The Free Lead Magnet Problem that Nobody Wants to Talk About (It's Not What You Think!)

There's a boatload of ways you can generate leads for your business.

And online, the undisputed "king" of lead generation has always been the free lead magnet, where you give away some of your content in the form of a free, downloadable PDF (or similar) in the hope that it turns a stranger into someone who wants to pay you money.

Usually, it's the kind of thing that educates and gives value by either:

• busting a big myth or belief that people may have that holds them back, or
• by solving a problem for you,
• or by giving you valuable templates, checklists or resources which shortcuts some work for you

So we offer our eBooks, reports, white papers, templates, checklists, "cheat sheets" to demonstrate our value and expertise and hopefully turn randos into leads & customers.

But we were lied to...

We were told that the following simple equation then profit would pour out the other end:

"Free Content" + Ask for Email Address = Profitzzz

But the trouble is, it doesn't work like that.

At all.

Fact is, no matter how good the content inside, these kinds of "lead magnets" actually don't work very well AT ALL to convert leads into customers for your business.

And even worse, they never really did.

In this article, I'm going to explain why offering free content (in the way we've all been doing it all these years) actually doesn't work to generate leads and customers for your business, and exactly what you should do instead.

The brand new solution I'm going to reveal involves a new lead generation idea I guarantee you haven't heard before which includes some little-known psychological tools & principles that work powerfully to get people to engage, take action, and turn themselves into hot leads; ready & waiting to do business with you, and in much greater numbers than before.

Sound good?

Let's do this...

Generating Leads with Free Content: the Good, the Bad, and the Ugly...

Giving away free content in the form of "lead magnets" is the universally-accepted best-practice way of generating leads.

But before I explain why they don't work (and never did), let's first talk about what's GOOD about them.

Firstly and most obviously, they're free! (I mean, who doesn't love a freebie?) As a result, they're always in demand.

And second, people are still (mostly) willing to give you their email address in order to receive it, so you're able to build a list using this method.

Awesome!

But that's where the good news stops unfortunately, and where the bad news starts.

Let's say that 1,000 people "opt-in" (request) your lead magnet, how many will actually read it?

From the not-shocking-at-all department, it turns out that people love to opt-in for free lead magnets, but only a very small amount of people actually read them.

How few?

The stats say that it's usually less than 10%.

Thi is because in our experience you never usually read them right away. In fact, here's what usually happens:

• You download and file it away for "later", which never comes. (Hands up who's ever downloaded a great-looking lead magnet "for the weekend" and then you immediately forget all about it?)
• Or you go to your inbox to find the email, and instantly go down the "rabbit hole" of answering email and you forget all about that lead magnet you just requested. (Who's done that? I know I have)
• Or you simply overlook or miss the email (or worse, it goes to spam!)

If you have a free PDF lead magnet or other similar free content that you give away, I guarantee this is happening to you.

The problem is that people feel free to download your freebie and never look at it because it's cost them nothing. And this lack of "skin in the game" always translates to a low level of engagement.

In fact ...

... research shows you're doing INCREDIBLY well if just 10% of people who request your freebie actually consume it.

Think about that for a second.

If 1,000 people opt-in for your lead magnet, only around 100 will ever "consume" (read) it.

Now, out of those 100 people who both download & consume your freebie, how many will reach out to take the "next step" with you?

Stats & experience show that this number is going to be around 1-2% on average.

And if you're getting a LOT of things right (which most people don't) you can get it as high as 5%.

Why so low?

As a rule, people need to invest their time with you before they'll consider investing money.

Which means it doesn't matter if you have literally the greatest information in the world if people don't consume it.

(Compare this with, say, a webinar where people get to experience you teaching for an hour. Because they've connected with you, received value, they're gonna convert at a much higher rate: usually around 10 to 20%.)

So, for the "traditional" free lead magnet, you'll need about 1,000 people to download it to get 100 of them to actually consume it. And out of those, if 5% convert (which remember is still very high), you'll get around 5 new customers (at best!)

