The Role of a Lead Magnet in a Coaching Sales Funnel

In a past article, we discussed common types of sales funnels for coaching businesses – one of those being a lead magnet sales funnel. Let’s take an in-depth look into how a lead magnet sales funnel works and the role of the lead magnet in converting followers from freebie downloaders into paying coaching clients.

What Is a Lead Magnet Sales Funnel for Coaches

A lead magnet sales funnel uses a valuable freebie (lead magnet) to get your ideal coaching clients on your email list. By downloading your lead magnet, the follower is signalling that they are interested in that topic and demonstrating a buy-in to receiving guidance on that topic from you.

Lead magnets sales funnels are popular for coaches because they provide a win-win. Your ideal coaching clients win because:

• The lead magnet gives them a small win so they can make progress on their goals before they pay you any money.
• They get to experience your coaching to see if you would be a good fit before investing thousands into your coaching program.
• They will be able to make their decision to hire you as a coach based on the value that you provide.

You, as the coach, win because:

• You move prospective coaching clients from social media to your email list, where you have a lot more control over the relationship.
• You can show your prospective coaching clients the value they will receive from hiring you as a coach.
• You can upsell them to a relevant product, service, or coaching program as a way to continue the progress they have experienced in your coaching program.
• You can use your lead magnet to reinforce your brand and show what your values are as a coach.
• You can use your lead magnet to get your followers to a place where they meet the eligibility requirements to be considered as a coaching client.

The lead magnet sales funnel starts with content that converts followers or website hits to lead magnet downloads and then nurtures these lead magnet downloaders into coaching clients.

The Steps of a Lead Magnet Coaching Sales Funnel

Any sales funnel is only as effective as the number of leads you put into the top of the sales funnel. Visually, think of it as an upside-down triangle (like the image below). It is impossible to convert 100% of the prospective coaching clients at every part of the sales funnel. If 100 people read your lead magnet promotion content, maybe 1 or 2 (sometimes even fewer) might become paying coaching clients.

Because of that, your lead magnet promotion sales funnel will only be effective if you are constantly feeding the top of the funnel. The great news is the rest of the lead magnet sales funnel for coaches can be automated. All you need to do is continually promote your lead magnet by creating lead magnet promotion content. Your email automations will take care of the rest.

Step 1: Lead Magnet Promotion Content

The top of a lead magnet sales funnel is creating content to promote your lead magnet. It could also be ads, but we recommend testing the effectiveness of your lead magnet sales funnel through free lead-generation strategies first. Once you feel your lead magnet sales funnel is converting at a high enough rate that paid advertising would be profitable, you can make that investment.

Lead magnet promotion content for coaches does not need to be “salesy,” you could add CTAs to content that is even slightly relevant to your coaching lead magnet. You can also create content that blatantly promotes your lead magnet. Consider answering commonly asked questions or giving sneak peeks inside. You could also have your lead magnet “sponsor” your website or video content by using banner ads or in-content advertisements.

As we said above, the more content you create that promotes your lead magnet, the more leads will convert into paying coaching clients. Your primary metric should be the number of times you promote your lead magnet. Your secondary metric is then to refine your sales messaging and process to increase conversion at every step of the sales funnel. Don’t be afraid to promote your lead magnet often and shamelessly.

• Not every follower will see everything you post.
• Not every follower will follow you everywhere you create content.
• Not every person who reads content promoting your lead magnet will instantly take action. Some may need to read about your lead magnet multiple times before they decide to see what all the fuss is about.

Step 2: Lead Magnet Landing Page

The lead magnet promotion content for coaches will link prospective coaching clients to your lead magnet landing page, where they can learn about what they will learn more about the lead magnet.

A lead magnet landing page for coaches should be much shorter than your coaching program landing page. However, it should also tell them the information they need to decide whether it is worth downloading. While their email address is a very low barrier to entry, most people are reluctant to open the doors to spam without any guarantee of a return. That means you need to adequately demonstrate the value of your lead magnet.

• Explain what problems your lead magnet solves
• Identify who will benefit the most from the lead magnet
• Share the benefits your ideal coaching clients can expect to see after implementing what they learn in the lead magnet
• Use testimonials or case studies to provide social proof
• List the inclusions (make sure to list bonuses too)

Step 3: Lead Magnet Download

The third step of the lead magnet sales funnel is the actual lead magnet download. Not everyone who lands on your lead magnet landing page will actually download your lead magnet. Some may get distracted and forget to read the landing page, and some may decide your coaching lead magnet is not for them.

