3 Ways You May Be Hurting Your Small Business With Your Lead Magnet | Nashville Branding Photographer & Business Systems Educator Dolly DeLong Photography

Discover how to understand what type of lead magnet you should be creating for your small business so you can best promote it without wasting time (and hurting your small business) in attracting the wrong audience for your email list.

So you have a great lead magnet you want to promote to the world, now what?

One question which I want to ask you (which I want to thank James Wedmore for teaching me this concept) is this: do you have your endgame in mind? Meaning, do you know the purpose of your lead magnet, OR are you just creating freebie after freebie after freebie because you are frantically trying to “grow your list”?

Here are 3 ways you may be hurting yourself with your lead magnet

1. You have no end goal in mind

Yes, your current goal is to collect email addresses for your small business, but what is the ultimate purpose of your lead magnet? Is it only to collect email addresses OR was it created with the vision of leading your future clients to actually work with you? This is something that has totally shifted my way of creating content for my small business. One of the goals of my small business is to educate new creative business owners on how to best streamline and automate their business so I try to create content and downloads which pertain to that topic.

2. You are creating way too many freebies that have nothing to do with your business

Oh, I have been here! At the very beginning of my business, I was frantically always thinking of ways to creatively build my list to grow my audience so that I could build more brand awareness. Those were all great intentions BUT because I did not take the time to really step back and look at the bigger picture I was wasting so much time in creating free products that the people who actually got on my list were not an ultimately good/ideal fit for the audience I wanted to speak to (so over time, they would get my freebie and then just unsubscribe because they had no intention about truly wanting to stick with me) So are you doing this too?

3. You are not creating a lead magnet packed with value

You may be too scared to give away your best stuff for free, but here is what I have learned while building my own business: you need to build a know-like and trust factor and sometimes you are going to have to be super intentional about what your free download (the lead magnet) so that when a person subscribes to your list they are not only blown AWAY by their free gift from you…they are READY and EXCITED to purchase from you (because if your free stuff looks like this…what does your paid stuff look like?)

Yes, it is true that we are all in an oversaturated market with all of our businesses, and you may feel like no one will notice you or want to even subscribe to your list. But here’s the thing my friend, You CAN show up in creative and diverse ways online! You’ve got to give yourself a chance to actually promote yourself and you’ve got to stop telling yourself the lie that just because “so and so” is doing the same thing you don’t have the “right” to do it too. Don’t self-sabotage yourself! Show up!

Good Things Take Time

I started off with photography in 2006 with no intention of ever becoming a full-time photographer in 2018 (yes it took me over 12 years to open up my eyes to actually pivot into this role for a multitude of reasons).

Then from 2018 to 2020, I realized I was pivoting into more of a role of helping other creative new business owners with basic foundational systems & workflows for their business (specifically in automating their business)…and I am STILL growing in this area because some days I have major imposter syndrome. But guess what? I continue to push on and I continue to create and show up. And that is exactly what I am encouraging you to do right now…show up!

Do you have something to offer within your small business? Then show up and stop worrying about what “so and so” is going to say about you. Show up because you have some incredible things to offer to this world, and why not offer something incredible like a LEAD magnet which will bring in the right people at the right time to you (yes, it will take time to figure out your end game for your business…but Rome wasn’t built overnight-an overused statement for sure…but it’s true) so give yourself time and grace!

If you are at the point where you know you want to learn more about Lead Magnets (you want to learn how to grow your email list) then check out my FREEBIE all about Lead Magnets here (so a master idea list for you to create your first lead magnet is right here) ⬇️

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Meet Your Friendly Nashville Family Photographer, Family Photographer Educator & Business Systems + Workflow Educator

Dolly DeLong is a Nashville-based family & branding photographer and a creative business owner who educates on all things Pinterest & Dubsado (and how to use these platforms as systems in your business)!  Dolly loves serving families, and business owners with her timeless, radiant photography.  And, she also loves educating other business owners on how to set up systems and workflows that will ultimately help them save time in their business.

She has a heart for serving the larger business community. Dolly shares her knowledge of tools like Pinterest, Dubsado, Email Marketing, and Business Systems with new creative business owners & family photographers in an encouraging and supportive way because she believes that even muggles can become automating wizards. Plus BONUS: Systems is where the MAGIC happens!

Dolly’s faith and love for her family motivate her to help other business owners find the joy and freedom she’s found in running a successful small business.

Whenever she has a spare moment, she enjoys watching TV (i.e. Survivor), loves eating way too many sweets, and listens to podcasts while running or walking. To work with Dolly DeLong Photography LLC, fill out her contact form here.

Interested in learning how to best automate a part of your business but you have no clue where to begin? Check out www.dollydelongphotography.com/automate to begin your automation journey today!

Resources for Family Photographers To Automate Your Business

(*Click on the banners to get started! It’s super easy to work with Dolly DeLong & it’s super easy to automate your business today!) 

Finally, if you are ready to build up an email list, check out the Lead Magnet Mini-Course Here!