Lead Magnets are what you offer someone in exchange for their email address. It could be any number of things. There are so many articles on things you could offer, but here are just a few examples: a lesson, a valuable list, a guide on how to do something, a webinar or video.
In the teacher world, a lead magnet is often a video series or lesson. The video series is to usually try to sell a course or membership. The lesson is usually to try to get them to find your blog, TpT store, and get to know who you are.
I actually built a lead magnet before. I created a whole series of planning supports to make the teachers’ lives easier. Then as I was researching and learning more about email lists, I realized I did it wrong. I hadn’t sent it out into the world yet, but I spent a lot of time creating the lead magnet and email funnel.
Planning supports to help teachers have an easier and more productive planning period sounds great. It is great, but the biggest problem was that it wouldn’t target my ideal customer. I hadn’t really heard of an ideal customer before and hadn’t put much thought into mine.
I knew that I needed to learn more and put more thought and purpose into my email list so that it would help me grow my business. I had to define my business more before I could think about email lists.
My research included signing up for email lists, reading blogs, and listening to podcasts.
I determined that I would focus on grades 4, 5, and 6. Sometimes I might reach up or down depending on the resources, but I have spent most of my time in grades 4-6 so that’s where my expertise is.
I also didn’t want to narrow my focus or define my niche, but I had to in order to have a chance to grow. I was putting up mostly lessons that I had created and done in my classroom. Lessons that I had sitting in binders in my attic that I knew I could create online. When I looked closely at these lessons, they were almost all writing. Clearly, that is my thing. If I get even more specific I specialize in poetry and other research projects. I love writing poetry and I love teaching it.
If you haven’t already you should define your Ideal Customer Avatar. When you describe your customer you should include things like a name, level of education, and income. You also need to know personal details like kids, husband, and pastimes. There are a lot of workbooks out there that can give you more guidance on this.
I determined that my lead magnet was going to be a collaborative class poem. It’s an awesome lesson and so much fun to teach. Once I figured out that it would be a good lead magnet, I just had to spend some time creating it.