5 new customers isn't a lot to get from 1,000 opt-ins I think you'll agree.

But what if there was a way to do BETTER than this?

Starting with the very same 1,000 people opting-in, what if it were possible to get that freebie consumption rate up to 50%?

Can you imagine FIVE HUNDRED people consuming your content instead of 100?(That's five times higher than those regular "best-practice" lead magnets you're building.)

And it gets even better.

What if with this new "mystery method", you could take the usual 5% conversion rate and double it to 10%? That works out to FIFTY new customers out of the original 1,000 opt-ins (instead of 5)

That'd be a 10X improvement over the usual numbers.

What sort of effect would that have on your business?

But that's NOT ALL.

I have another surprise I wanna throw in!

Question: For a conventional free lead magnet that's just hangin' out on your website, how many people need to see it to get those 1,000 opt-ins?

The stats say that it's less than 10%, but let's be generous and call it 10% for round numbers.

So in other words, for every 10 people who find your lead magnet, 1 will opt in.

That means if you want 1,000 people to opt-in for your conventional lead magnet you'll need 10,000 people to come to your site.

Now, 10,000 is a lot, so maybe that happens over the course of a year, which means you're waiting a year for your conventional lead magnet to convert just 5 customers.

Pretty depressing, right?

Here comes your "but wait there's more"...

For reasons I'm gonna reveal right in the next section, our new "mystery method" has a MUCH HIGHER opt-in rate than those conventional lead magnets.

In fact, We've seen a 20-30% opt-in rate across different traffic sources.

But that's my testing. I don't want to over promise so I'm happy to call it 20% – around double what the conventional lead magnets get.

So THAT means out of 10,000 site visitors:

• we should expect ~2,000 opt-ins
• ~1,000 people will consume it, and
• ~100 people convert into paying customers.

Don't worry if this seems too good to be true because by the end of this article, I'm going to prove it to you, and you'll be convinced that THIS is the lead generation strategy you need to be using right now.

So what is this new "mystery method"?

Introducing the Expiring Mini Course™ (EMC)

Well, I think it's time I introduced you to the star of today's show – the Expiring Mini-Course, or "EMC" for short.

So, in a nutshell here's what an Expiring Mini-Course (or EMC) is:

• It's a free mini-course consisting of a few short lessons that a student can consume in less than 2 hours
• It should ideally repurpose lead magnet content you already have. If you have an existing free lead magnet you're giving away right now and it's working in ANY way, then you can easily convert it to this new format!
• As the name suggests, it expires after a specific amount of time if the student hasn't consumed it fully (I'll explain more below)

In order to show you exactly how it works, I want to take you through the EMC experience as if you were a student, and you'll see how we get these crazy high numbers.

And by the end you'll see exactly why this particular format for free content is SO much better than a traditional PDF style lead magnet and you'll understand how to convert your lead magnet to this new format.

To kick us off, let's take a quick look at a typical example of a lead magnet. (I found this one with the "lead magnet" google image search).

The effectiveness of your lead magnet always starts with how you talk about it on your opt-in page.

Most people talk about theirs in the WRONG way – in a way that actually DEvalues it so much that people don't even want to consume it.

And the first thing I want to say about the above lead magnet? They're doing almost EVERYTHING wrong.

Now, take a look at one of my EMC opt-in pages:

It may look pretty normal, but in reality there are THREE powerful psychological effects at work here that stack together to powerfully build the value of this lead magnet in people's minds.

Let me explain...

First, in paragaph 2 it says "I'll soon be selling this for at least $199."

This is the Price Anchoring Effect where you name a number and people unconsciously KEEP that number in their minds as they analyze further information – and compare against that number.

Next, I call it a "mini-course" at the top of the page and in the first line.

We do this because courses (and by extension, mini-courses) are much more highly valued than free PDFs that are always available and usually not price anchored.

And psychology tells us that when people's perceived value of something is zero, they simply don't value it. And that helps explain the super low consumption rate of conventional lead magnets.