Try to keep your lead magnet download process simple. The downloader should receive their lead magnet instantly in a welcome email which kickstarts the lead magnet welcome sequence. For best results, instruct your email marketing platform to tag lead magnet downloads so you know which members of your email list downloaded your lead magnet and which haven’t. That will allow you to see the conversion and retention stats for your lead magnet email subscribers. It will also help you if you create additional lead magnets in the future because you can track the stats for multiple lead magnets.

Your lead magnet should introduce your coaching program or a low-ticket offer as the next step to continue the progress your coaching clients have made following the lead magnet advice. Use half a page to a page to sell one of these (not both). If you are reluctant to appear too salesy, think of it like your coaching program or low-ticket offer is sponsoring your lead magnet. You are able to offer that information for free because of this sponsorship.

Step 4: Lead Magnet Welcome Sequence with Upsell to a Relevant Product or Service

The lead magnet welcome sequence has to do a lot of jobs. It needs to introduce you and your coaching to downloaders of various awareness levels, reinforce what they have learned in the coaching lead magnet, and provide implementation advice or extra tips.

The most important role that the lead magnet welcome sequence plays, though, is selling your prospective coaching clients a next step. This is prime selling real estate because your lead magnet downloaders have indicated a buy-in by downloading the lead magnet. They are also enjoying the benefits of the advice you have generously given away for free. Hit them while they’re considering how much more they will benefit from your paid products and services.

You have to choose whether the next step is a low-ticket offer or your coaching program (a high-ticket offer). Both have their advantages and disadvantages, and the best option will depend on the type of client you serve and their level of awareness.

For example, if you believe that your ideal coaching clients will be sold on your coaching but still be reluctant to pay thousands, then a low-ticket offer may be best. You can provide a masterclass, a guide, or a paid strategy session as the upsell. For coaches, we recommend a live masterclass or a paid strategy session so you can build that relationship with your coaching clients while they try out your coaching. You can always offer your coaching program as the upsell from the low-ticket offer.

Alternatively, your clients may have the means and the frustration with their problem, which means at least a few of them will be ready to pay the cost of your coaching program after finishing your lead magnet. In that case, sell your coaching program as the upsell. You can always change this later if you need to.

Step 5: Continue to Nurture

The work doesn’t stop once your ideal coaching client has joined your email list. You need to give them a reason to stay and not unsubscribe immediately. Your email content is a way to nurture relationships with warm prospects and current coaching clients. Create a content strategy that gives your coaching clients additional access to you and provides value in every email.

Remember, your email list is more likely to convert to coaching clients than people who follow you on social media or read your blog. This is where you can trial new products, provide specials and advance access, and seek feedback from your most loyal coaching clients. Create an exclusive community and provide them with enough value that they would never dream of unsubscribing. They will buy from you when the conditions align. (When they have the spare money, when you offer the right product, and when the need becomes big enough for them.)

Once you have your coaching lead magnet set up, everything will be automated aside from steps 1 and 5. These are the ones that require regular attention to keep the coaching sales funnel from generating coaching clients for your business. Make sure you are prioritising them as they deserve.

What Is the Role of a Lead Magnet in a Coaching Sales Funnel?

As you can see from the steps of a lead magnet sales funnel for coaches, the lead magnet is only one part of the funnel turning followers into coaching clients. It is an important part because the whole sales funnel is built around the lead magnet, but it is not effective without the entire funnel.

The main role of the coaching lead magnet in this type of sales funnel is to give prospective coaching clients a taste of what they can expect if they work with you. That means that you need to approach your lead magnet creation with the same care, attention, and desire to help that you would your coaching program. People will be making assumptions about what your coaching program is like based on the quality of your lead magnet.

Another consideration for your lead magnet creation is whether you can provide a whole solution for your ideal coaching clients on a topic relevant to your coaching program. Think about what would get them further ahead rather than what would be the easiest lead magnet to make. You want them to experience an instant and ongoing win from your lead magnet. It needs to be so good that they want to return to your lead magnet often and share it with everyone they know. (Of course, your lead magnet will be branded and provide the ad for the upsell so your ideal coaching clients associate that win with your coaching business.)

Read more about lead magnets on our lead magnet for coaches hub.

Hire us to create a lead magnet and welcome sequence for your coaching business for £1250. The package includes lead magnet idea brainstorming to create the perfect lead magnet sales funnel for your coaching program or low-ticket offer.