment your contacts based on their tags.
- What is an autoresponder
Go through each of your sub-sections and repeat this process.
This will can be done in 30 minutes and when you’re finished you will have a complete blueprint for your lead magnet. A blueprint that has enough detail to be given to someone else to create!
Next head over to one of the freelance websites such as Elance or Freelancer and post a job to create a product. If you’re creating a product in English then I would recommend asking for a native English speaker.
Provide a complete brief on what you’re looking for, but do not provide the information above. Narrow down the list of applicants by talking to them and seeing how quickly they respond and how good their English is. Then narrow further by looking at examples of their work.
Always do a Google on the example work they send you to make sure that they created it. It can be pretty hard to find out but sometimes they’ve simply copied someone else’s work and it’s easy to see.
When you have a shortlist ask them to perform some small task. You can ask them to do this for free but generally I offer to pay a small bonus for the completion of the task. This task should be a very small version of what you’re going to employ them to do. It tests both their knowledge and experience, their ability to follow a brief, their time-keeping, their responsiveness to changes and new information.
By now you will almost certainly be left with just one or two people. You will probably already know who you want to choose by now, but notice not once have we concerned ourselves with the price.
The most important thing is the quality of work. Only if you have more than one person left at the end of this process and you are unable to decide, which will be rare, should you consider the differences in price.
If you follow this process then you’ll be able to get high quality lead magnets created for you time and time again and spend less than an hour of your time on each one.
What do you think?