In today’s episode, I’m chatting with my friend, Julie Butler about lead magnets and how to create one that attracts your dream clients. Julie is passionate about helping entrepreneurs create beautiful businesses so they can stop the comparison games, feel confident about having a high-level brand, and in turn, attract their dream clients.
Connect with Julie and grab her freebies at http://www.stockbyjewels.com/resources
Full transcription available at the bottom of this blog post
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Full transcription:
I have my friend Julie here, and we are going to dive into how to build and really how to create a really strong lead magnet. So you can attract the dream clients and of course build your email list. So welcome to the show, Julie, thank you so much.
Thank you for having me. Alison. I’m so excited to be here.
I’m excited for you to be here and I know you are super passionate about lead magnets. We were actually chatting before we jumped on this call about lead magnets, and I’m really glad that you’re passionate about it because I’ve created many lead magnets and I feel I’ve been successful with them, but I have yet to talk about lead magnets on this show. And I can almost guarantee you that we have listeners that, you know, they struggle with lead magnets. They want to create them. They don’t know where to start. So I’m going to just start asking you some questions and you’re just going to give us all the goods, the tips, the strategies. But first I want to ask what exactly is a lead magnet. We hear that term a lot in the entrepreneurial world. What exactly is a lead magnet? And why is it important to have one? Yes.
So I think that there’s a few words and sometimes I catch myself not knowing which word to use, but you know, they can be classified as a freebie. A lead magnet essentially is, is a, some type of a document or product that you want to give your audience for free, mostly to get there in exchange for their email, their name and email, so that you can build your email list, right? Because we know Alison, the number one thing we should be doing is growing our email list. And I wish someone told me this years ago that I should start book grit, building my email list. If you’re not building your email list. Now ladies start today. So freebie lead magnet, essentially it can be in, in different many forms we can have, like for my, my cell, for example, I have a bundle of free stock photos.
And then I, you know, send that out to the world and people sign up, uh, they joined my email list and they get an exchange. They get these free stock photos, but I also have, uh, different PDF workbooks or can be a checklist. It can be anything really that you, um, you want to give out to your audience for free. Uh, we’re going to talk about free here, um, in exchange for their email address. So that in turn, you can grow your email list because our email list belongs to us, right? Like not like social media or audiences. And I’m sure you’ve talked about this before.
Yeah, absolutely. You, yeah, I totally agree with you. You need to have an email list to stay in contact with your, you know, your dream clients, because you never know tomorrow social media could be taken down, like who knows, things can change their terms and conditions can change. And your way of marketing yourself may change over time. So you can’t just rely on one platform and think that’s your go-to place because you know, you’re going to make a lot of changes and pivots in your business as you evolve. So I’m really glad that you pointed that out, that we absolutely need an email list. Now, a question I just thought of is when it comes to the freebie or the lead magnet, do you think there’s a magic number that people should have, or does it just really depend on their business,
A magic number of how many we should have? So I’m going to go out and say, start with one because you need to start somewhere. And if we get ahead of ourselves and I think as creative entrepreneurs, we all do this. We, we, our minds start thinking and we were like, I want this and I want this many, and I want to do one for this. And one for that. And you know, you, all of a sudden, you get ahead of yourself. And sometimes that, that kind of, you know, puts pokes in our wheels and then we stay stuck and then we don’t end up creating. So I’m going to go with, create the one to start and then moving forward, you can create more. But I think that if we have that one strong lead magnet, that we can get people on our lists. And I think I can talk for most, for a lot of us that, that have multiple lead magnets. There’s always that one, there’s always the one that converts better than the others. So creating that first strong lead magnet to start getting those people and on our lists, I think is the key thing here. And just, just even, I I’ve had only one for almost two years now, I’m only now starting to create more. Yeah. Yeah.
That’s awesome. So let’s talk about, um, you’re using the term create and there’s the, the magic, the magic word, because we might have listeners going, okay, I know I need a lead magnet, but I don’t even know where to start. So what are the components to creating a lead magnet that will get those people to sign up for our email list?
