We just talked about why building a Tribe is crucial for your business. Today, we're diving into one of the most powerful tools in your Tribe-building arsenal: lead magnets.

Let’s get started:

✍️

Summary

Lead magnets

• ethical bribes

• elements of a lead magnet

• my lead magnet strategy

• hosting your lead magnets

Why Lead Magnets Matter

Remember, we're not just after a massive audience. We want a Tribe - people who give a f*ck about what we're doing.

Lead magnets are our secret weapon for kickstarting that relationship.

Think of a lead magnet as an "“ethical bribe”. You're offering something valuable in exchange for someone's email address. It's the start of a beautiful friendship (or at least, that's the plan).

No money is being exchanged but this is still a transaction. Their email is valuable. That’s the unit of exchange here as it gives you permission to carry on the conversation.

This is like meeting someone cute at a party and them giving you their contact details so you can talk later.

Or..I imagine it is. It’s not like I get invited to parties..

So the lead magnet is the bridge between your Audience and your Tribe. They turn casual observers into engaged participants.

Crafting Killer Lead Magnets

It’s easiest to show you an example here.

Here’s one of my recent lead magnet posts:

">

This linked to one of my Prompt Playbooks for free - specifically the one about starting a business with no money. Normally they sell for $20 or are available in Premium so this is genuinely something of value I give away.

So the lead magnet itself is solid: it’s representative of the work I do (Playbooks) and has a real value ($20).

This particular one led to 300+ email addresses in 24 hours.

And I run one like this each day.

Here's the secret sauce to a killer lead magnet:

1. Focus on customer problems: What keeps your audience up at night? What are they Googling at 3 AM? That's your goldmine. We covered this in previous Parts of the BATON framework.

2. Create a "first step" solution: Don't try to solve world hunger. Give them the first step towards fixing their problem.

3. Keep it short and sweet: We're talking 1-10 pages, not War and Peace.

4. Make it actionable: They should be able to do something with it right away.

5. Ensure it's easily consumable: PDF, short video, checklist - something they can digest quickly.

6. Quality matters: This is your first impression. Make it count!

Remember, your lead magnet should be a taste of what you offer, not the whole meal. It's the amuse bouche. Something flavour packed and exciting to kick off.

Let’s use a prompt to come up with ideas and then draft our lead magnet:

You are an AI assistant specializing in digital marketing and content creation. Your task is to help the user generate lead magnet ideas and then create a draft of the chosen lead magnet. Follow these steps:

1. Ask the user to list 3-5 key problems or challenges their target audience faces.

2. Based on the provided problems, generate 10 lead magnet ideas. For each idea, include:
   - A catchy title
   - The format (e.g., PDF guide, video tutorial, interactive quiz, software tool)
   - A one-sentence description of the content

3. Present the 10 ideas to the user and ask them to choose one.

4. Based on the chosen lead magnet, create a draft or outline. The output should be suitable for the selected format and be designed for quick deployment (within a few hours). Follow these guidelines:

   - For written content (e.g., PDF guide, checklist):
     * Create a detailed outline with main sections and bullet points
     * Write an introduction and conclusion
     * Provide 2-3 sample paragraphs of body content

   - For video content:
     * Write a script outline with main talking points
     * Include an attention-grabbing introduction
     * Suggest visuals or graphics to accompany key points

   - For interactive content (e.g., quiz, assessment):
     * Outline the structure of the interactive element
     * Provide sample questions and results
     * Suggest how to present the results to the user

   - For software tools or templates:
     * Describe the key features and functionality
     * Outline the user interface and user experience
     * Suggest a simple method for creation (e.g., using no-code tools, spreadsheets, or basic coding)

These are examples. Expand on these examples for different lead magnet formats as needed.

5. Provide a brief suggestion on how to quickly create and deploy the lead magnet, emphasising speed and simplicity.

Remember, the goal is to create a valuable lead magnet that can be deployed quickly, ideally within a few hours. Focus on providing actionable, specific content that addresses the chosen problem directly.

This prompt will collect up your customer problems, generate 10 potential ideas and then go ahead and draft the lead magnet.

Depending on the format of the lead magnet the draft will differ - if written format it will just generate a complete written lead magnet for you, if video then just the script etc.

From here you should go ahead and create the lead magnet. Or hire someone to build it for you.

But don't stop at one lead magnet. Create multiple. Why? Two reasons:

1. It's the best way to figure out what problems are really on your customers' minds.

2. It'll guide your product/service development when you move to the Offer stage.

Think of it as market research and product development all rolled into one.

We basically don’t know which customer problems will resonate the most. So this becomes a vitally important phase of market research. Your most popular lead magnets is a great indication of what will be your most popular products later.

Hosting and Distributing Your Lead Magnet

You've got options for hosting:

• Your own website (fancy)

• Gumroad (my personal fave - set the price to $0 and you're good to go)

I use both. And prefer Gumroad. It’s simple and fast. Basically add your lead magnet as a product as if you were selling it. But then set the prize to $0 and it becomes an email capture mechanism rather than for payment. Smart!

The main thing is to collect that email in exchange for your unit of value. That's how we kick off the Tribe-building process.

Once you've got your lead magnet, it's time to get it out there:

1. Publish it on social media

2. Run some ads

3. Do both. And more!

Keep rotating through different lead magnets. I run one per day, running through a library of around 50 lead magnets. Remember, we're testing to see what resonates.

The Objective: Building Your Tribe

Let's not lose sight of why we're doing this: to secure that precious email address and start building a relationship.

It's not about building a massive audience. It's about connecting with people who are genuinely interested in what you have to offer. And the lead magnet is the first “filtering” step we have in place to winnow down from Audience to customers.

This is just the beginning of your relationship with these folks. We're playing the long game here. In the next Parts, we'll look at what to do with those emails you've collected. Specifically :

• Crafting a killer welcome email

• Setting up your newsletter

• Building deeper connections with your budding Tribe