I get it. It’s a struggle to find the time to build your email list. After all, you’re busy helping your clients.
But building your email list doesn’t have to be time-consuming (or expensive). If you have the right lead magnet, you can skyrocket your email list and your coaching business can thrive! 📈
The big question is, what are the best lead magnet ideas for coaches?
In this blog post, I’ll go through the potential lead magnets you can use to grow your email list.
My, my, how can I resist you? Creating the most irresistible lead magnet…
(Sidenote: I’m a huge ABBA FAN.)
The biggest takeaway you’ll get from this blog post is understanding exactly what kind of lead magnet attracts a ton of new email subscribers and delivers you new clients on autopilot! By the end of this post, you’ll know exactly what lead magnet you need to create.
So let’s get stuck in…
What is a lead magnet?
Have you ever scrolled through your social media feed and seen a worksheet or checklist that’s caught your eye? You’ve hopped over to their website, popped in your email address and BINGO, the worksheet is in your inbox and you’re away.
That’s a lead magnet.
In short, a lead magnet is anything that provides information, guidance or advice for free when someone gives you their email address. It’s a win-win situation for both you and your audience. They get some valuable information and you get their data.
The catch is that your lead magnet has to add value to your audience. It can’t be something they already know or don’t need. Otherwise, why would they bother handing over their personal info? But once you’ve found the perfect topic and shared it far and wide, you’ll see the benefits.
What are the benefits of a lead magnet for your coaching business?
All of us, whether we’re coaches, service providers or course creators, need to keep our sales funnel topped up with perfect clients who love everything we do. Lead magnets are a low-commitment way to bring the right people into your fold so you can nurture them and build long-term relationships with them.
The best lead magnets give your potential new clients the opportunity to take a peek into the inner workings of your mind. To see how you work, what advice you give and whether that’s right for them.
It’s all about developing a connection with your audience and filling a need of theirs. Doing that establishes you as the expert in that field so when they do need your help, you’re the first person they think of.
It’s all part of the know, like, trust process. You’re giving a little jewel of information away for free so they can see you know what you’re talking about. That inches you up that scale and closer to converting them to a paying client. 💰
Do coaches REALLY need to build their email list? Can’t they rely on referrals?
Oh, I hear you! ‘But I get most of my clients from referrals. Do I really need an email list?’
It’s a good question. You’re busy with client work and finding the time to grow your audience isn’t a top priority for you right now.
I get it. But relying on referrals is a dangerous strategy. I’m not for one second saying referrals are bad! They’re fabulous. But relying ONLY on referrals as a way of attracting clients is a no-no. Here’s why:
1. The referrals could dry up 😩
In which case, you’re stuck having no one to market your amazing coaching services to – and that’s not a good position to be in!
2. You have no control over when you get new clients 😬
Referrals come to you when … well … whenever someone else decides, right?! And although it’s nice, perhaps they come in during a time when you’re super busy, or on holiday or in the middle of the school holidays when you imagined doing less work?
Of course, referrals never magically land on your lap when you’re quiet either. (The universe is a funny old thing!)
By building your email list, YOU have control over when you take on new clients and when you have some downtime.
3. Did someone say pivot? 👀
Although it might be difficult to imagine now, maybe one day you’d love to set up a membership programme, run a big in-person event or write a book! Referrals won’t help you sell these products or services. Instead, you need a big audience.
Grow your audience now, because you never know how you’re going to need it in the future! None of us could’ve predicted the global pandemic of 2020, and yet, many of us had to change our services drastically. Those who were most successful (yep, you guessed it!) already had an audience.
If time is a big issue for you, remember that I help coaches build a lead-generating quiz funnel – taking care of the tech, copy, automation and everything in between!
What are the most common lead magnet ideas for coaches?
Growing your email list by creating an irresistible lead magnet is the key to building your audience. However, where on earth do you start when it comes to creating your lead magnet?
Undoubtedly you’ve seen the usual suspects. You’ve probably downloaded a few yourself!
- Checklists
- Cheatsheets
- Workbook
- Ebooks or guides
- Webinars
The ideas I’ve just given are the most common because they’re seen as the quickest and easiest ways to knock out a lead magnet. That doesn’t mean that they’re the best way, though, does it?
What are the problems with these lead magnet ideas for coaches?
Yes, they’re easy to do BUT that doesn’t mean they’ll work well for your business. The problems with these kinds of lead magnets are that:
1. People don’t value these lead magnets … at all 
Be honest here. How many freebies have you downloaded and actually used? Maybe you had a quick glance through a checklist, thought ‘Oh, that’s nice’ and then forgot about it, leaving it to gather virtual dust on your desktop? That’s usually the way.
