How to Actually Get Your Lead Magnet to Your Reader
By: Shaunta Grimes
Tags: Creativity, Byob, Blogging, Productivity, Writing

The rest of the Google Doc format is pretty self explanatory. I’m all about simple and this is a super simple tool, perfect for creating your first opt-in.

Make Sure It’s in Shareable Form

Once you’ve made your opt-in, you’ll need a shareable link. Here’s how to get that.

Click the blue ‘share’ button up in the right top corner of the screen.

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You’ll get this pop-up in the center of the screen.

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Name your document if you haven’t already. Then click save. You’ll get this pop-up.

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Your document is set to ‘restricted’ by default. You need to change that. Click the little down arrow next to the word ‘restricted.’ You’ll get the menu below. Click ‘anyone with the link.’

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Now, your permissions have been changed. Anyone with your link will be able to view your document.

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All you have to do now is click ‘copy link’ and you’ll be ready to share the URL with your audience. If you’re not ready to quite yet, that’s okay. At any time, click the blue share button again and you’ll get the pop up below. Just click ‘copy link.’

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Create a Landing Page or Sign-up Form

Now that you have your opt-in, you need to create a sign-up form so that your reader can grab it.

I use Convertkit for my email server, so I’m going to show you how to do this in Covertkit. You can find directions for making a landing page in almost any email server by Googling.

Here are directions for Mail Chimp and Mailerlite.

On Covertkit, start by clicking ‘landing pages and forms’ on the top menu.

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Then click the red ‘create new’ button on the right side of the screen.

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You’ll see a choice between a form and a landing page. A form is super simple — literally just a form with a few words. The landing page is more advanced (but still pretty easy.)

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It says that the form is for embedding, but you can use it as a landing page, too. If you choose ‘form’ you’ll get a list of choices for the mode of delivery. Choose ‘modal.’

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You’ll have the option of several different types of forms. Just pick one — I picked the one called ‘Mills’ for this tutorial.

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Once you’re in there, you’ll see all the options on the right for changing things up.

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Just click on the part of the form you want to change (the lines of text) and you’ll be able to change it. When I clicked on ‘Join the Newsletter’ I was able to type a new headline right on the form and was offered some choices for font color, size, and weight.

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If you click the plus sign under the ‘your email address’ box you can add another field. Like ‘first name.’ You can rearrange the boxes by clicking with your mouse and dragging.

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Keep working at it until you like the way it looks. When you’re all done, click the ‘preview’ button to see how it will look when readers see it.

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When you’re happy with it, you can click ‘embed’ next to ‘preview.’ You’ll get this screen. Click ‘share’ to get a URL to link your readers to.

Congratulations! You’ve made your first simple form.

Link an Automated Email to Your Form

This is the step where you attach your opt-in gift to your new form, so that when someone gives you their email on the form, they’ll automatically get their download.

To do that in ConvertKit, you’re going to go to ‘automations.’ It’s on the top black menu bar, right next to ‘anding pages and forms.’

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When you’re there, you’ll see ‘sequences’ on the next menu bar down. Click that. When you get to the next page, click the red ‘new sequence’ button.

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First, you’ll name your sequence. I always name it the same name as my opt-in.

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When you name your sequence, the next screen with be a page where you can write an email. I named my sequence ‘sample.’ You can see that in the upper left corner. There’s some sample text in the email field that you can just delete.

Write a subject line. Something like “Here’s the (free thing) I promised you.’ Then write a short, simple email that does a few things.

Thank your reader for asking for your opt-in.

Link them to it. Just write something like ‘here’s that thing I promised you’ and then highlight the text, click the icon that looks like a figure eight, and paste in the link to your opt-in you created in the last step.

Let them know what to expect from you going forward. (For example, I’ll send you a newsletter every Friday or over the next week you’ll get my free class, etc.)

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Now, the little pencil next to ‘after 1 day’ and change it to 0 days. That will set your email to send immediately when it’s triggered. Change the ‘status’ to active.

That’s it!

Next you’ll want to go back to ‘automations.’ This time, click on the red ‘new automation’ button.

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Now click ‘create automation.’

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You’ll see this form on the next page. Choose ‘joins a form.’

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Pick the form you just made. Then click ‘add event.’ You’ll see this page next.

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Click the plus sign below the form box. You’ll be able to choose the sequence that you just created.

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Now your automation looks like this. All done! Click the greyed out ‘paused’ button in the top right corner to activate your automation.

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That’s it. Now every time someone uses your opt-in form, they’ll be automatically sent your welcome email with the link to your opt-in gift. Good job!

If you’re using a different email server, you’ll have to Google directions for setting up an automated email.

Here’s how to do it in Mail Chimp and Mailerlite.

Create a Call-to-Action Sentence

Next thing you need to do is let your readers know you have a gift for them.

You can do that by adding a call to action, or CTA, sentence at the bottom of your blog posts. I put mine just above my bio.

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I highly recommend writing a short, engaging bio that includes links to your social media and any other information you want people to know about you. You can see here that I link to my books and to Ninja Writers, as well as sharing my Twitter handle.

The sentence “Here’s my secret weapon for sticking with whatever your thing is” is my CTA sentence.

When a reader clicks that, they get sent to a form where they can ask for my secret weapon.

You want a sentence that’s enticing and generous. Don’t say ‘click here.’ That’s A) too salesy and B) it’s you asking something of them. Just offer something awesome to your reader.

Think ‘here you go’ rather than ‘do this.’

You’ll be able to see on your email server dashboard how well your link is performing. On Convertkit, just go to ‘landing pages and forms’ and look for your form.

You can see here the number of times someone has seen my forms (visitors), how many have subscribed, and the conversion rate.

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Give it a few days. If no one is clicking your link, it’s your CTA sentence. Tweak it until you get one that people click on. If you’re getting clicks, but no conversions, it’s the form and/or the opt-in that’s the problem.

I look for at least a 10 percent conversion rate. You can see here on this example, only my FRED Freebie was really successful.

This is a form I’ve used on my website for five years. It’s got a great conversion rate, so I just keep using it.

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It’s worth playing around with the components until you get an opt-in, a form, and a CTA sentence that work together really well.

Voila!

That’s it. You’ve done it. Now you’re ready to add your CTA sentence, linked to your form, to your BYOB posts. Your readers will automatically get your opt-in gift.

You’ll have to decide what to do with that list now. My suggestion is to touch bases with your list weekly. Just send out an email every Friday and link to your posts, share some cool information, or offer them some support.