Okay. So the first thing is, is, and we’ve all heard this and I resisted this for a long time, but you need to know who your ideal client is. You need to know who you’re speaking to. You need to know who they are, what their pain points are, what do they struggle with? And sometimes if we really think deep inside, sometimes it’s a reflection of, of the pain points that we had when we first started our business journey. And so we really want to hone into, uh, what is it that they are struggling with and how can I help them? What can I create? And this, this should be easy enough for you to come up with because it’s usually something that we’re passionate about. Right? So, so something that we’ve gone through ourselves or something that we’re, we’re so passionate about talking to others about how about create a lead magnet for that, right?
So something that’s going to help you, your ideal clients solve a problem. Now it doesn’t have to be a, you know, a 10 page document. It doesn’t have to be a, you know, a, uh, like an intense mini course of any kind. It can be one video. It can be a one page document. It can be like, if you guys have been in this for a little bit, or if you’re new at this, you we’ve all done it. We all go in and sign up for these lists and these workbooks and these checklists and, and all of those things, right? Like those can be inspiration for you to create that first, um, that first lead magnets and don’t fear. Also sometimes maybe the first thing we create is not going to get traction so we can either tweak it or create something different, or maybe do a little market research in, in our audience and see what their struggles are.
Um, but the important thing to remember is that it needs to be something that’s going to fix your audience’s problem. That is like, yes, I want this, this list or this little workbook or this recipe book, whatever the case might be for myself. It only made sense that I offer free stock photos because I have a free stock photo. I have a stock photo membership, but I also have a course on online courses. And so I created a lead magnet that helps entrepreneurs how to create a lead magnet that converts. And so that made sense for me and right. So, so I think just to, to kind of summarize, summarize, the important thing is to make sure that you are helping that person solve a problem.
And do you feel that that lead magnet, that freebie, it needs to give your audience almost an immediate win, like make it very simple and easy to implement because that’s going to want the next going to entice her dream client to come back to you for more. I think sometimes a lot of people might overcomplicate that freebie. They think it needs to be huge and juicy and all the things where you might overwhelm your audience. So make it simple and give your audience a quick win. So they come back for more. Do you feel the same way, Julie?
Yes. And I, I love that. You, you say that because sometimes as entrepreneurs and I think as women, we, we spent so much time analyzing and overthinking things. Right, right. And it’s, it’s, you know what, it’s use your, just your intuition and just go ahead and create something. It doesn’t have to be perfect. You know, like the first thing we create is never perfect. We just get better and better as time goes on, we realize what our audience really wants and you know what, like it’s okay to change our freebie later on. It’s okay. To change our mind about what our lead magnet is or, you know what I mean? Like, nothing that we do in our business is set in stone. We can always tweak it, change it, make it better, make it, you know, so, so I encourage, um, your listeners to just don’t analyze it. Don’t overthink it. Just go ahead and create. It can be super simple. And yes, I agree with the small win. Um, you know, it has to be something that’s going to give them a little bit of a result. So they’re going to get a taste of, wow. You know, she, she really helped me with this, you know, whatever the case may be. And I want to know more about her. So they’re going to, they’re going to stay interested in you and your offers and what you must give to the world.
That’s awesome. And I liked that. You said, you know, don’t overanalyze it. I’m sure you’ve heard this over and over. We hear this all the time. Take imperfect action. And it’s so
True, you know, and I think we
Are our worst critic. We are going to analyze every single aspect of that freebie or that lead magnet, but just put it out there. And, and let’s talk about that when we put our freebie out there, how long do we leave it out there before we decide if we need to change or pivot, do you think there’s a, you know, like a good 90 days to see if you’re getting people to sign up for that freebie?
I don’t know that there’s a set number of days, unless you’re, unless you know, that this freebie is not going to get you the traction that you want. I would maybe just go ahead and try creating something different. Right. Like create a new one, so create something. Okay. So this may be is not what my ideal client is looking for. So maybe I’m going to try creating this. Maybe I’m going to do this thing. Um, and so I, like, I have freebies that have been out there for a couple of years. They’re not the most, the most popular, but they’re working for me when I’m sleeping. Right. So when your, your freebies are out there with like on Pinterest, or you just promote they’re on your website, they’re on your blog, you know, that’s another thing, right? Like you want to have them linked and, uh, multiple places, unless, you know, specifically that it needs to some tweaking and some changing.
