Are you providing value to your audience on the fly? If you are holding back on creating opt-ins, this episode is for you because you don’t know how to create the email automation ball rolling. In this episode, I share the next puzzle piece in automating your offers. If you are ready to create subscriber-worthy lead magnets, listen in!
The Systems and Workflow Magic Podcast is brought to you by Dolly DeLong Education. This podcast is for creative business owners who want to learn tangible steps to automate their business through workflows, systems, tools, and strategies to go from scattered to streamlined with purpose because even muggles can become automated wizards.
Are you ready to automate the backend of your lead magnets? I have put together the comprehensive checklist you need to ensure that all of your puzzle pieces are in place for your next opt-in, your next offer, or even your next bundle! Stop letting tech fears hold you back from automating and streamlining the backend of your amazing offers and opt-ins!
(Need more than a checklist? Sign up for the waitlist for the mini-course!)
Recapping Ashlyn Carter on landing pages (1:06)
Defining a lead magnet (1:46)
Using lead magnets to gain subscribers (5:12)
Using a lead magnet to qualify subscribers (5:56)
How you can provide value in exchange for an email address (7:49)
Gaining trust and familiarity (8:37)
Winning your subscriber after they opt-in to your list (10:30)
Optimizing your offers strategically and legally (12:37)
Writing out all the offers in your business (14:01)
An example of lead magnets and the purpose they serve (15:43)
Taking the extra step to make sure you are in compliance (21:00)
How To Automate The Backend Of Your Offers, Opt-Ins, & Even Bundles
Listen to the series
Week 1 – The Importance Of Copy & Having A High Converting Landing Page Featuring Ashlyn Carter
Dolly Delong
Welcome to the Systems and Workflow Magic Podcast where I help entrepreneurs go from scattered to streamlined in their creative businesses. I’m your host Dolly DeLong, a wife, a mom, and a photographer turned systems educator. Join me every week as we have conversations centered around creating tactical workflows, and automations in your business. Now, let’s make some strategic workflow magic.
Hello, and welcome back to the systems and workflow magic podcast. I am your systems and workflow BFF and host Dolly DeLong. And I am so excited you are here. As you may know, we are currently in a mini-series called how to automate the back end of your opt ins and offers or what I like to remind all creatives, the necessary puzzle pieces you’ll need to place in order to be more streamlined, like the magical muggle you are. So last week, we kicked off the series by speaking about the topic of landing pages that convert and it featured conversion copywriter for creatives Ashlyn Carter, and I hope you’ll give that episode a listen because it was very jam-packed. And Ashlyn of course had a lot of wisdom to share about copy and about how to have a highly converting landing page. And of course, she inserted so much more value. So I hope you will give that episode a listen. And I will be sure to link it in the show notes. So now that you know the puzzle piece of landing pages, let’s talk about puzzle piece number two, and that is lead magnets. Now, I know I’ve spoken so much about lead magnets in past podcast episodes, specifically, episodes 12 through 16, because I had a mini-series about lead magnets. But I wanted to revisit this topic again because it is literally one of my favorite topics to talk about. Yes, I love lead magnets so much. And I just love all the puzzle pieces that go into lead magnets. So you’re probably wondering, okay, like, why lead magnets? So, one of the reasons is this email list growth is a huge goal of mine. And it will always be because I do not want to just depend on social media to grow my business, which I bet you are the same as well. And I want to have a very healthy and engaged email list that is not only my email list but a community that wants to learn more about systems and workflow education. Plus, several episodes ago, I interviewed the sweet and talented Elizabeth McCravy. And she spoke about her automated nurture sequences. And it 100% resonated with so many business owners, to the point where I was getting DMS thanking me for the episode, and thanking me for reminding them about the importance of having an actual email list. So naturally, the systems gal that I am, I decided, You know what, I’m going to revisit lead magnets. But I’m going to do it in a twist, I am going to incorporate it into the series about the importance of automating the back end of your offers your opt-ins, your lead magnets, because one reason I love talking about systems and workflows and to a lot of creative business owners forgets the power of automating the back end of their auctions, in addition to their offers. So here we are in episode two of the series because it was inspired by you, my listeners. So thank you. Now I know you’re most likely sitting on the edge of your seat, or at least I’m hoping you are because talking about the back end of the different puzzle pieces of how to best automate and lead magnet and or offer. Well, that’s actually fun for me. So I hope this conversation can be fun for you too. So if you’re new around here, let me define what a lead magnet is. So my definition of a lead magnet is an opt-in-a-freebie a free resource that helps your ideal client experience a small win in understanding a very specific question they may