How to Make Your Opt-In Memorable Again

Hello Reader,

It must be a day that ends in "Y" because once again, online marketers recently declared another marketing tactic as"dead." I thought I'd use this newsletter to tell you about the latest thing that's absolutely not deceased, and is truly alive and well: The Lead Magnet.

Yes, the People of the Internet have once again declared this handy marketing asset as no longer effective, and if you want the TL;DR I'll just tell you straight up that this is not true. However, crummy, boring, unmemorable lead magnets are, indeed, performing very poorly.

Let's break this all down. (Including some basics for anyone new to this concept.)

What's a lead magnet?

A lead magnet is a something—usually free, but sometimes a lower cost "lead product," that brings leads into your marketing ecosystem. A lead magnet is NOT a discovery tool, it's a way to build a relationship by getting potential clients on your mailing list so they can get to know you and your methods. They're also sometimes called a freebie, opt-in, or content upgrade. Typically, there's an email sequence that follows someone signing up for a lead magnet.

How do lead magnets fit into your marketing ecosystem?

Lead magnets are part of your marketing "funnel." It can look at simple as:

1. Someone comes to your website;
2. They download or access your lead magnet;
3. They get a simple three email series expanding on the information from the lead magnet; and
4. They get your weekly emails.

Some of these people will unsubscribe, some will hang out forever and never take action, while others will become leads and clients. Your lead magnet helps attract them, the additional contacts solidify their belief you're a good fit or repel them and they unsubscribe.

What's not working with lead magnets?

These days there are a ton of what I consider vague or basic lead magnets. For example, loads of web designers have a content checklist. Which can be useful, but is not particularly memorable and doesn't inspire action.

Now, don't get me wrong, checklists can actually be awesome and useful, but the subject matter needs to be very helpful and distinctive.

This is made all the worse by the massive crop of online grifters selling generative AI systems that promise a lead magnet in a minute. Which means that there are more generic, unhelpful opt-ins than ever before. And this results in people trusting this kind of opt-in less and less.

I'm not going to say any format of lead magnet is ineffective, but those I see that don't work share same qualities:

• Limited insights—no new information or perspectives
• There's no action to take, it's just informational
• The information is easily Google-able
• There's an audience mismatch (e.g. a corporate consultant with a Buzzfeed style quiz)

What is working well with lead magnets?

On the opposite side of the coin is what's doing well for people.

Obviously, number one is insights! I will be hammering this issue for the foreseeable future, fair warning. If people can sign up for your opt-in knowing they will immediately access new insights, you'll be doing so much better than your competitors.

Alternatively, another quality to keep in mind is that people are delighted when they can solve a singular, bothersome problem. And I bet you could list a dozen your clients and customers encounter that you have clear, simple solutions for.

Going back to the exampleweb designer with the generic content checklist, instead, they could have an about page guide that helps their audience solve one single, annoying problem: what the heck to put on their about pages. (Oh, hey, I have one of those freebies!)

In terms of formats, you can get creative here! Here are some formats that I've observed doing well for people—especially knowledge-style businesses:

1. Self-assessments. These allow people to figure out if their self-diagnosis is correct.
2. Framework-based ebooks. These are guides that break down a signature methodology that make the reader go, "Ahhhh! That's how I go from A to B!"
3. On-demand action-based workshops or webinars. Again, you can follow your framework or methodology, or pull out one piece of it to teach your audience.
4. Private podcasts. I've been big on these for a while now, because I think they appeal to a very specific sort of lead who tend to be big information gatherers and also have a lot on their plate. My friend Marissa has a great one that is for women cyclists over 40 and it feels like she's coaching you when you listen to it—which is good, since she's a coach!

What about paid lead magnets?

We can get into a semantics debate about whether or not something people pay for is a lead magnet or a "lead product," but ultimately they're doing the same work regardless.

If you're established and have a decent mailing list (this varies across industries, 200 recipients can be amazing for some while others may need a mailing list of 20,000), it can be worth considering adding a paid lead magnet into the mix. This means that your marketing becomes more cost-effective because you're making a small amount of revenue when someone accesses your lead magnet.

This can take the form of gated newsletters (basically a membership tier of your existing newsletter with bonus content), a low cost paid product like my blog post titles ebook, The Title Bank, a lower cost paid toolkit like my friend Jamar's YouTube starter kit, or a template. All of these, again, solve a single problem so the buyer can get a quick win.

I will caution you that the paid lead magnet approach is a more advanced tactic when it comes to lead magnets, so if you're still getting your footing with marketing, don't head in this direction unless you have solid data and an understanding of your audience's challenges on a deep level. Make sure you know what works for your business and what your people have said they need or else you'll put a lot of work into that infrastructure and create a ton of frustration without the returns you're hoping for.

In the end, what's working right now is less about tactics, methods, and mediums and more about thinking of your lead magnet as an icebreaker. Go make sure yours is saying something worth hearing.

Talk soon,

Sarah

P.S. If you need support in this effort, I'm here. Learn more about my Alignthority®-powered marketing strategy services here.​