But I don’t think that sometimes we want to change. Sometimes maybe we’re, we’re drawn to changing the whole thing when maybe really it’s just a title. Right. So maybe it’s, it’s just a title or how you’re putting it out there. So sometimes all we have to do is review the title of it or the transformation. Right. So sometimes it can be just a matter of tweaking that and, um, checking and seeing what’s maybe if a different title works better, you know, I’ve had, I’ve had, uh, pins on Pinterest and they don’t, they don’t convert as well. I just take it, I changed the title a little bit to something a little bit more like, how can I, I just think, how can I draw them more in like this title wasn’t working. So let’s try this title. So sometimes that’s all you have to do to get those people in. Um, but I think that, you know, if, if the one is not really working, I think that tapping into, uh, again, thinking about your audience and what is that maybe they really want, or how can you fix their pain point. Right.
So let’s talk about when we’re creating the actual page to grab their email list. Do you have some tips on what that page needs to look like? Cause um, my biggest advice to people, if they ask me, you know, what do I need to put on there? A lot of people are very concerned about the copy and what I see happening is they make it about them. Like, look what I’ve created. They don’t make it about the ideal audience and their pain points. So do you have like a, like a flow or a system that you follow when you create your, like the landing page to get that freebie? Right.
Right. So what I’ve learned over the last few years, um, is that it’s never about you, right? It’s never about us, that people, they don’t care about us. They care about the transformation and how can it help them? They’re concerned about their problem, their pain, and they want to get it fixed. So a lot of times I, we see, we see ourselves, we’re proud, right? Like we create something and we’re really proud of that creation, but we have to make sure that we hone in on to the transformation and how what’s going to help that person. Right. So I like to save. So for example, if we’re talking about a landing page where you’re going to have that signup form for your freebie, you want to keep it simple. You don’t want it to be messy. You don’t want too much text because texts, um, you don’t want your ideal client to get to your page.
And if there’s too much text, they’re burning too many calories they’re going to leave. Right. So it has to be simple to the point. And you know, like, uh, I think a lot of us here serve female entrepreneurs. So, you know, having that, you know, as a title, you know, for female entrepreneurs, and then for example, you could have, you know, like, uh, I often just have a little title that says, grab this free, grab this bundle of free stock photos and then subscribe to this, uh, to get your free stock photos, uh, to beautify your business, uh, you know, et cetera, et cetera. But like the, I think the important thing is, is that to have a header, right? Like that kind of grabs attention, grab this, you know, workbook and then a little sentence of how this can help them, the transformation to help them.
And then of course the, the, the form for them to give you their email address and a really nice graphic, like I’m going to say that, you know, the, the overall look and feel is also a little bit important. However, if you, if you focus on keeping it simple, you’re not going to have to get into that whole design thing. Right? You can go on Canva, you can grab, there’s so many different, great tools you can use. You can now find iPads, you can find desktops and, um, uh, laptops that you can import onto an image. And some of them are already created for us. You just slide in your little freebie into that screen and away you go, right? So it’s, it’s very easy now with the use of Canva to create that little graphic that you can, you can incorporate with the little text and form, and that’s all your landing page needs to be for your freebie. I love that. I love it.
You brought up Canva. Cause I think everybody almost uses Canva and that’s the best place to start when you’re creating your own graphics. And you said a key term that I want to make sure that our audience heard that because I think when we’re creating our freebies, we’re so focused on what the freebie is, but we forget to talk about the transformation and that’s so key because people are not downloading your freebie for that specific thing. They want the transformation. So I think it’s really important. You’re going to have your headline. Yeah. You’re going to tell them what it is, but let them know what that transformation is once they’ve interacted or downloaded your freebie. Because I think about the freebies I have, like, I have a three-part Instagram makeover. They’re not so concerned about changing their bio or what they’re doing. They want what happens after that. They want exactly information. So I need to make sure that I am talking about the transformation. I’m saving them time. I’m getting them confident. I’m getting them organized. And they’re also attracting the right people to their account. Not just anybody. I make sure that I talk about the transformation. It’s not so much about what’s involved in the actual workbook. So I just wanted to point that out real quick because you know, I know we do. We get tripped up on the what yeah. Now,
But the transformation, if there’s anything you remember from this podcast episode, just remember in everything you do, it’s always about the transformation. How is our product, our offer, our freebie or lead magnet going to help our customer? What is the transformation? And that’s what we have to remember throughout everything we do.
