Module 4: Convert & Conquer
Convert + Conquer: FAQ
01. Create a Tiny Taste
My current lead magnet is a 16-page e-book. Oops! It does okay, but now that I've developed my Anchor Belief and Brand Promise, I don't think it's attracting my target market specifically. What should I do?
The good news? You have a starting point! Use the “Rate Your Lead Magnet” worksheet to uncover exactly what you need to tweak so that your lead magnet will convert as many readers from your target market as possible. Remember: specific, simple, speedy, and valuable. Ideally, you want your reader to be able to consume the entire thing in 5 minutes or less.
I've been trying to think of a good lead magnet for a long time. Anything I've thought of has already been offered by other bloggers, and I don't want to seem like a copycat!
Your readers can find information anywhere. What you’re offering is a transformation. Let your personality and your personal brand shine through, and approach the topic as only you can. Put your unique spin on the topic, and your readers will be grateful for it!
My current lead magnet is long, but my readers love it. I get emails from them all the time because they're so thankful to get it! I'm nervous to change anything with it.
Ultimately, this is a CEO call you’ll have to make. If your lead magnet is very high-value (but not quick to consume) and you’re getting great feedback from your readers, that could be an indication that your target market would pay for a product like that.
So you’ll have to decide whether it’s more important to grow your list and then figure out later how to give those subscribers a product to help them with that same problem — or if you’d rather turn that lead magnet into a product that will add directly to your bottom line. We’ll chat more about products later in this program, but for now: Could you create a specific, simple, speedy, and valuable lead magnet that would be the perfect 5-minute introduction to your current lead magnet? Because if so, that would open the door to shifting your current lead magnet into an income-generating product.
What's the best way to deliver my Tiny Taste to my readers? Do I attach it in an email? Post it on my site?
In general, the best format for your lead magnet is PDF because nearly all computers and devices can open that format, whereas not everyone has Microsoft Word or Pages, for example.
To deliver your lead magnet, use a tool so that readers have to subscribe in order to access the file. If you were to post it on your site, the file would show up in search engines and be accessible to anyone on the Internet. For a lead magnet to get maximum results for your business, you need to deliver it after the reader subscribes to your list.
Hang tight until the “Open More Gateways” lesson, where we’ll talk more about tools!
I thought my lead magnet was simple and easy to understand, but someone told me it overwhelmed them. Should I be worried?
Beware of what’s called the Curse of the Expert. It happens when we get so good at something that we forget what it’s like to be a beginner. That’s great for you, but it’s hard for your readers. Your lead magnet might leave them with questions and more research they’ll need to do in order to be successful.
If you suspect this is what’s going on, review your Perspective Map and put your Target Market Goggles on, then look at your lead magnet with fresh eyes. Aim for specific, simple, speedy, and valuable.
As another option, you can post your lead magnet title (and link if you have it) in the VCC and ask your teammates to chime in about whether it speaks to them as a beginner.
How many lead magnets should I have?
First, focus on getting one powerful lead magnet that meets all the criteria laid out in this lesson. But as you look ahead to the future after you’ve graduated from Blog Smarter, you may want to plan for more lead magnets.
For example, some bloggers like to create a separate, targeted lead magnet for each content category on their site. As long as your lead magnets align with your Brand Promise and meet all the criteria in this lesson, feel free to create separate offers for your target market. More specific lead magnets tend to convert better, so this can be a powerful strategy to make the most of all the traffic you’re already getting — no matter which category of content your visitors land on to start with.
Can I use my resource library as a lead magnet?
Remember the 4 keys to a powerful lead magnet that will convert as many readers as possible into subscribers? Your lead magnet must be specific, simple, speedy, and valuable. A resource library fails on two of those factors. It’s not specific because it’s not solving one specific problem for one specific person, and it’s not speedy because the reader can’t consume the whole library in 5-10 minutes.
If you try to use your resource library as a lead magnet, you will not maximize your conversion rate. In other words, you’ll lose some readers who might otherwise have subscribed to your list.
With that said, a resource library can work well as a “surprise” thank you gift in your welcome email to new subscribers, or as a follow-up email that’s sent the day or two after that first welcome email. For more information about what goes in the welcome email, hang tight until the “Welcome New Subscribers” lesson.
Also, I’ll plant this seed for later in the program when we’ll cover products and income: As you evaluate everything individually in your resource library to see if each resource meets the criteria for a lead magnet, consider whether some of those lead magnets may be more effective as products. For more on this, see the FAQ question “My current lead magnet is long, but my readers love it…” above.
03. Open More Gateways
Should every gateway include my lead magnet, or is it okay to have some gateways just for joining my list in general?
Every gateway does not have to include your lead magnet. To decide what would work best for each gateway, ask yourself: What do people WANT at this spot on my site? For example, suppose you’re a food blogger focusing on paleo and your lead magnet is a quick start guide to getting started with the paleo diet. Would that lead magnet work at the end of every post? Or would it be a better fit just for people who are reading your “getting started” type posts?