have. It should be very simple, very straightforward, and very consumed. level for them to get from point A to point B. Also, the purpose of the lead magnet is to lead people to your offers naturally. Another huge purpose of a lead magnet is to gain, you guessed it, email subscribers, and to build out that email list. So, you may be skeptical, but let’s dig into this thought just a little more. So why exactly is a lead magnet a great way for building out your email list? Now, if I could shout it from the rooftops, okay, I’m not really going to shout it from the rooftops. But I would figuratively because lead magnets are absolutely essential to a robust email list that converts into a raving fan base of subscribers. And here’s why I believe that is the reason. A good lead magnet is one that does the hard work of qualifying your customers, and your new subscribers for you. If someone wants to download a 10% off coupon for your eStore. That’s because they’re thinking about buying something. If someone downloads your family photo style guide or your branding guide, they probably are about to get either some family photos or some branding photos done. And they are looking for a good photographer. If someone downloads a checklist of ways, they can optimize a funnel, the most likely one to learn how to build out their very first digital funnel, which you can lead them to that offer.
Hey, creative business owner, Dolly here. Finally, put together that opt-in know that lead magnet your ideal client has been begging you, for now, we’re excitedly wanting to publish it. But here’s one thing holding you back. It’s probably the fact that you don’t know how to have an effective follow-through system. And making sure the back end of your new opt-in or offer is optimized. stop sweating because the comprehensive checklist needs to ensure that all of your puzzle pieces are in place, where your next offer, or even the next bundle you’re a part of this year, stop letting tech fears hold you back from automating and streamlining the back end of your amazing options and offers and dive into this free checklist today, head on over to the show notes to get access to the link. And don’t forget, I am cheering you on.
But you see, the way the lead magnet works is that it attracts leads who want what you’re selling. And by capturing their email address. In exchange for a bit of valuable content like the freebie the lead magnet, you can follow up on their initial interest lists follow up, you can begin by sending a reoccurring email to your email list reminding them of your product or your services. The people who are on that list because they downloaded that specifically magnet are way more likely to buy than just your average Joe. That’s because they have already shown interest in your product. Therefore they are more than ready to buy or at least they’re warming up to you. And even if they do not buy right away, because let’s be honest, most people need at least eight or nine or maybe even 20 interactions and impressions with you and your business before they make a purchase. And I’m not even joking around about the 20 impressions is probably even more than that in this day and age. So you have to be top of mind and that’s when email marketing comes in. So having them on an email list can help them get to know you over time, which builds trust, which builds relationships, which is so important. In short, having a relevant lead magnet on your website or out in the wild will attract the right leads who you can follow up with on the back end in an automated way through a nurture sequence for your email list growth. And again, I call this a profitable email list because I’m talking about the people on your list as fans of your community. And that is profitable. That is huge. Not just money wise but I’m talking they are building trust with you. They are getting to know you over time. And even if they don’t buy from you they will refer you leads to you or you will stay top of mind to them. And that is incredible. Again, the lead magnets’ purpose is to not only give your immediate subscribers a win in the short term, but the lead magnets’ purpose overall is to lead them into getting to know you and your brand and helps them associate you with something specific, like your services like your business, like your digital products. But how do you win new subscribers after getting them to opt into your lead magnet? I mean, you just gained a new subscriber. Isn’t that enough? No, no, it is it. Okay. So I kind of alluded to this in the past several minutes. But this is where so many small creative business owners drop the ball. And they forget about the power of automating the back end of their lead magnets. And one of the automated actions you can set up is by emailing your subscribers and setting up that automated nurture sequence. Once a person downloads your freebie, of course, when I say automated email sequence, there are a lot of moving pieces to the back end of that. But this is why I wanted to create the series, I wanted to create the series to share several examples. In the next several weeks of how you, the creative business owner can start mapping out and thinking through strategy and how you can start optimizing and automating the back end of not only your lead magnets but your offers as well. You see, I really don’t want you to drop the ball when it comes to helping the new subscribers of your lead magnets, or new buyers of your offers by getting to know you and your business more. Because you want to again build out