If you're looking for an effective strategy to increase the audience you have, then consider using a reader magnet. In this article, you will learn what is a reader magnet and how it can help you win at self-publishing.
Today's topic has three points and you're going to want to stick around for the third point. It's a secret as to the absolute best way to go about implementing a lead magnet or reader magnet.
So the topic we're discussing today is, What Is A Reader Magnet? And this is something that often comes up. I hear from time to time even most recently, one of my viewers was asking a little bit about it. So in this Blog, you're going to know exactly what a reader magnet is and what it's all about.
You're going to have the steps necessary to implement one for yourself. Having this knowledge, you're going to feel great knowing you're not giving up. A great opportunity with your magnet here in terms of getting new subscribers and reviewers.
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Check out this related article: How To Find Success In Self Publishing
So let's get into it from my own story. When I first got started, I had read several books and watched a series of videos that we're talking about a lead magnet or reader magnet. What was it all about?
Well, the thing is that it's about getting people on an email list for you. It's where we want to get somebody interested in our book and our future books. Who may also tell people about our book and can even leave reviews. These are all positive things.
In addition, if we share our book on social media, these people will share our things even further out for us. They become in one sense big cheerleaders/huge super fans that we're able to gather together into a single group. Where we're able to push out our message to those people.
So that they're able to get going with a return. That is with regards to telling their friends and getting more sales for our books. The thing is that I created a very short book as my reader magnet which delayed my initial books released onto the market.
But I did understand the importance of building an email list. Since email lists are perhaps one of the most important aspects of an author. You should be building that connection with your readers.
The next thing is that I put this into my book, so it's towards the beginning of the book. Where it would say if you would like to get a free book by me, here it is. You just hit this link and then you can go to that link.
You would be able to go there and give me your email address in exchange for a copy of the book and being able to join my email list. So I did exactly that and what happened was that I registered it through AWeber. The thing was that I started getting subscribers.
It turns out people like free books and they're willing to get on my email list. But my big mistake was that I wasn't holding a narrow laser-like focus on a single market. I was hitting a lot of different people in a lot of different markets.
And as a result, when they would get on my email list, no matter what I emailed, somebody would be thinking "this isn't really what I want, I bought a book on puppy training. Now you're telling me about vertical gardening or you're telling me how to fix my computer".
That is a huge mistake that I made with regards to my lead magnet or reader magnet. I was trying to build multiple audiences and blend them all. As opposed to segmenting them so that we could send them messages that would be relevant.
Selling My Lead Magnet
The goal is not spam, this is called permission-based marketing. They give permission to contact them regularly. Many of you are on my email list which you get when you use my lead magnet which would be the checklist that I give out.
I also have a free Coaching session, so go ahead and check that out. There are limited spots but if that's maybe of interest to you, you can check that out if it's still available. You'll just see on the page, I turn it into a free offer.
To do a single thing where we can just map out and see where you're coming from on your coaching. But that was a huge mistake I made trying to build my list. For example, for the current list that I'm building, I'm interested in self-publishing.
It's my biggest interest and I enjoy helping people self-publish. So I only focus on that and so if you're on my list but you're not interested in self-publishing or getting your book on the market and getting it to sell, well then you can just click unsubscribe. You can find it at the bottom of the list and you're off the list.
Check out this related article: 3 Things Self Publishers Should Do
It's so simple. The thing is that I saw the popularity and started selling my lead magnet itself. And this was a funny one because, in other words, The Sleep Magnet book that I had and been using was crazy popular.
So I put it out as a book and what happened was a little bit surprising. The result was that it was selling more copies. It was so popular, it was telling people how to manage their emails which is dear to me.
But I was giving that out as a life hack sort of a thing. The result was that people were loving to read that particular thing. It has all of the top strategies for managing emails.
It's free but then I started charging for the same price as my normal book using pricing strategies I teach on this blog. And this book continues to make me money every single month. I'm pulling in money from this lead magnet.
So it's sort of both a lead magnet and also for sale across multiple platforms. Because it does make sales and so I got these people on my email list. But you can see that from today's standpoint, my current email list is much better.
It has people with the same interest and if you lose the interest, well you just get off the email list. People do this all the time. It's not personal, so you never take it personally if somebody leaves an email list.
It just means that it's what we call churn. Because your voice resonates with people for some time and then at some point, it starts to weigh off, and then they just unsubscribe.
It's not particularly all that big of a problem but at the same time when you're listening to somebody, let's say like on self-publishing on my Youtube channel, that's why hitting the subscribe button is so important. It's because if there's a resonation that's happening, it helps you as the viewer.
To make sure you don't miss any of the videos that I'm putting out while that resonation is going on. This is about motivation, so if you're subscribed to the right email list and subscribe to the right Youtube channels, you're going to feel your motivation going up.
If you feel depressed and overwhelmed by what you're listening to, then you should unsubscribe. Because the goal should be to keep things as simple and easy as possible when you're going through the self-publishing process. Or any process but self-publishing in particular when you're putting your books
A Give And Take Thing
If you feel overwhelmed, you should quit listening to people that are creating that overwhelm. As opposed to this blog which I focus on trying to keep things simple. So what is a reader magnet?
It's anything you give your readers inside your book. You can do it on social media too but inside your book in exchange for their email address. They give you their email address and you give them something for free.
Now, what could you give them? Well, it could be a map, a short story, a book, or like I did; a cheat sheet. I've used lots of those, I used Excel spreadsheets and all sorts of stuff.
A character bio and even a free coaching session like I'm currently doing at the moment. So for trying to find new clients and finding that many of your viewers are sort of on the edge, you're not sure if it's right for you and why not map it all out?
Our secret answer of the day is that the email should be collected using an actual program built for this and for sending out emails. So you do not go to your junk email or spam folder on your prospects or your readers' folder. That's done by going through one of the major players.
That's why I recommend Active Campaign, I've been using it for years. This is the one that I use. It allows a lot of flexibility and it is the easiest, just to get up and started with at a very affordable price.
On a monthly or yearly basis whichever works best for you. So I would recommend this. Then you can queue up the email so that they'll just go out automatically. And you should contact your list a minimum of once a month.
I recommend three times a week, probably not more often than that. But that's the max, so you figure out what's comfortable for you. Once a week, once every other week, but no less than once a month. Otherwise, they will forget who you are.
And they'll mark you as spam because they'll be like "I don't remember who you were, it's been a month". Do you see the problem there? So you want to make sure they don't forget you.
Then what do we do with these lists? Well, we're going to tell them what we are. We're going to tell them what we're working on. We're going to tell them what we're releasing right now.
We're asking them if they can leave reviews in exchange for seeing our books earlier. We're asking them their opinions on things. Look at these covers, which is better?
You see, we're building an audience of people who are going to go back and forth with us to help us. We're able to help them, it's a mutual relationship. They're going to be able to get the first copies of our books.
In the latest news, it's kind of like your favorite authors if you could subscribe to them where they're continually keeping in touch with you. This doesn't happen very often with the big authors. But it should because they have the voice and they have the audience size.
They could build a deeper level of connection with your readers right in their inboxes. The reason why email is so important is that the open rate is massively high. Most people still open emails as long as it doesn't go in their spam or junk folder.
That's why we're using these big services like Active Campaign to make sure that it isn't going to happen. So what is a reader magnet? My question for you is have you created your first reader magnet?
If you have, write "Yes" below in the comments. If you've never done it, write "No" below in the comments. Because I need to know where you're coming from. Check out my other blogs and videos for more answers to your self-publishing questions.