Basic Set-up for a Lead Magnet


Recently several small business owners have asked me about how to set up a lead magnet to encourage more subscriptions to their newsletter. Here are instructions for you DIYers.

First, prepare your lead magnet - the thing that you're giving away. It should be something of value to your target market.

Next, you'll prepare two pages on your website:
  • a landing page where people can sign up for your newsletter (this may or may not be on your website menu)
  • a redirect page ("Thanks for signing up" page) where people will receive your lead magnet (this should not be on your menu and you'll want to discourage search engines from finding this page)
Let's do your redirect page first. Create the page and name it something like 'thanks' or 'download' or... it doesn't really matter what you call it. If you're using WordPress, you can set it to discourage search engines. On this page, you'll place the item you're giving away. It might be a .pdf file or perhaps an embedded video. If it's a .pdf file, use a button or big text as the download link to make it immediately obvious. Also on this page, you have the chance to then direct the subscriber to something else of value, perhaps your blog or a free course or a sign-up for something else.

Now let's do your landing page. Create the page and name it 'free download' or something else that hints at the value. Now you'll add a good call-to-action for people to subscribe. Make sure you mention that they will be receiving more from you regularly, not just the free thing. This is important to be compliant with antispam laws. Now add your sign-up form. You can create the form in your bulk email provider software (e.g. ActiveCampaign, MailChimp) or, if using WordPress, you can use API to connect via a plugin. Whichever way you do it, within the form set-up:
  • disable any automatic message sending, such as opt-in confirmation and welcome messages (I don't recommend using these)
  • instead of sending a welcome message, you'll choose the option to redirect to a webpage - here you'll add the link to the redirect page you've just set up
  • add a captcha to your form to disable spammers from signing up (this should be an option but it depends on which app you're using)
Finally, after you've done all this set-up, make sure to test it to make sure it works!

As an example, you can find my own simple landing page here: https://daleyprogress.com/quick-easy-content/. If you sign up, you'll then see my redirect page (and get the free workbook).

This is the very first step in creating a workflow for a marketing/sales funnel. Once you have this in place, you can add to it and improve on it over time.

(Thanks to Betty at Abetec Business Solutions for inspiring this post today!)

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