So, by calling this a mini-course... And by, at the same time anchoring $199 ... its value literally becomes $199.

Next, the phrase "I'll soon be selling this" obviously implies that soon this won't be free, and by deliberately NOT telling people when that will be, people assume that the discount could go away at ANY time without warning.

In his best-selling book Predictably Irrational, Dan Ariely explains that when people get something for free they think others will pay for later, it creates a sense of exclusivity & urgency, along with an instant, strong demand for the free item. In other words, it generates a strong Fear of Loss which drives action.

Again, contrast that with a free lead magnet that can be downloaded anytime, and that's not going away. I hope you can see that the difference is "night and day" in terms of urgency.

The next thing I want to point out is this text that says the following:

"Right now I'm offering you FREE beta access with just ONE condition; you need to use it to keep it! You'll have 5 full days to complete all 5 of the mini-trainings inside this mini-course, and if you do, you'll keep access for LIFE!"

"But if you don't consume the mini-course within 5 days, then you'll automatically LOSE access to the material."

This is where the "expiring" part of the Expiring Mini-Course name comes from.

And what it means is that your EMC it set up in such a way that if the student doesn't complete it within a certain amount of time (that you choose), they automatically LOSE access to the content. They just won't be able to log in.

This is one huge piece of the magic that makes EMCs so powerful.

Let me explain WHY real quick.

The Endowment Effect was first described in 1990 in an academic paper called The Endowment Effect, Loss Aversion, and Status Quo Bias by economists Thaler, Knetsch & Nobel prize-winning Daniel Kahneman.

This effect refers to the tendency of people to value things they already own far more highly than identical items they DON'T own. As a result, when they think it could be taken away, they're MUCH more likely to take action to avoid losing it.

And out of ALL the people who complete my EMC Course Profit Accelerator, a full HALF of them complete it on the very last day – just to avoid losing it because they didn't complete it.

That's the power of this effect.

I'll be coming back to this again a bit later on, but I wanted to point it out to you now so you're aware of it.

Before we continue, here's a recap of everything that's happening on this order form.

1. Price Anchoring says that by mentioning a specific price and saying it's a "mini-course", people will automatically assign a higher value to it
2. Fear of Loss (the fear of missing out on getting it free) makes people take action right away
3. The Use It Or Lose It condition kicks off the Endowment Effect, which helps compel high levels of action, because people HATE to lose things they feel they own

As you can see, there's a TON of stuff happening even just right here on the opt-in page.

And when you combine it with the SIX psychological tools, principles and effects I'll tell you about in the next section, you'll see why it works so well.

But even with just these 3 so far, your freebie is already off to a great start, psychologically-speaking!

Inside the EMC

Assuming people accept your "use it or lose it" condition, and newsflash, they all do, they enter their details and click the submit button to get access.

So, what happens then?

In an EMC, we immediately take students directly to the homepage of the mini-course, where there are already a few things for them to do. And that's strategic.

The Zeigarnik Effect (named after the Lithuanian-Soviet psychologist of the same name), says that unfinished tasks are hard to leave undone.

Put very simply, when we see just one more thing to do to complete an activity, because of our natural desire for closure, we're very likely to just do it.

But conventional lead magnets work against this, and kill forward momentum.

Here's what I mean: let's say you stumble across a lead magnet and opt in. What then? Right – instead of giving you the download right there, they send you back your inbox to find the email with the link in it. And what happens then?

Right, the email takes a few minutes to arrive. So while you're waiting, you start to look at the messages that are waiting for you, and go down that rabbit hole.

And so instantly you forget about that lead magnet.

And for each day that passes, it's estimated that you're 50% less likely to ever return to and consume that lead magnet. My friend Rob Goyette calls it the half-life of enthusiasm.

And that's the main reason consumption rates are SO LOW for conventional lead magnets, because the way they're delivered works against the Zeigarnik Effect.

Now, getting back to the home page of the EMC...

