The Missing Link: Why every advice firm needs a lead magnet

 

Imagine for a minute that 98% of people who visit your website aren't ready to book an appointment with you.

As far as the data goes, I might even suggest that 98% may actually be overly optimistic, and your lack of one thing - a lead magnet - is costing you the opportunity to change that number significantly.

Let's take a step back and look at where we are to begin with.

Many firms have been improving their digital footprint for some time now, but the last few months have fast-tracked it a little.

For those of you I've worked with on your website recently, you'll know I think an important part of getting this right lies in how you articulate your value proposition. 

Copywriting isn't always easy.

In truth, most copywriters don't understand financial advice, and most advisers aren't necessarily skilled to be good copywriters.

Being able to articulate your proposition well and succinctly and with a flow that makes it easy to consume is a key part of a great advice website.

However, it's NOT the only part.

A great website with a strong value proposition is going to help you to connect more strongly with those who are already progressed on the journey.

In other words, when the decision to get advice has already been made at some level. It's going to help them to take that next step.

But what about the rest? What about the 98%?

The problem with not having some way of capturing a proportion of this 98% is you're losing control of the sales funnel.  Like a leaky bucket, you're spilling a lot of potential value.

That 98%, however they found their way to your site, will read either some or all of your copy.

For some, it'll resonate. From some, it won't and they will drop off.

If you have a session recording tool, like the one we're using (Inspectlet), you may be able to get real-time data to help you to diagnose what's going on.

However, no matter what you do, it is a natural part of your funnel that some will bounce and it won't always be because they don't need or want your help at some point.

You can do something about this.

Imagine, borrowing from a Dean Jackson theory, that your visitor is a mouse. 

He or she has two most basic motivations.

• Avoid cats
• Get cheese

For those who are not ready to engage, a meeting with you is like a meeting with cat.

It's risky.  It could mean they're faced with making a decision they're not ready to make.  It's time-consuming.

Free cheese however, particularly if there's no cat around, is enticing.

The idea of a lead magnet isn't new. Our industry has been talking about white papers or ebooks for a long long time.  The internet just means the distribution method has improved.

However, it's not easy.

Of all of the elements of digital marketing I work with firms on, it's one of the more challenging.  Coming up with the idea, creating the magnet, setting it up on your site can be time-consuming and technically challenging.

Which is why this month. I'm going to be running a different kind of implementation training to make it work.

You see, I've realized that a lead magnet isn't something you can knock up in an hour. It's something that probably needs a little more time.

In particular, the stages I'm going to take people through include:

• Researching the right topic because if you're going catch the right fish, you have to know what bait to use.  If your lead magnet isn't about a topic that means a lot to your client, presents a really valuable solution to a realised problem and four other criteria which are relevant, they're not going to download it. The topic matters.
• I'm going to show people how to scope it. In other words; how to wireframe it, how to storyboard it, how to get the sequence of information correct, and make sure it's visually engaging and easy to consume.
• We're going to build it. I will share with you how I build them and also I'm going to open up Hengky, our resident graphic design guru, to help you create yours. We're gonna make it look really good and ensure it's in line with your brand.
• We're going to launch it. We'll create a landing page for it, create a "Welcome" sequence to back it up and we'll make sure that at the end of the three weeks it's on your website and ready to go.
• Finally, I'm going to show you what to do once it's up there. How to set up reporting, how to optimize, and how to slowly take from being something that's good to make something killer.

Look, here's the skinny.

If you have a website, then you probably have some traffic.

If you don't know how much traffic, that's a good place to start.

But before we start working out how to drive more traffic to it we need to have a way of ensuring it doesn't go to waste.

I know there's a few of you now on the program who are working on this now, have worked on this, or have stalled on it

If this is you, you really need to be part of this.

This is part of a new approach I'm taking. It's going to be very hands-on and it's about drilling down on those difficult to implement areas and making sure that they become easier.

 The link is here. If a lead magnet is something you've been working on, don't miss this because once this is run, it's not something I'll be running again in the next 12 months.

Register Here.

 

If you have any questions shoot me back, otherwise see you on Friday