Lesson 2: The Gift Must Hit on Certain Criteria

It all starts with offering the right incentive. Without a gift they’ll want, many people won’t be willing to hand over their name and email address. They’ve encountered too many spammers who email them incessantly and then sell their contact information to others to do the same.

Your lead magnet’s value is determined by the pressing needs of your audience. If you can develop a gift based on the pain points they’re experiencing, or maybe the goals they want to achieve, then you’re more likely to get a subscriber.

You can conduct some reconnaissance to see what people are searching for by using free or paid keyword tools, online databases like Answer the Public, or predictive features like Google’s People Also Ask questions.

You can lurk in forums and watch engagement on social media and get a good idea of how your opt-in ideas will go over with your target audience. Try to set yourself apart in some way with your gift so it’s not basic, general information they can read anywhere – and at the very least, put your spin on it.

The media format might play a determining factor in whether or not someone signs up, so you may want to offer both a text and video version of the information. You can even vary the slants to see what topics, tone and style potential subscribers want to opt in for.

Quality must be good! You might even want to give a sneak peek into the lead magnet so they can see what it is they’re signing up for. Make sure it has a professional look and feel and is edited to the highest quality.