First, we immediately show a countdown that's counting down to the end of the mini-course. Along the text "Remember you have until the countdown hits zero to finish this mini-course or lose access!"

This reminds them that they're on the clock, which reinforces their Fear of Loss.

Marketers have long used countdowns like this on sales pages to create urgency and make people take action before the time runs out, but they're never used in education for some reason.

Next, right under the countdown, we throw in our next powerful psychological effect: the Big Why.

Simon Sinek popularized the idea of the "Big Why" in his book Start With Why where he explains how the most successful leaders & organizations are the ones who clearly articulate their "Big Why" before diving into the "What" or "How".

And that's critical, because as business owners it's always obvious to us why what we're teaching is so important, but newsflash: it's not obvious to other people.

That's why in an EMC, we always add very short video telling people:

1. Not only WHAT they're about to learn, but
2. WHY it's so important to them, and
3. WHY they should take action right away (in more emotional terms.)

The Big Why says that we're much more likely to take massive action if our "why" is big enough and emotional enough.

For example:, you're much more likely to successfully lose weight if – god forbid – you had a "health event" that makes you reassess things.

Moving on, we still have one more psychological effect happening here on the homepage before getting to the actual content of the mini-course

And when you do this part right, you can virtually guarantee people start consuming right away.

This next effect is called Constant Wins (coined by Marisa Murgatroyd) and it states that when you provide learners with frequent small "wins" (rather than just one big reward right at the end), it immediately begins building strong feelings of progress & accomplishment right from the start, which motivates people to keep taking action where they might have given up before.

And just like the most addictive apps & games, one of the chief ways we give our students "wins" is by giving them points when they take small & easy actions. And this really flips the script and turns a traditionally "boring" experience into a fun and pretty addictive one.

Here's an example from Course Profit Accelerator (play video):

As you can see, the first one says "Grab a Notepad to Record Your Ahas!"

When you check it off you get a sound effect, an animation, and... points! And that's the moment when people first realize that they can get points in exchange for taking action, which believe it or not can be both exciting and extremely motivating for people.

Now, you may be thinking that adding points to an online training seems a little weird, I get it.

But it turns out that people just love to collect points, even those who like to tell you that they're not "into" games.

Like my man Brian here who thought he was naturally very motivated, but it still had a huge impact on him.

And this, from Nicholas here, who looks like he's a serious guy who wouldn't be interested in points & sound effects, right?

"I hate you Marisa Murgatroyd!

I was just on my goal tracking software program that I've happily used for years. I went to check off one of my tasks and spent five minutes playing with the volume control on my computer because there was no "cha ching" when I did it."

Here's something funny I saw on Twitter the other day which really sums up for me where most people are at mentally that you're trying to help:

The reality is that folks are literally DEPENDING on this kind of stuff to help them do and achieve things in their life. For example: the sheer number of people I know who consistently do 10,000 steps a day because their Fitbit gives them points is astounding.

So back to the Home page of the EMC...

Once they've earned a few points, they feel like they're making progress, and they're super-duper-eager to keep going.

You can add any kind of action into an EMC, and as many as you like, and assign points to them, just like you see here.

Other actions I've used in the past in my EMCs that give points are:

• Watched the welcome video
• Accepted the Challenge Mission
• Add the Challenge Dates to your Calendar
• Join the Challenge Facebook Group
• Whitelist our emails so you don't miss a thing
• Add your cell number for daily reminders

Underneath the points, we show the first training of the EMC which is now available.

This once again leverages the Zeigarnik Effect, which keeps people in action.(They just want to finish that one last thing that's left.)

So - real quick before we move on: let's sum up exactly what's happening on the EMC homepage, to make sure you don't miss anything.

