Building Your Email List Part 2

When you want to create a lead magnet to build your email list, there is hardly anything more important than to conduct the right research. Specifically, it’s important to conduct well-rounded research which includes your audience and the competition.

Lead Magnet Success Secret #1 - Research

You can easily do your research by:

• Joining your competitors' email lists and social media groups.
• Simply asking questions of your audience in your own groups and those of your competitions.
• Using Google and other social media search
• Reading trade and industry magazines, blogs and research.
• Going to events that your audience attends (online and offline).

In fact, you should leave no stone un-turned as you conduct the research you need to not only create the lead magnet, but also to create all the products and services that you will offer your audience now and in the future. Start with the audience and their needs, not your own.

The best way to begin your research is to start with an important question that you need to answer. First, you may need to ask yourself simple questions like, “Where does my audience hang out?” and “What are their values?”

And then as you start communicating with them, you’ll as harder questions such as, “What is the most important problem that my audience has on a day-to-day basis that needs solving?” or “What keeps them up at night?” Because, ultimately, your lead magnet and all your products and services need to fill a need and solve a problem for them.

Consider conducting interviews of your target audience to find out what makes them tick. You can create a survey using Google Documents and post it, with permission, in social media groups and forums where your audience hangs out. In this way you can get a lot of questions answered, and maybe even come up with more questions so that you can continue the research.

Keep track of the information you glean from your work, so that you can compile it into research that will help you make decisions about the products you create.

Next time I will reveal what your lead magnet should be about, and this could be a true “aha” moment for you.

back to top