We recently co-hosted a webinar with Lindsey Morando from HelloBar on how to create an irresistible lead magnet to grow your community. We’ve asked Lindsey to join us in this episode to tell us more about building an evergreen funnel.

Lindsey Morando is Hello Bar’s Director of Marketing. She has over 15 years of marketing and business development experience that spans multiple industries. Lindsey prides herself on the creation and implementation of engaging grassroots and online marketing tactics that convert fans into paying, happy customers. When Lindsey is not moving the marketing needle for businesses, she is a marketing professor at the San Diego Fashion Institute and the author of “It’s Just the Beginning, Break Up, Get Up & Walk Away.

Question: Tell us a little about yourself and why you are so passionate about helping entrepreneurs and companies build their email list?

Answer: I started my journey in email marketing in 2002. One of the first instances where I started to see the value of email marketing was when I was collecting email addresses at a local bar for a Monday night football raffle. I would collect the email addresses, input them by hand, and manually unsubscribe all the bounces. I was able to see how email promotion filled the bar every week. That was one of the first instances where I saw the power of email marketing.

Question: What is the main problem that we all face if we have a website?

Answer: The main problem is keeping people on the site and getting them to take the action you want them to take, whether it’s collecting their email address, taking your free trial offer or getting a sale. 98% of website visitors are leaving without taking the action step you want them to take, which means you’re spending a lot of time, money and energy between social media, ads and SEO to drive traffic to your website for them to leave. Websites are an afterthought, so you have to work hard to keep them there, engage them and making sure the site is in line with the overall marketing and strategy plan.

Question: What are your thoughts on using an exit pop-up to get people to take action?

Answer: That one converts the best. The exit pop-up on our site has collected an extra 900 free trial sign-ups. It converts really well and there’s a reason it works really well. The pop-up only displays when someone is about to leave your site, so if someone is about to leave anyway, it’s not intrusive. You’re also giving them an added incentive. Google did a ton of user data research and they found people are far less annoyed with a page takeover upon exit then a model on the center of the screen.

Question: How can we set goals that make sense for our business?

Answer: When it comes to setting goals that actually make sense for your business, you have to think about the ultimate action step you want people to take. Do you want to sell more courses? Do you want to sell coaching or consulting spots? Do you want to sell more e-commerce products? Start there. I suggest goal setting for 90 days instead of a year. So much changes in a year. Look at what you’re focusing on in the next 90 days and link that to your goal.

Question: Can you talk a little bit about what a lead magnet is and how to create a magnet that people want?

Answer: You have your goal- what you want people to achieve. Next you need to determine what steps they need to take to get to that point. The lead magnet is a free offer, something that allows someone to get to know you, provide value to your community and ultimately gets people down the path you want them to go. Free offers are all around you, free pizza samples at Costco that lead to buying a whole pizza, the 14 day gym trial or hopping on a site and getting a free course, mini-challenge or book.

How do you create an offer? That’s the biggest question. It used to be that people would opt into a newsletter, but these days free offers are more prevalent online so people are more selective. You have to know your ideal client that’s coming to your site and you have to know why they are coming. What are they typing in Google and what are they looking for? From there, create the offer from the pain point. Give them a simple thing that gets them where they want to go. Once you’ve captured the pain point, you know why they’re coming to you specifically. Then, whether it’s a course or a challenge depends on what you already have. If you already have a course, take a small portion of it to create a mini-course or mini-challenge. You just want to get people some quick wins and results because if you can achieve that with your free offer, they are going to buy your product.

Question: How do you know when you’re doing well?

Answer: On average, for every 100 visitors to your site, you should be collecting around 5 email addresses. If you have an amazing, enticing offer, you’ll collect a lot more than that. If you’re not getting a good rate, Hello Bar allows you to test offers, headlines and graphics. I suggest testing the headline first because that’s where you get the most traction and then testing offers after that.

Tools, apps and links mentioned:

• How to Create the Perfect Lead Magnet to Grow Your List!
• Google Analytics
• Hello Bar
• Canva
• Design Wizard
• Beacon