• First, we show the countdown at the top of the page to remind folks they're on the clock This reinforces the Fear of Loss and Endowment Effect and gets them wanting to take action
• Then the Big Why on the page and inside the welcome video get their "emotional" "buy in" or commitment to taking massive action
• Next, we give them points in exchange for action, which makes people more excited to take action
• Finally, we use the Zeigarnik Effect to keep people in action by giving them one last thing to do before they log off (the first training of the EMC)

Are you seeing how all of these psychological principles and effects can work together to put people into the exact state you want them to be in, which is:

• valuing YOU
• valuing your content, and
• wanting to take ACTION right away (instead of forgetting about you right away)

And don't forget: ALL of this psychological priming is happening before they even get to the content of the lead magnet!

OK, so now... let's click through on the first actual piece of training content of your EMC and see what's going on.

Again – and it shouldn't be a surprise by now – the first thing they see is the countdown. This hits the Fear of Loss and Endowment Effect once again.

And then, right under that, you'll have your first piece of actual training content. And BTW a best practice tip for every training in your EMC is to quickly repeat your Big Why at the start.

By repeating it in each & every lesson, folks simply don't have a chance to forget it, and it'll help them stay motivated while 300 other things compete for their attention.

Underneath the lesson video, you give them even more ways to earn points like you saw on the EMC homepage.

We usually recommend having 2-4 actions per training, like you see here.

• Action #1 should always give one point for watching or completing the training. We summarize the lesson's main learning point in the action description, and the student earns 1 point when they check it off. Play video
  
• Action #2 should give 2 points for taking the action for that training. (We recommend giving more points for action because action is more valuable than consumption.)

And if you like, you can add more actions which give more points. For example, you might decide to give points if they share their takeaways in the discussion area below the video. This gets them thinking, talking, connecting and ENGAGING!

And guess what?

People who engage actively in this way are your "hottest" and most engaged people. It's like they're yelling "Hey, I'm a potential buyer!"

So, why not proactively reach out and start a conversation? You could simply check-in on their experience with the EMC so far? Or you could low-key offer a free consult or strategy call.

You can have as many actions as you want, just keep them quick and easy to do -- and don't have more than 4 for any piece of training content.

And now, I want you to watch very carefully as I check off the second action. (play the video below)

What you just saw was a Pattern Interrupt (a psychological technique attributed to Grinder & Bandler, the co-founders of NLP) and it describes a moment when something unexpected happens that interrupts what the brain thought was going to happen.

In other words, it interrupts an expected pattern.

And when that happens? It's been documented that moments of surprise, curiosity, or even excitement can lead to a release of dopamine. This can help reinforce the behavior of paying attention to the interrupting stimulus or event.

However, in most online education experiences, the brain quickly DISengages, mostly because it's the same pattern over and over. Talking head. Video after video.

This effectively "dries up" the dopamine, and so pretty quickly, most of us reach for our phones. Social Media apps are masters of the dopaminergic pattern interrupt, which is why they're so addictive.

So, when you include Pattern Interrupts in a bunch of different spots in your EMC, it keeps students in a "fully engaged" state, which is exactly where you want them to be.

Now, once they've:

• finished the 1st piece of training content
• collected their points, and
• seen your pattern interrupt (which

... what we DON'T do is tell them "come back tomorrow" for the next lesson.

That's the easiest way to lose them – because a LOT can happen in between now and then that could cause them to reprioritize the importance of your training content.

Instead, we popup a notification telling them that a new training is now ready & waiting, which allows them to keep earning points right away. They can click on the notification and go right to it.

The Zeigarnik Effect keeps them in action, which is what you want.

Here's how that looks.

Many of our Course Profit Accelerator students consume all the content in one sitting, because they love the feeling of taking action and making progress.

Like Maribel here.

And Krista, who found herself "panic checking" multiple times a week to make sure she'd completed everything. In her words: "it made completing the course top of mind."

Now, the next piece of the EMC magic is what happens OFF the platform.

Whenever the student hits a milestone (like completing their first training), we congratulate them via email and text message.

Imagine the surprise and delight of checking off a training, having the pattern interrupt celebration play, and then your phone buzzes with a message like this. And then your email dings and there's a congratulations email there for you.

This is the Personalization Effect, which says that the more you can personalize the student's experience to the actions they're taking, the more they feel seen and the more they trust you.

