How to Create a Conversion-Optimized Freebie Your Audience Will Want, Love and Actually Use
It is a truth universally acknowledged that to get your ideal clients to fall in love with what you offer, you must give something away for free.
The problem is…
There’s so much “free” to choose from these days, we’re spoiled for choice.
And while Jane Austen might not have known what a “lead magnet” (aka “a freebie”) is, I’m 100% sure she’d agree that relationships live and die by first impressions.
Your lead magnet may or may not be the first piece of content someone sees from you, but it’s likely the first offer you’re making them.
As such, it needs to be strategic.
You want to make them think, “Wow, now this is someone I need in my life!”
Not “Oh. Mmk. Moving on…”
So how do you create a conversion-optimized lead magnet (aka freebie) that stands out like the world’s most eligible bachelor in a sea of Tinder turds?
There are two simple steps:
Pick the right problem to solve
Package it up in a way that gets your new subscriber a quick win AND convinces them of your expertise
Easy… right?
Sometimes those 2 steps are easier said than done.
When it comes to figuring out the answer to “What should my lead magnet be?”, I see sooo many business owners get stuck.
Often, they end up either:
a) Unsure and indecisive about what they should choose… so they don’t put anything online, and
b) Massively overdelivering - and not in a good way - because they’re asking their audience to do too much work before they’re really committed to getting results,
OR
c) Choosing a topic or problem that’s not aligned with their offer or the audience they’d like to attract.
So while they may build their lists, they’re not filling their funnels with good-fit, qualified leads.
Sound familiar?
If you’ve ever found yourself wondering why your email list is growing, but none of your subscribers seem to be buying…
Or you’ve just been stuck, unsure what your lead magnet should be, how much you should give away, or how you should package up just the right amount of genius to tempt people into your world…
Read on.
Below, I’m breaking down exactly how to create a conversion-optimized freebie your audience will want, love, and actually use.
But first, a note on how first impressions are made:
In this post (as in life), I focus on your copy and the strategy behind it, but this has to be said…
The design & execution of your lead magnet matter.
That doesn’t mean it has to be expensive, but:
Attractive, high-quality pictures (note that I didn’t say professional),
A large, legible font, and
Ample negative space
…will all go a long way towards upping the production value of your freebie.
Sure—done is better than perfect, every time.
But if you’re going to be charging high-end prices for your products & services (and I seriously hope you are), you’ll find it much easier to do so when you’ve got a brand that backs you up…
And that includes the design of your freebies.
Alright, now that you’ve heard that PSA, let’s dive in and take a deeper look at:
The 5 elements of an effective, alluring lead magnet:
An Introduction that hits your new subscriber in the feels and references your core promise
Including an Introduction in your lead magnet allows you to make the following key moves, which will help you connect with your reader on an emotional level, and connect your services to the ultimate outcome they desire.
For an example of this kind of intro in action, click through right here to check out my video walkthrough of Selena Soo’s lead magnet, Publicity Checklist: 7 must-haves to get featured on top podcasts, websites, TV, and more!
The first thing you want to do in your Introduction is the same thing you should do any time your audience members take you up on a Call to Action:
Congratulate them for what they’ve done and validate them for taking action.
Inertia is always the easy road; when your people make a move, start your next conversation with them by recognizing the significance of them not doing nothing.
Next, tie the significance of that action to your Core Promise.
Your core promise should be based on the value proposition of either your brand or your offer and reference the attractive, exciting outcomes your ideal clients desperately want.
In your introductory section, you also want to meet your ideal client where they are.
This means acknowledging the feelings they currently have about their problem and recognizing the emotions that might be coming up for them around taking action.
What objections, fears, anxieties are coming up from them right now?
And how can you address those negative emotions before they even get started with your freebie?Once you’ve established what your ideal clients ultimately want and acknowledged where they are right now, your next step is to:
Position your freebie as the bridge that will take them from where they are now to where they want to go.
This is where you’ll close your introductory section by getting your reader excited about taking action with your freebie—because it’s the first step on a journey that will get them to where they want to go.
If you haven’t got one already, I hiiighly recommend adding a section like this to your next freebie or adding one to an existing lead magnet because it is an easy but crazy effective way to make the content of your lead magnet instantly more compelling:
To help you implement, here’s a checklist of the moves you wanna make in your freebie intro:
Congratulate & Validate
Link this lead magnet to the core promise of your brand and/or of the offer related to this freebie
Meet them where they are & Acknowledge how they’re feeling
Link this work to your ultimate promise & their big picture desires
A Bio or About section to highlight your credibility & your expertise
If someone has traded you their email address in exchange for your free thing, you have tangible proof they’re curious about you and the solutions you offer.
Now that you’ve got their attention, take the chance to show off who you are.
Including a Bio or About section in your freebie allows you to answer your readers’ unvoiced question:
Why should they listen to YOU on this topic?
Use this opportunity to cover:
What makes you and your approach unique?
What results have you gotten for other people?
What have you accomplished that makes you an expert on this topic? I.e. what credibility markers can you reference?
This section should also include a relatable photo of you!
Someone who’s downloaded your freebie is curious about who you are and what you’re like—a warm smile in an on-brand photo can go a long way towards making them feel connected to you as a person vs you as someone who’s just trying to sell them something.
