Are you struggling to find people to talk to about your business? Are you having an even harder time finding people who are ready to buy your products and services?

If you're new to online marketing, I would guess the answer to both of those questions is yes. And if that's the case, no worries.

This article will show you how to build a lead magnet (free resource) that will enable you to start engaging with a targeted audience (an email list) of people who know, like and trust you.

This article is not just about creating a lead magnet, it's also about building a simple system that allows you to start earning money. 

Your lead magnet is a critical part of the passive system and has the ability to get your list building process off to a great start. 

A lead magnet can be just what you need to attract new people to your business and get it in front of an audience of raving fans.

If you're successful in building a passive income system, you'll be able to add the proceeds to what you earn from your creative projects.

And if you have an existing business that is not getting results, this article can help you not only when it comes to building a lead magnet, but in other areas as well. 

Building a list is one of the best things you can do for your business. You may have heard terms like list building, lead generation, building an audience, etc. All those terms refer to the same thing. Your list (when done well) will become an asset you can use to earn passive income online from a number of different sources. 

Video: Create a Lead Magnet Using Canva

This video walks you through creating a simple lead magnet using Canva. The reason I chose Canva is because it's an easy to use tool that works to help you create worksheets, charts, eBooks, guides, videos, images and more, that can be used as lead magnets. It's an easy to use tool whether you're a beginner or a seasoned graphic design professional.

It has tons of templates which means you don't ever have to start from scratch. There are lots of ideas and examples you can use as a starting point.

There are many other tools you can use to create your lead magnet, like Adobe Photoshop, InDesign and Illustrator, Google Docs, Google Sheets, Microsoft Word and any app or software that will allow you to create a document and save it in *.jpeg, *.png, and PDF format.

If you haven't signed up yet, sign up for a Canva account or a free trial for Canva Pro for 30 days. And click our logo on the video to subscribe to our YouTube channel to be notified when we add more business building videos. 

How a Lead Magnet Fits the Big Picture

A lead generation system helps you grow your business with the elements listed below, including a lead magnet. If you just want to learn about lead magnets, feel free to skip over this section.

Here are the items you'll need to build a lead generation system. If you're not sure about the items on the following list, follow the links and the explanations below. 

• An Email AutoResponder
• An Understanding of Your Ideal Customers and What They Want
• A Valuable Offer
• A Formatted Template for Your Lead Magnet (Optional)
• An Opt-in Form (the tool we use is Thrive Leads)
• Customer Journey Diagram (use our Canva template as a starting point or draw it out using a pen and paper)
• A Landing Page (use the free landing page on aWeber or Thrive Architect)
• A Thank You Page (we use Thrive Architect)
• An Email Welcome Series (type this out using your favorite word processor)

What is a Lead?

Let's start by defining a lead. A lead is any person who indicates that they are interested in your company's products and services. Leads are also referred to as subscribers, because they usually subscribe (or opt-in) to your list.  

Generating leads is what an email list (the combination of the items shown above) does for your business.  And it involves attracting people who are a good fit for your products to your business and increasing their interest through nurturing, with the end goal of converting them to a customer. 

Lead generation is not any one action... it's a process or a collection of actions that lead to the end goal. The end goal is building an audience of engaged, loyal customers who buy from you on a regular basis. 

The Benefits of Generating Leads

Building a list helps your business in the following ways: 

Building a List (Your Audience)

Building a list is just another way of saying you're building an audience of leads. The audience you build is targeted to a specific group of people in a niche.

To learn more about building a list and access to a free video course taught by experts that shows you how to build a list of engaged subscribers, click here.

Optimally, you will attract an audience of people who are interested in what your business is about, the topics you write about, as well as the products and services you sell and promote. Building a list means you have implemented a lead generation process. 

Lead generation (opt-in forms) are put in place to enable potential customers to give you their contact information.

For example if someone is interested in your business, they will provide an email address, a phone number or some other means of contacting them.

In exchange for their contact information, potential customers will get your lead magnet and information that will help them reach their goals. 

The sign up process normally happens through an opt-in form (also called a lead generation form) that is placed on your website, blog or shop.

Potential customers signal their interest by filling out the form and hitting submit.  At that point, your email autoresponder processes the form and the person becomes a lead for your business. 

What is an Autoresponder?

You have probably heard of companies like Mailchimp, aWeber, Constant Contact, Convert Kit and others. These companies provide autoresponders that process form submissions from your opt in forms. They also connect with other apps, software and platforms enabling you to easily create integrations with the tools you're already using. 

