Creating a lead magnet is just the beginning. Once you have your lead magnet and welcome sequence ready to go, you need to promote your lead magnet to start building your email list. There are many different ways coaches can promote a lead magnet. Here are some good places to start.
Why You Need to Promote Your Lead Magnet
Promoting your lead magnet keeps a steady stream of new leads joining your email list. The online space is crowded, especially for coaches, and it is unlikely that your ideal coaching clients will stumble upon your lead magnet. Even if you have a large following, you still need to tell them about your lead magnet from time to time. It’s not enough to just have a link on your social media.
Another reason to promote your lead magnet is it is a lead generation tool for your coaching business. You’re likely to be promoting your lead magnet in different ways than you usually promote your business. Plus, many people will share a good lead magnet with people they know. Even more importantly, the value a lead magnet provides means these new leads are warmer than leads who have discovered your coaching through other methods.
How to Promote Your Lead Magnet
Before we look at different methods for promoting your lead magnet, think about who you want reading your lead magnet. In an ideal world, you would get your lead magnet in front of your ideal coaching clients who would then be blown away by the value you provide and want to work with you. In practice, your lead magnet will be downloaded by people who don’t fit your ideal client profile. The goal is to determine where your ideal coaching clients hang out and promote your lead magnet there to maximise the ratio of ideal coaching clients vs others on your email list.
Another factor to consider is how to communicate the value of your lead magnet in a way that resonates with your ideal coaching clients. How does the problem that your lead magnet solves affect your ideal coaching clients’ lives? What can they expect to see if they implement the things they learn in the lead magnet?
Traditional Ways to Promote Your Lead Magnet
These are the ways that most people promote their lead magnets. That does not mean they are bad ways to promote lead magnets; ultimately, there is no right or wrong way to promote your lead magnet.
Promote Your Lead Magnet on Your Website
At the very least, you should have your lead magnet displayed prominently on your homepage. If someone is doing a Google search to find a coach in your niche, they may be trying to decide between multiple coaches. Your lead magnet provides them with instant value so they can decide if they want to work with you.
You should also include links to your lead magnet within relevant content and website pages. If someone is reading a piece of content, it shows that they are interested in their particular topic. They are more likely to download your lead magnet on that same topic.
Some coaches also have a resources page where they share their books or digital products. If you have a resources page, promote your lead magnet there too.
Promote Your Lead Magnet on Social Media
Most coaches know that they should have a link to their lead magnet in their social media bio. That’s a given. Many coaches will also create pinned content to promote their lead magnet.
The secret to using your lead magnet to create a consistent stream of email subscribers is to promote your lead magnet regularly in your social media content. That could be as simple as including a CTA (call to action) to your lead magnet on relevant content. You could take it one step further and create content around the lead magnet topic to promote your lead magnet.
Promote Your Lead Magnet with an Ad
A lot of people use ads to promote their lead magnet, especially when they first launch their lead magnet. Whether or not you do this is completely up to you and will depend on your budget and priorities.
Promoting your lead magnet with an ad, when done correctly, can accelerate the process of building an email list. This works best when you have the knowledge to write a compelling ad and directly target your ideal clients. When you are paying to promote your lead magnet, it is even more important that you are only paying for the email subscribers you want.
It is worth considering the value of your email list when deciding if ads are right for you. If you have an email strategy in place and you will make money from your email list, then the initial investment will lead to profits. If you are treating your email list like another content platform and don’t have a plan in place to leverage it to grow your business, then there is no return on investment.
Unique Ways to Promote Your Lead Magnet
These unique ways of promoting your lead magnet are free and have the benefit of getting you in front of a new audience.
Giveaway Your Lead Magnet During Guest Appearances
If you guest post or appear as a guest on podcasts, ask the host if their audience would find your lead magnet useful. This works best when the lead magnet adds extra value to the topic you were discussing in the podcast or guest post. The host is more likely to say yes if you are not in direct competition with each other.
The best way to approach this is as a win for the host’s audience. Say something like, “hey, I have a resource that I think would help if your listeners/readers were interested in learning more about this topic.” Always address it in advance rather than dropping it on them during the interview or when you send over the guest post.
It is best practice to send your lead magnet file over (just make sure it’s branded and has information about where to find you) rather than just sending them a link to your email capture form.
Be prepared for the host to say no to promoting your lead magnet. You’re already getting a lot of exposure by borrowing their audience, so it’s already a win.
Giveaway Your Lead Magnet in a Freebie Bundle with Affiliates
Building a network of affiliates can really accelerate the growth of your coaching business. Affiliates are businesses who work with your ideal coaching clients in a different but complimentary way. Let’s say you’re a fitness coach. Examples of affiliates could be doctors, nutritionists, gyms, fitness gear companies, and supplement companies.
If you’re a writing coach, examples of affiliates could be editors, agents, and publishers. You could even partner with bookstores and libraries.
Affiliates create a mutually beneficial partnership where you send each other business and generally open doors for each other. In terms of promoting lead magnets, you could assemble a group of trusted affiliates to create a freebie bundle of lead magnets and giveaways that you all promote to your audiences. This is a great way to make an instant impression on new audiences.
Collaborate with an Organization to Provide a Free Resource
Look for community programs that allow you to provide value to people actively looking for the service you provide. For example, if you are a business coach or financial coach, many banks provide free workshops and resources to the community. Contact them to see if you can partner with them to provide workshops or create a free resource for them. This allows you to tap into their marketing methods for free.
Libraries, community centres, and local councils are a great place to explore options. The lead magnets and resources that do the best here are ones that genuinely serve the target market rather than just giving the bare minimum away for free.
Should I Keep My Lead Magnet Behind an Email Wall?
You may have noticed that a lot of the unique ways to promote a lead magnet we discussed wouldn’t direct people to your email capture form.
While most people think of lead magnets as a way to capture email addresses, we encourage you to think bigger. Your lead magnet is a way to get new leads who have already seen first-hand the value you bring to their lives. Lead magnets have information about the next steps, your business, and how to reach you to take the next steps. As far as we’re concerned, why focus on getting emails and sacrifice reaching new audiences you can convert into paying coaching clients?
Have your lead magnet behind an email wall when appropriate, by all means. But don’t shy away from giving your lead magnet away when it will give you a bigger benefit.
What’s Next?
Read our article on what to email your email list.
Grab 50 Attention-Grabbing Headline ideas in this article.
Read more about lead magnets on our lead magnet hub
Need help creating a lead magnet? We can write a lead magnet, landing page, and 3-email welcome sequence for £1,000. You could have your lead magnet in as little as a week (depending on availability). Click here to read more about our lead magnet service for coaches.