Here’s a checklist of what your Bio or About section should do:
Reference your core promise in describing what makes you and your approach unique
Include references to results you’ve gotten for other people
Point to your experience, accomplishments and other credibility markers that reflect your expert status, and
Include a relatable photo
An answer to the question “Why should I do this?” (aka the perennial “What’s in it for me?”)
It’s a rule of copy in general that you should always be answering “What’s in it for me?”.
But in this section of your freebie, you explicitly address the question, “Why should I do this work?”.
This last introductory section comes right before your new subscriber digs into the meat of your lead magnet.
It gives you a chance to make it clear why the work it takes to implement your freebie is actually worth the effort.
Remember, people don’t want more work—they’ve already got enough of it.
So it’s your job to establish why the effort it’ll take to implement your freebie will be worth it and get specific about the ultra-desirable benefits they’ll enjoy once they take action.
If there are any terms you use in your content that your audience needs to understand before they move forward, this is also where you’ll want to spell them out.
This section also gives you the opportunity to overcome any hesitations your new subscriber may have. So take this chance to acknowledge the other options open to them, and point out why this is the best choice for them right now.
The ultimate goal of this section is to instil the belief that what you do is key to getting your ideal clients where they want to go.
For an example of this kind of intro in action, click through right here to check out my video walkthrough of Selena Soo’s lead magnet, Publicity Checklist: 7 must-haves to get featured on top podcasts, websites, TV, and more!
Here’s a checklist for your WIIFM section:
Answer the question “Why this and why now?” by tying the work they’re about to do to their ultimate big picture goals
Define your terms, if necessary, highlighting benefits all the while
Acknowledge other options, and explain why this is their best bet
Establish the fact that what you do is key to getting your ideal clients where they want to go.
Content that gets them quick, easy, satisfying wins to get them started on their journey
The content of your lead magnet – that is, the meat of what they actually signed up for – should meet the following 3 criteria:
Get them started on the road towards reaching the goals that working with you will help them accomplish,
Be EASY, and
Give them a sense of momentum so that they feel excited to continue working towards this goal with you.
Ramit Sethi talks about how your freebie should offer your audience “crunchy solutions”, as in:
Your new subscriber should be able to take the solution you’re offering and implement it right away—plus see an immediate result from that action.
Checklists, cheat sheets, roadmaps, plug-and-play templates, etc. are all ideal examples because they give people an instant sense of accomplishment.
In my video walkthrough of Selena Soo’s 7 must-haves to get featured on top podcasts, websites, TV, and more! I mention the fact that she has checkboxes you can tick off as you go through her checklist.
These not only encourage you to actually take action as you read the document, but also give you that super satisfying feeling of having accomplished something as you go. ✅
Ok, so we’re clear on the fact that implementing your freebie should feel satisfyingly easy, right?
Good.
That’s honestly the #1 most important thing to bear in mind when it comes to the content of your lead magnet, but the following 3 strategies will help you ensure that as many of your new subscribers are actually potential buyers:
Make adopting the core beliefs necessary to work with you one of the action steps within your freebie
Reference your paid offer at least once
Ensure that your lead magnet is aligned with the paid offer you want to sell this audience.
Use this checklist to make sure your freebie’s content is hitting the right notes:
Solve a problem that demonstrates you understand who they are, where they are in their journey, and what they want right now
Give them easy wins and help them gain momentum
Help them adopt the core beliefs they need to eventually work with you
Mention your paid offer at least once, e.g. “In my X program, I give you…”
Make sure your lead magnet is aligned with your paid offer so that it feels like a natural next step
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5. A Call-to-Action that’s attractive, appealing, and appropriate to this phase of your relationship
In the same way that you don’t want to end an amazing date wondering if you’ll ever see the other person again, you shouldn’t close your freebie without giving your new subscriber a clear next step.
If they’ve taken the actions you’ve guided them through in your freebie, they should be feeling satisfied with themselves, impressed with you, and excited about the results of taking action.
They’ll be looking to you for a next step, so give them a Call-to-Action.
Some ideas for the CTA you include in your freebie could be:
→ Join your Facebook group or follow you on Instagram (basically, direct them to wherever you’re showing up most consistently to nurture your relationships)
→ Look out for your next emails in their inbox (if you’ve got a strategic welcome sequence in place to help convert your new subscribers into buyers)
→ Participate in a challenge, sign up for a free course, or watch a webinar (related to the topic of your freebie), after which they’ll be a much warmer lead
→ Purchase an entry-level product or service related to the work they’ve just completed, i.e. a 60-min. call to help them implement or a video review of the work they’ve done
→ Book a consult call to talk next steps (if you choose this option, make sure to sell them on the benefits of the call itself; nobody wants to sign up just to be sold to.)
Notice that none of these asks are hard either!
The request you make of your new subscriber should be appropriate for this stage of your relationship:
Here, Book a Call > Buy my $5000 program from this button.
Finally, you might choose to close out your freebie with a testimonial or two.
You can never have too much social proof that you’re able to help people get the results that they’re after.
Once you’ve got these 5 elements, you should have a lead magnet that’s not only ultra-desirable to your ideal clients, but also convinces them of your expertise and gets them some juicy instant results.
To show you how each of these points can be implemented, check out my video walkthrough of Selena Soo’s 5✰, A+ freebie: 7 must-haves to get featured on top podcasts, websites, TV, and more!:
You can click through right here to see how these elements are applied in the lead magnet Selena uses to ease her audience into her epic, Impacting Millions launch.