(Plus I know there are more and more tools out there that allow you to automatically generate audio & video messages customized with a person's first name. Imagine the effect of being able to send customized audio (or even video) messages to people? Those kinds of messages really stand out and get attention in the inbox.)

So let's take a moment to recap everything that's been happening in your EMC so far. You're using:

• Price Anchoring to make them value your EMC
• Fear of Loss to make them act NOW
• Endowment Effect to compel consumption
• Zeigarnik Effect to keep them in action
• Big Why to get an "emotional commitment" to taking action
• Constant Wins (with points) to give a sense of achievement & progress
• Pattern Interrupts to amplify engagement
• Personalization so they feel seen which builds trust

With all of these principles and effects in play, are you starting to see how ECMs get that 50% completion rate!

How Your "Next Step" Offer Converts Engagement into $$$

Now, let's skip forward a little.

By the time someone reaches the end of your EMC, they've now spent 1-2 hours with you spread over say 3, 4 or 5 lessons. They've hopefully also had a breakthrough or solved an important problem thanks to you,

So at this point, many of them are going to be ready to do business with you.

So all that's left for you to do at the end of your EMC is to make them a "next step" offer.

Here's what I do at the end of Course Profit Accelerator.

As soon as they finish the last action, we pop up the offer right in front of them with a button that goes directly to the order form.

We naturally put a time limit on it, and set it up so that it automatically disappears when the countdown hits zero. We also send them an email & text message with the same offer as well.

The number of people who take your "next step" offer depends on 3 things – what you offer, how you offer it, and of course, how many people see that offer.

As for what you offer...

• First, it should be a very attractive, "no-brainer" offer that's a natural and logical next step after what they just learned. That way it makes the most sense as the next thing someone should do.
• Second, it needs to have a time-limit attached to it so that it has urgency. I usually give people until the end of the EMC to take advantage of offers that I make. (This cranks up the old Fear of Loss once again which can get some people off the fence who may not have taken action otherwise. It doesn't really matter what offer you choose, as long as it's a super attractive offer!)
• And third, when it comes to the amount of people who SEE your offer, thanks to the way the EMC works, let's just say that a LOT more people are gonna see your offer compared with a conventional lead magnet, and they're going to be a LOT more predisposed to taking that offer than any other group of people you could talk to.

Follow these 3 rules of thumb, and make the right offer in the right way, and that's when you'll get that 10% conversion that I mentioned earlier.

Now, I can't go into exactly WHAT you should offer here, but if you have a business that's making money, then you're already making an offer of some kind, and you can start with that.

What About Those Who Didn't Finish Your EMC?

OK, now let's talk about the people who didn't get through your EMC in the time you gave them.

Because in our experience, around 25% of people will complete in time, and 75% will be at some point along the spectrum of "haven't started yet" to "almost done."

And for those people, well, here's where it gets extra super-duper very special ninja.

As I mentioned, each day of your EMC, you'll have automatic emails and text messages going out to them about the new content that's being released, and in each of those communications, you'll naturally be reminding them that their time is running out to keep the content.

Now, this alone is going to get a LOT of people into action thanks to the Fear of Loss and Endowment Effect. But once we get to the LAST day, what do you do with those who haven't finished?

Great question! Here's what we do...

In the morning of the last day, we automatically email and text them a reminder that they have until midnight to get through the EMC before they will lose access.

And then at around 6pm we email them again if they haven't yet finished it.

And then, finally, a last chance email & text later on that night. We often get a flood of people rushing to complete the content by midnight. And when they do, our system detects that and removes them from the automated "Use it or Lose it" campaign.

After that, we remove students from the EMC automatically.

Here's how it worked for my first version of Course Profit Accelerator:

• 206 people enrolled, and of those
• 147 received the "Today's the last day" warning email about losing access.
• This means 59 people (or 29%) completed the entire EMC before the last day, which is already pretty amazing.

