How do you drive more leads to sign up as an email subscriber? You've got to provide them some value! Give people a reason to give you their email address – otherwise, they're not going to sign up!
Cody Hays is the founder of a nonprofit called Marketing Mission. They help fellow nonprofits further their impact through impactful marketing. Cody will teach you the framework he uses to create a lead-generating freebie download of your own in this course.
Here's Cody's blueprint for building a super valuable freebie download:
Imagine for a moment that we are not in Covid times, and we're at a coffee shop or a conference, and you hit off with someone new there. When you leave, you realize you forgot to ask for their contact information. Lead generators are a great excuse to exchange contact information in business relationships because you're giving them something of value in return.
When you are creating your lead generator, you want to make sure that it does two things:
It can help your customers survive.
It can help them thrive.
There are five sections to craft your lead-generating freebie download. I encourage you to write out your freebie download as you're reading through the sections. Then read back through to make sure you check all the boxes.
Section #1: THE TITLE
Start with a catchy title. It should give people a reason to download your pdf. It needs to clearly state what is in it for that reader and clearly communicate the value. An example of a lead generator that I have is: '5 Email Templates to Drive Registration for Your Virtual Events.' Brainstorm your title and make sure it adds value.
Section #2: FIRST PARAGRAPH
Talk about the problem that your customers are facing. In our example, Covid-19 has disrupted and canceled in-person events, and nonprofit leaders are desperately trying to pivot to virtual events.
Next, we are going to use an empathetic statement and an authoritative example. In our example, we use, "We get it. You are worried about your budget and stressing over how to produce a virtual event." Now we want to demonstrate authority to showcase why you are a credible person to help solve this problem for them. In our example, we've helped nonprofits raise over $700,000 by pivoting to a virtual event.
So once you've made that intro, it's time to press that problem a little further. We want to get to the core reason to know why they feel this way and how you can help them get to a better solution. So, you want to talk about the frustrations and feelings your customers are facing. Our example, "Although it seems scary or intimidating to put on an event like this, across the board, nonprofits are typically exceeding their fundraising goals if they are using the right strategies to get in front of their audience." So again, list those problems, those feelings, and those frustrating moments.
Now, it's time to position yourself as the guide to helping them overcome this problem. Finally, it's time to talk about yourself and your products or services. You want to do it in a way that really showcases your value and doesn't talk about you or your organization as much. Our example is, "Save time and use these custom templates so you can reach your registration goals and keep your programs alive and thriving."
Section #3: DELIVER VALUE
Here is where you would include the strategies or tips that you promised in that title. Now is the time to deliver the value. For our example, we would write out the five email templates.
Section #4: WHAT'S AT STAKE
This is an optional section, but I've found it's really what leads them to the next section, our call to action. This is just a paragraph or set of bullet points about the negative things that might happen if they do not implement these systems or use these strategies, whatever it is that you're offering. It is ultimately reminding them again about that problem because you're going to be very blunt about how much value this will bring to them in the second half of this paragraph.
Section #5: CALL TO ACTION (CTA)
What should they do next after they have implemented these strategies? Now, you want to bring them deeper into your sales funnel. You may want to schedule a one on one with them, offer them a free or paid course, or upsell of some sorts. An example could be scheduling a strategy call or book an appointment, or an upsell. So for us, we're giving a free email away, but we also have a full event marketing package that is an upsell. As a little addition, we include that at the end with a button that leads to the landing page—something to keep that momentum going.
There you have it. Now you have a freebie download that you can use to generate leads on autopilot. Feel free to reach out on Instagram and TikTok at CodyJHays.
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