Most speaking businesses these days have a lead magnet. Why? Because they drive up engagement with your brand, cultivate a list of warm leads that are interested in your services, and you can put the entire process on autopilot once it’s set up.
Sounds pretty good, right?
That’s why I will use this post to take through creating a potent lead magnet, step-by-step, so that you begin to collect those all-important leads for your business.
But first, let’s quickly run through what a lead magnet is.
What is a Lead Magnet?
In the context of a speaking website, a lead magnet is an offer of value that a prospective client receives in exchange for their contact information. In most cases, this is in the form of an email address.
It could be a free piece of content, a consultation, or any other experience valuable enough for your prospect to enter their information. Your lead magnet will usually help to solve a problem your potential speaking clients may be experiencing. By contrast, you benefit by following those leads up with email pitches and other forms of marketing to get them over the line and turn them into paying clients.
A lead magnet is not to be confused with a call to action (CTA), and vice versa. A CTA is about telling your website visitors what you want them to do when they arrive at your site, as I explain in this blog post concerning CTAs.
In the early days of online marketing, you could simply ask a client to sign up to your newsletter because receiving an email newsletter in itself was exciting. However, today, not so much. You need something of real value to differentiate yourself from all the noise. You need something that makes an unforgettable first impression on your potential customers.
So without further ado, let’s take you through how to create one.
How to Create a Lead Magnet for Your Speaking Business
#1: Start Developing Your Lead Magnet Idea
The first thing you need to do is decide what you will offer as a lead magnet. Once again, I cannot stress enough how this needs to stand out from the crowd. Lead magnets today are competitive. So if you aren’t bringing something fresh or engaging to the table, you won’t acquire many leads.
So what are some of the ideas you might want to consider? The below list isn’t exhaustive, but common ideas for lead magnets include:
- eBook
- Infographic
- Slideshow/Presentation
- Quiz with follow-up
- A free no-obligation consultation
- An offer to speak for free (with caveats attached)
- A free month of your membership site
- Free mastermind session
- Free course or selected free modules of your paid course
- Case studies
The possibilities are endless. What works really well is carrying out your own original research within your chosen field. Whether you present the information you curate through an eBook, infographic, or slideshow, it doesn’t matter. However, by presenting something completely original, you dramatically increase the chances of prospects signing up to view the information.
#2: Create and Design Your Lead Magnet
Once you’ve nailed down what you will create, it’s time to create and design your chosen lead magnet.
Don’t worry if you don’t have any creative design skills. There are plenty of sites where you can get help and/or inspiration. Canva is a great beginner-friendly design tool, for example. Or, you can call in the help of a professional from Fiverr or Upwork who create attention-grabbing lead magnets every day.
The content of your lead magnet is your responsibility, and I wouldn’t recommend outsourcing that. You have to deliver value here, so give it everything you’ve got, whether that’s through an extensively researched infographic, putting an email course together, or writing an original eBook.
#3: Marketing Your Lead Magnet
Now you have put together your incredible lead magnet offering, it’s time to tell the world about it. Now, most people opt to place their lead magnet as a pop-up on their speaker website. I’ve even seen some speakers place it above the fold. These are perfectly fine as long as you are not drawing attention away from your CTA.
I would personally recommend a pop-up that only appears when a visitor shows an intention to leave their current page. That way, it will grab their attention at the right moment, rather than distracting them away from your CTA or the content they were trying to read on your site.
Another highly effective marketing method for your lead magnet is Facebook Ads. They even have a specific “Lead Ad” dedicated to collecting email addresses in exchange for access to a well-crafted lead magnet. Facebook delivers excellent targeting, meaning you can acquire worthwhile leads at a fraction of the price of other advertising methods.
Easily-consumed, content-based lead magnets are the best for Facebook Lead Ads, such as infographics, case studies, PDFs, or eBooks.
Finally, remember to keep in mind the fundamental guiding principles of marketing, no matter where you are advertising your lead magnet:
- Keep the barriers to entry low (just one click to enter an email address)
- Create urgency (put your target audience on a deadline)
- Make your content easily shareable with others (gathering referral leads)
- Make sure you remain laser-focused on your target audience (don’t cast your net too wide)
#4: Follow Up Your Lead Magnet Prospects to Secure Sales
Some speakers I have met have built enviable email lists using a killer lead magnet, only to do very little with those addresses. You must realise at the outset that gaining the email is only HALF the process. The next stage requires you to develop those leads into cold hard cash.
Perhaps you could create an automated email campaign that warms us prospects before going for the perfect tailored email pitch. Alternatively, you could invite your hottest leads to a free consultation or Zoom call to get them over the line.
Your specific strategy will depend on your lead magnet, who your target audience is, and what type of sale you are trying to make (e.g., a booking for a speaking gig vs. a course membership). However, the point is that you need to follow up to ensure all the hard work you invested into the lead magnet was worth it!
Get Help with Creating the Perfect Lead Magnet
Hopefully, you now understand the difference between a CTA and a lead magnet, as well as how the latter can play a pivotal role in building up your number of potential clients. Lead magnets are super beneficial if you’re in the early stages of your business and you need a little boost to the number of potential clients to chase.
The good news is that there are plenty of speakers who have already created lead magnets that work. They can advise you of the common mistakes to avoid and speed up your journey toward success.
Many of them hang out in our Grow Your Speaking Biz Facebook group. It’s totally free to join, and there are so many of us in there that someone will always be on hand to answer any questions you may have regarding the speaker space (lead magnets or otherwise).
So what are you waiting for? Come and join us today to learn everything there is to know about the speaking industry! We look forward to seeing you there!