lifelong fans. And you want to create an audience who will not only enjoy getting to know you. But you can create a positive ripple effect by having the same subscribers or buyers again, point others to you. So they may not buy from you immediately. They may just be on your email list to learn from you or to gain insight from you. But the fact is, they’re on your email list. And so you should be providing value to them through email marketing, and they will point others to you. I promise it happens. Okay, so let’s go back to one way you can do this, like let’s talk about one of the puzzle pieces. One of the ways you can create a positive ripple effect, and do this slowly over time is by optimizing the backend of your offers and lead magnets and strategic and legal ways. I mentioned legal ways because there are some sleazy ways to cut corners when it comes to growing your email list. And I want you to avoid that altogether. That’s why I love learning from the amazing page of The Legal Paige, who by the way, is an attorney who helps creative business owners with her contract templates, which I always recommend to creatives, no matter what their industry is, please check her out. I will link her website in the show notes. She especially can help you understand GDPR compliance, Privacy Policy, and Terms and Conditions when it comes to building out an email list. And don’t worry, I’ve included a link to her website in the show notes because I want you not to be sleazy about growing your email list. So if you are excited about the series, I cannot wait to dive into this topic in the next several weeks with you. So now I want you to walk away with several action steps after listening to each episode of this series. Okay. And to ensure you are being the best systems and workflow magic podcast listener, I want you to do several things. So now that you know exactly what a landing page is based off of last week’s episode, if you haven’t listened, go back and listen to that. Do you know what a landing page is? Your first action item now is to write out all of your offers that you have within your business like have you actually sat down to do this or is it all living in your head? Or are you just making it up on the fly? The reason why I’m asking you to do this is that you may be sitting on a goldmine of lead magnet ideas which can lead back to these services and offers you And then that way, once you map out all of your offers and services or products, then you may decide, oh, I want to create this type of lead magnet that is associated with this service or this offer. And you already know the foundational aspects of having a landing page that converts so that you can convert new subscribers to get that lead magnet. And so I want to give you some examples. So going back to your first action item, writing out your offers and your services within your business, my top converting lead magnets. So again, an example of lead magnets after I did this exercise, I have a Trello template board, a checklist, and a video tutorial, which is an Excel spreadsheet. So those are three different types of lead magnets, and they all serve a purpose. And they lead people to my various systems and workflow-related offers.
Calling all creatives if you have an amazing opt-in offer. And you have been asked to be a part of a bundle with other creatives, which by the way is also awesome. But if you feel stuck because you don’t know what steps to take to automate, optimize and streamline the back end of said, opt-in offer or bundle offer, then listen up. You don’t have to hire an integrator because I have created a step-by-step mini-course to guide you through the process of putting together the puzzle pieces you need. In order to lay the groundwork for this back-end process. I have created the how to automate the back end of your opt-ins and offers mini course because as a systems and workflow educator for creatives, I want to help you succeed as a small business owner. And I really want you to feel confident in your systems. After listening to the podcast, don’t forget to head on over to the show notes. And click on the link for an in-depth look at what this mini-course entails. as always Stay Magical with those systems, you amazing muggle you. So my Trello template board leads to my strategic content mini-course, my lead magnet opt-in actually, which is a checklist leads to my lead magnet mini-course I know so meta and might free expense, an income spreadsheet, which is a system of keeping up with money leads to my creative budget spreadsheet. So those are three different digital products I have within my systems and workflow education for creatives, because there are so many different types of systems and workflow education. And so I wanted to break it down even more. So those are my three main lead magnets. And again, they lead to three different products. But again, I had to map it out first, in order to see what would make sense for me to create what people immediately wanted an answer to, and what would logistically lead to my offers. And also, I wanted to create lead magnets that would continue to stay evergreen for my systems and workflow business. So evergreen for me, meaning it would be a relevant answer no matter what time of year a person landed on my website, or no matter what season of business they were in, it would help them. That’s why I had to start from the very top and actually sit down and write out all of my offers and see what would be the best in email list girl. So I realized that was a very long action step.