And for the 147 people who hadn't yet finished by the last day, we emailed them the first "you're about to lose it" warning and 7 more completed immediately. We emailed the 2nd warning to the remaining 140 people and 38 more completed within the last 6 hours to avoid losing it

By the cut-off, 102 people lost access (that's around 50%), which means that the other 50% consumed the entire mini-course, which – again – is astounding for free lead magnet with a couple of hours of training content.

Between you and me, I think I I could have improved these numbers if I'd sent a couple of text messages on that last day as well, but we learn as we go, right?

And after that, we suspend them from the course and show them this strategically-worded message.

Thanks to that message, I actually get regular emails from people asking if they can get back in!

And for those who get kicked out, I recommend setting up an automatic re-engagement campaign a week or two later to re-engage the people who disengaged.

Here's an email template you can use:

Hey FIRSTNAME,

A few weeks ago you put up your hand to get access to my free mini-course on [TOPIC].

I was just wondering if [Big Why] is still a priority for you?

If it is, then you still have just enough time to get back in before I start charging for this mini-course.

The link to get back in is [LINK].

Make sure to do it right away, I'd hate for you to miss out again.

SIGNOFF

Whenever we do this email, we're able to reactivate 10-20% of people.

So, folks, that's it!

That's the complete picture of how the EMC uses 8 simple but powerful psychological tools, strategies and techniques to create an experience that gets dramatically higher numbers of people to consume your content compared with conventional lead magnets, which creates a flow of hot leads who are ready to do business with you.

Before we wrap, I'd like to share ONE MORE thing which will underscore for you exactly why this new approach is even more critical to implement right away than you think.

From an article in January 2023, CNET announced it replaced all of its writers with ChatGPT AI for a full 3 months.... and absolutely nobody noticed. Again, that was back in January of 2023!!

Since then:

• AI has been been not just steadily, but exponentially improving its abilities month over month
• The adoption of AI for all kinds of content production has also been accelerating month over month...

I tell you this for one very important reason...

We're now in a world where almost everyone will be using AI to generate an almost unlimited amount of lead magnet content with the click of a button.

In a world like this, what's YOUR plan to stand out and grow your business using free lead magnet content?

The reality is that it's gonna get harder & harder to stand out if you keep playing the same game you've been playing up until now.

So I suggest playing a new game... and instead, start creating fun, engaging & addictive experiences for students with your EMC.

The fact is that in this new world where content output is increasing exponentially month over month, people will begin to instinctively seek out engaging experiences instead.

And if you can provide those, then getting new customers will take care of itself.

Before we wrap this article, I want to give you one more thing...

How to Get Dramatically MORE People into your EMC

As promised, in this last section I want to give you 7 quick, simple & completely FREE ways to get a LOT more eyeballs onto your EMC.

That's THIS number right here. I'm going to get that number from 1,000 to at least 1,200 for you in the next few minutes.

And if we're able to do that, what's going to happen?

That's right, there's gonna be a downstream ripple effect on the amount of new customers you get. That's this number right at the bottom – the amount of new paying customers your EMC is generating for you.

OK - let's get started. Here are my 7 best FREE strategies to put more ppl into your EMC.

1. Your website

First, and most importantly, put it EVERYWHERE on your website. Most people forget this one and keep their lead magnet kind of "silo'd" off on its own where it's hard to find. Be proud and slap it right there on your home page, contact us page, free resources page, under all your blog posts. Doing just this could instantly activate a good flow of traffic.

2. Add it to your email signature

Your email signature gets seen by LOTS of people every week, many of whom aren't customers yet. Again, it sounds simple, but this is an overlooked traffic opportunity.

3. Next, email!

If you have an email list, you'll already know that email is really tough to sell from. If you've ever sent an offer to your email list, if 1% of the people buy, that's a great outcome.

But what if you invite them to your free EMC instead?

You could be looking at a 5-10%+ opt-in rate. And if half of those complete, it could be a huge influx of new customers for your business.

In addition to that, don't just send one email and never again like most people do!

