Social media is great. You can constantly get in front of your audience and create a bigger audience, but don’t fall into this trap…

See, on social media, you don’t own your audience. If you lose access to your account or the social media platform goes away, you would also lose access to your audience. 

This isn’t to scare you but rather to encourage you to make sure you’re constantly collecting your audience’s information.

A great way to do this is to create an email list! So, that leads me to the first question…

How do you get people to sign up for your email list in the first place?

Answer: Lead Magnet, AKA Email Opt-In, AKA Freebie. There are many terms for it, but ultimately it comes down to the same thing – giving people something of value to them in exchange for their email address.

Great, you know you need a lead magnet, but now the next question stands.

How do you come up with your lead magnet for your email list?

Here are some questions to prompt ideas:

What problem are you solving? Think deeply about this question. It’s more than just bookkeeping or financial services. It’s a transformation, a peace of mind, clarity in where they’re going, etc. 

What is the first step for a prospect to take before they use your product or service? What objections or barriers do they have to overcome? Could your opt-in help them take the first step? 

Can you provide a “big picture” overview?

Like the above, instead of teaching the first 10%, another option is to provide a broad overview of your process. For example, you could provide the steps to change but only a glimpse into each step. Enough to be helpful but not enough that they would feel like they have the complete solution.

What are the questions you always get? 

I am going to bet that you are constantly getting some of the same questions. Can you create a guide around answering some of these common questions? 

Now that you’ve brainstormed some ideas, let’s create an opt-in for people to receive when they sign up for your email list.

10 Email Opt-In Ideas

1. EBooks – This is a popular choice. Consider using Canva, PowerPoint, or Word Publisher to create it. Then you can convert it to PDF.
   
2. Checklists – I don’t know about you, but I love ticking things off. Checklists are a great way to summarize information and support people taking action.
   
3. Worksheets – These are especially helpful if you want to provide information around your process. PDFescape is a free online tool you can use to make these PDFs fillable.
   
4. Guide – This is like an EBook but provides the consumer more of a process of how to get from point A to point B.
   
5. Top Tip List – Consider creating a Top 5, Topy 7, or Top 10 Tips to achieve X result. This is a great way to summarize a lot of information and also be straight to the point.
   
6. Challenge – These have gotten really popular these days. A challenge is all about giving quick daily tasks for someone to do to reach a certain goal. You can hold a live web-based challenge for a certain amount of days, or you can deliver the challenge over daily email messages.
   
7. Webinar, Workshop or Online Training – If you find that your audience responds better visuals, you may want to consider creating some sort of online training. Consider using Loom.com to create an awesome experience that shows your screen and face at the same time.
   
8. Private Online Community – Another growing trend is the use of online communities, in particular Facebook Groups. If you have a good following of people (or even just a small, engaged group), you might want to consider this as your opt-in. Making people feel a part of something and feeling supported on an ongoing basis is a great way to build an engaged audience.
   
9. Exclusive Content – Instead of a “once-off” lead magnet you could also entice people to join your list by offering exclusive regular content. This could be anything from weekly tips and tricks,  planners, a monthly workout plan, regular inspiration or a monthly business focus.
   
10. Mix and Match  – You can mix and match all of the ideas above. For example, your lead magnet could be a ‘Top Tip List’ that then follows up with some quick videos. 

Your main lead magnet, or “signature freebie”, is one of the first ways your online audience could come to experience your brand… So, make it count!

What lead magnet are you creating next? Comment down below and let me know.

Need help developing an opt-in, building your email list, or just overall marketing help? I’d love to help! Grab a time on our calendar here.