In a previous article I mentioned that one of the most effective email marketing strategies you can use is to create useful lead magnets. These are free offers you give your prospects and customers in order to share your expertise.

The key word here is useful.

Anyone can throw up a free offer on their site, but if it’s not useful in showcasing your expertise to your audience, and it doesn’t relate to what you have to offer them, you are just wasting your time and worse, your customers’ time.

When you sit down to create a lead magnet for your audience, the most important thing you can do is understand why you’re creating it. And it may not be for the reason you think, because here’s what a lot of people forget…

You have to take the customer’s point of view into consideration along with your own!

When you look at it from the customer’s perspective, you must provide something of value that solves a problem for them.  If you do that, chance are you’ll end up having them sign up for your list. But that’s just the beginning.

Once you get people on your list you need to start a conversation to build trust, then as you’re doing that you can promote your own products and other people’s products to earn money giving your audience exactly what they want.

Here, then are 3 main reasons to create useful lead magnets:

Reason #1 – You will get targeted leads onto your list

When you truly know your audience, you can target them in such a way that the people on your list really need and want what you’re offering. You need to know the audience, study the audience, and know what they want in order not to only create an amazing lead magnet but to give your audience something of value.

Doing this will build a very targeted list. When you have a targeted list, they’re more likely to open your email and get the message. A lead magnet that solves a burning issue for your audience will accomplish that better than anything else.

Reason #2 – It gives you the chance to start building trust through conversation

Once you have a person on your list, your job then becomes giving them valuable information so they look forward to opening your emails. We talk a lot about the know, like, and trust factors and giving your audience useful information is a way to start building those by having conversations with them.

This is where building email sequences can come in handy. Most successful email list owners set up at least a 3-day welcome sequence designed to help your audience get to know you, help you get to understand their problems and to start promoting your solutions to those problems.

Yes, it’s slower than diving straight into the sales pitches, but this is how you build trust with your customers and show them that you value their time and truly want to help them.

Resource: I use these Opt-In Funnel Follow-Ups: Email Templates to Build Relationships and Make Sales from Cindy Bidar to create my sequences.

Reason #3 – It gives you opportunities to sell

Let’s face it… you’re in business to make money and you can’t do that if you don’t share offers with your list.

The cool thing about starting with a relevant and useful lead magnet is that you already have a pretty good idea of what problem your audience wants you to provide a solution for.

As you get to know your audience better through your interactions via your list, and by cross-promoting information about your social networks and so forth you’ll be able to do even better about giving them what they want through the products and services that you create yourself or promote with affiliate offers.

Final Thoughts

When you start by attracting the audience you want to serve by offering them relevant and useful lead magnets, the three reasons for doing so all fall easily into place. Giving your audience what they want gets them onto your list and gives you the chance to have conversations that lead to opportunities for you to sell your products and services.

It’s a win-win situation because your customers get solutions to their problems, and you get to grow your business. But it all starts with a relevant and useful lead magnet.