- How many times have you heard the word "reader magnet,"
or "lead magnet," tossed around?
But you really don't know what it is or how to create it
or what to do with it if you do.
If you're confused about "reader magnets,"
then this video is for you.
(upbeat music)
- Hey there, I'm Julie, the Book Broad,
overall number one, Amazon bestselling author and founder
of a fabulous self-publishing services firm
called Book Launchers.
One of the topics we spend a lot of time on
at Book Launchers is reader magnets.
We assess the reader magnets our clients have created.
We make reader magnets, and we also share
our own reader magnets, like this one:
Get your free game plan to sell a thousand books
for less than a hundred dollars
at booklaunchers.com/gameplan.
You see that is a reader magnet.
And when you download it, you get a cool PDF download
that explains the ways that I use to sell thousands
of copies of books without spending money on advertising.
So it's a pretty cool reader magnet.
Reader magnets are important to most authors.
If you're a nonfiction author and you're writing a book,
and it has any tie to your business or you're thinking
you might want to offer courses; consulting,
or even write another book in the future.
A reader magnet to build your audience is a must!
Now, first let me tell you what will not work
on your website, except in very rare cases like,
if, say you're a fiction author and people
just can't wait for the next book in your series.
But, generally speaking, this is not going to work
to get people to give you their email address.
Saying, "Sign up here for new releases."
That rarely works.
Another approach that rarely works is,
"Come on over. Like my Facebook page. Join me
on Facebook here."
Hmmm, frankly, even if they do, they're probably not going
to see your posts, so it's not worth the effort.
Of course, there's also the old standby.
"Get my updates here."
(Julie laughing) (yawning sound)
So boring, and there's no true value in that.
You need to give them an irresistible reason
to give you their email address.
You need to say, "Get this guy to write a business book
that will grow your business here."
Or, "Get the next book free when you sign up
for my mailing list."
Or, "Get the social media planning calendar here."
Or, "Get this exclusive content I only share
with my newsletter list, when you sign up
for my mailing list."
Even that's not as good as I think you should get it,
but it works as a starting point.
Here's why I think though, you really need a reader magnet.
You're going to do a lot of book promotion activities
that don't let you promote your book
or really much of anything.
You get one quick opportunity to connect with people.
And most people say, "Follow me here and here,"
or "Visit my social media or my website."
That's rarely going to happen because people will go
into overwhelm mode.
So here's what I say:
If you want to get the seven steps to write a book
that actually will be set up to sell,
you can download that at www.booklaunchers.com/7steps.
When you do that, you'll also get my email address.
So you can connect with me there or at our website,
which will be in that email too. Boom, that's all,
not 20 places. One. www.booklaunchers.com/7steps.
When you speak, you often aren't even allowed
to share your email address,
but you can sometimes give away a resource that relates
to your book and allows them to get connected with you.
Like www.booklaunchers.com/businessbook.
That's a reader magnet. So what do you need?
Well, you need email software, like ConvertKit, MailChimp,
Constant Contact, et cetera.
You're going to need an opt-in page where people put their
email address in, in exchange for that download,
and an autoresponder. And then, you need that reader magnet.
So what makes a great reader magnet?
Well, my recommendation is, think of a problem
you can solve.
So, how do you sell books, you ask?
Well, www.booklaunchers.com/gameplan...that reader magnet.
How do you write a business book?
www.booklaunchers.com/business book.
Those are examples of reader magnets,
and they don't have to be super detailed guides.
It can be a checklist, a sample chapter.
So long as that sample chapter solves a problem.
It can be a spreadsheet or a quiz.
Quizzes actually can be gold to the right audience.
Get it designed so it looks nice.
Make sure it represents you and your brand.
We have an amazing graphics person that seems to make
everything look beautiful,
but you can find folks on Upwork, Guru, or Fiverr.com.
Expect to pay a couple hundred dollars
to get something designed well,
but it's worth it because this is the first impression
of your brand to someone you're hoping to build
a long-term relationship with.
Once you have that reader magnet,
get ready to shout about it from the rooftops.
Put it on speaking feedback forms.
Run online ads to it.
I always shoot a YouTube video or two
for every magnet we have.
And then we run ads to those videos
to download those freebies.
And when you do a podcast interview or a media article,
make sure you link to the freebie at the end.
Oh. (bell rings)
And here's a golden tip.
On the thank you page of your download,
you can sell your book.
You can have it lead to a lovely little thank you page.
"Now buy my book for the full meal deal."
This one of mine performed really well.
I'll link to this in the description below.
That page is built in Leadpages, but ConvertKit works
to build some great pages that connect
to your email autoresponder series as well,
which we have talked about in past videos.
And of course, we'll talk about it again.
So if you liked this video and you want more
on this subject,
please smash that like button and then head on down
to comment on the video and let me know what lead magnet
you're going to create.
And when you comment the day a video is released,
you get entered to win some sweet #noboringbooks swag,
like our mug or our journal,
neither of which I have in either hand.
Okay, so now you need a website, right?
This video right here is on creating a great author website.
If you're good there, YouTube thinks this is the video
that's going to elevate your author game.
Either way, you're a delight to hang out with,
and I'm really looking forward to seeing you
on the next video.
(upbeat music)