Most people don’t value checklists because they’re just another “thing” in our inbox with quite basic information that we could easily find out ourselves from Google. When in doubt, we google it! We don’t search through our emails to find a checklist we downloaded six months ago!
Most people don’t download them, print them off and stick them to their wall (although it would be nice if they did!).
2. You have ZERO idea what problems your lead is struggling with 
Let’s say you’re a productivity coach and you have a lead magnet that gives away 10 productivity hacks. People download it, but you have no idea who they are, what they do, what their goals are for their business and what they’re struggling with.
You don’t get any insights into what their productivity problems are. Is it no direction? Poor work-life balance? Unrealistic goals? Who knows! And that means you can’t speak to them in the right way and explain how you can help.
This brings me nicely to my next point:
3. Your follow-up email sequence is too generic 
Once someone downloads your lead magnet, they get an automated follow-up sequence. When they’ve downloaded a cheat sheet or checklist, the follow-up sequence tends to be too generic. This is because you don’t understand what problems your leads are having, and have to guess.
It’s a one-size-fits-all approach that no longer works in today’s marketing world. If you don’t hook someone in on that very first email, they won’t pay attention to you.
But imagine having a lead magnet that your audience adored, and which delivered you tons of useful data about your lead. Does this magical lead magnet even exist?!
What is the best lead magnet for coaches?
Now we’re talking!
If you’re looking for a great conversion rate, heaps of useful data about your lead and a surefire way to build your email list, then you need to use a quiz.
Forget about old-school magazine quizzes to find your celebrity crush. The type of quiz I’m talking about is far more impressive than that!
Used properly, quizzes are the most powerful lead magnet out there. They’re an interactive, fun way for your audience to gain insight and knowledge into their problem whilst allowing you to present yourself as the solution.
It’s more than that, though. A quiz gives you more data than just an email address. Yes, we want their email to start building a relationship. But you can start to drill down into the answers people give to flesh out a new service or offering, understand your perfect client more clearly and deliver personalised emails based on how your lead scored in the quiz! Can you do that from a checklist download? My point exactly.
How do quizzes help coaches grow their email list?
Your email list is an incredibly powerful tool for your coaching business. There’s no worrying about impressions, reach or visibility. Instead, every message you send lands directly in that person’s inbox. They’ve invited you there, they want to hear from you, they’re interested in you. There’s no better feeling than that.
Lead magnets are all about growing that list. You want to speak to more people who want to hear from you, but sometimes they need a lil something to sweeten the deal.
But they’re also bored of the same old, same old. They need something new, something fresh. That’s where your lead magnet comes in and that’s why quizzes are the best way to grow your email list.
With a quiz, your audience gets a result that’s tailored to them. It’s personal and because of that, more valuable. The more valuable something feels, the more motivated they will be to hand over their details and that’s what will grow your email list. The only question is, what topic can you talk about that has the most value to your audience?
What data can coaches get from a quiz?
The answer to this question comes down to you. You see, there are so many nuggets of information you can get from a quiz. It just depends what, and how, you ask.
Quizzes are great ways to dig into your audience’s demographics, personalities, issues or challenges, preferences and behaviours. You just need to know what you want to get out of it before you start writing it.
- If you’re a productivity coach, you might want to understand what people do when they’re procrastinating.
- If you’re a business coach, you might want to look at their mindset and how that impacts their business growth.
- If you’re a marketing coach, you might want to find out what channels someone is already using.
The possibilities really are endless. And once you know what data you want to collect you can work your questions around that.
Let’s not forget how powerful it would be to know how someone makes a purchasing decision. Asking a question around this in your quiz allows you to tailor your sales emails accordingly.
Remember: the way you sell to someone who responds well to FOMO-based emails is very different from the way you sell to someone who likes to make a considered decision.
How can coaches create a successful, lead-generating quiz?
Quizzes are the best way to create a turbo-charged lead magnet that’s going to bring engaged ready-to-buy leads flooding into your inbox. They’ve got that hook, that edge, that interactivity that you don’t get from a worksheet. Instead, you can use them to entice your audience into engaging with you while you get their email address and valuable insights from their answers.
The secret to success is finding the perfect topic. If you’re struggling to think of one, then join my Facebook group: Lead Magnet Quiz Ideas for 6 Figure+ Online Coaches.
The group is for you if:
🚀 Your last course or membership launch flopped
🚀 You’re struggling to fill your diary with clients
🚀 You’d love to grow your email list with less effort
This is NOT for you if:
⛔️ You don’t know your ideal client
⛔️ You’re not confident in your offer
⛔️ You practise icky sales techniques
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