Email about your EMC every few months or so. If it's not right for someone right now, then maybe it'll be right later, and they absolutely WON'T remember that you've offered it before, especially if you talk about it in a different way. Plus, new people are joining your list all the time!

4. Promote your EMC directly on your personal social media account

Here's an example of what my friend Taki Moore does with his free content, and it always gets lots of response.

You can also promote your EMC in Facebook groups, forums & communities that you're a member of. Here's an example of how I once promoted Course Profit Accelerator.

You can see literally hundreds of people asking to get access. This is how I get the most amount of new people into my EMC. I've included a BUNCH of examples in the resource folder for this article.

5. Guest blogging & podcasting

Contribute as a guest blogger or be a podcast guest. This will give you a chance to showcase your expertise & offer your EMC. Be sure to include a link to your EMC in your author bio as well.

6. Participate in discussions on platforms like Quora & Reddit

Answer questions that are related to your EMC topic, and where appropriate, mention your EMC as a source for more detailed information. This can position you as a knowledgeable source in your field and drive traffic too.

7. Partnering

Partner with other businesses and companies with good audience alignment, and have them share your EMC and pay them a commission on any sales you get.

Make sure you explain to them how your EMC works to get higher conversions than usual compared with most lead magnets, so they understand the potential and have extra incentive to promote you.

Also, a ninja idea for you: can also suggest they embed your EMC into their existing business or funnel where it makes sense to do so. Here's a few ways to brainstorm this with them:

• Does going through EMC make someone a better customer for their business?
• Do you both benefit if one of their customers does business with you?
• For example, if they buy your offer, does it make sense for them to buy something from your partner as well?

That's an easy sell to make if you can find the right partner.

So there you have it: 7 FREE & super-effective ways to put more people into your EMC.

Do you think that if you used one or more of these ideas, you could turn get an extra 20% more eyeballs on your EMC?

If you think that's not just possible, but probable, then congratulations, you just turned those 100 customers into 120. What could you achieve if you used ALL of these ideas?

And one last question I get all the time that I'd like to answer is -- what do I teach in my EMC?

And here's my simple answer: if you have a free lead magnet funnel that's ever worked – an Ebook. A PDF, that kind of thing -- then just convert it to the EMC format using the information in this article and it's going to work at least 100% better.

So that's the Expiring Mini Course, a brand new way to turn your existing free content into the kind of lead magnet that people VALUE, they LOVE, and consume at much high rate than before – which creates new customers at a much higher rate than before.

Your Free Resources

To help you in your implementation journey, I have some free resources for you.

Resources, documents, templates, checklists:

• EMC Master Planner template
• How to Choose the Right Topic for your EMC
• How to Make Your EMC Content in Just 1 Hour
• Social & Promo Posts & Emails Examples & Inspiration
• How to Choose Your EMC's Most Lucrative "Next Step" Offer
• "Next Step" Offer ideas for the 20 Mega-Niches

AI tools:

• Don't know what your EMC should be about? Our AI EMC Topic Suggestion Tool will give you valuable, sexy & lucrative ideas for potential topics for your EMC. Go to tool >
• Need help naming your EMC? Our AI EMC Name Suggestion Tool will generate tons of click-worthy potential names for it. Go to tool >
• Need help outlining your EMC content & lessons? Our AI EMC Outline Generator tool will create great lesson plans & outlines for you. Go to tool >
• Need help figuring out what "next step" offer to make in your EMC?
  Our AI EMC Offer Suggestion Tool will generate a ton of profitable "next step" offer ideas that could work for you. Go to tool >

EMCs you can enroll yourself into:

• Course Profit Accelerator EMC - how to gamify your course for 10-30 times HIGHER student engagement. 😍 | Enroll now >
• Crack Your Course Idea EMC - Crack your very own Home Run Course Idea so you can make sure it’s profitable BEFORE you create it! | Enroll now >
• Unlimited Free Leads EMC (coming soon)

The Technology

• Not a free resource, but the software I use to run my EMCs is Xperiencify.