How to Create a Lead Magnet Your Potential Subscribers Can’t Wait to Get

Free products are essential to any IM business. For one thing, people expect to get them. There is so much free information on the Web that if you don’t offer something beyond what they can discover with a cursory search, then your visitors will simply go elsewhere.

But there is another reason why you must give them a free product, and that’s because it’s a way for them to discover if you’’re right for them.

They have a problem. They need someone to help them solve it. They’ve come to your website, probably as the result of seeing some of your content elsewhere on the Web. And now they’re on your site trying to decide if they should take the next step.

Some supermarkets, for example, offer free samples. In fact, the joke is that if you go in on the right day, you can have enough of them to replace a meal.

But if you like what you try for free, then you’ll probably buy a package; and that’s why they give you a taster. It’s an incentive.

A free product does the same thing. It gives people a taste of you. It gives them a little morsel without asking for a financial commitment. And that tiny crumb must leave them hungry for more.

This is where so many sign-ups are lost. There’s a misconception in the IM industry that the free product isn’t that important; that it’’s a throw away item that can be created in a couple of hours.

There’s another misconception about free products, and that is that they should contain less value than the products that are sold. The truth is that if you’re unwilling to give people something that they value, then you can hardly expect them to buy a product that you claim is valuable. In other words, you have to prove to them first that it does.

So you can see, the success of your business hangs on that free product.

There is more information on the Web than anyone can use – ever. So whatever you know about your niche, they probably know, too. That’s why offering a free product that teaches them about something that is already on the Internet has no value.

They already know.

If you’re getting traffic, but have a low sign-up rate, then the weak link is undoubtedly your free product. Make that your focus.

Determining What Your Niche Wants

Gone are the days of banging out a 15-20 page eBook, or even a special report. There are just too many people who do that, and so those products are seen to be almost worthless. This is unfortunate because many of them contain better information than the audios and videos that other IM-ers produce.

The problem, of course, is perception. Audios, and especially videos, are seen to be of greater value, not just because they’re more entertaining, but because they’re more difficult to produce. Many Internet marketers struggle to create them at all, and so there’s a certain admiration for those who can.

Notwithstanding these technical issues, a more fundamental problem is deciding what topic to choose. It’s essential that you know this first, because it’s all too easy to pick something that interests you, but which is of no interest to anyone else.

Your goal has to be to give those who visit your site a very good reason to stay on it, and to keep them there long enough so that they will part with their contact details. That means that your free product has to be so compelling that they can’t wait to get it.

This is where those who are just starting fall down. Their technical skill is basic at best, and they’re only just beginning to get a feel for the problems that their target market has.

So how do you determine what those in your niche want to learn? How do you figure out how you can help them the most? What is the one thing that would endear them to you more than anything else?

In all probability it’s exactly the same thing that you struggle with.

If your greatest weakness is converting those on your list, then your ability to do so will mean that you can help those with the same problem.

If the thing that holds you back is getting enough traffic to build a list, then chances are that that is what frustrates your prospects.

And if you find it difficult to create a valuable free product, you can bet that others would like to learn how.

In a very real sense, your greatest challenge is your niche, and so if you start with the one thing that plagues you the most, then you’ll be well on your way to discovering what you niche wants.