So we need to make sure that we are focused on our audience and not ourselves and focus on the transformation. Now I want to ask you, Julie, how do we incorporate stock photography, but still stay on brand because we’re not all photographers. I mean, I’m lucky enough to knit. You know, I have my, my camera. I know how to take my own stock photos. And obviously you are a genius and a queen at stock photography, but there’s a lot of people out there that, you know, they just don’t know where to grab stock photography. They don’t know how to incorporate it with their own brand. What’s your advice on that?
I think that it, the important thing is, is that to remember, you know, it’s, it’s all fine and dandy that we use photos for our websites and sometimes even our social medias, but if the photos are not professional looking yet, there’s some people that are not going to stay because there’s that whole perception about, you know, when you land on the website, if it’s put together, it has professional photos and you just have that, it just up levels your business, right. And your brand and everything. So, and I think that now in 2021, it’s easier and easier to find stock photos to match our brand. And I think that people are finding it a lot easier to find stock photos that match their business or brands. So, um, you know, if you don’t want to pay for a membership, there’s always those free stock, photo websites and everything that, you know, and I, I go to Pinterest to be inspired.
I mean, I’m a photographer, but I also sometimes want to be inspired. So I’ll go to Pinterest too, to get inspired by it. I’ll search brand boards, I’ll search websites, pages, I’ll search, because then you can get like an overall look and feel. And I’ve also looked at other people’s websites. Like there’s nothing wrong with that being inspired by other people’s websites or pages or Pinterest, like, you know, that’s, we’re not all creatives. We don’t all have that in us, but being inspired by, uh, other pages or others is, is, is okay to do. And so, you know, I think that what I suggest is that I love like, I’m, I’m a pink kind of girl. I love pink. Pink is my color. So you’ll see that kind of reflect on in my branding. So if you have a favorite color, you know, go to those colors.
So look for stock photos that, that have a bit of that color in them. And you know, and it’s easy. It’s so easy now to upload photos and Canva, you can just slide them into your design when you’re creating your workbook. And you can even has workbooks that you can grab for free. And just start with that. If you’re not an artist and a creative, you can go and Canva, you can, um, you know, look search for what you’re kind of want to create, whether it’s a workbook or a list or whatever, you can find designs. And then you can just tweak them, change the colors, change the fonts, add your own photos and make them your own. And so you can do this with your landing page and so many other places, right?
Yeah. That’s awesome. That’s really great advice. But I do have one last question for you, Julie, you mentioned earlier that you have a freebie on how to create a landing page. I do. I want to make sure that our listeners have access to that. So where can they find that?
Okay. So I think the easiest place to send, uh, these lovely women would be to go to http://www.stockbyjewels.com/resources. And on this page, they’ll be able to download the free stock photos. And that’s where my, uh, lead magnet for, uh, this how to create a lead magnet. That converts is also,
That’s awesome. I’m going to make sure that I put that link in the show notes. You guys, please a favor, follow Julie on Instagram, because that’s how we originally connected. And her stock photography is just beautiful and the way she supports female entrepreneurs is just amazing. And, you know, Julie and I have really started to grow a strong relationship just in the last few months. You’re just, you’re just so fun to chat with.
I know, I feel the same way. Yeah.
You just buy with certain people, right? Yeah.
That connection, right? Yeah.
Yeah. So I’m going to make sure that I have all of your links in the show notes. Thank you so much for talking about lead magnets. I know that sometimes lead magnets can be overwhelming, but like we said, just come up with that idea, find that template and take imperfect action.
Yes. And you know, what everything we talked about is all in my freebie, my lead magnets. And so I really encourage you to go and grab it because it’s, I, I have, I have, um, some amazing feedback from females who have downloaded it and they’re like so impressed with the content and it definitely can, can help you and get your foot, um, on the right track and creating your own. So,
Yes, because we were in a different time, a different world. So you definitely need that email list. So, so much for being on the show, Julie you’re so welcome.
Thanks for having me, Allison. It was a pleasure.