What happens if a new reader submits their email address to all the gateways on your site? Does she end up on your mailing list multiple times?
Typically, your email marketing tool will handle this automatically because you can’t be subscribed to the same list twice with the same exact email address. So if all your gateways lead to a single subscriber list, the reader would be subscribed only once.
However, if for some reason you have different gateways that point to different lists, the reader would be added to each one she signed up for. If you configured your email tool to set up different lists as a way to organize your subscribers, consider using tags or a similar feature to avoid managing multiple lists of subscribers.
The tech side of blogging hurts my head. How can I possibly learn all these new tools?!
Focus on opening just ONE new gateway to start with. There is no emergency, so you don’t need to do everything all at once. After you figure out one new gateway to open, add the rest in your calendar or planner to schedule it out for later.
With that said, you might want to consider hiring a tech person who can help you with implementing your new subscriber strategy. There is no shame in asking for help because that frees you up to focus on the strategy instead of on the nitty gritty details of implementing the tactics of that strategy.
If you need a recommendation, we highly recommend Gretchen Louise at gretchenlouise.com for help with tech work. She’s a Blog Smarter grad and thoroughly understands this process.
I heard that pop-ups are bad for SEO. Is that true?
Having a pop-up window will not hurt your ranking on Google. But having a poorly designed pop-up could hurt your ranking. By “poorly designed,” that primarily means a pop-up that takes over the whole screen on the reader’s mobile device and creates a negative user experience with the content.
Most high-quality marketing tools these days have already adjusted their mobile pop-up behavior to account for this. If you’re worried, you can typically configure your pop-up to display only on desktop. You can read more from Google on the topic of pop-ups and SEO here.
I’m overwhelmed! Where should I start?
Focus on opening just ONE new gateway to start with. Or if that’s too overwhelming, focus on aligning your existing gateway(s) with everything we’ve talked about so far.
Here’s what one Blog Smarter grad had to say about this: “If all the technical aspects of pop-ups and subscribe bars and everything else have you wanting to just QUIT, you could do what I did and just adjust the one subscribe area you probably already have in your sidebar, tweak the messaging in your onboarding, and hook your lead magnet up to the system. That’s ALL I did when I did the program, and my subscriber rate doubled. If you need to take the minimalist approach in order to continue to move forward, feel free to do so! It will still have benefits! You can go and add more fancy stuff later. But the branding you’re doing in this course is the real game changer, even if you don’t add any fancy plugins.”
04. Welcome New Subscribers
I've heard a lot about sales funnels, but the idea of creating my own funnel is confusing and overwhelming. Will we cover that in this program?
The topic of sales funnels is a big one, and we can’t dive deep on that specifically in this program given all the ground we need to cover to build your strong brand. With that said, funnels work best when they’re perfectly aligned with your messaging.
For example, if you craft a lead magnet to give readers a 5-minute “quick win” for the problem that your product solves, then that lead magnet naturally leads the right people into your funnel. Focus on aligning your lead magnet with the brand messaging you’ve already developed, then focus on aligning your sales funnel messaging with your lead magnet messaging.
Now that I've aligned my onboarding process with my brand messaging for brand new subscribers, how do I keep those subscribers engaged in the long term?
In the “Train Your Readers” lesson, we’ll cover how to keep your subscribers engaged moving forward, so get ready for that!
Another powerful technique is to set up a nurture sequence that all new subscribers will go through, where you would feature your best resources in a series of automated emails. For more on this technique, check out the bonus “Set It + Forget It” lesson.
05. Train Your Readers
How does the Brand Ambassador Boot Camp technique work with a sales email?
The whole goal of the BABC technique is to train your readers to open and click, which is also what you need to happen with a sales email!
In the case of a sales email, your subject line sells the “open,” your email sells the “click” to the sales page, and your sales page sells the product. In other words, the BABC technique is perfect for driving readers to the sales page.
I'm skeptical the Brand Ambassador Boot Camp technique will work with my readers. They love my chatty emails and my newsletters with lots of links!
Every target market is different, so that’s entirely possible that your super fans do prefer chatty emails or emails with lots of links. However, the brain science and reader behavior studies suggest otherwise. What resonates most with a reader and makes her want to keep reading is when you connect with her on an emotional level on something she cares about in her life. Also, when you include several links to different resources in one email, that’s overwhelming to the human brain. (Remember the jam study?) And statistically readers will click just ONE of those links anyway.
So given that, test your theory and try the BABC technique a few times. Every time you use it, you’ll get better at it. And the more you engage with your readers in a way that’s focused on them and what will best help them, the more they’ll do what you ask. That’s how you grow a community of brand ambassadors who will promote your business for you.