The idea of having a lead magnet to attract your ideal home staging clients might not make sense to you.
At least right now.
Good ideas and emerging ideas often have a way of seeming irrelevant.
Until those ideas are everywhere.
Let's get you ahead of the curve.
What is a lead magnet?
A lead magnet is a magical marketing tool that borrows from online marketers and can be used to bring joy and prospective ideal clients onto your business's email list so that you can stay in touch with them in a non-salesy way. Doesn't that sound amazing?! Yep, sign. me. up!
More specifically, a lead magnet is just a fancify way of saying “provide something for free in exchange for an email address”. I'm sure you have actually signed up for something free by giving your email address at least once or twice, right?
In fact, if you're reading this blog, you have very likely come into my world by way of one of my lead magnets. And that my friend is the power of a lead magnet. Once a marketer has your email address, they can stay in touch with you, as I do here through my blog.
This blog is my way of staying in front of my favorite, right-fit clients in a way that is helpful so that when I have a product or service I think my community will find valuable, they have become a warm audience more likely to purchase from me.
What makes a lead magnet work?
Lead magnets work because people are dang possessive over their email addresses! I'd rather tell someone my social security number than give them my email address! But….put something free, that solves a pain point, in front of them and watch all of their defenses fall.
And that's our goal…to solve a pain point, share our expertise and begin a relationship with our prospects. As I always say, we go through three phases in our businesses…getting noticed, getting known, and getting new clients.
Your lead magnet is part of the getting noticed phase and it's the bridge to your getting known phase. That's the phase where you continue to share via emails, blogs, videos, podcasts, etc your expertise. So, your lead magnet is super important to getting your marketing vehicle running. It's also a key tool in my Zip and Click Marketing Strategy to grow your staging business. So let's talk about the ways to start creating one of these marketing gems!
5 ways to create a lead magnet
lead magnet hacking
The best way to start creating your first lead magnet is to do some research. What kind of lead magnets are already out there in our staging and design world? You are likely to find checklists, pdf's, video tutorials, and trainings of all types.
Decide what format might be the easiest for you to execute. My first lead magnet was a 3-part video series recorded on a cell phone and my second lead magnet was a word document with my logo on top. Here is a progression of that lead magnet. All versions worked by the way so don't stress about the look of yours!
what are your clients asking you
What questions do you answer over and over again that a simple list or information sheet might help them answer? Or maybe it's even a resource you would love for yourself. I created our No-Fail Neutral Paint Guide—you can grab your own copy here–when I started to add new team members to help them gain more confidence when specifying paint.
what will help add value to your prospective clients
One of the things I knew instantly when I was working with real estate agents was that they needed a way to help sell staging services to their clients more effectively. Staging was new in my area and I was going to be new to each seller no matter how long I'd been in business. So, I created my e-book “Sell Your House In 72 Hours”. The original format was an actual book that could fit in a listing packet but I soon turned it into an e-book so I could use it as a lead magnet during presentations. That part right there is so ninja, so write that down! Haha!
When I use that e-book as a lead magnet in my presentations, I add so many new realtors to my email list who are curious about staging and working with me, specifically. Once I have that email address, I get to stay in touch with them over and over again! It's a total win-win.
Outline your idea
The next step is to put pen to paper and create an outline for what content you'd like to share. Once you see it on paper, you will be able to organize the information and flow so much better. You don't need to worry about layout or design in the phase. Just get the content mapped out in a way that makes sense to you and you think will make sense to your audience. You will also begin to see if there is one format that works best to deliver this information. You may have thought of a checklist but then a nice guide with some more teachable moments might be the way to go if something needs a little more explanation.
time to create the lead magnet
We are so fortunate to live in a day and age where our phones are amazing video cameras and there are resources like Canva to create great video and print content. There are also amazing people out there who can help you with this too. You can search for virtual assistants or use services like Fiverr to find talented people. My Virtual Assistant, Renée, is a genius at creating my e-guides and checklists. If you are thinking about creating some kind of PDF, I highly encourage you to reach out to Renée here.
start sharing your lead magnet everywhere!
Once you have spent the time to create your lead magnet to attract clients…USE IT!! Give that lead magnet a J.O.B! Use it in social media posts, add it to video descriptions, put it on your website at the top of the page, use it in presentations. Anywhere you want to collect email addresses of ideal clients, share your lead magnet.
And then…don't ghost them…stay in touch! That's a whole other post but here is a great graphic to show you where the Lead Magnet fits into your marketing campaign…
Wrapping it up
Ok so, phew, that's like 7 years worth of research and trial and error right there for you! Learning the power of a lead magnet and how to use it in my in-person business has been one of the most beneficial things for my home staging business and has helped me attract sooo many ideal home staging clients. If you want to learn more about my Zip and Click Marketing Strategy, you should totally join us in our RethinkYou Mentorship Program when enrollment opens next…join the waitlist here!
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