So now that you’ve finished up action item number one, again, mapping out and writing all your offers action item number two says if you are impatient, and cannot wait to listen to next week’s podcast episode, where I will obviously talk about automating the back end of your offers and freebies like another puzzle piece. Then don’t forget to download my latest resource called how to automate the back end of your options and offers. The link is in the show notes and I want you to snag it today. So that you can experience is a win for your creative business as well. Or at least have a light bulb moment as you work through the checklist. And I have to say, I got this opt-in idea from one of my peers. Linda Sidhu, who has been on the podcast, she is the queen of personality quizzes to grow your email list. And so shout out to Linda for giving me this idea. But she was actually working on the back end of one of her offers. And she reached out to me and said, you know, Dolly, it would be so cool if you offered some sort of offer often about this checklist because this comes naturally to me. And it really is one of my superpowers. Being a systems and workflow educator, I love different puzzle pieces of lead magnets and offers. And so I decided, Okay, I’m gonna do this, I’m going to offer this to my listeners. So thank you, Linda, I have to give her credit for that. Okay, action. Step number three, let me remind you, again, to check out the show notes to go and learn about how to legally grow your email list. So remember, I alluded to just a legal way of growing your email list by having terms and conditions and a privacy policy in the footer of your landing page. And you were of course, the landing page is where one purpose of it is to advertise your lead magnet, which we’re talking about that puzzle piece today. And if you advertise your lead magnet to grow your email list, there is a form on that landing page that collects those email addresses. And again, it is really good policy to have those legal things in a polished way. But just having a Terms and Conditions and Privacy Policy in the footer can help you be in alignment with GDPR compliance. And so you can snag some resources from the legal page. And I will link that in the show notes of this episode because I really want you to check out her terms and conditions in her privacy policy to put on your website and into the footer of your landing pages. Okay, so those are literally your go-to Actions. After listening to this podcast about puzzle piece number two lead magnets. And again, I want you to find the link to my latest freebie all about how to automate the back end of your opt-ins and offers in the show notes. Please don’t forget to check out the legal page. Write out all of your offers and see what lead magnets you can create that will lead to your offers. And of course, you now know how to advertise that lead magnet on your landing page. And I know you are going to take these action steps right now, as we are wrapping up this episode. I really want to encourage you to carve out some time this week and work on this new puzzle piece as it relates to last week’s puzzle piece. So I hope this was both inspirational and helpful for you. And I would love to know what action steps you are going to take this week. Okay, so shoot me a DM on Instagram at dolly DeLong education. And let me know just how the series is helping you out. I would love to know. So next week, I will talk to you about another action step you can take or a puzzle piece you can take when it comes to automating and streamlining the back end of your lead magnets and or offers. So I will talk to you all next week. And I hope you can continue to find the joy and magic of systems and workflows in your creative business! Bye.
Thank you so much for listening to The Systems and Workflow Magic Podcast. You can find full show notes from today’s episode at Dolly DeLong photography.com forward slash podcast. If you’re loving the podcast, I’d be so honored if you’d subscribe and leave a review on your favorite podcast player. Be sure to screenshot this episode, share it with your stories, and tag me at dolly DeLong education over on Instagram. Until next time, go make some strategic workflow magic
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