They also help you manage your list by collecting each email submission that comes from your visitors. In addition to that, they send automatic messages to the people who sign up for your list. This enables you to nurture and build important relationships, creating the know, like and trust factor.  It also helps you automate your list building activities so that you're not having to spend time sending emails. 

When you're successful in building a list, you will have an audience of people that you can talk to about your business at the push of a button. Your audience will be made of people who have made the decision to follow you and receive your insight, tips, training, etc. on a topic that interests them.

If you're ready to start building, the first step you'll need to take is creating a lead magnet that outlines an important offer for your ideal customers.  This lead magnet will motivate visitors to sign up for your list.

We will give you some ideas you can use to create your lead magnet and additional information that will help you build your list. 

Before We Get Started

Before we go through creating a lead magnet, there are a few things you should consider before getting started. Being aware of these items will help you make a better lead magnet for potential customers. One that they will appreciate receiving and easy to use to help them reach their goals.

These days everyone is inundated (including your potential customers) with emails from one business or another.  Because of that, getting people to sign up for your list may be a bit of a challenge.

Creating a Lead Magnet

To encourage potential customers to leave their contact information, you will need to offer something of value to them, in exchange for their information. These items are called lead magnets. 

Because there is more competition, you may have to work a little harder to find something to offer to get potential customers interested in opting into your list.

Now is the time to brainstorm the information your customers will want and appreciate that will motivate them to get started learning about your business. 

The Benefits of Creating a Lead Magnet

The biggest benefit of creating a lead magnet is that it can help you build your list faster by motivating more people to take action. 

The better you are at zeroing in on your ideal customers, and knowing the challenges, fears and motivations that drive their behavior, the better you will be a finding an item that can serve as a lead magnet. 

It's also important to think about common questions you receive about your topic. What are the hot topics people want to know about that would help you create the perfect  solution that could be packaged into a lead magnet. 

At the same time, coming up with a lead magnet that is popular with your audience can mean more leads, and potential sales for your business. So this process is really important.  

Lead Magnet Ideas

Here are a few ideas that are commonly used as lead magnets: 

Other Things to Consider

• Solve Only One Problem. Lead magnets are not created to solve all the problems your potential customers may have. The best lead magnets solve one problem, giving the lead a quick win or results they can see right away. 
• More Than a Google Search. A good lead magnet provides information that is not readily available by doing a Google search. You want to provide something that is somewhat unique, or something that gives the user  your unique point of view. Possibly something that helped you get quick results. 
• Use Templates to Save Time. Presentation and packaging is everything. So be sure to present and package your lead magnet with attention getting graphics, and wording that will stand out to your potential customers. There are some great looking eBook, digital product and video templates available using Canva. 
• Let People Know You Have a Lead Magnet. You have to promote your lead magnet to get the best results. If you create a great lead magnet, but no one knows about it, you won't get the results you're looking for. Promote it using social media and place a link to it on all your marketing materials. 
• Run Ads to Reach a Wider Audience. If you have the budget, your lead magnet should be promoted using ads. The best places to promote ads with a limited budget would be on platforms like Facebook and Pinterest because they allow you to put your ads in front of a targeted audience that you select.
  
  If you know what your ideal customer wants, you can select an audience of people who would be a good fit for your products.
  
  With Facebook and Pinterest, you can install a pixel that will provide you with much more data you can use to track the performance of your lead magnet.
  
• Choose One Platform Only for Ads. Choose one platform and place your ad for as little as $2-5 per day to test it out with your audience. Once you find an ad that works, you can increase your ad spend to a wider audience.
• Testing Is Paramount. This is how big brands market their items online. They test... You can test out things like your titles, landing pages, images and more with Thrive Optimize, which is a tool we use to build our website and run our business.
  
  With this tool (part of a complete all in one sales and marketing membership) you can compare the results from two different pages, and the one that gets the most results (sign ups, clicks etc.) wins. You can continue to optimize your pages until they start getting the results you want.
  

Final Thoughts...

Think of  your lead magnet as a great free offer (product) that your ideal customers would appreciate and benefit from.

Create a solution to those nagging issues that keep them up at night. The more they benefit, (or the more they perceive a benefit) the more they will follow you, and spread the word to their friends, helping you to generate more leads. 

If you find that your launch a lead magnet that doesn't work, all is not lost. You can always tweak your lead magnet to get better results. That's how you learn by trying and trying again, until you find what works.