This is where your automation begins! If you don’t have something with perceived value that shows off your best work to giveaway, then in that very skeptical first look at your business and your website, the person will leave.
What do you giveaway then? It needs to be something that your new lead will happily consume AND get results.
It is your job to cut their overwhelm and get them a result as fast as possible. It is your job to create an optin offer and put your best foot forward and get them connected to your business and what you are capable of.
Some call it the ethical bride, lead magnet or the freebie…we call it the Party Starter!
After all, when someone steps foot inside your website or online home for the first time you better make them feel welcome. Take their coat, give them a drink and some hors d’oeuvres. Set the stage with them that they will have a great time with you if they fill out that opt-in form.
If you don’t grab them during the first visit to your website chances are they might not return. If you don’t collect their email while they are there, chances of being able to reach them again are slim.
Below are some examples of Party Starters you can use in your business as discussed in the video:
Each one we have either given away in our business or built for others and witnessed them working.
1) Digital Workbooks
These are a great way to give your subscribers positive steps to take as they work their way through exercises or tasks which you outline in your workbook. Future emails in your funnel can deliver “keys” on how to engage with the workbooks or unlock points. Think of it as a treasure hunt where as people go through the first steps in your funnel they proactively build upon what they learn until they have a completed “map” they can refer to again and again.
A great idea is to teach a process, with blank fields the user needs to fill out, so that when followed a specific result is achieved.
2) eCourses
Just like the course you are going through right now, you could deliver this simply with emails and links to pages on your website with more resources. The key with these courses is that each point or lesson still helps deliver a valuable result. You should not expect someone to go through the entire course to get a benefit (we are all busy after all). You want to deliver stand alone value the whole way through.
Plus creating these are a great way to gage what your market wants the most by monitoring your email open and click through rates throughout the course.
3) Cheat Sheets & Checklists
These are perfect for today’s consumer who wants to be able to take in information as bite-sized chunks! Think checklists, process guides and simple tips, especially if you have the kind of business where people need to remember things.
Below is an image of something we have given away before (We are happy to give it to you – just click on the image below to download the PDF).
4) Audio & Video Recordings
Do you have videos of presentations or classes you teach? What about audio or podcast recordings? These are great because they are easily consumed on the go by your subscribers. We gave away an audio recording of us creating our Kindle book as a way to build a list from those who bought our book. We still even get leads from our book because we have a link to our opt-in page in the first 10% of our book (the free bit Amazon shows).
Click on our Kindle eBook cover below to see how we collect leads straight from Amazon.
5) Physical Products
This is not as common as obviously physical products involve some kind of outlay of cash to start out with (don’t forget shipping costs!). We’ve seen people give away USB sticks of recordings, or even free copies of their new book (usually for a limited amount of time).
Here is an example of an Info Pack you could ship that has DVDs, event tickets and other helpful resources to educate and build trust.
6) Personal Rolodex
We’ve seen a lot of coaches and trainers create an optin offer and give away this kind of thing – giving their subscribers access to their own “who’s who” for getting things done, or a “My Top 10 Tools for Getting Things Done”. For example, you might have certain people you go to for graphics, web design or video editing – if you’re producing great stuff people would like to know how they can get it too!
Below is an e-graphic of this type of opt-in offer we give away for another project we work on.
7) Downloads & Printables
Inspirational quotes, mantras, or recipes are great for this. Or of course process maps work well too. The idea here is that that you can download and print and refer back often. A couple of ideas we have worked on before are the “Top 10 Email Subject Lines” you can use time and time again to get results or “10 Things You Should Never Say in an Interview”. Are you getting the idea?
Here is one of our opt-ins for AYB.
8) Member’s Only Content
If you have a member’s only website you can give away a piece of content from that site. Or you could even consider making a membership site for free members. One of our clients gives away a free membership to her members only site where there is loads of free content as well as member discounted access to her other products.
9) Free Consultation
This may not be feasible for you if you expect a large number of opt-ins, but many consultants or coaches offer a free session by Skype or over the phone as an opt-in. You don’t need to give away too much of your time. As an example, a lawyer client of ours gave away 15 minute consultations if people signed up to her list. This gave her enough time to see whether there was something she could do to help them moving forward, without entirely giving her services away.
We also did this for a while when we were first getting started. Ours was promoted as a free strategy session.
10) Discounts or Free Shipping
This is especially good if you sell physical products. You could simply set up a promo code that is emailed to your prospects when they sign up, giving them the option of using it at check-out.
Check out this example of an online retail shop where a new subscriber gets a discount.
11) Free Trial
This one is mostly used with software trials, but it can also be used for membership sites or to trial your main offer. If you offer something which is possible to trial for free, this is a great way of gaining paying customers who are interested but skeptical as to what your product or service can do for them.
12) Quizzes or Surveys
These are especially effective if you have a juicy topic where people really want to know the answer. There are programs out there that will allow you to set up a quiz, and have results emailed to those who opt in. Try Interact is a great free quiz builder where you can embed the quiz on your own website. (And check out their opt-in – perfect example of the free software lead magnet!).
Below is an example of a quiz used on a site that helps chiropractors grow their business.
13) Webinars
Lucky 13 is another way to let people get to know you while being a fly on the wall. eLearning sites or companies who hold live events often use this as a way of getting to know their instructors or speakers before you are asked to buy or get a ticket.
Think about which one would benefit your target market best, while allowing you to really deliver some of your best content. What is the one thing that get people to say “Wow! You really know your stuff!” Then what is the best way to deliver that to them?
Once you are clear on that you are on your way to creating your own Party Starter.
This is part of our “Build Your Perfect Funnel” series. Continue on to Step 2: How to Build a Landing Page…